Under the rotation system of every three years, I was transferred from the P.C. School to the Judge Advocate Station, Headquarters, P.C., in Crame as Chief, Military Affairs Branch, handling all Court Martial cases of officers and enlisted men, where all officers were lawyers. I was then a Captain, Regular Force, Infantry Branch of Service.
At a desk next to me was Capt. Emilio Purugganan, Reserve, from Bangued, son of ex-Gov. Eustaquio Purugganan, belonging to a very rich family. He was my classmate in the elementary grades and in the Abra High School. We were in the same barracks together in the Capas Concentration Camp as POWs. He helped my stepmother get a pension as Elix’s surviving parent, because we were both minors when she got married to our father in 1935.
Litong (his nickname) was then suffering from high blood pressure and was sickly. When I went back to Abra in 1991 my stepmother said he had already died. He was Chief, Civilian Affairs Branch, taking care of civil cases of military personnel.
Because of the Law Library in our office, I enrolled in the University of Manila for a Master’s Degree using the one year unused portion of my G.I. Educational Benefit. I graduated but missed a thesis, which I later on completed, entitled CONSTABULARY DUTIES. It became a textbook in the P.C. School.
During a Parents-Teachers Election of Officers, I was elected as President of the Camp Crame Elementary School PTA, where Mrs. Lourdes Flor was a Principal and had been PTA President for many years since its opening.
She was so disappointed, and she insulted Pat by calling her “Pescieta” and Pat also retaliated. We passed a resolution signed by around 100 members for Mrs. Flor’s transfer, as a “trouble maker.” She hired three lawyers to file defamation charges against Pat and me. We got acquitted!
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