Josefa Martinez on Stamps

Josefa Jara Martinez (b. January 21, 1894 - d. 1987) was among the Philippines most outstanding social workers and Filipina to find social work as her career. She was the program director of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), a well-known nonprofit institution in Nueva Ecija.

Born in Iloilo, Martinez was the daughter of Jose Jara and Emilia Gogil. She studied at Mandurriao, Iloilo City and became the school's brightest student. Later, she was sent to Philippine Normal School as a pensionada and graduated in 1912. She practiced her career and became a public school principal before she was sent to New York in 1919 as a government pensionada.

She took up a degree in social work with child and family welfare as her major. She married Rufino Martinez who was an engineer and naval architect by profession. The couple was gifted with three lovely children.

After her quest for knowledge for social development overseas, her record as a social worker was exemplary when she came back to the Philippines. She specialized in community organization and organized seminars in community leadership and rehabilitation of the handicapped.

The stamp above was issued on June 1,1994.

Sabino Padilla on Stamps

Sabino Padilla (1894-1986 was a legal luminary and Defender of the Judiciary. An associate justice of the Supreme Court and justice secretary under the Quirino administration, Sabino Padilla y Bibby was born in the district of San Miguel, Manila on August 21, 1894. He was the fourth son of the eleven children of Nicanor Padilla y Escobar, a physician, and Isabel Bibby y Peña, a former teacher.

Sabino’s father Dr. Padilla was one of the first eight graduates of the college of medicine of the University of Santo Tomas. He served as a colonel and chief of the medical corps of the revolutionary army under General Antonio Luna. After the Filipino-American War, he returned to Pangasinan, his home province, where he practiced his profession. Following the establishment of civil government under the Americans, he was elected representative of the first district of Pangasinan in the First Philippine Assembly, which was convened in 1907.

The stamp above was issued on June1, 1994.

Nicanor Reyes Sr. on Stamps

Nicanor Reyes Sr. (1894-1945) was the founder and first President of the Far Eastern University in downtown Manila. He envisioned a school that would promote the teaching of accounting to Filipinos, a profession formerly available only to foreigners. He wanted to prove that Filipinos were capable and trustworthy in handling the hundred of enterprises that would result with the coming of the independence of the country.

He earned an A.B. in 1915, a bachelor's degree in Commercial Science from New York University in 1917, and a M.A. in Business Administration from Columbia University the following year. He received his Ph.D. in Accountancy from Columbia - the first Filipino to do so, which was also the first degree of its kind to be awarded by Columbia. During the Pacific War, the Japanese killed Dr. Nicanor Reyes and some members of his family.

The stamp above was issued on June 1, 1994.

Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez on Stamps

Eulogio "Amang" Adona Rodriguez, Sr. (January 21, 1883–December 19, 1964) was a Filipino politician, the longest serving Senate President after Manuel L. Quezon, serving the post from April 30, 1952 to April 17, 1953 and May 20, 1953 to April 5, 1963.

Rodriguez was born in Montalban (renamed Rodriguez in his honor), Distrito de Morong on January 21, 1883 to Petronilo Rodriguez and Monica Adona. He first studied at the Spanish-run public school in Montalban, then took his secondary course at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1896. He then studied law under a private tutor.

Rodriguez first served as Municipal President of Montalban, Rizal from 1906–1916; became Governor of Rizal in June 1916; and was reelected in June 1922. He was appointed Mayor of Manila by Governor General Leonard Wood on July 23, 1923, and later served as Representative of Nueva Vizcaya District from February 1924 to May 1925. He became the Representative of the Second District of Rizal in 1925 and was reelected in 1931 and 1934.

He was also appointed Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce by Governor Frank Murphy on July 26, 1934, re-appointed by President Manuel Quezon on January 15, 1940, and served as such until August 28, 1941. After his resignation as Mayor of Manila, he campaigned for a seat in the Senate and was elected senator in 1941. On May 20, 1953, he was elected Senate President, a position he occupied for the next ten years.

