RAMON MAGSAYSAY

(born Aug. 31, 1907, Iba, Phil.—died March 17, 1957, near Cebu), president of the Philippines (1953–57),
best known for successfully defeating the communist-led Hukbalahap (Huk) movement.
The son of an artisan, Magsaysay was a schoolteacher in the provincial town of Iba on the island of Luzon.
Though most Philippine political leaders were of Spanish descent, Magsaysay was of Malay stock, like most
of the common people. Working his way through José Rizal College near Manila, he obtained a commercial
degree in 1933 and became general manager of a Manila transportation company. After serving as a guerrilla
leader on Luzon during World War II, he was appointed military governor of his home province, Zambales,
when the United States recaptured the Philippines. He served two terms (1946–50) as a Liberal Party
congressman for Zambales, his first experience in politics.
President Elpidio Quirino appointed Magsaysay secretary of defense to deal with the threat of the Huks,
whose leader, Luis Taruc, in February 1950 established a People’s Liberation Army and called for the
overthrow of the government. Magsaysay then carried out until 1953 one of the most successful antiguerrilla
campaigns in modern history. Realizing that the Huks could not survive without popular support, he strove to
win the trust of the peasants by offering land and tools to those who came over to the government side and
by insisting that army units treat the people with respect. Reforming the army, he dismissed corrupt and
incompetent officers and emphasized mobility and flexibility in combat operations against the guerrillas. By
1953 the Huks were no longer a serious threat, but Magsaysay’s radical measures had made many enemies
for him within the government, compelling him to resign on February 28, when he charged the Quirino
administration with corruption and incompetence.
Although Magsaysay was a Liberal, the Nacionalista Party successfully backed him for the presidency against
Quirino in the 1953 elections, winning the support of Carlos P. Romulo, who had organized a third party.
Magsaysay promised reform in every segment of Philippine life, but he was frustrated in his efforts by a
conservative congress that represented the interests of the wealthy. Despite initial support of Congress in
July 1955, Magsaysay was unable to pass effective land-reform legislation; government indifference to the
plight of the peasants then undid most of his good work in gaining the support of the people against the Huks.
Nevertheless, he remained extremely popular and had a well-deserved reputation for incorruptibility.
In foreign policy, Magsaysay remained a close friend and supporter of the United States and a vocal
spokesman against communism during the Cold War. He made the Philippines a member of the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization, which was established in Manila on Sept. 8, 1954. Before the expiration of his term
as president, Magsaysay was killed in an airplane crash; he was succeeded by the vice president, Carlos P.
Garcia.
 SUKARNO
, also spelled Soekarno, (born June 6, 1901, Surabaja [now Surabaya], Java, Dutch East Indies—died June
21, 1970, Jakarta, Indonesia), leader of the Indonesian independence movement
and Indonesia’s first president (1949–66), who suppressed the country’s original parliamentary system in
favour of an authoritarian “Guided Democracy” and who attempted to balance the Communists against the
army leaders. He was deposed in 1966 by the army under Suharto.

