Alfredo Manapat Santos (July 13, 1905 – February 7, 1990) was Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1962 to 1965, making him the first four-star general of the Philippines' armed forces.
Santos was born in Santa Cruz, Manila, Philippines, on July 13, 1905, to Fructoso L. Santos and Agatona J. Manapat, and was seventh among fourteen children. His secondary education was acquired in Manila North High school (now Arellano). He graduated at Mapúa Institute of Technology with a degree in Bachelor of Science in civil engineering in 1931. In the same year, he passed the board examination. He showed interest in the military when he graduated on the top of his ROTC class at the University of the Philippines as a cadet colonel and corps commander in 1929. He continued this interest after schooling.
General Santos' military career started when he was appointed probationary third lieutenant on June 8, 1936, after five years of civil engineering practice. He entered the Reserve Officer Service School (ROSS) at Camp Henry T. Allen in Baguio City, where he was made the battalion commander. He graduated at the top of his class, and twenty years after, he was honored as its Most Distinguished Alumnus.
Then Captain Santos was the most decorated unit commander of the 1st Regular Division during the Bataan campaign, even dubbed by commanding general, Brigadier General Fidel V. Segundo, as the "Hammer of the Division" when he brilliantly outmaneuvered and outsmarted the enemy during their attempt to pocket their area. In both attempts, his unit successfully broke through the Gogo-Cotar and Tuol Pockets, thus earning for himself the moniker "hero of the pockets".
For his heroic feat in battle, he was promoted to major in the field. Two days after, he was decorated with the United States Army's Distinguished Service Cross for "extraordinary heroism in combat in Bataan" and the Silver Star for "gallantry in action". Later, the Philippine Government awarded him the equivalent Distinguished Conduct Star and Gold Cross for the same combat action.
On January 25, 1942, a superior Japanese Army force launched an attack southward from a general line along Pilar-Bagac Road. The attack swept the outpost line in resistance, and penetrated the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) of the 1st Regular Division on the Gogo-Cotar River area, Bataan, creating a 500-yard gap through which the enemy rushed. For four days, hundreds of Japanese troops tried to break through lines.
Santos was given the hazardous mission of closing the gaps and annihilating the enemy troops who had infiltrated the lines as the gap posed a serious threat to the positions and the security of the division. He led a counter-attack against the strong and numerically superior Japanese forces positioned between the MLR and the Regimental Reserve Line (RRL). The fighting began at dawn of January 29, 1942. With dogged determination, the defenders fought assiduously and without pause against all odds to restore the defensive sector assigned to the 1st Regular Division.
Major Santos was ordered to surrender his unit to the Imperial Japanese Forces, which he reluctantly did on April 12, 1942. He became a prisoner of war and was one of the captives in the "Death March" to Camp O'Donnell at Capas, Tarlac. He was released from the concentration camp on August 10, 1942.
During the Japanese occupation from December 1942 to January 1945, he joined the Filipino-American Irregular Troops (FAIT) under Col. Hugh I. Straughn as chief of the Intelligence Division of the North Section in Manila, with the rank of colonel. He fought with the American and Filipino soldiers in the liberation of Manila from February to March 1945.
He returned to military control at the end of the liberation campaign that year and was assigned at Camp Murphy as camp inspector of the 2nd Camp Complement. Later, he held other positions, including executive officer and S-3 of the 1st Camp Complement; acting district commander at Camp Olivas, San Fernando, Pampanga; commanding officer of the 4th MP Battalion, Mandaluyong, Rizal, in April 1946; and executive officer of the Presidential Guard Battalion in Malacañan Palace, Manila.
In July 1946, he was sent to the United States as a student officer at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, US, where he finished the regular Command and Staff course a year later on July 3, 1947.
When Congressman Datu Mangelen and Senator Salipada Pendatun offered him the provincial governorship of Cotabato in 1951, through then Secretary of National Defense Ramon Magsaysay, he declined. It was a personal decision which was very difficult to make. At that time, the position was appointive, rather than elective.
The province of Cotabato then was in turmoil. Violent clashes occurred, resulting in the death of many political followers of contending parties. But he contended that the problem was essentially political in nature, and that he had charted his course for a military career. His negative reply was honored. Santos knew what he wanted in his career and to him a diversion like that of the appointive offer would adversely affect his plan to attain the highest position in the military hierarchy.
Subsequently, Colonel Santos was given command of the Panay Task Force, composed of the 15th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) with some elements of the 9th BCT and the PC commands of Iloilo, Capiz and Antique. Reporting to his new command on March 1, 1951, he once more showed his incontestable ability and grit in military tactics. As proof of this, he earned the distinction of having accounted for the fall of two of the highest-ranking dissidents at the height of the Huk campaign.
This position gave him the opportunity to put his military prowess in full play. He made history when Guillermo Capadocia, erstwhile secretary general and one of the founders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was captured at Barrio Yubog in San Remigio, Antique. During the hectic campaign to capture Capadocia and destroy the leftist band in 1951 and 1952 on Panay Island, Colonel Santos made one crucial decision which ensured the success of the operations. He organized a civilian commando unit headed by Pedro Valentin, a mountain leader who knew the people and the terrain very well.
Part of his command decision was the designation of the civilian commando unit as the attacking force, while elements of the 15th BCT served as the holding or covering forces. Had it been otherwise, the wily Capadocia would have had the government forces running around at circles as they were handicapped in the rough terrain. Capadocia's death was the consummation of Santos' bold plan.
The incessant military operations aimed primarily at the capture, whether dead or alive, of dissident leaders resulted in the surrender of hundreds of their men. In addition, the capture of the rebels' arms, supplies and equipment as well as important documents which were of great value to the entire campaign for peace and order throughout the country was crucial in breaking up the backbone of the dissidents' depredations in Visayas and Mindanao.
A crucial campaign, a smart decision and sweet victory