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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-14/rosa-sevilla.webp" alt="Rosa Sevilla de Alvero" loading="lazy" />
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(Rosa Sevilla de Alvero)
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But when her home and her children are threatened by some peril you will see this same woman, so feminine, aiding and saving the defenders of the fatherland. So did the well known <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/858/today-in-philippine-history-january-6-1812-tandang-sora-was-born-in-balintawak" class="news_link">Matadang Sora</a> in the revolution of 1898. Or, like General <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/2858/tagueda-kahabagan-the-tagalog-joan-of-arc" class="news_link">Agueda Kahabagan</a>, others fought on the battlefields.  Of those who took the field, some aided our heroes, others shared the vicissitudes and perils of the struggle for liberty. 
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<p>
I saw with my own eyes, during the war with the United States in the year 1899, women who fought beside their fathers or their husbands in the advance on Lolomboy. Upon the invitation of Mrs. Aguinaldo, the General's wife, some of us went into the trenches, the first women to form the Filipino Red Cross, to administer relief if needed and to encourage our soldiers with our presence. Pardon me for saying that there was a decided influence on their morale by our sharing their perils. 
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Likewise I must refer to another incident. It was in February of 1899, on the eve of the death of the brave Torres Bugallon. There had been a concentration of troops in Malolos at the summons of President Aguinaldo. The war panic was spreading everywhere then. None the less, the defenders of liberty were unhesitating, resolute and spirited. They were not counting on victory but they were determined to die in defence of the rights of the fatherland. 
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At nightfall came the soldiers' mothers and the wives, bearing their babies in their arms. These weepingly implored, beseeched and in every way tried to dissuade the men from their venturesome undertaking, from engaging in unequal combat.  And there were many desertions that night. 
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The attack that had been planned was disastrous for our forces, and after that came disaster after disaster. Then was when I realized the great ascendency of woman and the decisive influence of her counsels upon the decisions of men, and the depressing result of this influence when the woman was not animated by generous and noble ideals. 
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The Filipino Woman in War and in Peace