Teresa Magbanua y Ferraris, (October 13, 1868 – August 1947), earned the distinction of being the only woman to lead combat troops in the Visayas against Spanish and American forces. She was a member of the Visayan arm of the Katipunan based in Panay.
Biography[]
Born in Pototan, Iloilo, Philippines on 13 October 1868, to wealthy parents, she earned a teaching degree and taught in her hometown. Having come from a family of revolutionaries, she immediately volunteered her services to the motherland and became an exceptional horseman and marksman. Without the approval of her husband, she led a large group of men in the Battle of Barrio Yoting, Capiz in early December 1898. She outfought the Spanish troops at the Battle of Sapong Hills near Sara.
She suffered greatly from the early deaths of her brothers General Pascual Magbanua and Elias Magbanua, at the hands of traitors.
Fifty years later, her heroism was once again displayed when she helped finance a guerrilla resistance movement by the liberators together with the Allied Filipino soldiers of the 6th, 61st and 62nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army, 6th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary and the Ilonggo guerrillas against the Japanese in the Battle for the Liberation of Iloilo. Teresa Magbanua was likely called the "Joan of Arc"
She migrated to Mindanao after the war and lived with her sister Maria in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur, where she died in August, 1947, exact day unknown.[1]
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The original article can be found at Teresa Magbanua and the edit history here.