1 JANUARY

Pres. Manuel A. Roxas

1892 - Manuel Acuna Roxas, the future fifth officially recognized President  of the Philippines, is born during the Spanish colonial period; Roxas would  completely be a product of colonial American education until his law  school at the University of the Philippines where he graduated at the top of his class before topping the bar examinations in 1914; Roxas will win the 1946 presidential elections over President Sergio Osmena who earlier refused to campaign on the belief that the Filipinos should know his four decades of record of honest and faithful service; Roxas' administration will be controversial for pushing for the ratification of the "parity amendment" to the 1935 Constitution which grants American citizens the right to exploit the natural resources of the Philippines.

First Lady Pacencia H. Laurel

1963 - Pacencia Hidalgo-Laurel y Valencia, former First Lady of Jose P.  Laurel, the third officially  recognized President of the Philippines, dies after a lingering illness; Hidalgo-Laurel was a thrifty, hardworking woman with a keen sense of business and became responsible for helping build the Laurel's fortune;  she took charge of supporting their family when her husband was imprisoned by the colonial American authorities on charges of collaboration with the Japanese during World War II; following Jose P. Laurel's retirement  from politics in the 1950s, she helped build her husband's dream of putting  up a school--what would be the Lyceum the Philippines.





Photo credits:

Wikipedia.
http://www.pinoyvote.net/manuel-roxas/