PERSONALITIES IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

1. Gregorio 'Joy" Dionisio - the first Filipino basketball player to score a basket in PBA history.
2. Ramon Bagatsing - first Manila mayor with disability and Indian-Filipino blood.
3. Elizabeth Cooper recipient of first on-screen kiss in Philippine Film history.
4. Wayda Cosme the first Aeta lawyer in Philippine history.
5. President Elpidio Quirino is the first president to travel across the Pacific through Philippine Airlines
and also the first to appear on television.
6. Carlos P. Garcia the first layman to lie in state at the Manila Cathedral and the first president to be
buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
7. Cesar Vitara is the first and last Prime minister of the Philippines after the World War II.
8. Aimee Carandang is the first Filipina to become a commercial plane pilot.
9. Jose P. Laurel has the most children (7) among the presidents of the Philippines.
10. Eva Estrada Kalaw is the first Filipina to be elected senator twice in 1965 and in 1971.
11. Padre Diego Cera was the first parish priest of Las Piñas during the Spanish era who also the creator of
The Bamboo Organ of Las Piñas.
12. Amado V. Heranadez was the first post humous recipient of the National Artist for Literature Award in
1973. He also wrote the "Mga Ibong Mandaragit" the first sociopolitical novel that exposed the ills of
the society as evident in the agrarian problem of 1950's.
13. Carlos Quirino was the first National Artist for Historical literature in the Philippines. He is best known
for his early biographies of Dr. Jose Rizal. He was also recognized as National Artist in 1997. The
National artist was established in virtue of the Presidential Proclamation no.1001 in 1972.
14. Gen.Tomas Karingal was the first assassinated victim of the NPA's Alex Boncayao Brigade.
15. Frank Murphy was the last American Governor General in the Philippines.
16. Hajji Butu was the first Muslim Filipino to become senator.
17. Rainier Lagman was the first Filipino to have a heart transplant.
18. Gemma Cruz was the first Filipina to win an international beauty title - Miss International 1964.
19. Evangeline Castro of Baguio was the First Filipina to win Miss Philippines.
20. Marissa Delgado the first Filipina appeared in Playboy Magazine (1965). She did expose her back but
she wasn't a centerfold. The first Filipina to appear as centerfold was Lourdes Estores.
21. Pedro Abad Santos was the founder of Socialist Party of the Philippines in 1929, of Aguman Ding
Maldang (AMT) and General Workers Union (1923).
22. David Nepomuceno the first filipino Olympian.
23. Claro M. Recto was the 'Great Dissenter' for his uncomprising stand against Pro American Policy of
Ramon Magsaysay.
24. Guillermo Tolentino a Filipino sculptor who created the Bonifacio Shrine and UP Oblation.
25. Fabian Cueto De La Rosa regarded as a "Master of Genre" in Philippine Arts.
26. Jose Garcia Villa a poet from Caloocan who used the pen name Doveglion which stands for Dove Eagle
and Lion. He is also a National Artist.
27. Fernanado Amorsolo was the first Philippine National Artist in 1972.
28. Agapito Flores a Filipino inventor who invented the fluorescent lamp.
29. Abelardo Aguilar a Filipino doctor who discovered the antibiotic 'erythromycin'.
30. Cecilia Muñoz Palma was the president of the 1987 in Philippine Constitutional Commission which
was responsible for the drafting of the 1987 Constitution.
31. Ignacio Villlamor was the first Filipina president of the University of the Philippines also the first
Filipino executive secretary.
32. Maria Carpena First Filipino recording artist.
33. Geronima Pecson the only woman who served as Vice president of two former Presidents.
34. Tecla San Andres -Ziga first filipina to top the Philippine BAR Examination.
35. Rosa Sevilla Alvero founded the Instituto de Mujeres in Tayuman Tondo. It was the first woman school
run by a Filipiino that offered complete education from elementary to College.
36. Librada Avelino the first Filipina principal of a high school for women in Pandacan Manila.
37. Teodoro Sandiko of Bulacan was the oldest delegate (74) while Wenceslao Vinzon of Camarines Norte
was the Youngest (25) during the 1935 Constitutional Convention.
38. Ma. Paz Mendoza Guazon the first Filipina who received a diploma from a high school and also the
first Filipina who received a Doctor Degree of Medicine from University of the Philippines.
39. Pilar Hidalgo -Lim the first Filipina who received the highest honor from the University of the
Philippines - Graduate as Cum Laude, Bachelor of Arts, 1913.
40. Honoria Acosta Sison the first Filipina who graduated outside the Philippines.
41. Anastacia Giron Tupas the first Filipina superintendent of the Philippine General Hospital School of
Nursing (1917).
