Wright “Chadli” M. Molintas Jr.

March 14, 1963 – July 6, 1987

Wright Molintas, Jr. was a scion of two of Benguet province’s most illustrious political families — the Mencios of Atok and the Molintases of Bokod town — with governors and congressmen belonging to both sides of his family. Had he survived, Wright would have been Benguet’s equivalent of one Benigno Aquino Jr.

His parents were government employees — his mother a grade school teacher, and his father a municipal – and later, provincial – treasurer. Wright and his six brothers were all city-born and bred but stayed close to their Ibaloi roots (Ibaloi is the Benguet “tribe” that regards Baguio City as part of its ancestral territory since pre-colonial times).

Wright might have been one of seven boys, but he stood out because, unlike his brothers, he was aggressive and boisterous. His family called him Junior, but more often, Tombol, the Ibaloi term for a young cock. His brother Jose said the brothers had great ambitions, with Wright dreaming to become president of the Philippines one day!

In school, Wright was competitive, often winning honors.. He was in high school when he joined the Order of Demolay. Like his brothers, he showed an interest in the military, entering the Cadet Officers’ Qualification Course (COQC). On his senior year in high school, he held the post of corps commander in the Citizen Army Training. 

Wright passed the competitive tests for the University of the Philippines with a full scholarship for geodetic engineering. He spent two years in the Diliman campus, filling his spare hours with various activities, competing in sports fests, joining a fraternity (Gamma Sigma Pi), learning and competing in bridge, entertaining his friends with card tricks, or charming them with his guitar-plucking of oldies such as Unchained Melody, sometimes even winning loose change  playing billiards.

During this time, the UP campus was also all afire with student protests directed against the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship, as well as education policies meant to perpetuate the dictatorship.

Wright took notice of these issues, and started attending fora and joining protest rallies. He also joined the UP Bodong, an association of students who traced their roots from the Cordillera Region.

By his second year at UP, Wright was speaking in rallies and fora, giving simple speeches that appealed to his young and usually spellbound crowd. He became associated with another young activist leader from UP, the late Lean Alejandro, who like Wright, was also a Bantayog ng mga Bayani honoree.

Before long, he was asked to serve as one of Lean’s escorts, and whenever needed, in rallies for example, one of his close-in security. Wright was up to the task, being tall and with a powerful frame, a military training, and a support network via his fraternity brothers.

Still, Wright kept a keen interest in his home, the Cordilleras. At this time, the Cordillera Region was wracked with proposed “development projects,” such as dams and logging projects of the Marcos regime. Local communities resisted, deeming  the projects unnecessary and wasteful, and at worst, severely harmful to their environment. The dictatorial regime responded to the protests with operations by heavily-armed troops and jailing resistance leaders.

In 1980, the late Macli-ing Dulag, another Bantayog honoree, a much-respected Kalinga leader and the most well-known leader of the resistance to a proposed dam project on the Chico River, was gunned down by soldiers in a midnight raid of his home. Wright railed at this latest proof of a brutal regime. On the first anniversary of Macliing’s murder, Wright was one of many young activists who trooped to Macli-ing’s village to hold a memorial in honor of the brave slain leader. It was at this point Wright decided to join the armed struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.

He returned to Kalinga after a few weeks, joining the armed resistance. He now bore the name Ka Chadli and undertook work as a political officer. But he showed excellence in the military field as well, and quickly became involved in military action, a task he kept for the next five years. He was first sent to Sagada-Besao area in Mountain Province, then to Kalinga province, and next to Ifugao province, and finally, to his own home province of Benguet. He was flat-footed and sometimes plagued by malaria and skin allergies, but he took these difficulties in stride.

In 1984, he left the guerrilla areas briefly to get married to fellow activist Marvie Perez of Pangasinan.

Then on July 4, 1987, he left his wife for what should have been a short meeting in Kapangan, Benguet. He never reached the place. On the way, he and two companions, all unarmed, were seized by members of the police and the Citizens’ Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU). Witnesses later revealed that Wright tried to argue with the soldiers, quite confident he had logic and right on his side. Still, he was shot in the back.

Bleeding from his wounds but still conscious and talking, Wright was hog-tied to a bamboo pole and ferried by his companions under guard to the town center of Baguling in La Union. He was dead by the time they reached their destination hours later. The devastating news reached his family a few days later. His relatives claimed his body and a week-long wake was held for him in Baguio City, with political personalities of all colors attending. Wright was 24.

His two companions were charged and convicted with rebellion, and served their terms in the national penitentiary. Two months later, Wright’s friend, national resistance leader Lean Alejandro, would himself be shot to death.

From Bantayog ng mga Bayani