1945: Josefa Llanes Escoda

On this day in 1945, Filipina suffragist Josefa Llanes Escoda was last seen before her presumed execution by the Japanese occupying troops holding her at Manila’s Far Eastern University.

Escoda came of age with her native archipelago under American colonization. An energetic and brilliant woman, Escoda lectured in sociology at the University of the Philippines, held several civil service posts, founded the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and helped win female suffrage.

During the Japanese occupation, her efforts to aid POWs — including those on the Bataan Death March — made her the “Florence Nightingale of the Philippines”.

But she declined to do so in the capacity of Japanese collaborator and she and her husband Antonio were arrested in 1944 and executed in the weeks following MacArthur’s return and push towards Manila.

Escoda is pictured on the Philippines’ current 1000-peso bill.


Escoda is in the center of the three figures on this banknote. Jose Abad Santos, also executed by the Japanese, is in the top left.

On this day..

13 thoughts on “1945: Josefa Llanes Escoda

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    • Hi I just found this website and I want to ask If you know anyone from your Family that named Simeon Madamba and How is he related to Josefa? I just need it for a project in tracing my ancestry.. Simeon is my great grandfather.. I hope you can help me..

  2. Pingback: ExecutedToday.com » 1942: José Abad Santos, Chief Justice

  3. @ Linda Madamba,I am from the same town, actually I live near the monument of Josefa Llanes Escoda. Since you mentioned a bit of history here, would you please give me more details of this Barangay Madamba, a legend of some sort. Why this, Barangay of Dingras, is named after your family’s name? I need it badly in our School Project also. And I can’t find any decent person or government personnel here to provide what I need. thank you…

  4. @linda madamba san juan : Hi..!! is it true that you are related to josefa llanes escoda??.. if so, can you please give me an information about her that is not written in some books… it’s like telling the hidden side of her that many of us don’t know… our group really needs it cause our teacher requires us a film project about the unknown side of a hero, and we chose her as our hero… can you please give us some information if you know some…

  5. Before my mom (Leonor Madamba-San Juan) died in 1996, she told me in detail the bravery and the martyrdom of her aunt, Josefa Madamba Llanes-Escoda..I am so inspired by her.She is the 1st cousin of my grandma, on the Madamba side..she is my Lola Sefa too.My mom, is a Valera-Madamba family in Dingras Ilocos, Norte..On the Valera side, the Llaneses are also close relatives..Prestigious families inter-marry during those days.The Marcos museum in Ilocos norte is a Madamba house, as it was built from the pieces of everything that came from the Don Isidro, Don Leon Madamba Mansion in Dingras..which was donated to the Marcoses, in exchange for the freedom of my activist cousin who was incarcerated in Bicutan and other prison cells for more than 10 years, by the then dictator Marcos..He was a Professor of U.P. then…

  6. Again, my heart bleeds on hearing of another atrocity committed by the Nipponzin Barbarians who were holding the Philippines at that time..

    Too many of my beloved Kaibigans received a similar fate under Nippon’s rule.

    A former Horyo, JD Merritt

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