Memorable Kapampangans and Their Contributions

MEMORABLE KAPAMPANGANS | DESCRIPTION | CONTRIBUTION/S | | | | 1. José Abad Santos | He was born in San Fernando, Pampanga to Vicente Abad Santos and Toribia Basco. He was the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. | He briefly served as the Acting President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II, in behalf of President Quezon after the government went in exile to the United States. After about two months, he was killed by the Japanese forces for refusing to cooperate during their occupation of the country. | 2. Eliseo Fernando "Bro. Eli" Soriano | He is a Filipino televangelist. He is the current Presiding Minister of thePhilippines-based Christian organization Members Church of God International, colloquially known through its radio and television program Ang Dating Daan He was born to Triunfo Soriano and Catalina Fernando in Pasay City and is the seventh of eight children. He grew up in Pampanga. He started school at the age of eight. | His radio and television program is considered the longest-running religious program in the Philippines.Soriano is known for his signature method of "Bible Expositions". This live event adopts the symposium format where guests and visitors get the chance to ask Soriano with their questions personally or by live video streaming. | 3. Satur Ocampo | He was born in Santa Rita, Pampanga, Philippines. He is a Filipino party-list representative, journalist, and writer. | Co-founder of the National Democratic Front. Also a representative for the Bayan Muna party in the Lower House of Philippine Congress. | 4. Luis Taruc | He was a Filipino political figure and insurgent during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War. He was born of peasant stock in the barrio of santa Monica, township of San Luis, Pampanga on 21 June 1913. | He was the leader of the Hukbalahap or Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon group between 1942 and 1950.[1]:73 His involvement with the movement came after his initiation to the problems of agrarian Filipinos when he was a student in the early 1930s. During World War II, Taruc led the Hukbalahap in guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupiers of the Philippines. | 5. Rufino Jiao Santos | Born in Sto. Niño, Guagua, Pampanga, Santos was the fourth of seven children of Gaudencio Santos, an overseer of some farmlands near Mount Arayat, and Rosalia Jiao. | He was the first Filipino Cardinal and the 29th Archbishop of Manila from February 10, 1953 until his death on September 3, 1973. | 6. Don Juan Macapagal | Datu of Arayat, was the great-grandson and the most eminent descendant of the last ruling Lord (King) of Tondo, Don Carlos Lacandola.[1] Don Juan Macapagal was given the title Maestre de Campo General of the natives Arayat, Candaba and Apalit for his aid in suppressing the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660. | He further aided the Spanish crown in suppressing the Pangasinan Revolt of Don Andres Malong in the same year, and the Ilocano Revolt of 1661. Don Juan Macapagal died in 1683. Don Juan Macapagal is a direct ancestor of Philippine Revolutionary General, Lazaro Macapagal and two former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal and his daughter, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. | 7. Dr. Rey B. Aquino | He was a Filipino politician who is the last municipal Mayor of San Fernando and its first Mayor when it became a city. He was born at Barrio Baritan (known now as Barangay, Sta. Teresita), San Fernando, Pampanga. | He also served as Congressman for the 3rd district of Pampanga from June 30, 2004 to June 30, 2007. From 2008 to 2011, Aquino also acted as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Health Insurance or PhilHealth.Voted as the Most Outstanding Mayor of the Philippines in 2002,[1] the town of San Fernando was transformed into a city under Aquino’s reign through the ratification of Republic Act 8990. | 8. Eddie Panlilio | He was born in Minalin, Pampanga on December 6, 1953. He is afflicted with vitiligo, a rare skin disease. He is a Kapampangan Filipino Roman Catholic priest and governor of the province of Pampanga. | On August 27, 2007, Panlilio campaigned to bring his government closer to the Kapangpangans by leading the caravan "Pamisaupan (Helping One Another)" in Pampanga. Panlilio and his team delivered bags of cement, toilet bowls, boxes of floor tiles and cans of paint to San Luis Hospital which has only 2 doctors, 8 nurses and 10 midwives to serve 140,000 residents of San Luis, San Simon and Candaba towns. Panlilio further vowed to improve the facilities and conditions in the province's 9 district hospitals including the Diosdado Macapagal Provincial Hospital from funds (P143-million development fund) and private groups' contributions. Panlilio stated: What we are doing is bringing the provincial government's services to the people to make health, education and livelihood assistance accessible to them. The capitol's P37-million special education fund (SEF) would be utilized for the SEFs of towns. | 9. Benigno S. Aquino III | He was born on February 8, 1960 in Manila. He is the third of the five children of Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., who was then the Vice Governor of Tarlac province, and Corazon Cojuangco, daughter of a prominent Tarlac businessman. He is a Filipino