Isabelo de los Reyes
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Isabelo de los Reyes (July 7, 1864-October 10, 1938) was a prominent Filipino politician and labor activist in the 19th and 20th century.
Born to Elias de los Reyes and the poetess Leona Florentino in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, he attended schools in Vigan and Manila and received his college degrees from Colegio de San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas. He followed his mother's footsteps by initially turning to writing as a career and became a journalist, editor, and publisher in Manila. De los Reyes founded the first vernacular newspaper in the country, El Ilocano, and wrote and researched extensively on Philippine history and culture.
As a journalist, he almost faced the firing squad for attracting the ire of Spanish authorities in highlighting Spanish church and governmental abuses. He turned his writings against the Americans when they took over in 1898 and was jailed for inciting labor strikes against American business firms. Influenced by European socialism, Isabelo de los Reyes founded the first labor union in the country in 1902, the Union Obrera Democratica Filipina, against what he perceived as the impending exploitation of Filipino labor by American capitalist institutions. In the same year, he launched the Philippine Independent Church in response against the Vatican-led Roman Catholic Church, and chose his fellow Ilocano compatriot, Gregorio Aglipay, as its first bishop.
In 1923, he won a Senate seat in an election against Elpidio Quirino, representing the Ilocos region. After his term, he went back to private life and dedicated the remainder of his life to religious writings for the Aglipayan church as an honorary bishop. Writing sermons and other Christian literature, he translated the bible and its various components into his native Ilocano.
De los Reyes was married and widowed three times and had 27 children.
