Feature: Slain general's wife recalls 1977 Patikul massacre

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 10): Feature: Slain general's wife recalls 1977 Patikul massacre

Thirty-eight years after the infamous Patikul massacre, Mrs. Gloria T. Bautista, 81, widow of the late Brig. Gen. Teodulfo S. Bautista, one of the 35 officers and men massacred during a supposed “surrender” by Muslim rebels, recalled how she received with grief the sad news regarding the death of her husband.

The first inkling she got that something bad had happened to her husband was when Mrs. Ioni Mison, wife of Col. Salvador M. Mison, then commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the Philippine Army based in Basilan.

It was on Oct. 10, 1977 that Gen. Bautista, commanding general of the Army’s Ist “Tabak” Division, and 34 of his troops were baited by Usman Sali, a ranking leader of the rebel Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Sulu, to go the town of Patikul where Usman and his men were to “surrender.”

Gen. Bautista took the bait and before he and his group knew, they were mercilessly massacred.

In an interview with this reporter on Friday on the eve of the 38th anniversary of the bloody massacre, Mrs. Bautista said when she heard Mrs. Mison about an armed clash in Sulu, she interrupted Mrs. Mison and asked the latter if her husband (Gen. Bautista) was killed.

However, Mrs. Mison did not directly answer Mrs. Bautista, and tried to parry the question by saying “I can’t hear you because of the blaring of the radio.”

“Though she did not answer my question, I knew my husband was killed,” Mrs. Bautista said.

She was nervous but was able to maintain her composure as she began calling her friends in Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) but could not get a reply.

“But early evening of that day, a seven-man AFP team came to my house. At that point, I knew that my husband was among the casualties,” Mrs. Bautista said.

“When they entered our house, the leader of the AFP team did not say word and it was me who told him 'alam ko na' (I knew already) what you would tell me. That’s when officer confirmed about what happened to my husband,” she added.

“Before that the team leader castigated a soldier for telling me in advance that my husband has been killed, but I told them he (the enlisted) did not tell me anything,” Mrs. Bautista averred.

For the AFP, October 10, 1977 was a day of infamy.

Only an army enlisted man, a certain Sgt. Calzado, the radio operator of the Tabak Division, was the only survivor in the grisly massacre by playing dead.

Defense reporters, including this writer was at the AFP Pubic Information Office in Camp Aguinaldo when then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo C. Espino announced the earth shaking news about the massacre.

The AFP’s rank and file could not believe 35 soldiers, including a general and four Army colonels were massacred in the Patikul public market just like that.

Martial law was still in effect at that time and defense reporters could not just write stories about the fighting without clearance from the defense or military hierarchy.

But the massacre of Gen. Bautista and 34 of his men was an exception. Military authorities allowed defense reporters to write the story of the massacre, giving us all the information we needed. We wrote our stories with gusto!

Retired Brig. Gen. Arnulfo D. Bañez, then AFP deputy chief of staff for intelligence (J2) and deputy of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP), now 92, could still remember the details of the gory massacre.

Bańez said Gen. Espino was shocked upon receiving the news of the massacre.

He said they were in Davao City conducting a regular inspection of troops when Espino was informed late in the afternoon of Oct. 10, 1977 about the massacre of Bautista and 34 of his men.

“Gen. Espino’s immediate reaction was to rush to Jolo, Sulu that very moment but Col. Tony Lukban, the pilot of the F-27 Fokker plane of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), told the general that the Jolo airport has no landing lights and suggested they fly early the following morning,” Bańez said.

Piecing together the massacre, Bañez, still witty and strong, said Sali agreed to meet with Gen. Bautista originally at the headquarters of the Army’s First Infantry Division, for a peace dialogue together with 150 of Sali’s men.

But a last minute decision was made by Sali and proposed to Gen. Bautista that they instead meet at the Patikul public market.

With full sincerity in his heart, Gen. Bautista agreed without second thought of any security threat from Sali.

Worse, Sali convinced Bautista not to bring with them their firearms. It was a fatal mistake.

Bañez said that when Bautista and his group were on their way to Patikul, he saw his classmate, Col. Pangilinan, the AFP adjutant general, who was conducting a seminar in Jolo.

Bautista told Pangilinan to join him in Patikul for a peace dialogue with MNLF commander Usman Sali.

In fact, Bautista earlier asked then Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, chief of the Philippine Constabulary and AFP vice chief of staff, who was in Jolo at that time to join him but Ramos declined because he had a previous engagement in Zamboanga City.

Bañez said that “when Bautista and his men arrived in Patikul public market aboard two 6x6 trucks in the morning of Oct. 10, 1977, the place was empty.”

“Normally, being a public market the place is always full of people but this time not a shadow was seen,” he said.

“But still Gen. Bautista did not suspect any bad omen was going to happen,” Bañez said.

“Gen. Bautista went there to have peace with the rebels, no more, no less,” he added.

“However, it was weird a place that Usman Sali and his men did not show up,” he said.

“Then three to four men suddenly showed up as Bautista and his troops sat down on a long table waiting for Usman Sali,” Bañez said.

“All of a sudden a burst of automatic gunfire reverberated all over and Gen. Bautista and his officers and men were killed instantly like sitting ducks, unaware of what hit them,” Bañez said with tears in his eyes.

“It was a bloodbath. Worse, Sali and his men hacked the already dead soldiers, including Gen. Bautista. The hapless soldiers sustained hack wounds all over their bodies.” It was brutal of the first degree,” he said.

Also at that time, Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, then chief of the now defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC), who was in Jolo to visit AFP troops, was invited by Gen. Bautista to join him to Patikul.

Had Ramos went with Bautista’s group, he could be one of those massacred.

The Patikul Massacre was a painful lesson the AFP will never forget. Never lower your guard.

During the interview, Mrs. Bautista lamented that 38 years have passed since her husband was killed in line of duty but she receives a monthly pension of a measly PHP1,000 a month from the AFP.

“It is too small an amount, but what can I do?” she said.

“In fact, I got no lump sum when my husband was killed in line of duty. I just don’t know why?” Mrs. Bautista added.

However, Mrs. Bautista said she was glad that all veterans and surviving wives receive PHP5,000 per month from the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) but still the total amount of P6,000 is not that big, considering the high prices of commodities these days.

But she was thankful that all their five children, including retired Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista, former AFP chief of staff, have finished their studies and have their own income.

Gen. Bautista, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class 1951, was supposed to retire from active military service five months before his untimely death. He was 49. At that time, the 56-year old mandatory retirement age was not yet in effect.

“Had my husband been able to retire, his plan was to buy a one hectare of farmland in Cabanatuan City where he would work as a farmer,” Mrs. Bautista said.

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