Indonesian Independence
For his challenge to colonialism Sukarno spent two years in a Dutch jail (1929–31) in Bandung and more
than eight years in exile (1933–42) on Flores and Sumatra. When the Japanese invaded the Indies in March
1942, he welcomed them as personal and national liberators. During World War II the Japanese made
Sukarno their chief adviser and propagandist and their recruiter for labourers, soldiers, and prostitutes.
Sukarno pressured the Japanese to grant Indonesia its independence and, on June 1, 1945, made the most
famous of many celebrated speeches. In it he defined the Pantjasila (Pancasila), or Five Principles
(nationalism, internationalism, democracy, social prosperity, and belief in God), still the sacrosanct state
doctrine. When the collapse of Japan became imminent, Sukarno at first wavered. Then, after being
kidnapped, intimidated, and persuaded by activist youths, he declared Indonesia’s independence (August
17, 1945). As president of the shaky new republic, he fueled a successful defiance of the Dutch, who, after
two abortive “police actions” to regain control, formally transferred sovereignty on December 27, 1949.
On January 20, 1965, Indonesia formally withdrew from the United Nations because the latter supported
Malaysia, which Sukarno had vowed to “crush” as “an imperialist plot of encirclement.” Yet, until 1965,
Sukarno was still able to stir the Indonesian masses to near-hysterical belligerency. Millions of Indonesians
sang and shouted his slogans and acclaimed Sukarno as “Great Leader of the Revolution,” “Lifetime
President” (his official title), and oracle and warrior of the Nefo—his acronym for the “New Emerging
Forces”—in violent conflict with Nekolim—the neocolonialism, capitalism, and imperialism of the “doomed”
Western powers.
 MAHATMA GANDHI
byname of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, (born October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India—died January 30, 1948, Delhi),
Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the
British rule of India. As such, he came to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed
for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress.
In the eyes of millions of his fellow Indians, Gandhi was the Mahatma (“Great Soul”). The unthinking adoration of the
huge crowds that gathered to see him all along the route of his tours made them a severe ordeal; he could hardly work
during the day or rest at night. “The woes of the Mahatmas,” he wrote, “are known only to the Mahatmas.” His fame
spread worldwide during his lifetime and only increased after his death. The name Mahatma Gandhi is now one of the
most universally recognized on earth.
He had learned, in his words, “to carry out the orders of the elders, not to scan them.” With such extreme passivity, it
is not surprising that he should have gone through a phase of adolescent rebellion, marked by secret atheism, petty
thefts, furtive smoking, and—most shocking of all for a boy born in a Vaishnava family—meat eating. His adolescence
was probably no stormier than that of most children of his age and class. What was extraordinary was the way his
youthful transgressions ended.
“Never again” was his promise to himself after each escapade. And he kept his promise. Beneath an unprepossessing
exterior, he concealed a burning passion for self-improvement that led him to take even the heroes of Hindu mythology,
such as Prahlada and Harishcandra—legendary embodiments of truthfulness and sacrifice—as living models.
In 1887 Mohandas scraped through the matriculation examination of the University of Bombay (now University of
Mumbai) and joined Samaldas College in Bhavnagar (Bhaunagar). As he had to suddenly switch from his native
language—Gujarati—to English, he found it rather difficult to follow the lectures.
Meanwhile, his family was debating his future. Left to himself, he would have liked to have been a doctor. But, besides
the Vaishnava prejudice against vivisection, it was clear that, if he was to keep up the family tradition of holding high
office in one of the states in Gujarat, he would have to qualify as a barrister. That meant a visit to England, and
Mohandas, who was not too happy at Samaldas College, jumped at the proposal. His youthful imagination conceived
England as “a land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of civilization.” But there were several hurdles to be
crossed before the visit to England could be realized. His father had left the family little property; moreover, his mother
was reluctant to expose her youngest child to unknown temptations and dangers in a distant land. But Mohandas was
determined to visit England. One of his brothers raised the necessary money, and his mother’s doubts were allayed
when he took a vow that, while away from home, he would not touch wine, women, or meat. Mohandas disregarded
the last obstacle—the decree of the leaders of the Modh Bania subcaste (Vaishya caste), to which the Gandhis
belonged, who forbade his trip to England as a violation of the Hindu religion—and sailed in September 1888. Ten days
after his arrival, he joined the Inner Temple, one of the four London law colleges (The Temple).
 FERDINAND MARCOS
in full Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, (born September 11, 1917, Sarrat, Philippines—died September 28, 1989,
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.), Philippine lawyer and politician who, as head of state from 1966 to 1986, established