42. Carmen Planas first elected women councilor of Manila.
43. Elisa Ochoa first elected congresswoman from Agusan.
44. Filemon Sotto the leader of 7 delegate of a sub-committee who drafted the 1935 Constitution.
45. Tomas Cabili of Lanao was the only delegate who voted negative among the 177 who agreed. There are
22 absents during the day of voting.
46. Gregorio Perfecto signed the 1935 Constitution with his own blood before it was passed to President
Roosevelt by Quezon, Recto, and Roxas.
47. Jorge Bartolome Vargas the first Filipino member of International Olympic Committee. He also take
charge as Mayor of Manila after it was declared as an Open City.
48. Jose Abad Santos the chief justice during the World War II.
49. During the First Philippine Republic, three other insurgent republics were briefly formed: the Tagalog
Republic in Luzon, under Macario Sakay, the Negros Republic in the Visayas under Aniceto Lacson,
and the Republic of Zamboanga in Mindanao under Mariano Arquiza. Despite resistance from these
three republics ignored by Aguinaldo who included them in his gift to the USA, all three were eventually
dissolved and the Philippines were ruled as a singular insular territory.
50. Isabelo de los Reyes - Founder of the Philippine Independent Church also the Founder of the Union
Obrera Democratica.
51. Sergio Osmena - First Speaker of the Philippine Assembly.
52. Pedro Sanchez - led the Filipinos in attacking the Americans in Balanggiga, Samar.
53. Gregorio Araneta - First Filipino to head an executive department under the American colonial
government.
54. Gregorio Sancianco the first Filipino Economist, He wrote one of the first books (El Progreso de
Filipinas, Madrid, 1881) advocating economic reform in the Philippines. According to historian Father
John Schumacher, Sancianco anticipated "most of the principal themes of the later Filipino nationalist
campaign: administrative reform, eradication of corruption in the government, recognition of Filipino
rights as loyal Spaniards, extension of Spanish law to the Philippines, curtailment of the excessive
power of the friars in the life of the country, and assertion of the dignity of the Filipino."
55. Florentino Collantes known as "Huseng Batute" is the first winner of Balagtasan.
56. Jose Dela Cruz known as Huseng Sisiw was a genius poet who’s also the mentor and inspiration of
Francisco Baltazar in making beautiful poems.
57. Francisco Baltazar known as Balagtas for being a great poet who also wrote the Florante at Laura
58. Damian Domingo known as the Father of Philippine Painting who also manages the first school for
painting established by the Spaniards.
59. Juan Luna the greatest Filipino painter famous for his :
A. The Spoliarium (often misspelled Spolarium) is a painting by Filipino artist Juan Luna. The
 painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in
Madrid, where it garnered the first gold medal (out of three)."Luna's Spoliarium with its
bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had
entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives...stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of
their Roman persecutors with their honor..."
B. The Parisian Life, also known as Interior d'un Cafi (also spelled Interior d’Un Café,
literally meaning "Inside a Café") which portrayed a glimpse of Luna’s own life in the
capital of France while accompanied by two close friends.
C. The Death of Cleopatra or La Muerte de Cleopatra which was a silver medalist or second
prize winner during the 1881 National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid.
D. España y Filipinas, meaning “Spain and the Philippines” that projected a close bond
between Spain and the Philippines through feminine figures, it is a propaganda painting that
revealed the true hope and desire of Filipino propagandists during the 19th-century:
assimilation with Spain, reform, equality, modernization, and economic improvement.
E. Las Damas Romanas (literally, "The Roman Dames"), also known as The Roman Maidens,
The Roman Women or The Roman Ladies that depicted a domestic scene in ancient Roman
life, portraying two women lying on the steps of a house. The hand of one woman was
holding the reins of two pet dogs or hunting dogs, in order to prevent them from scaring
away some doves. The doves symbolized divinity. The background of the painting presented
a shelf of artifacts. To the left of the shelf was a shrine with a pediment shaped like a triangle.
In front of the pediment was a burner with smoking incense.
F. The Blood Compact (Spanish: El Pacto de Sangre) portraying the 1565 Sandugo (blood
compact ritual) between Rajah Sikatuna of Bohol and Miguel López de Legazpi, surrounded
by other conquistadors. Rajah Sikatuna was described to be 'being crowded out of the picture
by Miguel López de Legazpi and his fellow conquistadores'.

