LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET -- The first Igorot general died on Saturday at the age of 93 after a lingering illness.

Brig. Gen. Pedro Baban (ret.) was the first beneficiary of President Diosdado Macapagal?s anti-discrimination policy, according to Baban?s relatives.

?Macapagal wanted to promote an Igorot and a Muslim to general. My lolo was the Igorot,? said Baban?s grandson, Gabriel Baban Keith Jr.

To the surviving members of the 66th Infantry Brigade, however, the man they were remembering was an ?FBI? hero -- a ?full-blooded Igorot,? a term popular in the 1950s.

Sent to combat in WWII

An Ibaloi, Baban was a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1940 and was one of its first graduates sent to combat when World War II broke out.

A pilot, he was grounded when Japan invaded the country, forcing him to join the guerrilla movement. His brigade was the first Philippine unit to enter Baguio after American planes bombarded the city to drive out the Japanese.

An American flag was draped over Baban?s white casket.

His six comrades, who attended the wake, felt the American flag was more appropriate for the war hero.

They folded the Philippine flag that had originally covered the casket and laid it beside a set of model airplanes while waiting for the general?s honor guard composed of PMA cadets to arrive at the Baban home here. He will be buried on Feb. 11.

In one corner of the home hangs a framed birthday memento made by the general?s children, which they gave to their father when he turned 90.

Inday, Emma, Elsie and Sonny Baban described their father in the card as a man ?born to poor uneducated parents [who] pursued a military career and then earned the honor of being the first Igorot general.?

Making Filipinos proud

?Needless to say, he made us all proud by serving [the country] well and leaving his mark on his chosen career.?

Baban?s recollections were documented by Keith in a 1988 story for a local magazine.

Baban, who his PMA ?mistahs? (classmates) remembered as ?Cabe,? told his story to his grandson that year.

Baban said he entered the PMA ?out of necessity,? because his family could not afford to send him to college after he graduated in 1935 from what used to be La Trinidad Agricultural High School (forerunner of Benguet State University).

?Class 1940 was the batch when the PMA became the PMA,? Keith quoted his grandfather as saying.

That was the time military officials instituted the first curricular reforms at the academy, according to Academy Scribe, a three-volume history of the PMA.

The Scribe said class ?40 endured a ?stormy academic period? due to an ?academic revolution.?

Baban told Keith he managed to graduate 76th in the class of 79, after enduring years as a member of the ?awkward squad.? This was the unit cadets who needed to take remedial courses were often relegated to.