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(Elisa Rosales-Ochoa)
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In 1937, the right of suffrage was extended to Filipino women after a law allowing the same was approved via plebiscite. Women suffrage won a landslide victory of 447,725 yes votes versus 33,307. This paved the way for a change in the landscape of Philippine Congress.  
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Elections for the House of Representatives were scheduled for 1941. Elisa interrupted her law school studies to return home and run for the National Assembly representing the province of Agusan. Rosales-Ochoa handily won the election on November 11, 1941.
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A month into Rosales-Ochoa's term, World War II broke out but her service did not stop as she led other nurses in attending to Filipino and American soldiers wounded in the war. After the war, she authored Commonwealth Act 704-an act to establish municipal maternity and charity clinics in rural areas.
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Women in far-flung areas up to this time have been given minimal healthcare during their maternal period. Mortality rate of pregnant women was staggering. As a medical practitioner herself, Rosales-Ochoa saw the urgent necessity of addressing the healthcare needs of poor pregnant women in these rural places.
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These maternity and charity clinics shall attend to indigent patients certified as such by a municipal treasurer. The act also established proper compensation of physicians that attend to these patients.
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Rosales-Ochoa's term concluded in 1946 but her public service continued as she worked as a technical assistant on health to former presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Carlos Garcia.
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In recognition of her leadership achievements, she was given acknowledgments and proclaimed as a model citizen of Agusan del Norte.
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December 3, 1897: Elisa Rosales-Ochoa, the first congresswoman in the country, was born in Butuan