Sofia Tiaozon Reyes de Veyra

Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition Series 3):

September 30, 1876

Sofia Tiaozon Reyes de Veyra (September 30, 1876 – January 1, 1953), was born in Arevalo, Iloilo City to Santiago Reyes and Eulalia Tiaozon. She married the journalist Jaime Carlos de Veyra, who was governor of Leyte and the appointed Philippine Resident Commissioner to the United States in 1917. They had four children. 

She was a Filipina suffragette, social welfare worker, teacher, school founder, and member of several government boards. De Veyra co-founded (with Mary E. Coleman) the Asociacion Feminista Filipina, the first women's club in the Philippines established in June 1905. It marked the beginning of the Feminist Movement in the Philippines. 

She also organized the Manila Women’s Club which became the nucleus of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, and was at the forefront in the campaign to give women the right to vote and other rights. 

She was co-author of the pre-war public schools book "Character and Conduct." She was vice president of the Centro Escolar University and the private secretary of four presidents - Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmeña Sr., Manuel Roxas and Elpidio Quirino. 

Sofia Reyes de Veyra died on January 1, 1953.

(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan B. Uy) All rights reserved

Photo credit: wikipedia.org