an authoritarian regime in the Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for its suppression of
democratic processes.
Marcos attended school in Manila and studied law in the late 1930s at the University of the Philippines, near
that city. Tried for the assassination in 1933 of a political opponent of his politician father, Marcos was found
guilty in November 1939. But he argued his case on appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court and won acquittal
a year later. He became a trial lawyer in Manila. During World War II he was an officer with the Philippine
armed forces. Marcos’s later claims of having been a leader in the Filipino guerrilla resistance movement
were a central factor in his political success, but U.S. government archives revealed that he actually played
little or no part in anti-Japanese activities during 1942–45.
From 1946 to 1947 Marcos was a technical assistant to Manuel Roxas, the first president of the independent
Philippine republic. He was a member of the House of Representatives (1949–59) and of the Senate (1959–
65), serving as Senate president (1963–65). In 1965 Marcos, who was a prominent member of the Liberal
Party founded by Roxas, broke with it after failing to get his party’s nomination for president. He then ran as
the Nationalist Party candidate for president against the Liberal president, Diosdado Macapagal. The
campaign was expensive and bitter. Marcos won and was inaugurated as president on December 30, 1965.
In 1969 he was reelected, becoming the first Philippine president to serve a second term. During his first term
he had made progress in agriculture, industry, and education. Yet his administration was troubled by
increasing student demonstrations and violent urban guerrilla activities.
On September 21, 1972, Marcos imposed martial law on the Philippines. Holding that communist and
subversive forces had precipitated the crisis, he acted swiftly; opposition politicians were jailed, and the
armed forces became an arm of the regime. Opposed by political leaders—notably Benigno Aquino, Jr., who
was jailed and held in detention for almost eight years—Marcos was also criticized by church leaders and
others. In the provinces Maoist communists (New People’s Army) and Muslim separatists (notably of the
Moro National Liberation Front) undertook guerrilla activities intended to bring down the central government.
Under martial law the president assumed extraordinary powers, including the ability to suspend the writ of
habeas corpus. Marcos announced the end of martial law in January 1981, but he continued to rule in an
authoritarian fashion under various constitutional formats. He won election to the newly created post of
president against token opposition in June 1981.
 SUN YAT-SEN
Chinese (Pinyin) Sun Yixian or (Wade-Giles romanization) Sun I-hsien, original name Sun Wen, courtesy
name (zi) Deming, literary name (hao) Rixin, later Yixian, also called Sun Zhongshan, (born Nov. 12, 1866,
Xiangshan [now Zhongshan], Guangdong province, China—died March 12, 1925, Beijing), leader of the
Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang [Pinyin: Guomindang]), known as the father of modern China.
Influential in overthrowing the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1911/12), he served as the first provisional president
of the Republic of China (1911–12) and later as de facto ruler (1923–25).
Early Life And Influences
Sun was born to a family of poor farmers in Xiangshan, in the South China province of Guangdong. In 1879
his brother Sun Mei, who had earlier emigrated to Hawaii as a labourer, brought him to Honolulu, where, as
a student at a British missionary school for three years and at an American school, Oahu College, for another
year, he first came into contact with Western influences. Because his brother objected to his penchant for
Christianity, Sun returned to his native village in 1883 and went to study at the Diocesan Home in Hong Kong
in the fall; late that year, he was baptized by an American missionary.
In 1884 he transferred to the Government Central School (later known as Queen’s College) and married Lu
Muzhen (1867–1952), who was chosen for him by his parents. Out of this marriage a son and two daughters
were born. After another trip to Hawaii, he enrolled in the Guangzhou (Canton) Hospital Medical School in
1886. He transferred later to the College of Medicine for Chinese in Hong Kong and graduated in 1892.
Although not trained for a political career in the traditional style, Sun was nevertheless ambitious and was
troubled by the way China, which had clung to its traditional ways under the conservative Qing dynasty,
suffered humiliation at the hands of more technologically advanced nations. Forsaking his medical practice
in Guangzhou, he went north in 1894 to seek political fortunes. In a long letter to Li Hongzhang, governor-
general of Zhili (Chihli, now Hebei) province, he set forth his ideas of how China could gain strength, but all
he received from Li was a perfunctory endorsement of his scheme for an agricultural-sericultural association.
With this scant reference, Sun went to Hawaii in October 1894 and founded an organization called the Revive
China Society (Xingzhonghui), which became the forerunner of the secret revolutionary groups Sun later
headed. As far as it can be determined, the membership was drawn entirely from natives of Guangdong and
from lower social classes, such as clerks, peasants, and artisans.
 APOLINARIO MABINI
(born July 23, 1864, Talaga, Phil.—died May 13, 1903, Manila), Filipino theoretician and

