Epifanio de los Santos

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Epifanio de los Santos (April 7, 1871–April 18, 1928) is a Filipino historian. He was appointed director of the Philippine National Museum and Library by Governor General Leonard Wood in 1925.

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (commonly known as EDSA), the main road through Metro Manila, is named after him.

Born in 1871 in Malabon, Rizal, De los Santos was the first Filipino member of the Spanish Royal Academy in Madrid. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and at the University of Santo Tomas where he finished his law studies.

De los Santos was considered one of the best Filipino writers in Spanish of his time, next only to Marcelo H. del Pilar.

As a nationalist, De los Santos was associate editor of the revolutionary paper La Independencia, writing in scathing prose under the pen name G. Solon. He also co-founded the newspaper Libertad.

De los Santos was well traveled, going to many places in Europe searching for rare Philippine documents in big museums and European libraries.

De los Santos had made a large body of works on Philippine literature, arts, music politics and biographies of great and notable Filipinos. He also translated Filipino literary works into Spanish, notably Balagtas’ Florante at Laura.

Aside from his intense passion for the arts and culture, Don Panyong as he was fondly called was into politics. He was appointed district attorney of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. He was later elected as governor of Nueva Ecija. After his stint as governor, he was appointed provincial fiscal of Bulacan and Bataan provinces. On the side, he devoted his spare time to researches in Philippine history and literature establishing himself as a historian, bibliographer and collector of Filipiniana. His collections where destroyed when a fire hit his house in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.

The last and most significant position De los Santos held was as director of the Philippine National Museum and Library, to which he appointed by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood in 1925.

He died on April 18, 1928. (source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/apr07/news8.htm Malaya)