Basilio Valdes

Basilio José Segundo "Basil" Pica Valdes (July 10, 1892 – January 26, 1970) was a Filipino doctor, general and minister. Valdes was chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1939, and was in 1941 appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Manuel L. Quezon. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines at the beginning of the Second World War, he was one of the members of Quezon's war cabinet in exile.

Early life and career Basilio Valdes was born on July 10, 1892, in San Miguel, Manila, in the Captaincy General of the Philippines as the third child of a family of four. His parents were Filomena Pica, a Spanish woman, and Benito Salvador Valdés, a doctor and former classmate of José Rizal in Madrid. His mother later died in 1897 after giving birth to the couple's fifth son, after which the family led a wandering existence. Because of this, the young Valdes studied in many different schools. La Salle College, Barcelona (1897–1901); San Beda University, Manila (1901–1903); La Salle College, Hong Kong (1903–1904); the American School in Manila (1904); Pagsanjan High School (1905–1908); Manila High School (1908–1911); and on his father's intercession, he opted for a study of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Santo Tomas (1911–1916) after completing his secondary school education. Valdes also became the founder of the UST Student Association in 1913, and became its first President. but with the ongoing First World War he decided to leave the same year for France and joined the French Army as medical volunteer. He worked in the military hospital as a surgeon for the French Red Cross. With the American entry into the war in 1917, he transferred to the US Army (the Philippines being a US colony at the time) and continued to work until 1919.

With the growing threat of Japanese expansion during the 1930s, President Manuel L. Quezon established the Department of National Defense in November 1939, which had executive authority over the army. With the attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941, President Quezon merged the departments of National Defense, Public Works, Communications and Labor into a single department and appointed Valdes as secretary on December 23. Valdes received one of 20 original facsimiles of the Instrument of Surrender, being one of eight personal guests of MacArthur, and his document is currently owned and curated by The International Museum of World War II in Natick, Massachusetts.

In January 1946 Valdes was appointed as one of the judges at the Military Tribunal of Japanese General Masaharu Homma in view of the war crimes committed by his command during the invasion of the Philippines, sitting on the bench along with Leo Donovan, Robert G. Gard, Arthur Trudeau, and Warren H. McNaught.

Personal life

Valdes became the consort of Rosario "Bombona" Roces Legarda during the 1921 Manila Carnival Queen. They married on July 15, 1923 and settled in the San Miguel District of Manila. Valdes and Legarda adopted Rosario Tuason Matute, who was the half-sister of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. Valdes was an avid polo player, and was a member of the Los Tamaraos Polo Club in Parañaque.

Later life and death After the war Valdes went back to teaching as a professor of surgery at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. He was head of the Philippine Cancer Society, vice-president of the Philippine Tuberculosis Society, chairman of the Deans Committee for the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and became the medical director of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital from 1948 until his death. Basilio Valdes died on January 26, 1970, and was given a full military funeral.