MAJOR GENERAL, PHILIPPINE CONSTABULARY
For exceptional conduct and conspicuous courage displayed at Bayang Cotta, Lanao del Sur on 26 July 1917.
Then a Philippine Constabulary Second Lieutenant, Paulino Santos was tasked to participate in the Bayang Cotta campaign in which three companies of Philippine Scouts were also involved to neutralize bands of Moro outlaws. Among them was the group of Ampuan-Agos, the most famous of all Lanao outlaw chiefs.
The fully armed bands, numbering about 500, were entrenched in a well-constructed and fortified cotta surrounded with barbed wire and bamboo spikes. Lieutenant Santos led government troops in assaulting the outlaws' position. With the use of scaling ladders, they stormed the cotta and killed 30 outlaws.
In this gallant act, one PC soldier was killed while five others were wounded. Lieutenant Santos sustained a near-fatal gunshot wound at the back of the head.
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