spokesman of the Philippine Revolution, who wrote the constitution for the short-lived republic

of 1898–99.

Born into a peasant family, Mabini studied at San Juan de Letran College in Manila and won

a law degree from the University of Santo Tomás in 1894. In an insurrection organized in

August 1896 by nationalists, he joined the forces of the patriot general Emilio Aguinaldo and

soon became his right-hand man. When the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898,

Mabini urged cooperation with the United States as a means to gain freedom from Spain. At

a convention held at the market town of Malolos in September and October 1898, an

independent republic was proclaimed with Aguinaldo as its president; Mabini drew up its

constitution, which resembled that of the United States. When the United States announced,

however, that it would annex the Philippines, Mabini joined Aguinaldo in a renewed struggle

for independence. He was captured by U.S. troops in December 1899 and, because he

refused to swear allegiance to the United States, was exiled to Guam, not being allowed to

return home until a few months before his death. Mabini wrote La revolución filipina, which

was published in 1931.

 MONGKUT
also called Phrachomklao, posthumous name Rama IV, (born Oct. 18, 1804, Bangkok—died Oct. 15, 1868,
Bangkok), king of Siam (1851–68) who opened his country to Western influence and initiated reforms and
modern development.
Mongkut was the 43rd child of King Rama II, but as the first son to be born of a queen he was favoured to
succeed to the throne. When his father died in 1824, however, Mongkut was barely 20, and the royal
accession council instead chose his older and more experienced half brother to reign as King Phranangklao
(Rama III). To hold aloof from politics, Mongkut chose to become a Buddhist monk. A few years later he
encountered a particularly pious monk who inspired Mongkut to turn to the strict discipline and teachings of
early Buddhism. He became an accomplished scholar and abbot of a Bangkok monastery, which he made a
centre of intellectual discourse that gradually came to involve American and French Christian missionaries
and the study of Western languages and science. Mongkut also was able to travel in the countryside as no
previous Thai king had done. The reformed Buddhism that Mongkut developed gradually grew into the
Thammayut order, which to the present day is at the intellectual centre of Thai Buddhism. Mongkut’s friends
in the 1840s included many leading princes and nobles who similarly were excited by the West. Convinced
of the necessity of accommodation with the West, they took the lead in managing the succession of Mongkut
to the throne when King Rama III died in 1851. The leader of that group, Somdet Chao Phraya Si Suriyawong,
became Mongkut’s effective prime minister, and together the two successfully concluded treaties with Great
Britain, the United States, and other powers beginning in 1855 that fully opened Siam to Western commerce.
Thai concessions staved off Western imperial pressure for another generation and brought rapid economic
development, but Siam had to concede extraterritoriality and limits on her taxing and tariff policies. To win
recognition as an equal among the world’s rulers, Mongkut corresponded with them, even offering to send
elephants to U.S. Pres. James Buchanan to assist in the development of the United States. His shrewd
foreign policy balanced Britain and France against each other to ensure Siam’s survival. His tolerance and
open-mindedness proved far more effective in dealing with Western imperialists than the xenophobia and
isolationism of some of his neighbouring rulers. For a time the royal household employed an English
governess, Anna Leonowens (q.v.), whose published reminiscences made Mongkut the model for the king
in a 20th-century musical comedy, The King and I.
In his own reign Mongkut was unable to achieve fundamental internal reforms, but he took pains to ensure
the liberal education of his sons, who in the next generation would begin the modernization of Siam.
 TOKUGAWA IEYASU
Original name Matsudaira Takechiyo, also called Matsudaira Motoyasu, (born Jan. 31, 1543, Okazaki,
Japan—died June 1, 1616, Sumpu), the founder of the last shogunate in Japan—the Tokugawa, or Edo,
shogunate (1603–1867).

Early Life

Ieyasu was born into the family of a local warrior situated several miles east of modern Nagoya, one of many
such families struggling to survive in a brutal age of endemic civil strife. His childhood was scarcely
auspicious. His father, Matsudaira Hirotada, was involved in a network of shifting alliances that repeatedly
drew him into battle. When Ieyasu was two years old, his mother was permanently separated from his father’s
family because of one such change in alliances, and in 1547 military adversity compelled his father to send
him away as hostage to the Imagawa family, powerful neighbours headquartered at Sumpu (now the city of
Shizuoka) to the east. However, members of the rival Oda clan to the west waylaid his entourage, and he
was held for two years before being released to the Imagawa.

Leadership Of The Tokugawa

In 1560 Imagawa Yoshimoto was slain during a battle with Oda Nobunaga, who was rapidly gaining power,
and young Ieyasu seized the opportunity to return to his family’s small castle and assume control of his
surviving relatives and vassals. Within months he took steps to ally himself with Nobunaga, at the same time
pacifying the new and inept leader of the Imagawa house long enough to recall his wife and son from Sumpu.
Freed for a few years from warring with neighbours, he directed his military efforts to crushing rebellious
Buddhist sectarian groups within the Matsudaira (after 1566, Tokugawa) domain. Concurrently, he devoted
much energy to improving his small army’s command structure, appointing civil administrators, and
formulating and enforcing procedures of taxation, law enforcement, and litigation.