“Amang” started his career in politics as a Democrata or a member of the opposition party, and not until there was a general realignment of parties due to the divisive struggle over the approval of the Independence Law in 1933, did he switch to the majority or the Nacionalista Party, to which he remained faithful until the day of his death three decades later. He nursed the party during its darkest hours, and steered it successfully through the political reefs and typhoons that rocked the local scene, thus earning for him the sobriquet “Mr. Nacionalista”. Unlike so many others, he did not switch parties for personal convenience.

As a legislator, he always supported measures improving the lot of common man, for he knew that the upgrading of the masses was the best way of retaining democracy in the country. Many were sometimes politically at odds with him, but they always found him to be a reasonable opponent who played clean in a game known for its mendacity and unpricipled moves. A man of integrity, who played fair even with his opponents, and who could be generous in victory, Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez was a man, a politician and a public official of sterling attributes.

He had seven children by his first wife, Juana Santiago, namely Eulogio, Jr., Jose, Ruperto, Leonor, Isidro, Constancio and Adelaida. With his second wife, Luisita Canoy, he had three children, namely, Baby, Linda and Rafael.

The stamp was issued on June 1, 1993.

Maria Ylagan-Orosa on Stamps

Maria Ylagan-Orosa (29 November 1893 – 13 February 1945) is a Filipino pioneer food technologist, pharmaceutical chemist, humanitarian and war heroine.

Orosa was born on 29 November 1893 in Taal, Batangas to Simplicio Orosa y Agoncillo and Juliana Ylagan. Her brothers and sisters were Simplicio Jr., Vicente, Sixto, Felisa, Jose, Nicolas, and Rafael. She went to elementary and high school in her province. In 1915, she took up a pharmacy course at the University of the Philippines. A year after, she left for the United States as a government scholar.

She enrolled at the University of Seattle as a partial government scholar and earned her degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1917; a bachelor's degree in Food Chemistry in 1918; a degree in Pharmacy in 1920; and a master's degree in Pharmacy in 1921. Orosa worked as an assistant to Dean Charles Johnson of Washington University in order to support her studies. Upon finishing her studies at the University of Seattle, she was appointed assistant chemist in the State of Washington.

In 1922, Orosa returned to the Philippines and worked as a teacher in Home Economics at the Centro Escolar University. After a year, she transferred to the Bureau of Science as a chemist and traveled throughout the country to promote public and private health through a nutrition program. In 1923, she helped organize the food preservation division under the Bureau of Science. Four years later, she became acting division head. In 1928, the government gave her a scholarship to various countries to specialize in food processing and canning. She returned to the Philippines in 1929 and was appointed head of the home economics division of the Bureau of Science.

On 1 January 1933, she became head of the food preservation division of the bureau. On 1 May 1933, Orosa served as head of the economics division of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce and established the Homemakers Association of the Philippines.

Orosa made many invaluable innovations and experiments in plant utilization, food preservation and canning. She developed the production of vinegar from pineapple. Her best-known invention, however, was the "magic food" Soyalac, a high-protein food derived from soybeans. Orosa is also credited with inventing recipes for banana ketchup, wines from native fruits, banana starch, soyamilk, banana flour, cassava flour, rice cookies from rice bran or darak to prevent beri-beri. Aside from the advances she made in food technology, Orosa also tried to improve household wares by inventing the “Orosa Palayok Oven” for cooking various dishes.

When World War II broke out, Orosa joined the Fil-American Irregular Troops under Brig. Gen. Agustin Marking and was designated captain. She fed and cared for allied prisoners in enemy concentration camps in Tarlac, Pampanga, Laguna, and at the campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. Her invention, Soyalac, was instrumental in saving thousands of prisoners who would have otherwise died from hunger. While the fight was ongoing between the Japanese and the American forces in Manila, Orosa was hit by shrapnel while at the Bureau of Plant Industry building, located in Malate, Manila and was taken to the Malate Remedios Hospital for treatment. While she was there, however, the hospital was bombed causing her death on 13 February 1945. She was buried in the yard of Malate Catholic School.

