Melchora Aquino (1812 – 1919) was a Filipina revolutionary. She was known as Tandang Sora.
Sora is short for Melchora, while Tandang is from matanda, the Tagalog word for ‘old’ — she was 84 years old when the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896. In history books, she is given the monikers “Mother of Balintawak” and “Mother of the Katipunan.”
She provided food and medical help to Filipino revolutionaries and allowed them to meet at her house. The Spanish authorities wanted her to reveal the whereabouts of Andres Bonifacio; when she refused, she was exiled to the Mariana Islands.
Her profile was on the five-centavo coin from 1967 until 1992. She is the first Filipina to have appared on a Philippine peso banknote — a 100-peso bill that was in circulation in the 1950’s and 1960’s.