Corazon C. Aquino--Asia' s and Philippines' first Female President

María Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (born January 25, 1933), widely known as 'Cory Aquino', was President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female President of The Philippines. She was Asia's first female President and world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women empowerment, and religious piety.

Aquino is the widow of the popular opposition senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., and when he was assassinated at then Manila International Airport on his return from exile on August 21, 1983, she became the focus of the opposition to the autocratic rule of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Corazon Cojuangco was born in Manila into one of the richest Chinese-mestizo families in the Philippines, the powerful Cojuangcos of Tarlac province. Her mother's family, the Sumulongs, also belong to a political Chinese Filipino family in Rizal.

Growing up in a privileged family, she was sent to St. Scholastica's College and finished grade school as class valedictorian in 1943. She was sent overseas to study in Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia (where Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco once studied), the Notre Dame Convent School in New York, and College of Mount Saint Vincent, also in New York. She studied liberal arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree major in French and minor in Mathematics in 1953. She intended to become a Math teacher and language interpreter.

She returned to the Philippines to study Law at Far Eastern University, owned by her cousin Don Nicanor Reyes. In 1955 she married Benigno Aquino, Jr.(Ninoy), who had just been elected mayor of Concepción in Tarlac province at the age of 22. They had five children together: a son, Benigno III, and four daughters, Maria Elena Aquino, Aurora Corazon Aquino, Victoria Eliza Aquino, and television host Kris Aquino.

source: wikipedia

Filipina,Gregoria de Jesus,Corazon Aquino,Kris Aquino

Gregoria de Jesus-Katipunan's Lakambini-Wife of Andres Bonifacio

Gregoria de Jesus

Gregoria was born in Kaloocan on May 15, 1875. Her parents were Jesus de Jesus who was a carpenter and served as gobernadorsillo while her mother was Baltazara Alvarez Francisco.


She married Andres Bonifacio in a Roman Catholic rites at the Binondo Church in 1894 and in another set of rites in the Katipunan in July 1893,the same time when the women’s chapter of the Katipunan was formed.Together with Marina Dizon, Josefa Rizal, Angelica Lopez, Delfina Herbosa and Benita Rodriguez, they were initiated as Katipunan members. She adopted the name Lakambini.

Gregoria and Andres had one child but the child died of small pox and their house in Sta. Cruz was burned. She was designated the keeper of records and the seal of the Katipunan. To escape capture, she often crossed provinces on foot. After Bonifacio’s untimely death, she lived in the mountains of Pasig where she met Julio Nakpil. They were later wed in Quiapo Church in Manila.

They lived in the Quiapo house of Dr. Ariston Bautista, a friend of Filipino propagandists in Spain.

Gregoria died on March 15, 1943.


Filipina,Gregoria de Jesus

Maria Josefa Gabriela Silang-First Filipina to lead a revolution

Maria Josefa Gabriela Silang(March 19, 1731- September 29, 1763)

María Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang was the first Filipino woman to lead a revolt during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. An active member of the insurgent force of Diego Silang, her husband, she led the group for four months after his death before she was captured and executed.

She was born on March 19, 1731 in Caniogan, Ilocos Sur,with a mestizo (Spanish / Indigenous Ilocano ancestry). She was adopted by a wealthy businessman who later married her at the age of 20, but left after three years. In 1757, she married again, this time to 27-year-old indigenous ilocano rebel leader, Diego Silang. She became one of his closest advisors.

On May 28, 1763, her husband was assassinated by order of royal and church authorities in Manila. After her husband's death, shefled on horseback to the mountains of Abra to establish her headquarters, reassemble her troops, and rally the Tingguian community to fight. They descended on Vigan on September 10, 1763. But the Spanish garrison was ready, amassing Spanish, Tagalog, and Kapampangan soldiers and Ilocano collaborators to ambush her and rout her forces. Many were killed. She
escaped, alongside her uncle Nicolas and seven other men,but later caught on September 29, 1763. They were summarily hanged in Vigan's plaza, with Gabriela being the last to die.


source: National Heroes


Filipina

Cecilia Muñoz-Palma-First Female Supreme Court Associate Justice

Cecilia Muñoz-Palma (November 22, 1913 — January 2, 2006) was the first woman appointed to sit on the Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos on October 29, 1973, and served in the Court until she reached the then-mandatory retirement age of 65. She later served as the president of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution.

The daughter of a congressman from Batangas, Muñoz-Palma earned her law degree from the University of the Philippines, and a Master of Laws degree from Yale University. She became the first woman prosecutor of Quezon City in 1947. Seven years later, she became the first female district judge when she was named a trial court judge for Negros Oriental.[1] In the next few years, she was assigned as a judge to Laguna and Rizal until her appointment to the Court of Appeals in 1968, the second woman ever to be appointed to the appellate court. In 1973, she again made history, this time as the first female Supreme Court Associate Justice, preceding by eight years Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

source: wikipedia


Filipina,Cecilia Munoz-Palma,First Female Supreme CourtAssociate Justice

Estefania Aldaba-Lim-first woman to become special ambassador to the United Nations

Estefania Aldaba-Lim, Ph.D. (1917-March 7, 2006) was the first female secretary of any Cabinet of the Philippines, serving as Secretary of Social Services and Development from 1971 to 1977. She obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1942. She was also the first Filipino clinical psychologist.

She played prominent roles as the former assistant secretary general of the United Nations Children's Fund's International Year of the Child. Aldaba-Lim served as President of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. She also founded the Museo Pambata in Manila. In 1948 she set up the Institute of Human Relations at Philippine Women's University . Ms. Aldaba-Lim became was the first woman to become special ambassador to the United Nations, with the rank of assistant secretary general during the International Year of the Child in 1979. She received the UN Peace Medal Award from then Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.

source: wikipedia

Filipina