Teresa Magbanua

Teresa Magbanua y Ferraris (October 13, 1868 – August 1947), better known as Teresa Magbanua and dubbed as the "Visayan Joan of Arc", was a Filipino schoolteacher and military leader. Born in Pototan, Iloilo, Philippines, she retired from education and became a housewife shortly after her marriage to Alejandro Balderas, a wealthy landowner from Sara, Iloilo. When the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain broke out, she became one of only a few women to join the Panay-based Visayan arm of the Katipunan, the initially secret revolutionary society headed by Andrés Bonifacio.

Despite opposition from her husband, Magbanua followed her two younger brothers and took up arms against the Spaniards, leading troops into combat and winning several battles under the command of General Martin Delgado. Magbanua is credited as the only woman to lead troops in the Visayan area during the Revolution. Shortly thereafter, Magbanua shifted to fighting American colonial forces during the Philippine–American War.

She is one of the few Filipinos to have participated in all three resistance movements against the three major colonizers: Spain (in the Philippine Revolution), the United States (in the Philippine–American War), and Japan (in World War II).