1.
Makati
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Makati, officially the City of Makati, in the Philippines, is one of the sixteen cities that make up Metro Manila. Makati is the center of the Philippines, it has the highest concentration of multinational and local corporations in the country. Major banks, corporations, department stores as well as foreign embassies are based in Makati, the biggest trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange is situated along the citys Ayala Avenue. Makati is also known for being a cultural and entertainment hub in Metro Manila. With a population of 582,602, Makati is the 17th-largest city in the country, tradition holds that a Tagalog at a swamp on the south of the Pasig River was asked by a visitor, who was Miguel López de Legazpi, for the name of the place. As a result of the barrier the question was misinterpreted, and the Tagalog pointed to the receding tide of the Pasig River. Parts of the city were subject to the pre-Hispanic Kingdom of Namayan. It became an independent municipality in 1670, and was christened San Pedro de Macati in honour of the towns patron, the town was also famous for its pottery industry since the 18th century, with skilled potters trained by Jesuit priests. Its strategic location made it a pitstop for pilgrims, travelling by foot or boat, towards the shrine of Our Lady of Peace. In 1851, Don José Bonifacio Roxas purchased the Jesuit estate of Hacienda de San Pedro de Macati for 52,800 pesos, since then, the development of Makati has remained linked with the Zóbel de Ayala family and their company, Ayala Corporation. Culi-Culi is now a barangay named in honour of Del Pilar, by 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines and other overseas possessions to the United States after the formers defeat in the Spanish–American War. That same year, the town, with a population of 25,000, was incorporated from Manila to the new province of Rizal. On February 28,1914, the The Philippine Legislature passed Act 2390, shortening the name, San Pedro de Macati, during that same period, Santa Ana Park, the nations second horse racing facility, opened to expectations from horse racing fans. After the destruction Second World War had brought upon Makati, and the subsequent closure of Nielson Field, the town grew rapidly, the first of the planned communities were established in the 1950s with the efforts of its landowner, Ayala y Compañía. The first office buildings were built on what is now the Makati Central Business District, since the late 1960s, Makati has transformed into the financial and commercial capital of the country. Makatis central location adjacent to the city of Manila also made it a hub for major national and international corporations. Partly as a result a new town hall just miles from the old one was built in 1962 just along J. P. Rizal Avenue. Mayor Bañolas term of office as town executive saw the building up of what is now the Ayala Center with the help of the Ayala firm, which would become the citys central shopping center of today
2.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
3.
Urban park
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The design, operation and maintenance is usually done by government, typically on the local level, but may occasionally be contracted out to a private sector company. A park is an area of space provided for recreational use. Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics, trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade. An early purpose-built public park, although financed privately, was Princes Park in the Liverpool suburb of Toxteth and this was laid out to the designs of Joseph Paxton from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which the park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, the creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of space for the benefit of townspeople. Nashs remodelling of St Jamess Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regents Park completely transformed the appearance of Londons West End. Liverpool had a presence on the scene of global maritime trade before 1800. The latter was commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance, frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having one of the principal influences on Olmsted. Another early public park is the Peel Park, Salford, England opened on 22 August 1846, in The Politics of Park Design, A History of Urban Parks in America, Professor Galen Cranz identifies four phases of park design in the U. S. As time passed and the area grew around the parks, land in these parks was used for other purposes, such as zoos, golf courses. These parks continue to draw visitors from around the region and are considered regional parks, because they require a higher level of management than smaller local parks. According to the Trust for Public Land, the three most visited parks in the United States are Central Park in New York, Lincoln Park in Chicago. In the early 1900s, according to Cranz, U. S. cities built neighborhood parks with swimming pools, playgrounds and civic buildings and these smaller parks were built in residential neighborhoods, and tried to serve all residents with programs for seniors, adults, teens and children. Green space was of secondary importance, as urban land prices climbed, new urban parks in the 1960s and after have been mainly pocket parks. One such example of a park is Chess Park in Glendale. This award-winning park was given an award by the American Society of Landscape Architects and these small parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and often a playground for children
4.
