The Philippine Legion of Honor was established by President Manuel Roxas, through Philippine Army Circular No. 60 dated July 3, 1947. The Philippine Legion of Honor was patterned after the Legion of Merit of the United States of America, and was meant to honor both civilians and members of the military, Filipino or foreign. Originally, like the U.S. Legion of Merit, the Philippine Legion of Honor only had four classes, known as Degrees, with Legionnaire being the basic rank, and Chief Commander being the highest. With the reform of the Philippine system of orders and decorations in 2003, the Philippine Legion of Honor's classes were renamed "ranks" instead of "degrees," and the ranks expanded.

Today, the Philippine Legion of Honor is conferred upon a Filipino or foreign citizen in recognition of valuable and meritorious service in relation to the military affairs of the Republic of the Philippines. It is thus the primary order of military merit of the Republic of the Philippines.

To signify the importance of the civil service in military affairs in the preservation of the honor of the Republic of the Philippines and in nation building, the Philippine Legion of Honor is conferred on the anniversary of the declaration of Philippine Independence.

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour (French: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur) is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802. The Order is the highest decoration in France and is divided into five degrees: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand Croix (Grand Cross).

The order's motto is Honneur et Patrie ("Honour and Fatherland"), and its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris.

In the French Revolution all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul and de facto sole ruler, to create a reward to commend civilians and soldiers and from this wish was instituted a Légion d'Honneur, a body of men that was not an order of chivalry, for Napoleon believed France wanted a recognition of merit rather than a new system of nobility. The Légion used however the organization of old French Orders of Chivalry, like the Ordre de Saint-Louis. The badges of the legion do bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint Louis, which also used a red ribbon.

Jesse Manalastas Robredo (born May 27, 1958) is the current Secretary of the Interior and Local Government of the Philippines. Robredo is a member of the Liberal Party.

On July 9, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III named Robredo as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government. Robredo was formerly the Mayor of Naga City in Camarines Sur. Robredo is the first Filipino Mayor to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000.

Jesse Manalastas Robredo was born on May 27, 1958 in Naga City. Robredo is a second-generation Chinese Filipino and is the third of five children (one of Jose Chan Robredo Sr. and Marcelina Manalastas two sons and three daughters).^{[citation needed]}

Robredo's paternal grandfather was a Chinese immigrant named Lim Pay Co who arrived in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. Lim Pay Co would later convert to Christianity and adopt the name, Juan Lim Robredo, because it was a custom that Chinese immigrants who convert to Christianity to adopt the name of their godparents at baptism and Lim Pay Co chose the name of the priest who baptized him. Jose Chan Robredo, Sr., Robredo's father, acquired the middle name Chan from his mother, it was her maiden name.

Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao, PLH (English pronunciation: /ˈpæki.aʊ/ PAK-ee-ow; Tagalog: [pɐkˈjaʊ]; born December 17, 1978) is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world champion; having won six world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s (decade) by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA "Fighter of the Year," winning the award in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

As of 2012, Pacquiao is the WBO Welterweight Champion. He was long rated as the best pound for pound boxer in the world by some sporting news and boxing websites, including BoxRec.com, Sporting Life and The Ring. However, in April 2012, Pacquiao dropped to number two in the rankings, behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. In their ratings ending May 7, 2012, Ring Magazine declared the top position vacant and jointly ranked Pacquiao and Mayweather in the number two spot.

Lorenzo Martinez Tañada was a Filipino politician. Elected to the first Philippine Senate in 1947, he was the longest-serving senator in Philippine history. He served as a Philippine senator for 24 years.

Tañada was born in Gumaca, Quezon on August 10, 1898. The son of Capitan Vicente Tañada, who served as the last Gobernadorcillo of Gumaca town in Quezon under the Spanish colonial government and Anastacia Martinez Tañada. His actions in life were governed by the philosophy ingrained in him by his mother. The phrase “fear of God is the start of wisdom” guided him in all his social dealings. As an elementary student in La Salle, Manila, a school run by the Christian Brothers, Tañada joined a protest against his school’s American principal. The protest was prompted by the principal’s order for school children to stay during weekends to build a playground which prevented them from going home to their parents. As a law student at the University of the Philippines (U.P.), Tañada was a Reserved Officer’s Training Course (ROTC) major, a lead actor in plays, and a national football team goalkeeper. It was during his years as a college student, during U.P.’s Armistice Day, when he exhorted “his fellow cadets to take their training seriously as they will soon be called upon to use their skill against the Americans if the country’s independence is not granted”. In 1924 he topped the governments examination for pensionados. In 1928 he obtained his Masters in Law from the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also acquired a Doctor in Civil Law meritissimus from the University of Santo Tomas.