Oldest Fil-Am war veteran dies in US

WASHINGTON – Alberto Bacani, the oldest Filipino American World War II veteran in the United States, died of pneumonia on Tuesday, it was announced here. He was 102.

Bacani surrendered to Japanese forces after the fall of Corregidor in 1942 and was later honorably discharged from the US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) with the rank of major, the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans said.

He was born in Isabela province on Jan. 14, 1911 and immigrated to the US with his family in 1976.

He is survived by three children, 15 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren. 

He will be laid to rest on Saturday at the Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia beside his wife Saturnina who died last year.