Hyde Park, London
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Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is also a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462. Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the then 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat. The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was later moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
5.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
6.
Hacienda
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Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines or factories, many haciendas combined these productive activities. The term hacienda is imprecise, but usually refers to landed estates of significant size, smaller holdings were termed estancias or ranchos that were owned almost exclusively by Spaniards and criollos and in rare cases by mixed-race individuals. In Argentina, the estancia is used for large estates that in Mexico would be termed haciendas. In recent decades, the term has been used in the United States to refer to a style associated with the earlier estate manor houses. The hacienda system of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, New Granada, a similar system existed on a smaller scale in the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Haciendas were developed as profit-making, economic enterprises linked to regional or international markets, the owner of an hacienda was termed an hacendado. Even though the private landed estates that comprised most haciendas did not have a tie to the encomienda. Encomenderos were in a position to retain their prominence economically via the hacienda, since the encomienda was a grant from the crown, holders were dependent on the crown for its continuation. As the crown moved to eliminate the encomienda with its supply, Spaniards consolidated private landholdings. The long term trend then was the creation of the hacienda as secure private property, haciendas originated in Spanish land grants, made to many conquistadors and crown officials, but many ordinary Spaniards could also petition for land grants from the crown. The system is considered to have started in present-day Mexico, when the Spanish Crown granted to Hernán Cortés the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca in 1529 and it gave him a tract of land that included all of the present state of Morelos. Cortés was also granted encomiendas, that gave him access to a vast pool of indigenous labor, in Spanish America, the owner of an hacienda was called the hacendado or patrón. Onsite management of the estates was by a paid administrator or manager. Administrators were often hired for a term of employment, receiving a salary. Some administrators also acquired landholdings themselves in the area of the estate they were managing, the work force on haciendas varied, depending on the type of hacienda and where it was located. In central Mexico near indigenous communities and growing crops to supply urban markets, there was often a small, labor could be recruited from nearby indigenous communities on an as-needed basis, such as planting and harvest time. The permanent and temporary employees worked land that belonged to the patrón
7.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport
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The Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA /ˈnaɪ. ə/, also known as Manila International Airport, is the airport serving Manila and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is managed by the Manila International Airport Authority, a branch of the Department of Transportation, officially, NAIA is the only airport serving the Manila area. In the recent past there have been calls for Clark to replace NAIA eventually as the airport of the Philippines. The airport is named after the late Senator Benigno Ninoy Aquino, Jr. who was assassinated at the airport in 1983. In 2015, all terminals at NAIA handled a record breaking annual passenger traffic of 36,681,601, domestic passengers totaled 19,513,514 compared to international travelers, totaling 17,168,087. The original airport that served Manila, Grace Park Airfield, also known as Manila North, was opened in 1935 in Grace Park and it was the citys first commercial airport, and was used by Philippine Aerial Taxi Company for its first domestic routes. In July 1937, Manila International Air Terminal located in the 42 hectares Nielson Airport was inaugurated and had served as the gateway to Manila and its runways of which now form Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati. The original structure was built on what is now the site of Terminal 2, in 1954 the airports international runway and associated taxiway were built, and in 1956, construction was started on a control tower and a terminal building for international passengers. The new terminal was inaugurated on September 22,1961, on January 22,1972, a fire caused substantial damage to the original terminal building, and a slightly smaller terminal was rebuilt in its place the following year. This second terminal would become the international terminal until 1981 when a new, higher-capacity terminal. The old international terminal would serve as Manilas domestic airport until another fire damaged it in May 1985, the present Terminal 1, originally named Manila International Airport, was given its present name on August 17,1987 by virtue of Republic Act No. Plans for a new terminal were conceived in 1989, when the Department of Transportation, the recommendation was to build two new terminals, and in 1998 Terminal 2 was completed. Terminal 2 was nicknamed the Centennial Terminal as its completion coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain, in 1997 the government approved the construction of Terminal 3, which was originally scheduled to be completed in 2002. After many delays caused by technical and legal issues, the terminal became operational in mid-2008. The government aims to return services from many of the airlines which cancelled services to Manila as a result of Terminal 1s problems, the original proposal for the construction of a third terminal was proposed by Asias Emerging Dragon Corporation. AEDP eventually lost the bid to PairCargo and its partner Fraport AG of Germany, on August 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos led the groundbreaking ceremony of Terminal 3. The structure was completed several years ago and was originally scheduled to open in 2002. The ultra-modern US$640 million,189, 000-square-metre facility was designed by Skidmore, Owings, however, before the terminal could be fully completed, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, called the contract onerous and therefore formed a committee to evaluate the agreement to buy out Fraport AG
8.