politician who has been the 15th President of the Philippines since June 2010. | Another significant Aquino contribution to the Philippines' corruption problem is Senate Bill 2035, which is the Preservation of Public Infrastructures bill, seeking to raise standards in the construction of all public infrastructures by penalizing contractors of defective infrastructures. The bill also requires the Bureau of Maintenance under the Department of Public Works and Highways to conduct periodic inspections of public infrastructures. | 10. Joseller "Yeng" Guiao | Guiao is the son of former Pampanga Governor, the late Bren Z. Guiao. He is a Filipino professional basketball head coach, politician, commentator and sports commissioner. | He is currently coaching the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the Philippine Basketball Association, and was also the head coach of the Philippine National Basketball Team. Guiao won four PBA titles since starting his head coaching job for Swift in the early 1990s. He is a former Philippine Basketball League commissioner from 1997-2000. He was also a He is also the Vice Governor of the Province of Pampanga from 2004 to 2013, serving 3 different Governors, Mark Lapid, Ed Panlilloand Lilia Pineda. He is now representing 1st District of Pampanga. | 11. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo | He is a Filipino politician who served as the 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, as the 12th Vice President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, and as member of the House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Pampanga since 2010. She was the country's second female president (after Corazón Aquino), and the daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal. Arroyo is also the first duly elected female Vice President of the Philippines.[ | Garnered the biggest number of votes in Philippine history (1995 elections) -- an unparalleled 16 million. Another record that was set is the margin of votes between the first and second placer, which is approximately 3.2 million. This record still stands in the senate.
• Filed over 400 Senate Bills and Resolutions
• Authored or co-authored 55 bills signed into law of socio-economic legislation. These laws constituted the core of the economic program of President Fidel Ramos -- laws that have brought our country to the status of Asia's next tiger.
• Ranked No. 1 in a public opinion survey of performance and awareness among incumbent Senators
• Cited by Asia Week as one of Asia's most powerful women
• Selected Woman of the Year by the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines | 12. Anselmo Jorge Fajardo | Si Padre Anselmo Jorge Fajardo ay isang sikat na nanunulat sa Pilipinas.Itinuturing na Ama ng Panitikang Kapampangan. Siya ang may-akda ng Moro-Morong Vida de Gonzalo de Cordova . | Anselmo Jorge Fajardo wrote the country's longest literary work in 1831 (comedia "Don Gonzalo de Cordoba" with 31,000 lines on 832 pages, performed for 7 days); Mariano Proceso Pabalan Byron wrote the country's first non-Spanish zarzuela in 1900 ("Ing Managpe"); Zoilo Galang wrote the country's first English novel in the 1920s ("A Child of Sorrow"). All from Bacolor town. | 13. Juan Crisostomo Soto | Si Juan Crisostomo Soto ay isinilang sa Santa Ines, Bacolor, Pampanga. Tinagurian siyang Ama ng Panitikang Kapampangan. | Pambihira ang kanyang kahusayan sa pagtatalong patula sa wikang Kapampangan kung kaya ang pagtatalong patula sa wikang Kapampangan ay tinawag na Crisotan na katumbas ng Balagtasan sa wikang Tagalog. Isa siyang manunulat-makata, mandudula at editor sa wikang Kapampangan.Bilang mandudula, nagsulat siya ng Moro-moro at sarsuela. Bunga ng kanyang panulat ang sarsuelang Perlas Quing Burac at Pula't Puti. | 14. Francisco Alonso Liongson | He lived in one of the most exciting periods of Philippine history. He was born into an Ilustradofamily from Pampanga, Philippines at the turn of the 20th century and raised with the revolutionary values of an emerging Philippine identity which held freedom, justice, honor, patriotism and piety sacred. "Don Paco", as he was better known, was born in Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines a month before the Philippine Revolution was unleashed on August 23, 1896. | Liongson, in his unique, inimitable literary style captured snap shots of these struggles with anachronism in plays and articles written in the language that he mastered and loved best, Spanish. His works have since become precious gems of Philippine Literature in Spanish and historic records of the Filipino psyche and social life between 1896 and 1950. | 15. Aurelio Tolentino | He was a Filipino playwright and dramatist whose works at the turn of the 20th century depict his desire to see Philippine independence from its colonizers. Born in Santo Cristo, Guagua, Pampanga. In Tondo he met Andres Bonifacio, one of the founders of Katipunan and eventual leader of the Philippine revolution against Spain, which he would eventually become an early member of. | He, together with Andres Bonifacio and Macario Sakay founded the Teatro Porvenir, a theater company where they themselves are actors, where they show their nationalistic and patriotic sentiments. He accompanied Bonifacio in their search for a secret headquarters in the mountains of Morong province (now Rizal) in preparation for the start of the Philippine