Today, on March 23, 1863 (Philippines):
March must have a correlation with a desire to join revolutions and fight for democracy. On this day in 1863, Mariano Ponce; physician, writer and member of the Philippine Revolution was born in Baliwag, Bulacan. He completed his medical studies at the Complutense University of Madrid (one of the oldest universities in the world).
In Spain, he joined with Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Jose Rizal among other famous members of the anti-Spanish movement; Ponce worked as secretary of the Propaganda Movement while also heading up the Literary Section of the Hispanic-Filipino Association.
In 1896 when the revolution first started, he was arrested in Spain and once released quickly fled to Hong Kong and worked to create the international front of the revolution. Two years later, Emilio Aguinaldo selected him as an ambassador for the First Philippine Republic to Japan; where he sought aid and weapons—and made connections with Sun Yat-Sen.
His other achievements were directing the “The Renaissance”, creating “The Perfect” organization within the “Nacionalista Partido”, as well as being elected as an assemblyman for Bulacan. He died on May 23, 1918 (55) and is interred at the Cementerio del Norte in Manila.
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(photo from www.facebook.com/rizal150to150/photos_stream )