The stamp above was issued on June 1, 1993.

Pilar Hidalgo-Lim on Stamps

Pilar Hidalgo-Lim (1893 – 1973) was a Filipino educator and civic leader. She was married to Brig. General Vicente Lim, World War II hero.

Pilar Hidalgo-Lim graduated from the University of the Philippines, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude. She joined both the UP and Centro Escolar as a mathematics instructor. She married Lt. Vicente Lim, a West Point graduate, on August 12, 1917 They had six children: Luis, Roberto, Vicente Jr, Patricio, Eulalia, and Maria.

Hidalgo-Lim was active in civic affairs. She became President of the National Federation of Women's Clubs, and was an active supporter for women's suffarage, which President Manuel Quezon signed into law in 1937. In 1940, with Josefa Llanes-Escoda, Hidalgo-Lim helped found the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. She also worked as a line producer for Parlatone Hispano-Filipino Studios, a Manila movie production company. Hidalgo-Lim and her children were in the United States when World War II started.

Hidalgo-Lim and her family returned to the Philippines in 1946. Under President Elpidio Quirino Hidalgo-Lim was a member of the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures, the Parole Board, and the Integrity Board. She continued to serve in the first two agencies during the terms of Presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Carlos P. Garcia.

She became the Centro Escolar University's third president after the death of Carmen de Luna. She steered the university during the reconstruction and normalization of school operations after World War II.

The stamp above was issued on June 1, 1993.

Wenceslao Vinzons on Stamps

Wenceslao Quinito Vinzons (September 28, 1910 — July 15, 1942) was a Filipino politician and a leader of the armed resistance against the Japanese occupying forces during World War II. Among the first Filipinos to organize the guerrilla resistance after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941, he was executed by the Japanese Army.

Vinzons was one of the young and brilliant delegates to the constitutional convention under President Manuel L. Quezon. Although not a Tagalog himself, he supported Quezon's proposal to develop and national language based on Tagalog. The non-Tagalog delegates protested the proposal but Vinzons drafted the present text of the section on national language, making it more acceptable to the other delegates. This led to the adoption of the proposal.

The stamp above was issued on September 9, 1987.

Rajah Soliman on Stamps

Rajah Sulaiman III was the Rajah (King) of Maynila, a Kapampangan and Tagalog kingdom on the region of the Pasig River in Manila. Along with Rajah Sulaiman II and Rajah Lakan Dula, he was one of three Rajahs who fought the Spaniards during the colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century.

Spanish documents say his people called him "Rajah Mura" or "Rajah Muda" (a Sanskrit title for a Prince). The Spanish transcription of "Rajah Mura" is Young Rajah, a reference to the fact that he was Rajah Sulaiman II's nephew and heir to the throne. The Spaniards called him "Rajah Solimano el Mow".

After making peace with the Spaniards in 1571, Rajah Sulaiman III led a revolt against them in 1574, which Philippine historians refer to as the first battle of Manila Bay, but is also known as the Sulaiman revolt.

The stamp was issued on November 30, 1962.

Toribio Teodoro on Stamps

A wage earner-turned-millionaire, Toribio Teodoro (1887 – 1965) was an inspiring example of Filipino initiative and enterprise. He is a pioneer Filipino entrepreneur and industrialist.

The son of poor parents from Tondo named Julian Teodoro and Apolinaria del Mundo, he was born in barrio Matang Tubig (now Grace Park), in Caloocan, Rizal on April 27, 1887. Barely 12-years-old but eager to help his parents eke out a living, he began working in El Oriente, a cigar factory, earning a weekly salary of 80 centavos.

Full of ambition, industrious, and determined to improve hi lot in life, he gave up his initial job to start a business enterprise with his friend, Juan Katindig. On November 14, 1910, they opened a small shop at 821 Calle Cervantes (now Rizal Avenue) that sold shoes and slippers bearing “Ang Tibay” brand. The business was capitalized at only P210, of which P30 was put up by Katindig.

