Aurora Quezon
Aurora Aragon Quezon | |
---|---|
First Lady of the Philippines | |
In role November 15, 1935 – August 1, 1944 | |
President | Manuel L. Quezon |
Preceded by | Hilaria Aguinaldo |
Succeeded by | Pacencia Laurel |
Personal details | |
Born | Aurora Antonia Aragón y Molina February 19, 1888 Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines |
Manner of death | Assassination |
Resting place | Quezon Memorial Shrine, Quezon City, Philippines |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Aurora Antonia Aragon Quezon (born Aurora Antonia Aragón y Molina; February 19, 1888 – April 28, 1949) was the wife of
Five years after her husband's death, she and her daughter María Aurora ("Baby") were assassinated while they were en route to Baler to open a hospital dedicated to President Quezon. The province of Aurora was named in her memory.
Early life
Aurora Aragón was born on February 19, 1888, to Pedro Aragón and Zenaida Molina in the town of
After Pedro Aragón's death, his survivors, including daughter Aurora, had been cast into extreme poverty, surviving on
Marriage and family
In 1907, Manuel Luis Quezon was elected to the Philippine Assembly. By 1916, he was elected to the Philippine Senate and as that chamber's president. Aurora often visited Quezon in Manila.[9] In December 1918, they were married in Hong Kong. They had four children: María Aurora "Baby" (September 23, 1919 – April 28, 1949); María Zenaida "Nini" (April 9, 1921 – July 12, 2021); Luisa Corazón Paz (February 17, 1924 – December 14, 1924); and Manuel Lucio Jr. "Nonong" (June 23, 1926 – September 18, 1998). Luisa would die in infancy.
The marriage lasted until Quezon's death in 1944. It withstood despite Quezon's reputation as a libertine; the author Stanley Karnow described Aurora Quezon as finding "solace in prayer and the Philippine law against divorce".[10] Still, Aurora has also been described as "a devoted wife and a strict but understanding mother".[11] Quezon himself publicly extolled his wife as "my friend, companion and partner".[12]
Political wife and First Lady
Within the first seventeen years of the marriage, Manuel Quezon emerged as a dominant figure in Philippine politics. His career reached its apex in 1935, when he was elected President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. During her husband's political life, Aurora stayed in the background, involving herself with women's organizations such as the National Federation of Women's Clubs, of which she was the honorary chairperson.
President Quezon was re-elected in November 1941, but his presidency was immediately beset with crisis when Japan invaded the Philippines in the following month. Aurora accompanied her husband to Corregidor in December 1941, where the President was sworn in by Chief Justice José Abad Santos for his second term on December 30, 1941. For the next two months, the Quezon family remained in Corregidor where, despite the difficult living conditions, Aurora was said to have maintained her poise and kept up with a daily mass.[14] In February 1942, they began their long journey via Australia to escape the Japanese and establish the Government in exile of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, finally reaching the United States in June 1942.
While in exile, Aurora devoted her time to the care of her ailing husband, who died in Saranac, New York, from tuberculosis on August 1, 1944. She then moved to California to await their return to the Philippines. She and her daughters volunteered as nurses for the Red Cross.[11]
Postwar activity
When Aurora Quezon returned to the Philippines, she was voted a pension of 1,000 pesos a month by the Philippine Congress.[11] She returned the check, explaining: "I feel that on account of ... countless war widows and orphans ... I should waive collection of a pension . . . I cannot, in good conscience, receive ... Government assistance when so many of my less fortunate sisters and their children are not yet taken care of. . . I know [if I accepted] I would not be keeping faith with the memory of my beloved husband. . . ."[15] This act, it was said, "demonstrated why thousands of Filipinos regard her as a combination queen-mother and patron saint".[15] Quezon was offered a slot in the Liberal Party senatorial slate for the 1946 elections, which she declined. She, however, endorsed the presidential candidacy of Manuel Roxas,[16] who defeated her husband's vice-president and successor, Sergio Osmeña, to win the presidency.
In 1947, with the active support of Quezon, the
She continued to be involved in civic work, such as the efforts to rebuild the Antipolo Church. She received honorary doctorates from the University of Santo Tomas, and from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She was likewise bestowed the Ozanam Award from the Ateneo de Manila University, and the Pro Ecclessia et Pontifice Cross from Pope Pius XII.
Assassination
On the morning of April 28, 1949, Quezon left her home to travel to her husband's hometown of Baler to open the Quezon Memorial Hospital. She had been cautioned about this trip beforehand due to the frequent insurgency activities in
They traveled along the
There was national and international condemnation of the massacre. United States
It was widely believed that the Hukbalahap was responsible for the killings.[14][19][21][23] In preparation of the attack, the insurgents had blockaded the road and rounded up passengers from passing vehicles, and one of those passengers claimed seeing a former employee of his who had joined the Huk as among the armed men.[17] While General Jalandoni, who survived the attack, tagged the Huks as responsible, the chief of the Philippine Constabulary laid blame instead on bandits.[24] President Quirino blamed the Huks and responded by calling for "a people's war on the dissidents".[25]
Luis Taruc, supremo of the Hukbalahap, denied that his group was responsible for the crime,[24] though he also claimed that the Huk were conducting an investigation of their own if one of the group had breached ranks and participated in the killing.[21] Nonetheless, after Taruc's surrender in 1954, he was formally charged for the murder of Quezon and other members of her party; these charges would be dropped before they could be heard on trial.[26] Throughout the 1950s, several other captured Huk members would be charged for participation in the assassination, with five of them being sentenced to death by a Cabanatuan trial court.[25] Luis Taruc later wrote the killings were discussed as an agenda item at the December 1949 to January 1950 Politburo meeting, "the accidental killing in a Huk ambush of Mrs. Quezon, widow of the late President Quezon, and her daughter. The majority took a characteristic Communist attitude toward this deplorable event. The victims had been 'class enemies', and that settled everything."[27]: 75
On April 28, 2005, exactly fifty-six years after her death, the remains of Quezon were transferred from North Cemetery for interment in a black crypt beside her husband's sarcophagus at the Quezon Memorial Shrine in Quezon City.[28] The re-interment rites were attended by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Quezons' sole surviving child, Zenaida "Nini" Quezon-Avanceña.[28]
Legacy
In 1951,
In popular culture
- Portrayed by Rachel Alejandro in the film Quezon's Game (2019).
