10 Influential Filipino Women That Have nurtured our country and our spirits

In honor of Mother’s Day, we want to celebrate all kinds of mothers and women who work tirelessly in service to others. We think it's only fitting to highlight 10 of the most influential Filipino women that have nurtured our souls and selflessly gave their time, talent and love to our country. Our list consists of women who have birthed children and some who have not, but all are inspiring role models to young Filipinos around the world. While the list is truly exhaustive, we share 10 of our favorites mother figures who’ve made a big difference in countless lives.

1. Lea Salonga

Photo courtesy of Lea Salonga via Instagram

Starting with a worldwide  household name that most children grew up listening to, THE Disney Princess herself, Lea Salonga. Most commonly known for her voice being portrayed as princess Jasmine and Mulan, Lea Salonga’s resume far exceeds her work with Disney. During her time on broadway, she truly established herself as one of the top voices of our generation by becoming the first Asian female to play Éponine and Fantine in the Broadway musical Les Misérables, not to mention her Tony Award winning performance in Miss Saigon for Best Performance and Best Direction of a Musical. Still breaking barriers to this day, Lea Salonga was recognized by TIME magazine at the TIME100 Impact Awards for being a "life-long role model for kids of color.” 

2. Maria Ressa

Photo courtesy of Maria Ressa via Instagram

From being CEO of Rappler, to having the title of CNN Bureau Cheif and ABS-CBN Head of News and Current Events, Maria Ressa’s tenacity to fight for the truth and journalism has truly established her as one of the best journalists the Philippines has ever produced. During her time as CNN’s lead investigative reporter she wrote a piece, Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia (Free Press, 2003), where she focused on terrorism in Southeast Asia. Her groundbreaking work as a reporter garnered her a Nobel Peace Prize that was jointly awarded to her and Dmitry Muratov for “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”. I think nobelprize.org summed up Ressa’s most recent efforts best when they wrote “As an investigative journalist, she has distinguished herself as a fearless defender of freedom of expression and has exposed the abuse of power, use of violence and increasing authoritarianism of the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte.” 

3. Jessica Cox

Photo courtesy of Jessica Cox via Instagram

Jessica Cox is truly inspiring, showing the world that anything is achievable through hard work and perseverance. You might not have heard of Jessica Cox before  but the story of how she was born without arms, worked  her way to earn a black belt in taekwondo, and also earned her pilot's license to  become the first licensed armless pilot, who can take over the light-sport aircraft controls using her feet, no wonder she has been traveling the world as a public speaker to motivate others and share her story. All these achievements were accomplished with just her feet and no assistance from prosthetic arms. Flying planes, competing in  martial arts, certified in scuba, driving, taking out her contacts, is there nothing she cannot do? Truly motivated and inspired by a fellow Filipina who doesn’t let life’s obstacles slow her down. 

4. Hidilyn Diaz

Photo courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz via Instagram

Hidilyn Diaz is well known in the Asian weightlifting community, having won multiple medals in the Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games. For Filipinos, she first became a topic of interest during the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when she ended a 20 year olympic medal  drought for the Philippines with her silver medal in the 53-kg division of the women’s weightlifting. However she truly left her mark internationally when she became an Olympic weightlifting record holder in the women's 55kg category for weightlifting at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the world will forever remember her name. During the same 2020 Summer Olympic games, she carved her name into Filipino greatness  by being the first Filipino to bring home a gold medal for the Philippines, being a shining beacon to the world that we can dominate and compete with the best that the world has to offer. 

5. Gini Santos

Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar

Gini Santos has been a Pixnoy (Pinoys working at Pixar) with the studio since 1996 when she began working as a character animator for Toy Story 2. Since then she has also worked on disney classics like “Finding Nemo”, a “Bug’s Life” and most recently was the supervising animator for Disney-Pixar’s, “Coco”. In addition to being a key player for such iconic films, she was nominated in 2004 for an Annie award for her detailed lifelike animation on Finding Nemo, and was nominated by the Visual Effects Society for an award for this project as well.

6. Dr. Angelita Castro-Kelly

Courtesy of illustradolife

Dr. Angelita Castro-Kelly loved what she did, believed in herself, and fought for the title of NASA’s Missions Operations Manager for the Earth Observing System (EOS), better known at NASA by her nickname “MOM” (Missions Operations Manager). In the Great Ilocanos interview, Dr. Castro-Kelly said “I’m the first woman MOM, so I cracked the glass ceiling. Before me, all the MOMs were men.” Following her achievement of earning the title of “MOM” for Nasa, she won a few prestigious awards including  the 2007 Most Influential Award by the Filipina Women's Network, the 2007 NASA Honor Award and Exceptional Achievement Medal, the 2006 Goddard Space Flight Center Exceptional Service Award, the Manned Flight Program Launch Honoree Award, the Goddard Space Flight Center Exceptional Performance Award, and the unique Astronauts’ Manned Flight “Snoopy” award.

7. Aisa Mijeno

Photo courtesy of human heart nature via Instagram

One of Asia’s rising scientists, Professor Aisa Mijeno has co-founded Sustainable Alternative Lighting (SALt), a social enterprise that is developing an LED lamp that runs on just table salt and water. Attempting to help rural villages and areas who still use hazardous kerosene lamps, Aisa Mijeno is aiming to mass produce these SALt LED lamps to power-up entire villages across the Philippines using ocean water. 

8. Cristeta Comerford

Photo courtesy of tumbleofonions via Instagram

From studying food technology in the Philippines, working her way through restaurants in Chicago and Washington D.C. she eventually found herself as an assistant chef in the White House in 1995. 10 years later, Chef Comerford was promoted to White House Executive Chef in 2005 by First Lady Laura Bush, being the first woman and the first person of Asian descent and the first person of color  to hold the position. 

9. Nieves Fernandez

Nieves Fernandez was a school teacher who turned into a wreckoning force as a guerilla leader against the Japanese occupation in the Philippines. Japanese soldiers took everything from our homeland as they tortured and killed thousands of Fiipinos, raped helpless women and forced them to work in brothels, and took business away, including Nieves small business. However, when they decided to take her students, she decided that was where she decided to fight back. Nicknamed “The Silent Killer”, Nieves used a makeshift gas pipe shotgun and a blade to kill over 200 Japanese fighters during the second world war, earning her the title of Captain as she lead 110 guerillas against Japanese oppression. 

Here is a photo of Captain Nieves Fernandez US Army Private Andrew Lupiba how she used the blade to fight and kill the enemy soldiers in Leyte how  she silently attacked by targeting the enemy’s carotid artery and jugular vein. (Photographed by Stanley Troutman taken on November 7, 1944)

10. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

Miriam Defensor Santiago has established global fame for her brilliance and courageous example in fighting corruption. Her honesty and tenacity to disassemble corruption earned her to be elected as Judge of International Criminal Court (ICC) for the United Nations, making her the first Filipino and the first from a developing country to be elected to the position. The ICC is in charge of hearing international cases from heads of states and the election of a Filipino put the Philippines on the global map. Unfortunately, a long battle with lung cancer ultimately caused her to turn down the position which ended in her passing in September 2016. 

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Written by Niko Del Rey

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