Leandro Locsin
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Leandro Valencia Locsin was a Filipino architect, artist, and interior designer known for his use of concrete, floating volume and simplistic design in his various projects. An avid collector, he was fond of painting and Chinese ceramics. He was proclaimed a National Artist of the Philippines for Architecture in 1990 by the late President Corazon C and he was born Leandro Valencia Locsin on August 15,1928, in Silay, Negros Occidental, a grandson of the first governor of the province. He later studied at the De La Salle Brothers in 1935 before returning to Negros due to the Second World War and he returned to Manila to study Pre-Law before shifting to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Music at the University of Santo Tomas. Although he was a talented pianist, he later shifted again to Architecture and he married Cecilia Yulo, and one of their two children is also an architect. An art lover, he frequented the Philippine Art Gallery, where he met the curator, the latter recommended Locsin to the Ossorio family that was planning to build a chapel in Negros. When Frederic Ossorio left for the United States, the plans for the chapel were canceled. John Delaney, S. J. then Catholic Chaplain at the University of the Philippines - Diliman, commissioned Locsin to design a chapel that is open and can easily accommodate 1,000 people. The Church of the Holy Sacrifice is the first round chapel in the Philippines to have an altar in the middle, and the first to have a thin shell concrete dome. The floor of the church was designed by Arturo Luz, the stations of the cross by Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok, alfredo L. Juinio served as the buildings structural engineer. Today, the church is recognized as a National Historical Landmark and a Cultural Treasure by the National Historical Institute, on his visit to the United States, he met some of his influences, Paul Rudolph and Eero Saarinen. It was then he realized to use concrete, which was cheap in the Philippines and easy to form. In 1969, he completed what was to be his most recognizable work, the marble façade of the building is cantilevered 12 meters from the terrace by huge arching columns at the sides of the building, giving it the impression of being afloat. A large lagoon in front of the theatre mirrors the building during daytime, the building houses four theaters, a museum of ethnographic art and other temporary exhibits, galleries, and a library on Philippine art and culture. In 1974, Locsin designed the Folk Arts Theater, which is one of the largest single-span buildings in the Philippines with a span of 60 meters and it was completed in only seventy-seven days, in time for the Miss Universe Pageant. Locsin was also commissioned to build the Philippine International Convention Center and he was also commissioned in 1974 to design the Ayala Museum to house the Ayala art collection. It was known for the juxtaposition of huge blocks to facilitate the interior of the exhibition, Locsin was a close friend of the Ayalas. Before taking the examination, he took his apprenticeship at Ayala and Company and was even asked to design the first building in Ayala Avenue
9.