During the later 1560s the Imagawa domain disintegrated, and Ieyasu expanded to the east as opportunity
permitted. In 1570 this expansion led him to move his headquarters eastward to Hamamatsu, a small coastal
town that he developed into the commercial and strategic centre of a thriving domain. Relying heavily on his
alliance with the now-mighty Nobunaga, Ieyasu survived the vicissitudes of endemic war and slowly extended
his territory until, by the early 1580s, he had become an important daimyo (feudal baron), in control of the
fertile and populous area stretching from Okazaki eastward to the mountain barrier at Hakone.
 HO CHI MINH
Original name Nguyen Sinh Cung, also called Nguyen Tat Thanh or Nguyen Ai Quoc, (born May 19, 1890,
Hoang Tru, Vietnam, French Indochina—died September 2, 1969, Hanoi, North Vietnam), founder of the
Indochina Communist Party (1930) and its successor, the Viet-Minh (1941), and president from 1945 to 1969
of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). As the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist
movement for nearly three decades, Ho was one of the prime movers of the post-World War II anticolonial
movement in Asia and one of the most influential communist leaders of the 20th century.
World War II And The Founding Of The Vietnamese State
In 1938 Ho returned to China and stayed for a few months with Mao Zedong at Yen-an. When France was
defeated by Germany in 1940, Ho and his lieutenants, Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Van Dong, plotted to use
this turn of events to advance their own cause. About this time he began to use the name Ho Chi Minh (“He
Who Enlightens”). Crossing over the border into Vietnam in January 1941, the trio and five comrades
organized in May the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Independence of Vietnam), or Viet
Minh; this gave renewed emphasis to a peculiarly Vietnamese nationalism.
The new organization was forced to seek help in China from the government of Chiang Kai-shek. But Chiang
distrusted Ho as a Communist and had him arrested. Ho was then imprisoned in China for 18 months, during
which time he wrote his famed Notebook from Prison (a collection of short poems written in classic Chinese,
a mixture of melancholy, stoicism, and a call for revolution). His friends obtained his release by an
arrangement with Chiang Fa-k’uei, a warlord in South China, agreeing in return to support Chiang’s interests
in Indochina against the French.
Ho Chi Minh’s Importance
Among 20th-century revolutionaries, Ho waged the longest and most costly battle against the colonial system
of the great powers. One of its effects was to cause a grave crisis in the national life of the mightiest of
capitalist countries, the United States. As a Marxist, Ho stands with the Yugoslav leader Tito as one of the
progenitors of the “national communism” that developed in the 1960s and (at least partially) with communist
China’s Mao Zedong in emphasizing the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary struggle.
Most of Ho Chi Minh’s writings are collected in the two-volume Selected Works, published in Hanoi in 1960,
in the series of Foreign Language Editions.
 MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO
She was chosen as laureate of the Magsaysay Award for Government Service, known as the Asian equivalent
of the Nobel Prize. She was cited “for bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency.”
She was named one of “The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World” by The Australian magazine.

Unquestioned Honesty

It was Senator Santiago who in effect started the national plunder investigation (which is now a historic scandal). In
December 2012 she revealed that the senate president had used Senate funds to give away cash gifts. Every
senator received P2 million as a Christmas gift, taken from public funds, except Senator Santiago and two others.
That scandal led to the notorious pork barrel scandal, for which the senate president is now suspended and in jail,
having been charged with plunder by the Ombudsman.

COA records show that her “pork barrel,” also known as PDAF, was never marred by any kickback, unlike those of
her colleagues in Congress. In three separate cases, the Supreme Court had upheld the pork barrel system as
constitutional. Sen. Santiago gave her PDAF to: the University of the Philippines system; Philippine General Hospital;
and local government units. She never released her pork barrel to any NGO, particularly those headed by those
guilty of plunder, which means wholesale stealing of public money by accepting kickbacks, or simply pocketing the
entire money.

After the impeachment of the Chief Justice in 2012, it was later revealed that Miriam was one of only three senators
who refused to receive the DAP, amounting to ₱50 million for every senator and ₱10 million for every congressman.
It was also later revealed that three senators even received ₱100 million each, after the impeachment.

When she was a student in U.P. law school, one magazine dubbed her “Supergirl at the State University.” She is
probably the public official whose face has graced the highest number of magazine covers. She has been featured by
famous international publications, including Time, the New York Times, and the Herald-Tribune.

In 1992, the foreign press reported that she had been elected as President of the Philippines after a nationwide
election. However, she was cheated. As the Filipinos say: “Miriam won in the voting, but lost in the counting.”

She is a renowned celebrity. Like a rock star, she attracts crowds everywhere. She is the most sought-after guest
speaker of university students. Sen. Santiago is a woman of destiny. She will be remembered in Philippine history as
a genuine hero of her people.

