The ideal Filipino, Dr. Jose Rizal said, is patriotic, of firm conviction, and inspires men to pursue noble goals in life. One of the many Filipinas who personified these criteria of Dr. Rizal was Doña Patrocinio Gamboa of Jaro, Iloilo. She was one of the leading figures in the Visayas during the Philippine Revolution. Historians called her the “Heroine of Jaro.’’

Highly-educated, patriotic, and strong-hearted, Tia Patron, as Doña Patrocinio Gamboa was popularly called, was born in Jaro, Iloilo, on April 30, 1865. She was one of the few women in the Visayas who refused to kowtow to the friars. Her reading of the works of Dr. Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, etc., nourished her patriotic sentiments. She was one of the first to join the Philippine revolution when it broke out in 1896.

In March, 1898, patriots in Iloilo organized a revolucionary organization, which they called it Committee of Conspiradores (Committee of Conspirators).

One of the organizers was Doña Patrocinio Ganboa. This became the Comite Central Revolucionario de Visayas. It formed the nucleus of what later became the Revolutionary Government of the Visayas. This government was inaugurated on November 17, 1898, in Santa Barbara, Iloilo. The raising of the Philippine tricolor highlighted the inauguration of this government. It was sewn by Doña Patrocinio and several women of Molo. Doña Patrocinio personally brought this flag to Santa Barbara outwitting the many enemy outposts along the way.

When the Filipino-American War reached Panay, Doña Patrocinio organized the women of Panay and led them in nursing the wounded and sick Filipino soldiers, collecting alms and war contributions, soliciting food and medical supplies, delivering military dispatches to various Filipino commands, and carried on many other tasks at the risks of their lives.

The end of the war and the loss of the Filipino republic did not discourage Doña Patrocinio from carrying on her patriotic endeavors. She preserved many memorabilia about the Philippine Revolution and its heroes and faithfully celebrated Philippine national holidays, the death anniversary of the Filipino heroes, etc. Offered a lifetime pension by the colonial government, Doña Patrocinio declined, saying “I give my services because I love my country. I do not ask any compensation for these services.’’

Doña Patrocinio Gamboa died on November 24, 1953. Her provincemates buried her with military honors at Jaro’s Balantang Veteran’s Cemetery. She is one of the many who showed the word that the “women are the best men in the Philippines.’’ Like their menfolk, they also sacrificed so much to recover the freedom that the Filipino people lost in 1571.