US veterans oppose amphitheater at site of WWII POW massacre in the Philippines

American veterans are campaigning against plans to build an amphitheater at Plaza Cuartel in the Philippines, where Japanese troops massacred 139 U.S. prisoners of war during World War II.

The $250,000 project in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, would also restore other parts of the historic site, according to information from the city government published Aug. 31 by Palawan News.

Opponents say an amphitheater is inappropriate for a site they regard as sacred ground and have proposed alternatives, including a memorial garden, reflecting pool, eternal flame or museum.

“Veterans’ families consider that site to be sacred,” retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Donald Allgrove, who is leading a campaign against the amphitheater, said by phone Thursday from Puerto Princesa.

The city, however, says the proposed amphitheater would not be a commercial entertainment venue and would be used for activities consistent with the plaza’s history.

Stars and Stripes visited Plaza Cuartel, a former World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, in October 2024. This memorial honors those who died there. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)

“The proposed feature is not intended as a commercial entertainment facility or as a development that would diminish the solemnity or historical character of Plaza Cuartel,” city spokeswoman Glaiza Kaye Vicente-Moncatar said in a document provided to Palawan News.

The amphitheater is intended for commemorative, cultural, educational and historical activities, along with other uses considered appropriate for the site, she said.

The project also calls for restoring the plaza’s fence and gate and improving its landscaping, public restroom, administration office, information facility and monument.

On Dec. 14, 1944, Japanese guards at Plaza Cuartel killed 139 American POWs by setting fire to the shelters where the prisoners had been confined and killing those who tried to escape.

British journalist Brian MacArthur wrote in “Surviving the Sword — Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East 1942-45” that the Americans were “herded into air-raid shelters, doused with petrol, and set alight.”

Stars and Stripes visited Plaza Cuartel, a former World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, in October 2024. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)

Those who tried to escape were shot or killed with clubs and bayonets, he wrote. Eleven prisoners survived by escaping the camp and swimming across Puerto Princesa Bay.

When Stars and Stripes visited Plaza Cuartel in October 2024, work on an earlier restoration project appeared stalled, with overgrown vegetation, stacked pavers and no construction underway.

Veterans groups — including the Pacific Atrocities Education Institute, West Point Society of the Philippines, American Defenders of Corregidor and Bataan Memorial Society — have launched what they call a “1000 Letter of Opposition Campaign” against the amphitheater, Allgrove wrote in an Aug. 4 Facebook post.

Retired Philippine army Col. Dencio Acop also criticized the proposal Wednesday on the Philippine news site Asia Pacific Insights, arguing that an amphitheater evokes entertainment rather than remembrance.

He also linked the dispute to the contemporary U.S.-Philippine alliance amid tensions with China in the South China Sea.

“We and our American allies are a band of brothers, and we shouldn’t allow petty materialism to get in the way of that intangible spirit and its power to unite especially at a desperate and unforgiving time,” Acop wrote.