ILOILO CITY, Philippines—Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro conferred a posthumous award to Army Lieutenant Colonel Angel Benitez in an unannounced visit at the wake for the slain officer here on Wednesday night.

Teodoro awarded the Distinguished Conduct Star, the highest combat award to Benitez and it was received by Benitez’s widow, Ma. Elena, said Lieutenant Colonel David Tan, public information officer of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.

Teodoro, along with Department of Defense and military officials, arrived in Iloilo City past 6 p.m. and left for Manila around 9 p.m.

Benitez, 40, was killed along with other soldiers, when they were trapped by rampaging Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in Lanao del Norte on August 18.

According to military reports, Benitez, who was on his way to report for work as the new operations chief of the Army’s Task Force Tabak, virtually sacrificed his life, by refusing to escape from the marauding rebels that overran a town in the province, to be able to text vital information to his superiors on the movements of the rebels and what had been happening on the ground.