The two friends’ profitable partnership ended in 1921, when Katindig decided to venture into a new business. With his share of P43, 000 from their earnings, Toribio established his own “Ang Tibay Footwear". In 1958, the National Teachers College bestowed on him a doctor of business management degree, honoris causa, in recognition of his unique achievement in the field of business.

In 1961, he received the Legion of Honor award. Teodoro was only 16 years old when he married his first wife, Florentina Alcantara. He became a widower then later remarried. His second wife, Marta J. de Teodoro, gave him six children, namely, Toribia, Cecilia, Caridad, Prudencio, Francisco and Josefina. He died on August 30, 1965, in Frankfurt, Germany, while on a trip around the world.

The stamp above was issued on April 27, 1988.

Pedro Paterno on Stamps

Pedro Alejandro Paterno (February 27, 1858 - March 11, 1911) was a Filipino statesman as well as a poet, composer,novelist, historian and negotiator.

His intervention on behalf of the Spanish led to the signing of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato on December 14, 1897, an account of which he published in 1910. Among his other works include the very first novel written by a native Filipino, Ninay (1885), and the first Filipino collection of poems in Spanish, Sampaguitas y poesias (Jasmines and Poems), published in Madrid in 1880.

Paterno had the luxury of in private schools in the Philippines and abroad. He studied law at the Central University in Madrid.

The stamp above was issued on October 25, 1975.

Carlos P. Romulo on Stamps

Carlos Peña Rómulo (14 January 1899, Camiling, Tarlac, Philippines – 15 December 1985, Manila, Philippines) was a Filipino diplomat, politician, soldier, journalist and author. He was a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He is the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines. He was secretary of Foreign Affairs under President Elpidio Wuirino and was later posted as Ambassador to the United Nations and was the first Adian President of the UN General Assembly (1949-1950).

At the third UN General Assembly, held in Paris in 1948, the USSR’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Vishinsky, sneered at Rómulo and challenged his credentials: “You are just a little man from a little country.” “It is the duty of the little Davids of this world,” cried Rómulo, “to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!”

During his meeting with Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Marshal Tito welcomed Gen. Romulo with drinks and cigars, to which the general kindly refused. Their conversation went as follows: Tito: "Do you drink?" Romulo: "No, I don't." Tito: "Do you smoke?" Romulo: "No, thank you." Tito: "What do you do then?" Romulo: "I etcetera." At this, Marshal Tito was tickled by his reply and loudly exclaimed around the room, "I etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"

When the UN official seal, which depicts the world, was being selected, Romy looked it over and demanded, “where is the Philippines?” “It’s too small to include,” explained US Senator Warren Austin, who headed the committee. “If we put in the Philippines it would be no more than a dot.” “I want that dot!” Romy insisted. Today, if you look at the UN seal, you will find a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

Rómulo was a dapper little man (barely five feet four inches in shoes). When they waded in at Leyte beach in October 1944, and the word went out that General MacArthur was waist deep, one of Romy’s journalist friends cabled, “If MacArthur was in water waist deep, Rómulo must have drowned!”

In later years, Rómulo told another story himself about a meeting with MacArthur and other tall American generals who disparaged his physical stature. "Gentlemen," he declared, "When you say something like that, you make me feel like a dime among nickels." (Anecdotes from Beth Rómulo through Reader's Digest)

The stamp above was issued on January 14, 1979.

Miguel Malvar on Stamps

Miguel Malvar y Carpio (September 27, 1865 - October 13, 1911) was a Filipino commander who served during the Philippine Revolution and subsequently during the Philippine–American War. He assumed command of the Philippine revolutionary forces during the latter conflict following the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo in 1901.

In 1982, Malvar joined the revolution with his father. He was given command with the rebel forces in Batangas, Laguna and Tayabas as Brigadier General. One of the most courageous military officer of the Philippine-American War, Malvar is remembered as the last general to surrender to the Americans.

The stamp above was issued on July 10, 1972.