General Macario Peralta, Jr
Brigadier General Macario Peralta Jr, the ubiquitous scholar of the UP College of Law where he was Valedictorian of his class (1936), was equally a renowned personality of the Corps of Cadets where he was Corps Commander in 1934. He was one of the few ROTC graduate to get a Regular Commission in the Army. World War II found him with the 61st Division in Panay Island, and with the fall of the Philippines on 06 May 1942, he refused to surrender, and instead led the 6th Military District in guerilla warfare against the Japanese. After the War, he rose to be the youngest Brigadier General, as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. He resigned and went on to Veteran’s Affairs, and eventually to the Philippine Senate. He later became the Secretary of National Defense.
“Mac” as he was called, was a fighter to the last, never forgetting his origins as a UP Vanguard and a brilliant son of the University of the Philippines.
