In this coming 159th Birth Anniversary of Gat Andres Bonifacio on November 30, 2022, the Katipunan ng Mga Anak ng Bayang Pilipinas (KMAB), Inc.—Fraternal Society of then AFP Rainbow Ranger Home Defense Program, will be celebrating its annual event since 2013 at the Bantayog ng Katipunero fronting Vinzons Hall in the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus in Quezon City.
Speaking at the annual event themed, “Araw ni Bonifacio, Araw ng Mamamayang Laang Kawal sa UP—Bansa Ko, Pananagutan Ko!” is a Rainbow Ranger Alumnus (Class’80 Irbis), Col. Gerard Velez GSC PA (Res), as the Guest-of-Honor and Speaker. Col Velez is currently the Civil Military Affairs Brigade Commander stationed at AFPRESCOM in Camp Aguinaldo.
The event will kick-off with a wreath laying at the Katipunero monument to be led by the descendants of Gat Bonifacio and the family of deceased BGen Benjamin R Vallejo, founder of the Sunday Soldier/Rainbow Ranger Home Defense Program and its civic arm, the KMAB. This commemoration gives tribute to Gat Bonifacio and his Katipuneros for their exemplary achievements as the first truly recognized Citizen Soldiers of the Philippines—Mamamayang Laang Kawal ng Pilipinas!
The celebration will be highlighted with a presentation of the GAWAD PARANGAL to AFP/PNP Generals who have participated and graduated in the Basic/Advanced ROTC, Summer Mobilization Assembly ‘Anahaw’ Training, Cadet Officers Leadership Training (COLT) Courses, among others, from the Years 1968 to 1986, mostly conducted in the UP DMST Complex and Fort Bonifacio.
The Rainbow Rangers originated from the Sunday Soldier Training Project of the UP Vanguard Fraternity alumni and the UPROTC Cadet Officers volunteering on the Scout Ranger-Unconventional Warfare (SR-UW) Course conceptualized by then Army Captain (later Brigadier General) BENJAMIN R VALLEJO (deceased) on September 15, 1968.
In August 1970, the Sunday Soldier Training Project expanded to other ROTC Units and became known as the AFP Rainbow Ranger Home Defense Program with volunteers coming from 26 or so colleges and universities in Metro Manila, Laguna and Davao. It grew from a Battalion to a full Division-size Ready Mobilizable Unit until its deactivation in the mid-‘80s with the retirement of then MCMTC Commanding General, BGen Vallejo.
The Advanced ROTC graduates of the Rainbow Ranger Program were then inducted into its civic arm and fraternal society, the KMAB—whose first initiation into the CREDO Ritual was then witnessed by the last Flag Officer of the “Katipunan ng Mga Alagad ni Bonifacio”, Don Pablo De Jesus Tan-Gatue, who dubbed the graduates as the “Second Generation Alagad ni Bonifacio”. Since 1970, its graduates performed the CREDO Ritual of Filial Piety, Honor, Valor, Humility, and Tradition, shedding blood for God, Country, and People.
In the years of its activation and onwards, many of its graduates have given their time, talent and treasure in molding leaders and in excelling themselves in their chosen fields of profession and career in the military, police and government services, in politics and the academe, in private practices, business and corporate world, and in the Reserve Components of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Auxiliary Services of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). (Baby Cuevas)
