Josefa Llanes Escoda
Josefa Llanes Escoda | |
---|---|
Born | Josefa Llanes y Madamba September 20, 1898 |
Died | January 6, 1945 | (aged 46)
Resting place | Unmarked grave in either La Loma Cemetery or Manila Chinese Cemetery, Manila, Philippines |
Known for | Founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines Filipino World War II hero |
Spouse(s) | Antonio Escoda, Sr. |
Josefa Madamba Llanes Escoda (born Josefa Llanes y Madamba; September 20, 1898 – January 6, 1945) was a Filipino civic leader, social worker, World War II heroine, and suffragette. She is most known for campaigning for women's suffrage and as a founder[1] of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.
Together with José Abad Santos and Vicente Lim, she was memorialized on the Philippines' 1,000-Peso banknote depicting Filipinos who fought and died resisting the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War at the Far Eastern University in Manila.
Early life
[edit]This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2024) |
Escoda was born in Dingras, Ilocos Norte as Josefa Llanes y Madamba. She was the eldest of the seven children of Mercedes Madamba and Gabriel Llanes. Josefa's siblings were Florencio, Luisa, Elvira, Rosario, Purita, and Eufrocina. Josefa's nickname was Pepa as a child. She grew up as a Christian.
Escoda graduated as valedictorian in grade school and salutatorian in high school from Dingras Elementary School in Dingras, Ilocos Norte. She went to Philippine Normal School in Manila to earn her teaching degree and graduated with honors in 1919. While working as a teacher, she earned a high school teacher's certificate from the University of the Philippines in 1922.
After obtaining her teacher's certificate, she became a social worker for the Philippine Chapter of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross granted her a scholarship to the United States, where she earned a master's degree in Sociology from Columbia University in 1925. She also held a position in the National Federation of Women's Clubs (NFWC), serving as executive secretary in 1923,[2] and later serving as president from 1941 to 1944. While in the United States, Josefa joined a group of foreign students who supported an International House project in New York. During her free time in the International House, she accepted speaking engagements. It was also her practice to wear a Filipiniana dress during her lecture tours to promote foreigners' interest in the Philippines.
During her first trip to the United States, while she was at the Women's International League for Peace (1925), she met Antonio Escoda, a businessman from Gandara, Samar whom she later married. They had two children: Maria Teresa (who later became the President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines during the 1980s) and Antonio Jr.
Girl Scouts of the Philippines
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Mrs._Josefa_Llanes_Escoda_in_1941.jpg/259px-Mrs._Josefa_Llanes_Escoda_in_1941.jpg)
Escoda returned to the Philippines again in the 1940s after undergoing intensified training in Girl Scouting in the United States sponsored by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines. Afterward, she began to train young women to become girl scout leaders, then organized the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. On 26 May 1940,[3] President Manuel L. Quezon signed the charter of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. Josefa became the group's first National Executive.
World War II
[edit]During World War II, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines. By 1944, news of the underground activities of Escoda and her husband Antonio had spread. As the Japanese Army pushed deeper in the country, the couple had intensified their activities of supplying medicine, food, clothes and messages to both Filipino war prisoners and American internees in concentration camps.
