Josefina Phodaca-Ambrosio

Phodaca was admitted to the bar in Manila in 1940, and shared a law practice with her sister and her brother-in-law.^[4] She served on the Manila City Council from 1947 to 1951,^[5] as chair of health and welfare, and the only woman on the council during her tenure.^[6][7][8] During her time on the council she campaigned against gambling and prostitution in the city.^[9] In 1949, she was already a founder and leader of the short-lived National Political Party of Women in the Philippines, and chair of the Civic Assembly of Women of the Philippines.^[4] She was active in the YWCA, Girl Scouting, the National Federation of Women's Clubs, and the women's suffrage and family planning movements in the Philippines.^[10] In 1970, she received the Presidential Award of Merit from Ferdinand Marcos.^[2]

Phodaca was elected president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in 1958,^[11][12][13] and was an advisor to the Philippines' delegation to the United Nations.^[2] In 1959 she was appointed to the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.^[14]

Phodaca was an ordained elder in the Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila.^[15] In 1953 she became head of the United Council of Evangelical Church Women.^[16][17] Phodaca attended the United Church Women in America meeting in Ohio in 1955,^[18][19] joined a "fellowship team" on a world tour,^[20] and traveled in the United States as a lecturer sponsored by the United Church Women and the Presbyterian Board of Missions.^[16][21] In 1968, Phodaca-Ambrosio attended the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, where she, Pauli Murray, Rena Karefa-Smart, Annie Jiagge, and others worked to improve women's representation on the council's governing bodies.^[22]

Phodaca married a widowed lawyer and businessman Dominador Belmonte Ambrosio in 1958.^[12] She was widowed when her husband died in 1964.^[23] She died in 1970.^[2]

She is a grandaunt from Tranquil Salvador III.^[2]