*112. DR. BASILIO J. VALDES: Fortune Helps the Brave

GAMES OF THE GENERAL. Basilio Valdes was a doctor first, but also earned recognition as a military man, business man, medical instructor and a government executive. This picture of him was taken during the Manila Carnival of 1921.

Physician, Professor, General, Chief of Staff, Businessman, Cabinet Secretary. These are but a few of the many roles Dr. Basilio J. Valdes would play in his checkered life. The good doctor would make a name for himself as one of the most accomplished personalities ever to emerge from the Commonwealth years, dedicating his life to government, military and civic service with uncommon drive and distinction.

While Basilio was born in San Miguel, Manila on 10 July 1892 to Benito Salvador Valdes and Filomena Pica, the Valdeses have deep roots in Floridablanca, Pampanga. His father, a classmate of Rizal in Madrid was also a physician. The Valdeses led peripatetic lives, which explains why young Basilio spent a number of years in different schools here and abroad. He started his primary grade in La Salle, Barcelona then continued this in San Beda from 1901-1903. He then went to La Salle Hong Kong, the Ameircan School in Manila, Pagsanjan High School and Manila High School—all in a span of 8 years.

Largely influenced by his father, he enrolled in Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas and graduated with honors in 1916. Immediately, he plunged headlong into medical service,treating all his patients with respect and fairness, and adapting a personal motto—“Audaces Fortuna Juvat”—Fortune helps the brave. While in practice, he also became a professor of Physiology at his alma mater and published medical papers.

Driven to serve beyond his country, he joined the French Army as a medical volunteer, then the U.S. Army as a surgeon from 1917-1919. He labored in Europe as part of the American Red Cross mission during the war years, while studying health conditions in Czechoslovakia and Lithuania. Later, he would apply this new knowledge when he organized foundations devoted to the care and treatment of infantile paralysis patients.

Thus began his second career in military service. When he came back to the Philippines, he became a medical inspector for the Philippine Constabulary for 8 long years (1926-1934). He was also the Chairman of the Board of Medical Examiners from 1928-1932. In 1932, he was named acting Commissioner of Health and Welfare.

President Manuel L. Quezon appointed him as Chief of Staff of the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine Army in 1939, elevating his rank to a general (he would rise to become a Brigadier General). Two years later, Basilio was appointed as Secretary of National Defense—the country’s third. To expand his military education, he attended the Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, graduating there in 1943.

During the Japanese period, he served under Pres. Jose P. Laurel as Secretary of Public Works. Basilio was even busier when the war years ended, becoming a president many times over for various medical associations, war veteran groups, health societies and civic clubs like the Manila Lions. In the 1950s, he was also the President of Hacienda del Carmen of Floridablanca, Pampanga. From his community of tenant-farmers, barrio Valdes was formed.

The good doctor married Rosario ‘Bombona’ Legarda whom he met during the 1921 Manila Carnival. She had been a princess in the court of the Carnival Queen, Carmen Prieto, whom Basilio escorted. The couple was childless, but had an adoptive daughter. Dr. Basilio J. Valdes died on 26 January 1970 after a long and fruitful career, and a life favored no doubt, by fortune.

(*NOTE: Feature titles with asterisks represent other writings of the author that appeared in other publications and are not included in the original book, "Views from the Pampang & Other Scenes")