The sugar barons accused the bishop of being a traitor to his class: after all, his parents had themselves been landowners in Negros.

ECONOMIST: Antonio Fortich

He was one of the first people to alert the government to the activities of timber bandits who had stripped hundreds of acres of forest in Negros.

ECONOMIST: Antonio Fortich

Roel was eight when he, his siblings and his pals began engaging in bouts of duck, feint and jab at the Velasco home in Bago, in the province of Negros Occidental.

CNN: A Philippine Tale of Two Brothers

The main island, Apo Island -- not to be confused with the better known island of the same name off the island of Negros in the central Philippines -- is a palm-fringed beauty, ringed by golden sand and home to an emerald-green interior lagoon embraced by mangroves.

BBC: The undiscovered jewel of the Philippines