Josefa Llanes Escoda

Josefa Llanes Escoda
Born Josefa Madamba Llanes
20 September 1898
Dingras, Ilocos Norte, Captaincy General of the Philippines
Died 6 January 1945 (aged 46)
Manila, Commonwealth of the Philippines
Resting place unmarked grave in La Loma Cemetery, Caloocan City, Philippines
Spouse(s) Antonio Escoda
Parent(s) Mercedes Madamba and Gabriel Llanes

Josefa Llanes Escoda (20 September 1898–c. 6 January 1945) Heroine: Spiritual Leader of the Underground during World War II in the Philippines; was a well-known Filipino advocate of women's right of suffrage and founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.

Early life

Josefa 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 was valedictorian in grade school and salutatorian in high school in Dingras Elementary School (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 teachers 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 Philippines was a colony of the United States at the time). The Red Cross granted her a scholarship to the United States, where she earned a masteral degree in Sociology.

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 reporter from the Philippine Press Bureau whom she later married. They had two children: Maria Theresa (who later became President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines during Pres.Corazon Aquino's Administration); and Antonio, Jr. Also in 1925, Josefa received a master's degree in Social Work from Columbia University.

Girl Scouts of the Philippines

She returned to the United States again in 1933 to undergo training in Girl Scouting sponsored by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines. Afterwards, she returned to the Philippines to train young women to become Girl Scout leaders, then proceeded to organize the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. On 26 May 1940, 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

During World War II, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines. By 1944, news of the underground activities of Josefa Llanes Escoda and her husband Antonio reached far and wide. As the Japanese Occupation stretched on, Josefa Llanes Escoda and Antonio had intensified their "smuggling" activities of sending medicines, clothings, messages, and food stuff to both Filipino war prisoners and American internees in concentration camps.

Josefa Llanes Escoda's husband, Antonio was arrested in June 1944, and Josefa Llanes Escoda was also arrested two months later, on 27 August. She was imprisoned in Fort Santiago, the same prison as her husband, Antonio Escoda, who was executed in 1944, along with General Vicente Lim, who was imprisoned with him. On 6 January 1945, Josefa Llanes Escoda was then evidently 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, but severely beaten and weak, and was transferred into a Japanese Transport Truck. It is presumed that she was executed [1] 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.

Legacy

JOSEFA LLANES ESCODA: SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE UNDERGROUND during World War II in The Philippines.

By 1944, news of the underground activities of Josefa Llanes Escoda and her husband Antonio reached far and wide. As the Japanese Occupation stretched on, Josefa Llanes Escoda and Antonio had intensified their "smuggling" activities of sending medicines, clothings, messages, and foodstuff to both Filipino war prisoners and American internees in concentration camps.

How Josefa Llanes Escoda and her husband Antonio exactly died, nobody will ever know. But what is known was how the Japanese put to death civilians and guerillas alike. Towards 1945, Japanese atrocities escalated. An order from the High Command directed soldiers to execute all non-Japanese in Fort Santiago (where the Escodas were imprisoned). There was whole-sale massacre all around. The soldiers bayoneted, machine-gunned and shot civilians. They threw grenades at them, burned their houses and mutilated them. Fort Santiago prisoners were executed and beheaded.

Lt. Jose L. Llanes, a courageous intelligence officer who was a commander of Ilocos Norte and Northern Ilocos Sur, called Josefa Llanes Escoda: The "Spiritual Leader" of our underground. He said he saw Josefa Llanes Escoda on 14 January 1944 in the presence of her husband, Tony Escoda. Josefa Llanes Escoda left this last message to Lt. Jose 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. "[2]

A street and a building have been named after her and a monument has been dedicated to her memory. She is also depicted on the current 1000-peso bill as one of three Filipinos martyred by the Japanese Armed Forces.

Josefa Llanes Escoda has: eight grandchildren; and has three great-granddaughters; two of whom live in the U.S., in New York City and San Francisco; one lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/01/06/1945-josefa-llanes-escoda/
  2. ↑ 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.

External links

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