Chief architect of MNLF peace pact dies

Retired Armed Forces chief Gen. Manuel Yan passed away at the Medical City hospital in Pasig yesterday. He was 88 years old.

The former ambassador is survived by his children, Sonny and Beverly Yan, Roby and Sita Yan, Egay and Mawie Aglipay, Mina, Joy, Raul and Lou Yan.

Yan was considered the chief architect of the government peace pact with the Moro National Liberation Front signed in September 1996 under the Ramos administration.

“We in the AFP mourn the passing of General Yan, a fine officer and a dedicated public servant,” AFP Public Information Office chief Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said on behalf of AFP chief Gen. Alexander Yano.

Born in Sta. Cruz, Manila on Jan. 24, 1920, Yan joined the Philippine Military Academy after graduating from Arellano High School at the top of his class in 1937.

When he graduated from the PMA in 1941, Yan received the presidential saber – a symbol of superiority in academic and military training – from Vice President Sergio Osmeña.

During World War II, Lieutenant Yan served with the Philippine Army’s 1st Regular Division and survived the Death March. He later joined the resistance movement.

After the war, Yan was sent to an Army engineering school in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia in the US and studied at the Command General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.