Lt. José L. Llanes, Commander of Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, said he saw Escoda on 14 January 1944 in the presence of her husband, Antonio Escoda. Escoda left this final message to Lt. José L. Llanes:
"I have done my duty to my country and God! To my mind the most I have done is having helped with the little I could do to save the lives of the surrendered soldiers of Bataan and Corregidor. I have offered myself as a guarantor for men later released by the enemy, that they commit no anti-Japanese act, men who, if they had the guts left would continue their resistance. I have acted as guarantors not only for the sake of humanity, but also to encourage them to fight again. If you happen to survive, and I fail, tell our people that the women of the Philippines did their part also in making the ember sparks of truth and liberty alive till the last moment."[4]
Antonio was first arrested in June 1944, and Escoda was also arrested two months later on 27 August. She was imprisoned in Fort Santiago, the same prison as her husband, who was executed in 1944 along with General Vicente Lim, who was imprisoned with him. On 6 January 1945, Josefa Llanes Escoda was then taken and held in one of the buildings of Far Eastern University occupied by the Japanese. She was last seen alive on 6 January 1945, severely beaten and weak, and was transferred into a Japanese transport truck. It is presumed that she was executed and buried in an unmarked grave, either in the La Loma Cemetery or Manila Chinese Cemetery, which Japanese forces used as execution and burial grounds for thousands of Filipinos who resisted the Japanese occupation.[5]
Legacy
[edit]A street in Manila has been named after Josefa Llanes Escoda,[6] and monuments has been dedicated to her memory in Ermita, Manila, and her birthplace in Dingras, Ilocos Norte.[7] In 2007, a portion of the Apayao-Ilocos Norte Road was also renamed in her honor.[8] She is depicted on the current 1000-peso bill as one of three Filipinos martyred by the Japanese Armed Forces.
The Girl Scouts of the Philippines pay homage to Josefa Llanes Escoda every 20 September by celebrating her birth anniversary with activities that commemorate her contributions to youth development and her martyrdom.[9][10]
On 20 September 2018, a Google Doodle was created to commemorate her 120th birthday.[11][12][13]
In popular culture
[edit]- Portrayed by Timmy Cruz in 1997 TV series of ABS-CBN's Bayani, in episodes "Josefa Llanes Escoda".
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 542* - AN ACT TO CREATE A CORPORATION TO BE KNOWN AS THE GIRL SCOUTS OF THE PHILIPPINES, AND TO DEFINE ITS POWERS AND PURPOSES". Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
- ^ "Filipino Heritage Month: Social Worker Josefa Llanes Escoda | Rutgers School of Social Work". socialwork.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Girl Scout of the Philippines". Archived from the original on 25 November 2005. Retrieved 19 August 2005.
- ^ Josefa Llanes Escoda: Portrait of a Heroine, by Yolanda Canseco Hernandez. Copyright 1998 by Girl Scouts of the Philippines. Published by the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.
- ^ "ExecutedToday.com » 1945: Josefa Llanes Escoda". 6 January 2008. Archived from the original on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2008.
- ^ Manila City Ordinance No. 4619 (19 September 1962), An Ordinance Renaming California Street, From Taft Avenue Dart Street, as "Josefa Llanes Escoda Street" (PDF)
- ^ De la Torre, Visitacion R. (2006). The Ilocos heritage. Makati City, Philippines: Tower Book House. ISBN 978-971-91030-9-7.
- ^ Republic Act No. 9463 (15 May 2007), An Act Naming the San Nicolas—Solsona Portion of the Ilocos Norte—Apayao Road as the Josefa Llanes Escoda National Highway
- ^ Unite, Betheena (25 September 2020). "PH Girl Scouts celebrate 122nd birth anniversary of founder Josefa Llanes Escoda". Manila Bulletin. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ^ "Girl Scouts of the Philippines to honor founder". SunStar. 17 September 2012. Archived from the original on 31 August 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ^ Cabeco, Gaea Katreena (20 September 2018). "Google pays tribute to Josefa Llanes Escoda on her 120th birthday". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- ^ "Josefa Llanes Escoda's 120th birthday". Google. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- ^ Galvez, Daphne (20 September 2018). "LOOK: Google pays tribute to Josefa Llanes Escoda on her 120th birthday". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
External links
[edit]- 1898 births
- 1940s missing person cases
- 1945 deaths
- 20th-century Filipino educators
- Filipino women educators
- Scouting in the Philippines
- People from Ilocos Norte
- Filipino suffragists
- Enforced disappearances in the Philippines
- Executed Filipino women
- Ilocano people
- Burials at La Loma Cemetery
- Philippine Normal University alumni
- Filipino schoolteachers
- Civilians killed in World War II
- Missing person cases in the Philippines
- People executed by Japanese occupation forces
- University of the Philippines alumni
- People executed in the Philippines during World War II