She has been called the incorruptible lady, the platinum lady, the tiger lady, the dragon lady, the iron lady of Asia, the
queen of popularity polls, and the undisputed campus hero. But to her millions of fans, she is best known for the
unique brand of charismatic leadership that media likes to call “Miriam Magic.”
 AUNG SAN SUU KYI
also called Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, (born June 19, 1945, Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar]),
politician and opposition leader of Myanmar, daughter of Aung San (a martyred national hero of
independent Burma) and Khin Kyi (a prominent Burmese diplomat), and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Peace in 1991. She held multiple governmental posts since 2016, including that of state
counselor, which essentially made her the de facto leader of the country.
Early Life
Aung San Suu Kyi was two years old when her father, then the de facto prime minister of what would
shortly become independent Burma, was assassinated. She attended schools in Burma until 1960,
when her mother was appointed ambassador to India. After further study in India, she attended the
University of Oxford, where she met her future husband, the British scholar Michael Aris. She and
Aris had two children and lived a rather quiet life until 1988, when she returned to Burma to nurse
her dying mother, leaving her husband and sons behind. There the mass slaughter of protesters
against the brutal and unresponsive rule of military strongman U Ne Win led her to speak out against
him and to begin a nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights in that country.
Activism And House Arrest
In July 1989 the military government of the newly named Union of Myanmar (since 2011, Republic
of the Union of Myanmar) placed Suu Kyi under house arrest in Yangon (Rangoon) and held her
incommunicado. The military offered to free her if she agreed to leave Myanmar, but she refused to
do so until the country was returned to civilian government and political prisoners were freed. The
National League for Democracy (NLD), which Suu Kyi had cofounded in 1988, won more than 80
percent of the parliamentary seats that were contested in 1990, but the results of that election were
ignored by the military government (in 2010 the military government formally annulled the results of
the 1990 election). The news that Suu Kyi was being given the Nobel Prize set off intense vilification
of her by the government, and, since she was still being detained, her son, Alexander Aris, accepted
the award in her place.
Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest in July 1995, although restrictions were placed on her ability to
travel outside Yangon. The following year she attended the NLD party congress, but the military
government continued to harass both her and her party. In 1998 she announced the formation of a
representative committee that she declared was the country’s legitimate ruling parliament. Michael
Aris died in London in early 1999. Prior to his death, the military junta denied him a visa to visit Suu
Kyi in Myanmar, and Suu Kyi, anticipating that she would not be allowed to reenter the country if she
left, remained in Myanmar.
 JOSÉ RIZAL
in full José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, (born June 19, 1861, Calamba, Philippines—
died December 30, 1896, Manila), patriot, physician, and man of letters who was an inspiration to
the Philippine nationalist movement.

The son of a prosperous landowner, Rizal was educated in Manila and at the University of Madrid.
A brilliant medical student, he soon committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in his home
country, though he never advocated Philippine independence. Most of his writing was done in
Europe, where he resided between 1882 and 1892.

In 1887 Rizal published his first novel, Noli me tangere (The Social Cancer), a passionate exposure
of the evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines. A sequel, El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed),
established his reputation as the leading spokesman of the Philippine reform movement. He
published an annotated edition (1890; reprinted 1958) of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas, hoping to show that the native people of the Philippines had a long history before the
coming of the Spaniards. He became the leader of the Propaganda Movement, contributing
numerous articles to its newspaper, La Solidaridad, published in Barcelona. Rizal’s political program
included integration of the Philippines as a province of Spain, representation in the Cortes (the
Spanish parliament), the replacement of Spanish friars by Filipino priests, freedom of assembly and
expression, and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards before the law.

Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892. He founded a nonviolent-reform society, the Liga Filipina,
in Manila, and was deported to Dapitan in northwest Mindanao. He remained in exile for the next
four years. In 1896 the Katipunan, a Filipino nationalist secret society, revolted against Spain.
Although he had no connections with that organization and he had had no part in the insurrection,
Rizal was arrested and tried for sedition by the military. Found guilty, he was publicly executed by a
firing squad in Manila. His martyrdom convinced Filipinos that there was no alternative to
independence from Spain. On the eve of his execution, while confined in Fort Santiago, Rizal wrote
“Último adiós” (“Last Farewell”), a masterpiece of 19th-century Spanish verse.
 YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA
(born June 21, 1967, San Kamphaeng town, Thailand), Thai businesswoman and politician who was
prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014. She was the younger sister of former prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra and the first woman in the country to hold that office.
Yingluck was the youngest of nine children born into a wealthy family of Chinese descent that had settled in
the Chiang Mai area of northwestern Thailand in the early 20th century. Her father was a member of
parliament from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, and her brother also served in parliament and in various
ministerial posts before becoming prime minister in 2001. Thaksin was ousted from office in a bloodless
military coup in September 2006.
Yingluck graduated from Chiang Mai University in 1988 and then attended Kentucky State University in
Frankfort, where she earned a master’s degree in public administration in 1991. After returning to Thailand,
she began working in her family’s various business enterprises, gradually taking on more responsibilities.
She married Thai businessman Anusorn Amornchat in 1995, and the couple had one son.
Yingluck was a top executive in Advanced Info Service (AIS), the telecommunications branch of the family’s
large holding company in 2006 when the parent company was sold to a Singapore-based conglomerate—a
controversial transaction that netted the family a huge profit but was one of the factors leading to Thaksin’s
downfall later that year. Yingluck then became president of the family’s real-estate business while her brother
went into exile. Thaksin remained popular in Thailand, however, especially among rural people in the northern
part of the country. His supporters became known as the “red shirts,” while his opponents, mainly urban
elites, were dubbed the “yellow shirts.” Tensions between the two groups mounted, culminating in prolonged
mass protests by the red shirts in the spring of 2010 in central Bangkok that eventually were forcibly
suppressed by the Thai military.
Yingluck called for new elections, which were to be held in July 2014. In early May, however, the country’s
Constitutional Court ruled that she had illegally removed a government official early in her administration,
and she was dismissed from office. One day after her ouster she was indicted on corruption charges
stemming from a rice-subsidy program instituted by her government. Later in May the military staged a
bloodless coup and established a ruling council. By the beginning of August the council had put in place an
interim legislature, whose members it had appointed. In January 2015, while the criminal charges were still
pending against her, that legislature voted to impeach Yingluck for her involvement in the rice-subsidy
program, which meant that she was ineligible to run for public office for the next five years. Her trial stretched
for two years, and in August 2017, she failed to appear in court for the reading of the verdict. A warrant was
issued for her arrest, but members of her party reported that she had fled the country to join her brother in
Dubai. The following month Yingluck was found guilty of criminal negligence in connection with the rice-
subsidy scheme and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
 CARLOS P. GARCIA
in full Carlos Polestico Garcia, (born November 4, 1896, Talibon, Philippines—died June 14, 1971,
Quezon City), fourth president of the Republic of the Philippines. After graduating from law school in
1923, he became, successively, a schoolteacher, representative in the Philippine Congress,
governor of his province (Bohol), and then (1941–53) senator. During the Japanese occupation of
the Philippines in World War II, Garcia was active in the resistance movement. He was elected vice
president on the ticket of the Nacionalista Party in 1953 and was also minister of foreign affairs
(1953–57). He became president of the Philippines in March 1957, upon the death of Pres. Ramon
Magsaysay, and was elected to a full four-year term the same year. He maintained the strong
traditional ties with the United States and sought closer relations with noncommunist Asian countries.
In the election of November 1961 he was defeated by Vice Pres. Diosdado Macapagal.
Carlos P. Garcia was born on November 4, 1896 in Talibon, Bohol from a middle-class family that
believed in giving children the best education it could afford. Garcia went through the Talibon
Elementary School, Cebu High School, Siliman University for his preparatory law course, and
Philippine Law School where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree.
In the law school, Garcia was holder of the Malcolm Scholarship Award for four consecutive years.
He was among the topnotchers in the bar examination.
He taught law in Manila colleges, and then resigned to run for Congress in 1925. He was elected
representative of the third district of Bohol and held it for six years; then elected provincial governor
of Bohol for three successive terms. He came to the notice of both President Quezon and Vice-
President Osmeña, and was drafted as Nacionalista senatorial candidate in 1941. He won and he
has been elected three times to the Senate until his election as Vice-President of the Philippines in
1953, leaving two years of his senatorial term unserved.
During the war years, Garcia was the leader of the resistance movement in bohol, for which he
received a citation from the late President Manuel L. Quezon of the Philippines.
While a senator, Garcia was minority floor leader from 1946 to 1951 and he did brilliant work as
chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations. He was also a member of the Philippine
Rehabilitation and war damage Commission to Washington in 1959. He also had been delegate to
the Interparliamentary Union Conference in Dublin.
President Garcia was the distinguished chairman of the historic Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
which welded democratic South East Asia countries into a defensive military organization for mutual
protection against communist aggression.
 DIOSDADO P. MACAPAGAL
Diosdado Pangan Macapagal (September 28, 1910 – April 21, 1997) was the ninth President of the
Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965, and the sixth Vice-President, serving from 1957 to 1961. He
also served as a member of the House of Representatives, and headed the Constitutional
Convention of 1970. He is the father of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was the 14th President of the
Philippines from 2001 to 2010.
A native of Lubao, Pampanga, Macapagal graduated from the University of the Philippines and
University of Santo Tomas, both in Manila, after which he worked as a lawyer for the government.
He first won election in 1949 to the House of Representatives, representing a district in his home
province of Pampanga. In 1957, he became Vice-President under the rule of President Carlos P.
Garcia, whom he defeated in the 1961 polls.
After receiving his law degree, Macapagal was admitted to the bar in 1936. During World War II he
practiced law in Manila and aided the anti-Japanese resistance. After the war he worked in a law
firm and in 1948 served as second secretary to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. The
following year he was elected to a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives, serving until
1956. During this time he was Philippine representative to the United Nations General Assembly
three times. From 1957 to 1961 Macapagal was a member of the Liberal Party and vice president
under Nacionalista president Carlos Garcia. In the 1961 elections, however, he ran against Garcia,
forging a coalition of the Liberal and Progressive parties and making a crusade against political
corruption a principal element of his platform. He was elected by a wide margin.
While president, Macapagal worked to suppress graft and corruption and to stimulate the Philippine
economy. He placed the peso on the free currency-exchange market, encouraged exports, passed
the country’s first land-reform legislation, and sought to curb income tax evasion, particularly by the
wealthiest families, which cost the treasury millions of pesos yearly. His reforms, however, were
crippled by a House of Representatives and Senate dominated by the Nacionalistas, and he was
defeated in the 1965 presidential elections by Ferdinand Marcos.
In 1972 he chaired the convention that drafted the 1973 constitution, but in 1981 he questioned the
validity of its ratification. In 1979 he organized the National Union for Liberation as an opposition
party to the Marcos regime.
 RESPONSIBLE YOUTH TOWARD
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Young people are the energized group bubbling with enthusiasm. And one's potential can be
utilized fully during their youth. If this enthusiasm and ideas are regulated and utilized in a
proper way, then the youth can create a revolution which will shape the world in a positive
way. For Eg. Bill Gates who bought his idea into practicality and formed Microsoft in his youth.
Nowadays there are many young people who volunteer in NGOs for the upliftment of some
neglected subjects.

