[2] She experimented with foods native to the Philippines, and during World War II developed Soyalac (a nutrient rich drink from soybeans) and Darak (rice cookies packed with vitamin B-1, which prevents beriberi disease), which she also helped smuggle into Japanese-run internment camps that helped save the lives of thousands of Filipinos, Americans, and other nationals.

Vicente Ylagan Orosa Sr., became Secretary of Public Works and Communications, and, later, Chairman of the People's Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC) during the administration of President Ramon Magsaysay.

She initially taught home economics at the Centro Escolar University, and later transferred to the Philippine Bureau of Science's food preservation division.

She organized 4-H clubs in the islands (which had more than 22,000 members by 1924), and traveled into the barrios to teach women how to raise chickens, preserve local produce, and plan healthy meals.

With the help of this organization, she and numerous protesters visited various communities throughout the Philippines to educate women on innovative methods of food preparation and preservation.

[5] Orosa invented the palayok oven to enable families without access to electricity to bake, and developed recipes for local produce, including cassava, bananas, and coconut.

Using both her local and technical knowledge, Orosa made culinary contributions and taught proper preservation methods for native dishes such as adobo, dinuguan, kilawin and escabeche.

The guerrillas helped U.S. forces fight the occupying Japanese troops and employed carpenters to insert Soyalac and Darak into hollow bamboo sticks, which were smuggled to the civilians imprisoned at the University of Santo Tomas and in Japanese-run prisoners of war camps in Capas, Tarlac and Corregidor.

Although her family and friends urged her to leave Manila for her hometown as American, Filipino, and Japanese forces battled to control the city, Orosa refused, insisting that, as a soldier, she needed to remain at her post.