Nelia Sancho

{{Short description|Filipino beauty queen, activist, feminist}}

{{Philippine name|de los Reyes|Sancho}}

{{Use Philippine English|date=July 2024}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox pageant titleholder

| name = Nelia Sancho

| birth_name = Nelia de los Reyes Sancho

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1951|8|30}}

| birth_place = Pandan, Antique, Philippines{{cite web|url=https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/nelia-sancho-the-last-conversations|title= Nelia Sancho: The Last Conversations, "she hailed from Davao but was born in Pandan, Antique, Panay Island..."

|date = August 30, 2023}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|9|1|1951|8|30}}

| death_place = Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines

| height = 5 ft 6 in {{cite web|url=https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/nelia-sancho-the-last-conversations|title =Nelia Sancho: The Last Conversations, "As a neophyte, she was a physical standout for her 5'6 tall beauty..."

|date = August 30, 2023}}

| title = {{ubl|Queen of the Pacific 1971}}

| competitions =

{{ubl|Binibining Pilipinas 1969|(1st Runner-up)}}

|children = 2

| spouse = Antonio "Tony" Manlunas Liao

| relatives =

}}

Nelia Sancho (August 30, 1951 – September 1, 2022) was a Filipino women's rights activist and beauty queen. She was one of the co-founders of the Gabriela Women's Party.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/world/asia/nelia-sancho-dead.html|title=Nelia Sancho, Beauty Queen Turned Defiant Rights Activist, Dies at 71|first=Sara|last=Tardiff|work=The New York Times |date=September 11, 2023|via=NYTimes.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1657738/nelia-sancho-beauty-queen-womens-rights-activist-71|title=Nelia Sancho, beauty queen, women's rights activist; 71|first=Gabriel Pabico|last=Lalu|date=September 2, 2022|website=INQUIRER.net}}

Nelia was born in Antique to Rogelio Canimo Sancho Sr., a lawyer, and Rosario Martizano de los Reyes, a homemaker, but grew up in Caticlan, Aklan (her mother's hometown) and Pandan, Antique then Davao City. While studying at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Sancho joined Binibining Pilipinas 1969, finishing first runner-up to Gloria Diaz who will go on and win the first Miss Universe crown for the Philippines.{{cite web|last=Dumaual|first=Mario|date=2022-09-02|title=Beauty queen-turned-activist Nelia Sancho passes away|url=https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/02/22/ex-beauty-queen-activist-nelia-sancho-passes-away|website=ABS-CBNnews.com}}

She earned her own international pageant title when she won Queen of the Pacific 1971 in Melbourne, Australia.

With some of her sorority sisters in the UP Sigma Delta Phi, she participated in the First Quarter Storm, the protests against human rights violations by then president Ferdinand Marcos. In 1973, Sancho was first arrested by state forces; then incarcerated again in 1976 as a political prisoner in Bicutan, Taguig. She was later released in 1978 after two and a half years due to humanitarian grounds after conceiving her firstborn child, Antonio Karlo. She then co-founded GABRIELA in 1984.{{cite web|last=Bolledo|first=Jairo|date=2022-09-02|title=Beauty with a purpose: The life of Nelia Sancho, beauty queen and activist|url=https://www.rappler.com/nation/life-profile-nelia-sancho-beauty-queen-activist/|access-date=2023-09-18|website=RAPPLER|language=en-US}}

While she was with the underground movement to resist the brutality of martial law under Marcos, she was assigned as head of the finance committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines. In 1974, she met Antonio "Tony" Liao, a CPP commander for the Misamis front, leading the civil resistance in Mindanao. He will go on to become her husband and they will have two children together.{{cite web|last=Lolarga|first=Elizabeth|date=2022-09-23|title=Nelia Sancho: The Arab-looking, miniskirt-wearing mestizo|url=https://verafiles.org/articles/nelia-sancho-the-arab-looking-miniskirt-wearing-mestizo%EF%BF%BC|access-date=2023-09-18|website=VERA Files|language=en-US}} After Marcos was unseated in 1986 due to the peaceful popular uprising People Power Revolution, Sancho ran for senator in 1987 and lost.{{cite web|last=Concepcion|first=Pocholo|date=2022-09-02|title='Queen of the Pacific' Nelia Sancho dies at 71|url=https://tribune.net.ph/2022/09/02/queen-of-the-pacific-nelia-sancho-dies-at-71/|access-date=2023-09-18|website=Daily Tribune|language=en-US}} During the late 1990s, Sancho led groups that advocated for the Filipina World War II comfort women survivors.

In the 2000s, she also helmed an NGO with United Nations observer status called Buhay Foundation for Women.{{cite web|title=The Buhay Foundation for Women and Girl Child|url=https://www.gaatw.org/members/asia/127-membership/asia/564-buhay-foundation-for-women-and-girl-child-philippines#:~:text=The%20foundation%20aims%20to%20examine,of%20Filipino%20women%20and%20girls|website=Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women|access-date=2024-07-19|language=en-US}}

Together with its Secretary General and Program Coordinator, Natalie Kaye Ganipis; with Sancho as Board President – they evaluated the impact of anti-trafficking measures on migrant workers in the International Congress held in Bangkok, Thailand and in Bali, Indonesia by United Nations Development Program or UNDP and GAATW or Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.{{cite web|date=2008-07-31|title=Buhay Foundation|url=http://buhayfoundationlifechoices.blogspot.com/2008/07/who-we-are-why-we-are-formed.html?m=1|website=Buhay Foundation Life Choices|access-date=2024-07-19|language=en-US}}

Social media posts of Anna Louise Balanquit and Natalie Kaye Ganipis both confirmed September 1, 2022 as the date of Sancho's passing. This was also announced by Gabriela Women's Party. She died of natural causes, believed to be complications of diabetes, multiple organ failure and recently acquired tuberculosis at her Quezon City home.

She is survived by her 2 children: a son, Karlo and a daughter, Anna. She has 5 grandchildren by them: Fiona, Thomas, Chloe, Ava, and Wayne Tony Scott. Her remains are inurned at [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aeternitas_Chapels_and_Columbarium Aeternitas Chapels and Columbarium].{{cite news|last=Tardiff|first=Sara|title=Nelia Sancho, Beauty Queen Turned Defiant Rights Activist, Dies at 71|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/world/asia/nelia-sancho-dead.html|accessdate=May 2, 2024|work=The New York Times|date=May 2, 2024}}{{cite news|last=Lalu|first=Gabriel|title=Nelia Sancho, beauty queen, women's rights activist; 71|url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1657738/nelia-sancho-beauty-queen-womens-rights-activist-71|accessdate=May 2, 2024|publisher=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=May 2, 2024}}