Estelita Juco was disabled after being injured in an explosion during World War 2 in the Philippines. She accepted her disability and worked to support herself through education, becoming a teacher. As a teacher and politician, she advocated for women's and disabled rights, resisting the Marcos dictatorship through her writing. Despite challenges, Juco overcame adversity through strength, service, and refusing to see herself as a victim.

1. Estelita G. Juco
Day to Day Heroism

2. Estelita G. Juco
 When Esty got disabled (right arm
amputated, right eye completely blinded,
and left knee chopped off, causing a lifetime
fracture) because of the explosion of a shell
in the Philippine General Hospital where
they had sought for refuge from their
burning homes during the World War II.
 Looking back to all of her trauma, she find
herself thanking God rather than blaming
life.

3. Estelita G. Juco
 There were periods when Esty feel
depressed and drowning in tears of
self-pity. But not for long. She had to
put on bravery for the sake of her
mother who was very sensitive and
emotional person. Esty wanted to
spare her mother from the added
burden of worrying about her and
empathizing with the difficult period of
accepting her disability and adjusting
to it.

4. Estelita G. Juco
 Esty filled herself with activities
designed to prepare herself to return
to normal living
 She practiced writing with her left
hand
 Books also gave her immeasurable
comfort
 Gradually, she learned to appreciate
the world of people around her, taking
an interest in their individual lives.

5. I Need Thee, Lord by Esty Juco
(1947, age 16)
The road has thorns and stones, my
Lord
They hurt my aching feet;
But with Thee for companion, Lord
Each weary step is sweet.

6. I Need Thee, Lord by Esty Juco
(1947, age 16)
Dark gathers all around me, Lord
I know not where to go;
Allow me hold Thine loving hand-
I need Thine presence so.

7. I Need Thee, Lord by Esty Juco
(1947, age 16)
The cross upon my shoulder, Lord
Grows heavier with each mile
Give me strength that I may veil
My sufferings with a smile.

8. I Need Thee, Lord by Esty Juco
(1947, age 16)
I see a beckoning light, my Lord
My quest draws to an end;
Lord, hold me close-a soul to come
home
Thine weary, wayward friend

9. Estelita G. Juco
 Her innate gregariousness always
made her share everything with
teachers, nuns and classmates. She
accepted her disability and the rest
accepted her like one of them. She
graduated as the class valedictorian
and was a given a four-year college
scholarship at St. Paul college in
Manila

10. Estelita G. Juco
 Her disability was never a cause for
demanding special treatment
 Esty Juco graduated from St. Paul in
1952 with a degree in education,
Summa Cum Laude.

11. Estelita G. Juco
 She had re-made her life and re-invented
herself into an outstanding graduate, a
true leader as a student, a woman and a
Filipina.
 Her disability, her orphanhood, her slim
financial means were never obstacles
but the reverse-motivating factors that
pushed her into transforming herself to a
self-reliant, secure and accomplish
campus figure, a confident person who
accepted the challenges of the future.

12. Teacher Par Excellence
 Along the way to becoming herself.
Esty found her vocation – to teach the
young and inspired them to do their
best.
 “Perhaps one of the most important ways that
helped me cope with disability was my decision to
be a teacher. This I took to be my lifetime vocation
and I have never regretted it.”
 Estelita G.
Juco

13. Teacher Par Excellence
 When Esty Juco chose her vocation,
the trend of the times in compensation
and the teacher’s place in society was
becoming clear. It would be a life of
modest if not insufficient salary. It
posed no prospects of triumphant
public vindication in the future. Esty
realized all these but she chose to
teach.

14. Full Circle with Japan
 Sometime around 1954, Esty was
chosen as a Philippine youth leader to
go on a three-month Japan tour
designated as a leadership training
course and a living experience.
 It was a turning point of Esty’s life not
only because it would be the first time
she would travel out of her country
but…

15. Full Circle with Japan
because she would have confront
again a painful and tragic past which
by building a new life she was
assiduously trying to put her behind.
 Thus during her first trip to Japan, her
forcible return to her past did not
recreate as much of the old anger and
bitterness. Rather…

16. Full Circle with Japan
She opened her eyes to the outside
world and in particular to the
Japanese.
 Esty was featured on Japanese
television playing the piano with one
hand and speaking as a war victim
without hatred and bitterness towards
the enemy.
 She saw her Japanese relationships in
the wider light of a new start between

18. Resisting the Dictatorship
 Aside from being a teacher, Esty Juco is
also a politician protecting the rights of
women and disabled, she has gain many
positions at the government especially at
time of President Magsaysay(Esty’s
close friend) until his plane crush
accident.
 Esty Juco was depressed but still, she
continue what she have started until the
reign of Marcos.

19. Resisting the Dictatorship
 Esty wrote a column wherein she
criticize martial law, she decried the
violations of human rights, she
targeted Imelda Marcos’ Frivolities.
 Writing a critical column for a
struggling opposition paper in the
Martial Law era was a quite a
courageous act.

20. Resisting the Dictatorship
 One night she came home to her
Kamias house and wondered why it
was so dark that she couldn’t see the
lights. There were none because her
house had burned down with earthly
possession she had including her
collected writings-prose and poems.
This was in 1984. She was left with
nothing

21. Resisting the Dictatorship
 Despite her misfortune with the fire
she was not about to become a charity
case.
 At this time Esty was beginning a
physical decline that was becoming
visible with an increasing number of
falls, something which did not occur in
the past.

22. Public Servant: For the
Disabled
 As a sectoral representative for the
disabled, Esty went out of her way to
help them. She put up a fund that she
termed TIWALA(trust) from her extra
earnings to help disabled people who
came to her for assistance.

23. Public Servant: For the
Disabled
 Esty had all her life proved that
disability did not have to sacrifice self-
reliance. In fact she was a proof that
the disabled could earn their keep.

24. Estelita Juco
 On may 10, 1989, her knee was so
painful she could hardly walk and the
end was near for she passed away on
July 12, 1989.

25. Legacy
 When people learned Esty had died
they went back to the beginning of her
life and reflected how despite pain and
tragedy, Esty had Triumphed. No one
could remember her asking for
anything special because of her
handicaps. In fact her handicaps
receded from memory replaced by
what Esty really was – a teacher, a
leader, a person, a Filipina – facets of
her whole, complete self.