List of the Philippine Presidents

                                Emilio Aguinaldo
                                      (1869-1964)



                       Manuel L. Quezon
                           (1878-1944)



                       
                        José P. Laurel
                          (1891-1959)




       

              Sergio Osmeña
                  (1878-196)


           
                 Manuel Roxas
                    (1892-1948)



  
                       Elpidio Quirino
                          (1890-1956)




                        Ramon Magsaysay
                             (1907-1957)




                        Carlos P. Garcia
                          (1896-1971)




                      Diosdado Macapagal
                             (1910-1997)




               Ferdinand Marcos
                    (1917-1989)




                          Corazon Aquino
                              (1933-2009)



     
                       Fidel V. Ramos
                           (born 1928)


     
                  Joseph Estrada
                     (born 1937)



          Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
                  (born 1947)



           
             Benigno Aquino III
                  (born 1960)

History of Lapu-Lapu

                                                                       

Lapu-Lapu was considered as the first Filipino  hero in the  history.Lapu-Lapu was the king of Mactan, an island in the Visayas, Philippines, who is known as the first native of the archipelago to have resisted Spanish colonization. He is now regarded as the first Filipino hero.

On the morning of April 27, 1521, Lapu-Lapu and the men of Mactan, armed with spears, and kampilan, faced Spanish soldiers led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. In what would later be known as the Battle of Mactan, Magellan, and several of his men were killed.

According to Sulu oral tradition, Lapu-Lapu was a Muslim chieftain, and was also known as "Kaliph Pulaka".^[3] The people of Bangsamoro, the Islamic homeland in the Philippine Islands, consider him to be a Muslim and a member of the Tausug ethnic group.^[4] A variant of the name, as written by Carlos Calao, a 17th century Chinese-Spanish poet in his poem "Que Dios Le Perdone" (Spanish, "That God May Forgive Him") is "Cali Pulacu".

The 1898 Philippine Declaration of Independence refers to Lapu-Lapu as "King Kalipulako de Maktan".^[6] In the 19th century, the reformist Mariano Ponce used a variant name, "Kalipulako", as one of his pseudonyms.

http://chanmich.hubpages.com/hub/History-of-Lapu-Lapu

                   Lapu-Lapu Monument

                Lapu-Lapu Mactan Island

Francisco Balagtas

                                                                                                             

    Francisco Baltazar y de la Cruz (April 2, 1788 – February 20, 1862), also known asFrancisco Baltazar, was a prominent Filipino poet, and is widely considered as one of the greatest Filipino literary laureate for his impact on Filipino literature. The famous epic,Florante at Laura, is regarded as his defining work.

The name "Baltazar", sometimes misconstrued as a pen name, was a legal surname Balagtas adopted after the 1849 edict of Governor-Genernal Narciso Claveria y Zaldua, which mandated that the native population adopt standard Spanish surnames instead of native ones.

Balagtas learned to write poetry from José de la Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), one of the most famous poets of Tondo, in return of chicks. It was de la Cruz himself who personally challenged Balagtas to improve his writing. Balagtas swore he would overcome Huseng Sisiw as he would not ask anything in return as a poet. 

He wrote his poems in Tagalog, during an age when Filipino writing was predominantly written in Spanish.

Balagtas published Florante at Laura upon his release in 1838. He moved to Balanga, Bataan in 1840 where he served as the assistant to the Justice of peace and later, in 1856, as the Major Lieutenant. He was also appointed as the translator of the court. He married Juana Tiambeng on July 22, 1842 in a ceremony officiated by Fr. Cayetano Arellano, uncle of future Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano. They had eleven children but only four survived to adulthood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Balagtas

Apolinario Mabini

                                                                   

    Apolinario Mabini was undoubtedly the most profound thinker and political philosopher that the Pilipino race ever produced. Some day, when his works are fully published, but not until then, Mabini will come into his own. A great name awaits him, not only in the Philippines, for he is already appreciated there, but in every land where the cause of liberty and human freedom is revered.

Mabini was born in Tanawan, province of Batangas, island of Luzon, P.I., of poor Filipino parents, in 1864. He received his education in the "Colegio de San Juan de Letran." Manila, and in the University of Santo Tomas. He supported himself while studying by his own efforts, and made a brilliant record in both institutions. Later he devoted his energies to the establishment of a private school in Manila and to legal work.

