Former Defense Secretary Fortunato Abat, one of the first generals to confront the then incipient separatist rebellion in Mindanao in the 1970s, passed away on Wednesday night. He was 92.
Abat enlisted in the Army when his high school studies were interrupted by the Japanese Occupation. After the war, he was admitted to the Philippine Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1951.
He married Pangasinan school teacher Corazon Bulatao with whom he had six children.
Abat was also a member of the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea and was a senior military officer when the Moro rebellion erupted in the 1970s. He was later named Army chief and then ambassador to China in 1982.
Abat had been confined at Veterans Memorial Medical Center since Jan. 25, his eldest son, Victor, told the Inquirer.
Abat’s wake will be at Loyola Memorial Chapels on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. Internment is on Tuesday, March 13, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. —NIKKO DIZON