Moro Leader’s 100th Birthday Recognized

From the Manila Bulletin (Dec 5): Moro Leader’s 100th Birthday Recognized

Muslim and Christian officials converged at the remote town of Salipada K. Pendatun in Maguindanao Monday to observe the 100th birthday of the country’s first Moro general and senator, after whom the municipality was named. The National Historical Institute (NHI) led the commemoration with prayers for the current generation to take inspiration from the “heroic” deeds of Salipada K. Pendatun in the building of an American-backed “solid” Muslim-Christian resistance during the Japanese occupation of Mindanao. NHI Executive Director Ludovico Badoy alongside relatives and political disciples including now retiring Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong kicked off the commemoration rites Monday morning with the unveiling of a ceremonial marker on the graveyard of the late Senator Pendatun.

In their separate speeches, Badoy and Datumanong recalled the unparalleled feats of Pendatun in social integration, legal parlance, military service, legislation, and traditional leadership. Former North Cotabato Board Member Farida Pendatun, a niece of the Moro leader, said their clan was “deeply elated” over the Aquino administration’s appreciation through the NHI of her uncle’s contribution to society. “We’re deeply elated and honored. Our uncle was indeed a great leader, whose wisdom we’ve tried hardly to emulate but cannot match,” Farida told the Manila Bulletin. The late Pendatun was born on December 3, 1912. He died of natural death on January 27, 1985, at the town named after him.

The Wikipedia Web site described him as a “great lawyer, military officer, legislator, and national leader of many firsts.” “Stocky and solidly built, he was the first and only Muslim to lead a combined Muslim Christian-American guerilla army, the first Filipino Muslim to be conferred the rank of Brigadier General, the first Muslim elected senator, the first to hold three Senate Committee Chairmanships at the same time, the first Muslim delegate to the United Nations, and the first Muslim to become Speaker Pro-Tempore of the House Representatives,” a Wikipedia Web site posting said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/384481/moro-leader-s-100th-birthday-recognized