Murraya paniculata
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This common name can also refer to Cestrum aurantiacum. Murraya is closely related to Citrus, and bears small orange to red fruit resembling kumquats, pretty to look at but Murraya Paniculata is recorded as an invasive weed by many Australian councils. It is spread by birds, self-propagates and the roots are also invasive in seach of moisture and it invades natural habitats and is highly ranked on Australias most invasive weed list. This weed was introduced to areas in Australia and marketed as a easy to grow hedge which, sufferers experience headache, blocked sinuses and breathing difficulties, etc. It may be in the family but theres nothing healthy about a fully flowering Murraya hedge on a hot summers night. The plant flowers throughout the year and its leaves are glabrous and glossy, occurring in 3-7 oddly pinnate leaflets which are elliptic to cuneate-obovate to rhombic. Flowers are terminal, corymbose, few-flowered, dense and fragrant, petals are 12–18 mm long, recurved and white. The fruit of Murraya paniculata is fleshy, oblong-ovoid, coloured red to orange, M. paniculata is a native of South and Southeast Asia, China and Australasia. It is naturalised in southern United States, traditionally, Murraya paniculata is used both in traditional medicine as an analgesic and for wood. In the West, Murraya paniculata is cultured as a tree or hedge because of its hardiness, wide range of soil tolerance. The plant flowers throughout the year and produces small, fragrant flower clusters which attract bees, honey bee farms have been known to plant Orange Jessamine near bee hives. Serving not only as food for the bees but as protection from harsh winds, honey collected from bee hive colonies that collect pollen from orange jessamines, have a tangy sweet orange undertone. The Orange Jessamine is sexually propagated by its seeds, the fruits are eaten by birds, who then pass the seeds out in their stool. It may also be propagated by softwood cuttings. M. paniculata is vulnerable to soil nematodes, scales, sooty mold, M. paniculata is the preferred host to the insect pest Diaphorina citri, the citrus psyllid. This psyllid is the vector for the citrus greening disease, the crude ethanolic extract of leaves of Murraya paniculata has antidiarrhoeal, antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities. Yuehchukene, an indole alkaloid, can be extracted from the root. Footnotes References Welsh, S. L.1998, flora Societensis, A summary revision of the flowering plants of the Society Islands E. P. S. Inc
10.
Podocarpus
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Podocarpus is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, Podocarpaceae. Podocarpus are evergreen shrubs or trees, usually from 1 to 25 meters tall, the cones have two to five fused cone scales which form a fleshy, berry-like, brightly coloured receptacle at maturity. The fleshy cones attract birds which eat the cones and disperse the seeds in their droppings. There are approximately 97 to 107 species in the genus depending on the circumscription of the species, the name Podocarpus is derived from the Greek, podos, meaning foot, and karpos, meaning fruit. Common names for species include yellowwood as well as pine. They are generally trees but may also be shrubs, the trees can reach a height of 40 meters at their tallest. Some shrubby species have a decumbent growth habit, the primary branches form pseudo-whorls around the trunk. The bark can be scaly or fibrous and peeling with vertical strips, terminal buds are distinctive with bud scales that are often imbricate and can be spreading. The leaves are simple, flattened and may be sessile or short petiolate, the phyllotaxis or leaf arrangement is spiral and may be subopposite on some shoots. The leaves are usually linear-lanceolate or linear-elliptic in shape, though they can be broader lanceolate, ovate or nearly elliptic in some species, juvenile leaves are often larger than adult leaves though similar in shape. The leaves are coriaceous and have a distinct midrib, the stomata are usually restricted to the abaxial or underside of the leaf, forming two stomatal bands around the midrib. Podocarpus are generally dioecious, with the pollen cones and female seed cones borne on separate individual plants. The cones develop from axillary buds and may be solitary or form clusters, the pollen cones are long and catkin-like in shape. They may be sessile or short pedunculate, a pollen cone consists of a slender rachis with numerous spirally arranged microsporophylls around it. Each triangular microsporophyll has two basal pollen producing pollen sacs, the seed cones are highly modified with the few cone scales swelling and fusing at maturity. The cones are pedunculate and often solitary, the seed cone consists of two to five cone scales of which only the uppermost one or rarely two nearest the apex of the cone are fertile. Each fertile scale usually has one apical ovule, the infertile basal scales fuse and swell to form a succulent, usually brightly colored receptacle. Each cone generally has one seed but may have two or rarely more
11.
Benigno Aquino Jr.