Notes
- ^ "The New Aragon House". June 14, 2009.
- ^ a b Filipinos in History, p. 117
- ^ National Historical Commission of the Philippines. "History of Baler". National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
When military district of El Príncipe was created in 1856, Baler became its capital...On June 12, 1902 a civil government was established, moving the district of El Príncipe away from the administrative jurisdiction of Nueva Ecija...and placing it under the jurisdiction of Tayabas Province.
- ^ Flores, Wilson Lee (July 13, 2008). "Love in the time of war: Manuel Quezon's dad, Anne Curtis, Jericho Rosales & Ed Angara in Baler". PhilStar Global Sunday Lifestyle. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
- ^ Manuel and Aurora in quezon.ph
- ^ Filipinos in History, p. 117. "Quezon's mother took her under her wings. As a consequence, she became the favorite of Manuel's father. Living in the same roof, Manuel and his first cousin shared a joyful company."
- ISBN 971-27-1218-4.
- ^ a b Martinez, p. 138
- ^ a b c Filipinos in History, p. 118
- ISBN 0-345-32816-7.
- ^ a b c d e Filipinos in History, p. 119
- ^ Martinez, p. 146
- ^ "Prelude to Dictatorship?". Time. September 2, 1940. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ a b Leon Ma. Guerrero (1953). "Mrs. Quezon". Family Info. We Filipinos (1953) & Manuel Luis Quezon III (2006). Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ a b "The Letter". Time. January 14, 1946. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ "Mud & Cigars". Time. April 22, 1946. Archived from the original on December 2, 2007. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ a b c Martinez, p. 149
- ^ a b Martinez, p. 148
- ^ a b "The Town Where Time Stands Still". Aurora, Philippines: News. BizNews Asia & Aurora.ph. December 2004. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Martinez, p. 150
- ^ a b c d e "Murder in the Mountains". Time. May 9, 1949. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ Martinez, p. 151
- ^ Major Lawrence M. Greenberg (July 1986). "Chapter IV: The Insurrection – Phase I (1946–1950)". The Hukbalahap Insurrection: A Case Study of a Successful Anti-Insurgency Operation in the Philippines, 1946–1955. Historical Analysis Series. United States Army Center of Military History. p. 62. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
The Huk campaign that began in November 1948 reached its peak in April 1949, with the ambush of Senora Aurora Quezon, widow of the former Philippine president. Commander Alexander Viernes, alias Stalin, took two hundred men and laid an ambush along a small country road in the Sierra Madres mountains and waited for a motorcade carrying Sra. Quezon, her daughter, and several government officials. When the ambush ended, Senora Quezon, her daughter, the mayor of Quezon City, and numerous government troops lay dead alongside the road. Although Viernes claimed a great victory, people throughout the islands, including many in central Luzon, were outraged.
- ^ ISBN 971-8711-06-6.
- ^ a b Martinez, p. 152
- ^ "Guilty Your Honor". Time. September 6, 1954. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ Taruc, L., 1967, He Who Rides the Tiger, London: Geoffrey Chapman Ltd. [ISBN missing]
- ^ a b "Doña Aurora Quezon's remains transferred to QC Shrine". Official Website of the Republic of the Philippines. Republic of the Philippines. April 28, 2005. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
- ^ Martinez, p. 147
- The Philippine STAR.
References
- Filipinos in History, Volume II. Ermita, Manila: National Historical Institute. 1990. pp. 117–120. ISBN 971-538-003-4.
- Manuel F. Martinez (2002). "Mission Possible:Assassinate Quezon – and Mrs. Quezon". Assassinations and Conspiracies: From Rajah Humabon to Imelda Marcos. Pasig: Anvil Publishing, Inc. pp. 138–152. ISBN 971-27-1218-4.
External links
- Wilkins, Ford (April 29, 1949). "Mrs. Quezon Slain with 12 of Party in Filipino Ambush; First President's Widow, Two of Kin, Others Are Shot, Apparently by 'Huks' Army Hunts Attackers Quirino, Who Had Shifted Plan to Be With Motorcade Victims, Discounts Reports of Plot (pay site)". New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2008.
- "Audio of Mrs. Aurora Quezon, Speaking during the 1948 Red Cross Fund Drive Appeal" (MP3). Manuel L. Quezon III:The Daily Dose. Retrieved May 4, 2008.