Significant Events in May in Filipino History

On May 8, 1878, Dionisio Jakosalem, a writer, a lawyer, Governor, and the first Filipino to hold a cabinet post during the American regime, was born in Dumanjug, Cebu to Alfonso Jakosalem and Apolonia Abella, who both belonged to hardworking families.

On May 9, 1974, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 449 creating the "Cockfighting Law of 1974". This law governed the establishment, operation, maintenance and ownership of cockpits in the Philippines.

On May 9, 1875, Gregoria de Jesus, wife of Andres Bonifacio, a brave and patriotic woman who played a heroic role in the Philippine Revolution, was born in Caloocan. She was one of the four children of Nicolas de Jesus and Baltazara Alvarez Francisco. Her father was a native of Caloocan, a master mason and carpenter by profession who had been teniente del barrio and later gobernadorcillo (municipal mayor) of the town, and her mother, a native of Noveleta, Cavite, was a niece of General Mariano Alvarez, a plain housewife.

On May 9, 1872, Gregorio Torres Singian, regarded as the Father of Philippine Surgery, was born in San Fernando, Pampanga.

On May 10, 1884, Maria Paz Mendoza Guazon, the first woman to graduate from the first medical school in the country, the UP College of Medicine in 1912, was born in Pandacan, Manila as Maria Paz Mendoza.

On May 10, 1897, Andres Bonifacio, the Father of the Philippine Revolution and founder of the Katipunan, and his brother Procopio were executed in the mountains of Maragondon, Cavite by General Emilio Aguinaldo's men for being guilty of treason and sedition. This occurred after the death sentence was commuted to indefinite exile by Aguinaldo.

On May 11, 1956, together with 40 men, Tomas Arbolente Cloma and his brother Filemon took formal possession of a group of islands, lying some 380 miles west of the southern end of Palawan, in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea, and named it "Free Territory of Freedomland". Four days later on May 15, 1956, Cloma issued and posted copies of his "Notice to the Whole World" on each of the islands as a decisive manifestation of unwavering claim over the territory.

On May 11, 1818, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro was born in Biñan, Laguna. Francisco Mercado was the father of the Philippines' national hero, Jose Rizal.

On May 12, 1932, William Cameron Forbes, then recently retired US Ambassador to Japan and former Governor General of the Philippines (1909-1916) expressed his opposition to Philippine independence, a measure pending in the US Congress.