Facts : 1 Career On March 4, 1944, at the height of the World War II, Fortich was ordained by Michael O Doherty, Archbishop of Manila
Facts : 2 His first assigned in Bacolod City and was active in work that empowered the poor
Facts : 3 Like his superior, Jaime Sin, the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, he was an ardent opponent of Ferdinand Marcos
Facts : 4 Bishop Fortich spoke against the hanging judges of Manila known as the Guillotine Club
Facts : 5 He was one of the first people to alert the government to the illegal activities of timber poachers, who had stripped hundreds of acres of forest in Negros
Facts : 6 He supported the election of Joseph Estrada as president of the Philippines, and when it became clear that Estrada was using his position to accumulate personal wealth, the bishop withdrew his support
Facts : 7 Bishop Fortich set up co-operatives composed of small landowners and sugar workers, in order to break the debt cycle suffered by Filipino sugar workers
Facts : 8 In doing so, the bishop antagonised large landowners, including congressman Armando Gustilo, who at one stage tried to intimidate him by lobbing a hand grenade into his house
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