Revolution. He was arrested shortly after the start of the war and was detained for nine months. He continued to support the cause for Philippine sovereignty after his release and even became one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence in 1898. On May 14, 1903 his now famous verse drama,Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas, premiered at Manila's Teatro Libertad. After his release, he continued to write for theater; among his later works included "Ang Bagong Cristo", a proletariat interpretation of the story of Christ. He also founded the first worker's cooperative in the Philippines, Samahang Hanapbuhay ng Mahihirap, as well as El Parnaso Filipino, a school for the promotion of Tagalog literature. | 16. Jose Gallardo | apampangan Poet Laureate and one of the most prolific Kapampangan writers of the late 20th century. | In the 20th century, there were three phenomena that further popularised this orthography: the legal imposition of Tagalog as national language with its ABAKADA orthography, the creation of the Akademyang Kapampangan by Zoilo Hilario and the prolific writings of Poet Laureate Jose Gallardo | 17. Amado Magcalas Yuzon | Kapampangan Poet Laureate, born August 30, 1906 in Maquiapo, Guagua, Pampanga, Philippines. He was a Philippine academic, journalist, and writer. Yuzon graduated from Pampanga High School San Fernando in 1925. He was a member of the Philippine Bar Examination and professor at the Far Eastern University and at Quezon College in Manila. Among his edited journals are "Ing Catuliran" and "La Libertad". | Yuzon was member of the Congress of the Philippines, where he represented Pampanga. He had been elected as a Democratic Alliance candidate. Yuzon's candidature had sparked controversy at the fourth national congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines, where Pampanga delegates had walked out in protest against the opposition of the politburo majority to Yuzon's candidature. Yuzon was however, once elected, barred from taking his seat in the parliament. | 18. Alejandro T. Quiboloy | Quiboloy was born in Lubao, Pampanga. Kapampangan educator, public servant, veteran, and protestant minsiter. | He made time-out from his duties whenever he attended to public functions and engagements. He accepted speaking engagements at the invitations of various institutions. For the past 50 years, Quiboloy has been active in the welfare of his community, especially in the field of health and sanitation, charity, peace and order, and family living.
During World War II, he served as adviser to the USAFFE in Central Luzon. | 19. Eduardo Mutuc | Mutuc is an artist from Apalit, Pampanga who has dedicated his life to creating religious and secular art in silver, bronze and wood. Handmade pieces of cherubins and other church's crafts are samples of his works. | A GAMABA (Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan) 2005 awardee.National Living Treasure. He has dedicated his life to creating religious and secular art in silver, bronze and wood. You will find his artwork in mirrors, altars, and carosas in churches in the Philippines. Some of his art are huge exceeding 40 feet while his smaller works reveal very fine details and delicate craftsmanship. | 20. Isidoro C. Soto | Born on April 4, 1918 in Suban Bacolor, Pampanga. One of the greatest artist-decorator-designers of Pampanga. One of his living artworks is the ceiling painting of Betis church, painted with Dr. Juco as his mentor. | He was also the designer of the logo of Philippine Rabbit Bus Liner. He used to decorate for Circulo Fernandino, Batu-Balani, Old legs, Circilo Masantoleno, to name a few. He is a descendant of Juan Crisostomo Soto, the famous Pampango poet. | 21. Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Sr., | Known by his screen names Dolphy, Pidol, and Golay (1944), was aFilipino comedian-actor in the Philippines. Was born in Pampanga in 1928 to Kapampangan parents but was raised in Tondo, Manila. | He is widely regarded as the country's King of Comedy for his comedic talent embodied by his long roster of works on stage, radio, television and movies. | 22. Melanie Marquez | Born in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Is a Filipina personality development coach, actress, film producer, author,[1] and celebrity endorser. She is a former beauty queen and model who won the 1979 Miss International beauty pageant in Tokyo, Japan, representing the Philippines. | Marquez won a local beauty pageant competition when she was 15 years old, and the 1979 Miss International Pageant. As an actress she has played parts in action and dramatic films, including the title role in her own bio-picture, and has become a TV host, film producer, and celebrity endorser. Marquez is a modeling and image-enhancement coach. She trained Ruffa Gutierrez (Miss World 1993 2nd Princess); Charlene Gonzales (Miss Universe 1994 4th runner-up); andMiriam Quiambao (Miss Universe 1999 1st Runner-up). She has been a judge, coach, commentator, or host in beauty pageants, modelling contests, and talent-search competitions. Recently, she opened a modelling school for training models, beauty pageant contestants, and actors. | 23. Carlos Velasco Badion | Born August 16, 1935 in Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines. He is a former Filipino basketball player. | Philippine Basketball Team members, first Asian MVP in the now so