Young people must be given a suitable platform to showcase and utilize their talent and
intellect. There are many youth who have brilliant business ideas which would create
employment, but could not fulfill because of some limitations like lack of social and financial
support. If given these facilities, they could drive the economy of the nation.

The “main role” is not explicit as such in that it comprises many, many elements and applies
to all citizens, not merely to youth; however, in order to make themselves effective, youths
need to start early so that they get used to being an important element in the development of
their nation and so that they can set an example for one another.
Here are youth’s obligations: get a good education that is ongoing. Getting a degree is
important, but education doesn’t stop there. They must read, read, read all sorts of
newspapers, magazines, etc., so that, with their increased knowledge, it would be less likely
that a charlatan like Trump can bewitch and beguile them as he has so many of my stupid
fellow countrymen. They must question every single political and economic policy
that purports to be for the common man, but which is, in fact, for the benefit of the wealthy
and the powerful. They must never, ever, ever trust the motives of corporations, which are, in
fact, legal psychopaths, utterly without empathy and conscience, bent solely on more and
greater profits at the expense of anyone who can’t defend him-/herself. They must read all
the non-fiction ever written by George Orwell in order to get a much better understanding of
the mechanizations used by the wealthy and the powerful to keep the common man down.

In other words, youth must be honest and youth must be aware that the wealthy and the
powerful will never, ever, ever relent in their efforts to gain more wealth and more power. It is
a ceaseless struggle, but it needn’t be violent. Youth must be vigilant and, as part of its role,
youth must educate those who come behind. Youth must never lose sight of the necessity of
being vigilant lest they doom their posterity.
SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:
DANIEL NACORDA MRS. TRESANOVA M. PATAJO