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Benigno Simeon Ninoy Aquino Jr. was the former husband of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and father of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition towards Ferdinand Marcos, shortly after the imposition of martial law, he was arrested in 1972 along with others associated with the Communists armed insurgency and incarcerated for seven years. He founded his own party Lakas ng Bayan and ran for the Philippine parliamentary election,1978 and he was assassinated at the Manila International Airport in 1983 upon returning from his self-imposed exile. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon, into the political limelight, among other public structures, Manila International Airport has since been renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor, and the anniversary of his death is a national holiday. Benigno Simeón Aquino was born in Concepcion, Tarlac, on November 27,1932, to a family of hacenderos, original owners of Hacienda Maling, Hacienda Sawang. His grandfather, Servillano Aquino, was a general in the army of Emilio Aguinaldo. His father, Benigno Aquino Sr. was the Director-General of KALIBAPI and his father was also one of two politicians representing Tarlac during his lifetime, the other being José Cojuangco, father of his future wife. After the war, Benigno Aquino Sr. was arrested and charged with treason for collaborating with the Japanese during the occupation of the country. His father died before the trial was completed and he received his elementary education at De La Salle College and finished at Saint Josephs College of Quezon City. He completed his school education at San Beda College. Aquino took his education at Ateneo de Manila to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree. According to one of his biographies, he considered himself to be an average student, at age 17, he was the youngest war correspondent to cover the Korean War for The Manila Times of Don Joaquín Chino Roces. Because of his feats, he received the Philippine Legion of Honor award from President Elpidio Quirino at age 18. At 21, he became an adviser to then Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay. Aquino took up law at the University of the Philippines, where he became a member of Upsilon Sigma Phi and he interrupted his studies again however to pursue a career in journalism. According to Máximo Soliven, Aquino later explained that he had decided to go to as many schools as possible, so that he could make as many new friends as possible. After four months of negotiations, he was credited for Tarucs unconditional surrender and was given a second Philippine Legion of Honor award with the degree of Commander on October 14,1954 and he became mayor of Concepcion in 1955 at the age of 22. Ninoy helped brokered the purchase of Hacienda Luisita, a 6,453 hectare sugar plantation and he later on became the Haciendas administrator
12.
Muhammad Kudarat
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Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat was Sultan of Maguindanao from 1619 to 1671. He was a descendant of Shariff Kabungsuwan, an Malay-Arab Johor noble who brought Islam to Mindanaw between the 13th and 14th century. Under the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Sultan Kudarat became a Philippine national hero, Sultan Dipatwan Kudarat, the Corralat according to prolific Spanish historian Combes. The word Dipatuwan is Malay in origin and means master or sir, the word Qudrat is Arabic and means Power. The letters d and q and r and / are interchangeable in Moro, Sultan Kudarat overshadowed his father, Bwisan, and ruled with a strong hand. He was probably the strongest and greatest Mindanao Sultan that ever lived and he fought the Spaniards well and held their sovereignty in check for many years. His sea warriors constantly attack Luzon and the Visayas for allowing themselves to become soldiers of the newly arrived Iberians. His Sultanate controlled the seas for a long time. In 1636 General Corcuera led an expedition against him and after considerable difficulty reduced his fort, Kudarat had a large quantity of gunpowder and firearms, and his fort was very strongly fortified. The Spaniards captured 8 bronze cannons,27 Lantaka or culverins, in 1645 his relations with then Imperial Spain had undergone a distinct change. He had become powerful, but he was naturally desirous of peace. This treaty was in the nature of an alliance for mutual aid and it secured better commercial facilities and gave the Jesuits the privilege of building a church in the sultans capital. Thirteen years later hostilities were renewed and another campaign was directed against Simway and this time Kudarat succeeded in blocking the river at different places and successfully checked the invasion. Kudarat was the most famous ruler of the Magindanaws and he succeeded his father as chief of Magindanaw in 1619 and was titled Katchil. In 1619-1621, there was a war between him and the Rajah Bwayan that was either dynastic in character or a contest for primacy in the Pulangi. Both sides asked help from the Dutch East Indies who decided to stay neutral, in 1622, Kudarat appeared to have suffered some reverses which led him to sail to Cebu to pillage some artillery from the Spaniards. Soon after this, he was able to hold his own against attempts of Bwayan Sultanate to solely control the lucrative Pulangi waterways. In 1625-1626, because its Datu, an ally of Kudarat, was ousted, Kudarat attacked the island of Sarangani, burned its capital, slew scores of his enemies, the people of Sarangani were then made part of the Sultanate and tributary to him
