Cassandra Martyrs of Charity

[1][2][3] These individuals were involved in church organizations which served communities impoverished and marginalized under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, and were on their way to a retreat and planning meeting in a Cebu city when their vessel began to capsize after being battered by Typhoon Warling (International name: Orchid).

[4] As a group, they were last seen "praying, distributing life vests, helping children put theirs on, instructing other passengers to hasten towards the life rafts and to be ready to abandon ship,"[1] but perished when emergency supplies ran out and the boat finally sank.

[7][8] Some of the group's members were later honored by having their names inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the heroes and martyrs whose actions eventually helped bring down the authoritarian regime.

Westerndorp, Pastor Bunio, and the sisters, there were three lay workers among the group:[2] Inocencio Ipong of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) and Sisters Remedios Chuidian, Lourdes Conti, Mary Catherine Loreto, and Mary Virginia Gonzaga of the Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS) were later nominated to be honored at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, with the sisters honored in 1999, and Ipong honored in 2013.

[1] Also enshrined at the Bantayog is Ester Resabal-Kintanar, a teacher and activist who was also on board the M/V Doña Cassandra, but is generally not included as one of the Martyrs of Charity.