Did You Know: Josefa Llanes Escoda

TODAY, Sept. 20, is the 118th birth anniversary of civic leader and heroine Josefa Llanes Escoda. As a social worker, she campaigned for workers’ rights, founded the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and helped build Boystown for the underprivileged boys of Manila. She was arrested in August 1944 on suspicion of being a guerilla sympathizer and after being tortured, she was executed by the Japanese in 1945. A street in Ermita was named after her. Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research