Gabriela’s founding  mom Nelia Sancho, 71

MANILA, Philippines — Women’s group Gabriela expressed its deepest condolences to the family of Nelia Sancho, one of the founders of the pro-women non-government organization and human rights advocate, who died Thursday age 71 in Diliman, Quezon City.

“She is proof that women are not meant to be submissive and obedient, but have a crucial role in pushing for genuine freedom and human rights,” the group said of the former beauty queen, who won the title of Queen of the Pacific in 1971 in the pageant held in Melbourne, Australia.

“Despite her passing, the life of Sancho will continue to inspire generations of women who will continue the fight against the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country,” Gabriela, represented by its lone Rep. Arlene Brosas in the House, stressed.

The group recalled that Sancho left the comforts of privileged life and became an activist at the onset of the First Quarter Storm during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and eventually joined the underground during martial law. After a raid in Cagayan de Oro, she was a political prisoner for two years in the ’70s.

She later co-founded the women’s rights organization Gabriela National Alliance of Women with fellow beauty queen turned activist Maita Gomez.

She also was elected board member of the Task Force Detainees.

Sancho became active in advocating for women empowerment, and was one of the campaigners for just compensation for Filipina comfort women of World War II. In a Facebook post she is seen posing beside a statue of comfort woman Rosa Henson in Caticlan, Aklan.

MindaNews noted that writer Don Pagusara and historian Macario Tiu also paid tribute to Sancho, who along with other former political detainees and cultural workers often found refuge in the house of the poet and journalist Alfrredo Navarro Salanga in Quezon City shortly before the fall of the dictatorship.