36 officers and men 150 men Date 10 October 1977 | 35 killed none Result Decisive MNLF victory | |
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Location Patikul, Sulu, Philippines | ||
The Patikul massacre refers to an event that took place on 10 October 1977 in Patikul, Sulu province in the Philippines. Thirty-five officers and men of the Philippine Army were killed by elements of the Moro National Liberation Front under Usman Sali. Among the dead were Brigadier General Teodulfo Bautista, commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division, Adjutant General of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Col. Gabriel Pangilinan and four lieutenant colonels.
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The massacre
Usman Sali, the leader of a group of MNLF rebels, had earlier agreed to meet with Gen. Bautista at the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division in Jolo for a peace dialogue. At the last minute, Sali changed his mind and proposed to meet Gen. Bautista at a public market in Barangay Danag, Patikul. Bautista agreed and on the way to Patikul, was accompanied by Col. Gabriel Pangilinan, his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy. Earlier, Bautista had invited Fidel V. Ramos, then Chief of the Philippine Constabulary to join him but the latter demurred due to a previous engagement in Zamboanga City.
When the General and his troops arrived at the market aboard two army trucks, the place was deserted. Sali was not there to meet Bautista, so the General and his men sat down at a table to await his arrival. At that point gunfire broke out and Bautista and his men were mowed down. The bodies were later found to have sustained hack wounds. All of the Army soldiers died, except for a sergeant, the group's radioman, who survived by playing dead.
Although some reports indicate that Usman Sali died during subsequent government operations, others state that he escaped to Sabah, Malaysia after the incident.
Memorials
Then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, in his eulogy to the fallen, stated that Gen. Bautista and his men were "killed with perfidy and treachery", and that the massacre "conclusively brands the MNLF as the violator of the ceasefire agreement". This is in reference to the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, signed by the Philippine government and the MNLF ten months before, which included the provision of a ceasefire.
In 2012, Bautista's son, then-Commanding General of the Philippine Army Emmanuel T. Bautista inaugurated a museum in Camp General Teodulfo Bautista in Barangay Busbus, Jolo. The Army camp is named in honor of his late father.
A stone memorial to those killed was restored in 2009 by Philippine Marines, Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines and residents of Barangay Danag.