Melchora Aquino de Ramos (6 January 1812 – 19 February 1919) was

a Filipina revolutionary who became known as "Tandang Sora" ("Elder

Sora") because of her age during the Philippine Revolution.
She was known as the "Grand Woman of the Revolution" and the
"Mother of Balintawak" for her contributions.
Early life and marriage

Aquino was born on 6 January 1812 in Balintawak, Quezon City.

Aquino, daughter of a peasant couple, Juan and Valentina Aquino, never attended school.
However, she was apparently literate at an early age and talented as a singer and performed at
local events as well as at Mass for her Church. She was also often chosen for the role of Reyna
Elena during the "Santacruzan", a processional pageant commemorating Empress
Helen's finding of the Cross of Christ, celebrated in the Philippines in May.
Later in life, she married Fulgencio Ramos, a cabeza de barrio (village chief), and bore six
children. Ramos died when their youngest child was seven and she was left as a single parent for
their children. Aquino continued her life as an hermana mayor active in celebrating fiestas,
baptisms, and weddings. She worked hard in order to give her children an education.
Involvement in the revolution
In her native town, Tandang Sora operated a store, which became a refuge for the sick and
wounded revolutionaries. She fed, gave medical attention to and encouraged the revolutionaries
with motherly advice and prayers.
Secret meetings of the Katipuneros (revolutionaries) were also held at her house. Thus she
earned the names "Woman of Revolution", "Mother of Balintawak", "Mother of the Philippine
Revolution", and Tandang Sora (Tandang is derived from the Tagalog word matandâ, which
means old). She and her son, Juan Ramon, were present in the Cry of Balintawak and were
witnesses to the tearing up of the cedulas.
When the Spaniards learned about her activities and her knowledge to the whereabouts of the
Katipuneros, she was interrogated but she refused to divulge any information. She was then
arrested by the guardia civil and was deported to Guam, Marianas Islands, where she and a
woman named Segunda Puentes were placed under house arrest in the residence of a Don Justo
Dungca.

After the United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, Tandang Sora, like other exiles,
returned to the Philippines until her death on 19 February 1919, at the age of 107. Her remains
were then transferred to her own backyard (now known as Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park,
Quezon City).

Legacy

As a token of gratitude, a Quezon City district and a road were named after Aquino. Her profile
was also placed in the Philippines' five-centavo coin from 1967-92.
She was the first Filipina who appears on a Philippine peso banknote, in this case, a 100-peso bill
from the English Series (1951–66). Tandang Sora Street in the city of San Francisco, California,
United States, is named in her honor.

In 2012, on the celebration of her 200th birthday, the City Government of Quezon City decided
to transfer Aquino's remains from Himlayang Pilipino Memorial Park to the Tandang Sora
National Shrine in Banlat, Quezon City. The city government also declared 2012 to be Tandang
Sora Year.

Her descendants carry different surnames, with almost all living in Novaliches and Tandang Sora
districts in Quezon City as well as in Guam (USA) such as Figueroa, Ramos (her husband’s
surname), Geronimo, Eugenio, Cleofas and Apo.

Josefa Llanes Escoda

Born in Dingras, Ilocos Norte on September 20, 1898, Josefa Llanes was an academic
achiever, having received honors in high school in her hometown and college at what is
now Philippine Normal University, where she graduated with an education degree in
1919. She afterwards became a social worker for the Philippine Chapter of the
American Red Cross, which in turn granted her a scholarship for further studies. Thus
she took up and finished a master’s degree in Sociology at Columbia University in 1925.
It was around this period when she got married to a journalist of the Philippine Press
Bureau named Antonio Escoda, with whom she would have two children.

In the Philippines, she became a prominent voice in advocating women’s rights in the
country. She pushed for women’s suffrage and for women to have a greater role in
government. She was keen on promoting the Philippines too. While in America, she
was wearing the Philippine apparel of the baro’t saya to arouse foreign interest in the
country.

As an educator and social worker, she sought ways to promote the welfare of the
Filipino people, especially the women. So when she learned about the Girl Scout
movement which was growing around the time, she was determined to bring the
movement over to the country.

Now girl scouts in the country was not a novel idea. In fact, there were girl scouts in the
country, organized by American servicemen as far back as 1918. However, these girl
scouts were part of the Girl Scouts of America as the country did not have a scout
organization of its own, being a US colony and all.

What made Josefa attracted to the Girl Scout movement is something that can only be
based on conjecture; she may have been impressed with the idea of teaching women
at a young age how to serve their community and the country in general. It must also
be noted that around the time she was considering the idea of girl scouts in the
Philippines, the threat of war went from imminent to real and there was a greater need
than ever to be prepared for what was to come, the training for which scouting can
provide.

Josefa Llanes Escoda returned to America in 1939 precisely to learn and be trained in
the scouting movement. The Boy Scouts of the Philippines, which was already
established 3 years prior, provided her support during the training. Upon her return,
she wasted little time in setting up what would become the Girl Scouts of the
Philippines with the help of fellow civic leader and women’s advocate Pilar Hidalgo-Lim,
and other civic groups.

Josefa Llanes Escoda holding the logo of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (image
courtesy of Artikulo ATBP)

The Girl Scouts of the Philippines would be officially established with the enactment of
Commonwealth Act No. 542 on May 26, 1940. However, it was forced to temporarily
cease operations by 1942 when the Japanese invaded the country in the midst of World
War II. Regardless, Josefa and her husband Antonio continued to serve the country. She
organized a group of volunteers who braved the dangers of occupation to do various
works such as ferrying messages between war prisoners and their families, recording
the names of those imprisoned in Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac, provide essential
items to students stranded in Manila during that period as well as, covertly, to those
imprisoned in camps, and organize community kitchens across the city.

Suffice to say, the Japanese officials got word of Josefa’s activities and were none too
pleased. They had her husband Antonio arrested in June 1944, and she herself would
be arrested two months later. Antonio would be executed by the Japanese at Fort
Santiago where the couple were imprisoned, though no records remained regarding
the details of his execution such as the exact date.

Josefa Llanes Escoda would last be seen alive on January 6, 1945 as she was taken by
the Japanese inside Far Eastern University looking very weak and beaten. It is thought
that she was executed in the campus, then eventually buried in an unmarked grave in
either La Loma Cemetery or the Manila Chinese Cemetery, both areas known to be
where the Japanese forces bury those they have executed during the war for resisting
their rule.

Despite the death of Josefa Llanes Escoda, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines carried on
and resumed after the war. In 1946, it was accepted as a “tenderfoot member”
(equivalent of being a junior member) of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl
Scouts (WAGGGS). It would eventually rise to become a full member 2 years later.

For her invaluable contributions as a civic leader, women’s rights advocate, and mother
of the Philippine girl scouts, Josefa Llanes Escoda has been honored in various ways,
from being immortalized in Philippine currency to at least 2 streets in the City of Manila
named after her. But perhaps the most special is the aforementioned monument
dedicated to her memory.

Apart from the monument, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines National Headquarters is
a testament to the growth of the organization into what it is today. Consisting of three
buildings, the complex actually has a number of facilities available for use such as an
auditorium, training facilities, a social hall dedicated to Josefa Llanes Escoda, and a
dormitory available even for non- Girl Scouts.