Likely the son of Faustino Villa Abrille (the chief of the Spanish guardia civil who was assigned in Davao to assume as district governor), José Fernández de Villa-Abrille y Calibana, a Spanish major general who commanded the Seville garrison in Andalusia, Spain, was born in Davao City on December 15, 1878, the year his father took over the administration of the province.
(The elder Villa-Abrille was a well-loved figure; his kindness gained him the sympathy of the natives. Under his watch, the Moro settlements known as rancherias were organized. He also banned the practice of human sacrifice and slavery, and punished those who violated.)
Gen. Villa-Abrille entered the Academia Infanteria de Filipinas in Manila on July 14, 1896. After completing the short course, he was given the rank of second lieutenant on June 18, 1897, and participated in the Philippine campaign. Years after returning to his parents’ motherland, he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1905.
The general also participated in the Africa campaign where he was wounded. By 1930, he was already a brigadier general, and on February 15, 1933, he returned home to head a division. On May 20, 1935, he was chosen as commanding general of the second Organic Division of the Army, in Seville City, and was in command of the territory of Andalusia in 1936 when a coup erupted.
The putsch that led to the Spanish Civil War cost him his job. Aware of the plot of nationalist mutineers led by Gen. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, he capitulated to the rebel forces.
Upon the instruction of Gen. Quiepo, Gen. José Cuesta Monereo, commander of the General Staff, planned a plot to mobilize 4,000 men to perform and consolidate the coup in Seville. Gen. Villa-Abrille was talked into joining by Gen. Quiepo, an old friend, but he turned it down, even denying there was any rebel activity in his area of responsibility.
On June 7, 1936, nearly all the commanding officers were on the rebel side and swore allegiance to the Republic before Mariano Ruiz Funez, the minister for agriculture. Despite the development, José María Varela Renduelez, the civil governor, met with Gen. Villa-Abrille to tell him of the informed links between the soldiers in his garrison and the local right-wing extremists. Still, the Davao-born officer rejected the connections.
In the talk, Gen. Villa-Abrille failed to inform the governor that Gen. Quiepo, who was staying nearby, had repeatedly invited him to join the putsch but he steadily rejected the overtures.
Curiously, Gen. Villa-Abrille and the officers under his command did not resist the coup nor oppose the oppressive activities that Manila-born Gen. Antonio Castejón Espinosa, an African campaigner like him, started in the districts of Seville. Even the instruction of Gov. Varela for Gen. Villa-Abrille to respond to the rebels was ignored.
On July 18, Gen. Quiepo and a few Army officers barged into Gen. Villa-Abrille’s office, demanding which side he was on, that of the Republic or the Nationalists. The Davao-born general hesitated. Despite his indifference and that of several commanders under his command, he was arrested and prosecuted. He was also threatened by Gen. Quiepo, who later took over his position as the most senior-ranked officer of the second Organic Division.
With many of his men joining the rebellion, Gen. Villa-Abrille was discharged from the service in December 1936. And for his non-involvement in the popular coup, a court organized by the Nationalists found him guilty and sentenced him to six years in prison in February 1939.
Seemingly unperturbed and composed, he completed his imprisonment in a villa near Cruz del Campo, in Seville, a military prison during the war and afterward. Soon after his release, he passed away in a Madrid pension in 1946. Nothing is known, though, whether the general, in his years of stay in Spain, ever mentioned a plan to visit his place of birth.