called FIBA Asia. His moniker is "The Bad Boy". Known for his bicycle drive and jackknife layup. | 24. Efren "Bata" Reyes | Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954. He is referred to as "The Magician" and a very popular Filipino billiards player who hails from Angeles City. He is called Bata, which is Tagalog for "Kid", because there was another older pool player named Efren when he was young. To distinguish between the two, he was referred to as Efren Bata. | He is considered to be one of history's greatest practitioners of billiards. He is a Filipino professional pool player and a two-time world champion. | 25. Allan Pineda Lindo | Better known as apl.de.ap, born in Sapang Bato, Angeles City. is a Filipino-American rapper,record producer, and occasional drummer who is best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning group The Black Eyed Peas. Pineda is a citizen of both the United States and the Philippines. | Apl.de.ap was honored in America by the prestigious This Time Foundation for his charity works.[24] On November 18, 2008, he founded the Apl Foundation to help various communities and children in the Philippines and throughout Asia. In 2011, his foundation formed a partnership with the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF) to create the "We Can Be Anything" advocacy campaign to help promote education. Apl.d.ap and NCAF plan to build 10,000 classrooms in two years or less through the advocacy.[25] On July 8, it was revealed that he had teamed up with Red Ribbon and the Franklin Baker Company with his foundation for a project called the "Red Ribbon Macaroons for a Cause" whose goal is to raise money to build schools, starting with one in Zamboanga that will benefit over 600 students. | 26. Manuel Mercado Lapid | Popularly known as Lito Lapid , born in Porac, Pampanga. He is a Filipino actor, politician and Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. | With the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, he was pushed to the forefront of disaster mitigation efforts in Central Luzon-affected provinces. In 1992, he ran under the opposition block Nationalist People's Coalition as vice governor of Pampanga. | 27. Joey Marquez | Born in Mabalacat, Pampanga, Brother of, popular beauty queen, Melanie Marquez. He is a Filipino actor, politician and former professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association. | He contributed in the field of arts, sports, and politics. | 28. Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo | is a Filipino film and television actress,host, product endorser, recording artist, and film producer.Her mom hails from San Fernando, Pampanga. | Santos is head of the Touch A Heart Foundation, launched in 2004.Her helping hand extends to the indigenous people, which addresses the education and agriculture needs of a community of Aetas in Bataan and provides medical supplies for the hospital in Cuyo Island, Palawan. Bringing her advocacy to the small screen in 2001, she played as an Aeta in ABS-CBN's Maalaala Mo Kaya episode, titled "Basket", to further raise awareness about the plight of the Aeta groups in the country.[211] When it comes to giving a hand to her colleagues in the business, Santos is a solid provider. Together with director Dante Nico Garcia, they launched the Ploning Foundation in February 2009 to inspire filmmakers to make quality projects intended for a global audience and to impart what the Ploning team learned during their Oscar campaign. | 29. Sharon Cuneta | Is a popular Filipina actress, TV host, singer, endorser, grand slam awardee, box-office queen, hall of famer and a recipient of several lifetime achievement awards at a relatively young age. Her mother Elaine Gamboa-Cuneta (sister of Helen Gamboa ) is from Santa Ana, Pampanga. | dubbed as the "Megastar of Philippine Showbiz," the highest ever paid to a Filipino artist. Cuneta is the first Filipina artist to sell out at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium first in 1988 and her latest June 11, 2005, concert. Her poster is included in The Shrine's Hall of Fame next to stars Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand and the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. She created a traffic jam in the 1990s and puzzled the former Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley. After hearing of her success, the mayor attended the concert and awarded Cuneta with an Honorary Key to the City of Los Angeles. | 30. Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga | Better known as Lea Salonga. His father is from Mitla, Pampanga. She spent the first six years of her childhood in Angeles City before moving toManila. She is a Filipina singer and actress who starred in the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon,[3] for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.[3][4] Salonga is the first Filipino artist to be signed to an international record label. | She was the first Asian actress to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway.[6] She portrayed both roles on the musical's 10th and 25th anniversary show in London respectively. She also provided the singing voice of two officialDisney Princesses: Jasmine in Aladdin (1992), and Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998) and Mulan II (2004).[7] Salonga was named a Disney Legend in 2010 for her work with The Walt Disney Company. |