Did you know

Today, September 20, is the 113th birth anniversary of Josefa Llanes Escoda, founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and former head of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs. Called the “Florence Nightingale of the Philippines,” she worked for women’s suffrage in the country, founded the Boys Town for the underprivileged boys of Manila and distributed vitamins to prisoners during World War II. She was believed to have been executed by the Japanese on suspicion of being a guerilla sympathizer. She was posthumously awarded the silver medal by the American Red Cross, the Medal of Freedom with gold leaf by the US Army and Navy and the Philippine Legion of Honor Medal by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.—Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research