3 Min Read Published on: 11 hours ago Pastor Chua Banaag—born July 26, 1909, to Benito Chua and Emilia Banaag in Siniloan, Laguna—was a church leader and religious freedom advocate in the Philippines. 1 His parents named him “Pastor” because his mother hoped that he would become a gospel minister. His early life was characterized by the constant encouragement and Christian modeling of a godly mother. While a teen, he would come home from his work as a stenographer at the Everett Steamship Lines on Sabbath afternoons to attend the Trozo Adventist church’s young people’s meetings. There he was befriended by Jose Herrera, Antonio Abawag, and Eliseo Arevalo. Their friendship, and later the prayers and influence of his wife, Rosario, played major roles in his conversion to Seventh-day Adventism in 1934.