12 OCTOBER

Jose Abad Santos

1911 - Future Filipino Chief Justice under  colonial American Occupation and World  War II martyr Jose B. Abad Santos passes  the Bar exams, enabling him to be  promoted as court interpreter and, later,  assistant attorney, government bank  counsel, a technical adviser to the first  Parliamentary Independence mission to  the colonial master, United States;  Justice undersecretary; Justice Secretary;  and Philippine Bar Association head  before becoming High Court Chief  Justice; Abad Santos, a pensionado sent  by imperialist Americans to study in  California, United States, chose to be  executed rather than cooperate with the  Japanese during World War II because he  could not bear to "live in shame" as a  traitor to the Bald Eagle and the  Philippines
 

1886 - Filipino patriot and polymath Jose  Rizal sends his brother Paciano a Tagalog  translation of the Swiss legend Wilhelm  Tell, the story of a folk hero and expert marksman  who assassinates the tyrannical Gessler; in  the same letter, Rizal writes about his  wish to introduce  a slight modification of Tagalog orthography and, as well,  mentions how much it would cost to print  Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), his novel critical of the frailocracy and the Spanish colonial administration.