60. Felix Ressurecion Hidalgo a Filipino painter famous for his Las Virgenes Christianas Expuestas al
Populacho that portrays two scantily clothed Christian female slaves being mocked by a group of
boorish Roman male onlookers. One of the women is posed seated naked at the foreground of the
painting with her "head bowed in misery". The semi-nude women have been stripped not only of their
garments but also of their dignity. Created in the academic style of Europe, the unfortunate women in
the artwork are considered by some indigenous Filipinos as virgins "being led out, stolen from, and
ridiculed". The women are young virgins cornered by a mob of "sexually hungry" Roman men. One of
the men has his hand over one semi-naked female whose eyes are "looking up to heaven" asking and
begging for "help that never comes".
61. Gaspar Aquino de Belen writer of Pasyon Naming Mahal.
62. Julio Garcia Nakpil composer of Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan a song presented by Bonifacio as
the National anthem of the Philippines,also the anthem of the Katipunan.
63. Lope K. Santos drafted the Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa.
64. Rosario Villaruel the First Filipina to become a Mason, she was initiated as a member of Lodge Walana.
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the
term masonry can also refer to the units themselves.
65. Arthur McArthur - The last American military governor of the Philippines Don Eugenio Montero Rios -
Senate President of Spain who headed the Spanish delegation in the drafting of the peace treaty ending
the Spanish-American War.
66. Mariano Noriel - The president of the Council of War which tried Bonifacio for the charge of sedition
67. Kataastaasang Sanggunian - The central leadership of the KKK Major General Lawton - The American
military officer whose life was sacrificed in the Battle of San Mateo.
68. Manuel Quezon - First Senate President of the Philippines.
69. Pedro Paterno - negotiated the Pact of Biak-na-Bato with Aguinaldo and his men.
70. General Riego de Dios - The last Spanish governor-general of the Philippines Mariano Alvarez - The
leader of the Magdiwang faction of the KKK in Cavite.
71. E. Spencer Pratt - The American consul who convinced Aguinaldo to collaborate with the Americans in
expelling the Spaniards from the Philippines.
72. Andre - Belgian consul who acted as mediator for the surrender of the Spaniards to the Americans.
73. Galiciano Apacible - the president of the Associacion La Solidaridad.
74. Graciano Lopez Jaena - The first editor of La Solidaridad (The Sol).
75. Alejandro Roces Sr. -Founder of the newspaper, The Tribune.
76. Gregorio Araneta - First Filipino to head an executive department under the American colonial
government.
77. Marcelo del Pilar - Officer in charge of The political section of the Asociacion Hispano-Filipino
78. Leonard Wood - Governor General during the Cabinet Crisis of 1923.
79. Frederick Funston - American general who successfully capture Aguinaldo.
80. Gregorio Aglipay - The First Pontifex Maximus of the Philippine Independent Church.
81. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista - Author of the Philippine Declaration of Independence.
82. Mariano Alvarez - The leader of the Magdiwang faction of the KKK in Cavite.
83. Luciano San Miguel - revived Bonifacio's Katipunan.
84. Jose Torres Bugallon - The defender of La Loma who sacrificed his life during the war against the
Americans.
85. Sinibaldo de Mas i Sans wrote the Informe sobre el estado de las Filipinas en 1842 (A Report on the
Status of the Philippines in 1842) which reported the Economic and Social status of the country.
86. José Turiano Santiago, a close personal friend of Bonifacio, was expelled because a coded message of
the Katipunan fell into the hands of a Spanish priest teaching at the University of Santo Tomas.
87. Licerio Gerónimo (1855–1924) - Aguinaldo's war general during Philippine–American War.
88. Manuel Tinio (1877–1924) - youngest general of the Katipunan, he later became the governor of
Nueva Ecija from 1907-1909.
89. Brigadaire General Eusebio Roque, better known as "Maestrong Sebio or Dimabungo headed the
'Republic of Real de Kakarong de Sili' of 1896, one of the first Philippine revolutionary republics.
90. Juan Cailles known as Maestrong Cailles organized a force composed of his pupils' fathers during the
Philippine Revolution.
91. Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was a Filipino Senator (1967–1972) and a former Governor of
Tarlac and the most prominent dissenter of Marcos.
92. Jaime Lachica Sin was the 30th Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, and was also the Cardinal of
Manila during the EDSA revolt.
93. Fabian C. Ver was a General and Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under President
Ferdinand Marcos and also said to be the master mind in Aquino's assassination.
94. Rolando Galman, was later implicated in Aquino's murder.
95. Virgilio Olivar Garcillano also known as Garci, is a former official of the Philippine Commission on
Elections who allegedly was involved in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's alleged electoral fraud in the Hello
Garci scandal.