Mabini came to the front in 1898 during the Pilipino revolution against Spain. In the subsequent revolution against the United States he became known as "the brains of the revolution." He was so considered by the American army officers, who bent every energy to capture him.

He was the leading adviser of Aguinaldo, and was the author of the latter's many able decrees and proclamations. Mabini's official position was President of the Council of Secretaries, and he also held the post of Secretary of the Exterior.

One of Mabini's greatest works was his draft of a constitution for the Philippine Republic. It was accompanied by what he called "The True Decalogue."  Mabini's "ten commandments" are so framed as to meet the needs of Filipino patriotism for all time. He also drafted rules for the organization and government of municipalities and provinces, which were highly successful because of their adaptability to local conditions.

Mabini remained the head of Aguinaldo's cabinet until March, 1899, when he resigned. But he continued in hearty sympathy with the revolution, however, and his counsel was frequently sought.

Mabini was arrested by the American forces in September, 1899, and remained a prisoner until September 23, 1900. Following his release, he lived for a while in a suburb of Manila, in a poor nipa house, under the most adverse and trying circumstances. He was in abject poverty.

http://tagaloglang.com/Famous-Filipinos/Leaders/biography-of-apolinario-mabini.html

Jose Rizal

                                               

JOSE RIZAL, the national hero of the Philippines and pride of the Malayan race, was born on June 19, 1861, in the town of Calamba, Laguna. He was the seventh child in a family of 11 children (2 boys and 9 girls). Both his parents were educated and belonged to distinguished families.His father, Francisco Mercado Rizal, an industrious farmer whom Rizal called "a model of fathers," came from Biñan, Laguna; while his mother, Teodora Alonzo y Quintos, a highly cultured and accomplished woman whom Rizal called "loving and prudent mother," was born in Meisic, Sta. Cruz, Manila. At the age of 3, he learned the alphabet from his mother; at 5, while learning to read and write, he already showed inclinations to be an artist. He astounded his family and relatives by his pencil drawings and sketches and by his moldings of clay. At the age 8, he wrote a Tagalog poem, "Sa Aking Mga Kabata," the theme of which revolves on the love of one’s language. In 1877, at the age of 16, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with an average of "excellent" from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. In the same year, he enrolled in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas, while at the same time took courses leading to the degree of surveyor and expert assessor at the Ateneo. He finished the latter course on March 21, 1877 and passed the Surveyor’s examination on May 21, 1878; but because of his age, 17, he was not granted license to practice the profession until December 30, 1881. In 1878, he enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas but had to stop in his studies when he felt that the Filipino students were being discriminated upon by their Dominican tutors. On May 3, 1882, he sailed for Spain where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid. On June 21, 1884, at the age of 23, he was conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine and on June 19,1885, at the age of 24, he finished his course in Philosophy and Letters with a grade of "excellent."  http://www.joserizal.ph/bg01.html

Andress Bonifacio

                                                               

 

   Andres Bonifacio (1863-1897), a Phillipine revolutionary hero, founded the Katipunan, a secret society which spearheaded the uprising against the Spanish and laid the groundwork for the first Philippine Republic.

Andres Bonifacio was born in Tondo, Manila, on Nov. 30, 1863. He grew up in the slums and knew from practical experience the actual conditions of the class struggle in his society. Orphaned early, he interrupted his primary schooling in order to earn a living as a craftsman and then as clerk-messenger and agent of foreign commercial firms in Manila. Absorbing the teachings of classic rationalism from the works of José Rizal, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Eugène Sue's The Wandering Jew,books on the French Revolution, and the lives of the presidents of the United States, Bonifacio acquired an understanding of the dynamics of the sociohistorical process. This led him to join the Liga Filipina, which Rizal organized in 1892 for the purpose of uniting and intensifying the nationalist movement for reforms.
When the Liga was dissolved upon the arrest and banishment of Rizal, Bonifacio formed the Katipunan in 1892 and thus provided the rallying point for the people's agitation for freedom, independence, and equality. The Katipunan patterned its initiation rites after the Masonry, but its ideological principles derived from the French Revolution and can be judged radical in its materialistic-historical orientation. The Katipunan exalted work as the source of all value. It directed attention to the unjust class structure of the colonial system, the increased exploitation of the indigenous population, and consequently the need to affirm the collective strength of the working masses in order to destroy the iniquitous system.

             

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/andres-bonifacio/