How Jehovah's Witnesses came to Philippines?

Answer 1

Charles T. Russell, president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, who was then on a worldwide lecture tour first visted the Philippines in January, 1912. By the early 1930's ten people who read the Watchtower literature, attended the Memorial of Jesus Christ's death which is celebrated annually by Jehovah's Witnesses. Purificacion Bennett, a Filipino nurse became the first native Witness in that country.

Joseph Dos Santos, an American of Portuguese descent, was sent to the Philippines as a representative of the Society in 1933 and he established the first Branch office at 1132 Rizal Avenue, Santa Cruz, Manila, on June 1, 1934, and began organising the work in that country. Groups of full time preachers were organised and sent to Luzon, in the Visayas and Mindanao and by 1941 there were 621 people associated with the Witnesses.

During the War, under Japanese occupation, the Witnesses suffered greatly and many of their members (including the branch director Dos Santos) were imprisioned. Despite this pressure their numbers continued to increase and at the close of the war over 2,000 people attended a convention held from November 9 to 11, 1945.

On June 14, 1947, three Jehovah's Witness missionaries (Earl Stewart, Victor White, Lorenzo Alpiche and Nick Skelparick) were assigned to the Philippines. By 1951 the number of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Philippines had reached 14,007 by which time litature was being printed in the native languages.

As Filipino Christian witnesses swelled in number and reached out to all parts of the land, opposition began to arise, especially in strongly Catholic communities. Their meetings were disrupted, they were physically attacked and suffered many other indignities. For example, on April 20, 1952, a peaceful circuit assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses was disrupted in Solana, Cagayan, in northeastern Luzon. Even some town officials eventually joined in an armed attack, which resulted in the death of one Witness and the wounding of thirty-two other persons. Their numbers continued to grow, increasing from 20,120 in 1953 to 35,713 in 1961.

The Witnesses faced many legal ramifications because of their refusal to salute the flag on religious grounds but threats to deport the missionaries on the basis in 1962 were never carried out.

Enlargement of the printing activities of the Philippine branch and a new printing factory and dormitory were arranged in 1972. From then on, the printing work has grown. Gradually production increased to include all eight editions of The Watchtower and all four of Awake! in the local languages. Then, English magazines were added. New machines, including a second rotary press, which arrived May 29, 1975, were installed to help cope with the increasing load.

By June 1977, there was an average of over 66,000 Jehovah's Witnesses and this number has more than doubled in the last 30 years, reaching 166,130 in 2009.

Answer 2

The 1978 'Yearbook' published by Jehovah's Witnesses says on page 79

''So it was that in 1912, when a renowned American minister visited Manila, he was able to deliver a lecture in English to a largely Filipino audience. The speaker was Charles T. Russell, president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, who was then on a worldwide lecture tour. On Sunday, January 14, 1912, he gave the talk "Where Are the Dead?" at the Manila Grand Opera House. With this event, the Kingdom message reached the Philippines for the first time, and the modern history of Jehovah's people in this country began''

'Following Brother Russell's visit, the next representative of the Society to come to the Philippines was Brother H. Tinney. In 1922 or 1923 he left Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to do missionary work in the Philippines''