DID YOU KNOW: Hadji Butu Bagui

Today, Feb. 22, is the 80th death anniversary of Hadji Butu Bagui, the first Muslim senator. Born in 1865, he was appointed senator by Governor-General Francis B. Harrison in December 1915 to represent the 12th Senatorial District (Mindanao and Sulu). This made him the first Muslim to sit in the Philippine Senate. He was reappointed again in 1928. He died of a kidney ailment at the age of 72 in 1937. —Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research