De los Reyes, Isabelo (1864-1938), was a journalist who campaigned for Philippine independence from Spain and the United States. He wrote on a wide variety of topics, including history, religion, literature, and anthropology. De los Reyes cofounded the Philippine Independent Church with the revolutionary bishop Gregorio Aglipay. De los Reyes also founded the first labor union in the Philippines.
Isabelo de los Reyes was born on July 7, 1864, in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, in the Philippines. He studied paleontology, history, anthropology, and law at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. In 1889, he settled in Tondo, Manila’s seafront district. There, he became the owner and editor of a newspaper. The subjects of his editorials were controversial, and his paper often criticized the Manila elite.
Though de los Reyes was not directly involved in the 1896 Philippine revolution against Spain, he was arrested that year when Spanish authorities cracked down on nationalist dissidents. He was convicted and sent first to the Bilibid prison, Manila, then to the Barcelona National Jail and the Muntjuich Castle in Spain. While in prison, he met various opponents of colonialism, including members of Katipunan, a secret revolutionary society.
After his release in February 1898, de los Reyes joined a group of Madrid’s leading reformers and radicals. When Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in December 1898, he became a leading member of a group that opposed American occupation of the former Spanish colony. At the height of the Filipino-American War (1899-1902), he edited a staunchly anti-American paper in Spain, called El Defensor de Filipinas (The Defender of the Philippines).
American authorities allowed de los Reyes to return to Manila in October 1901, but they monitored his activities. Soon after his arrival, de los Reyes was contacted by workers from Manila’s printing presses who asked him to lead their cooperative aid society. By Feb. 2, 1902, de los Reyes had transformed their initiative into the Philippines’ first labor union, the Union Obrera Democratica (Democratic Workers’ Union) or UOD. The UOD soon spread to other factories and trades. De los Reyes founded and edited the first labor newspaper in the country, La Redencion del Obrero (The Redemption of the Laborer).
De los Reyes and Aglipay established the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) in 1902. The new church separated from the Roman Catholic Church and established a Filipino nationalist version of Catholicism. Many Filipino Catholic priests, together with their parishioners, joined the new church. Though they followed the traditional Catholic rituals, they also considered patriotism holy. The Church granted sainthood to four Philippine patriots: revolutionary reformist José Rizal, and three priests, José Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora. See Rizal, José; Gomburza.
After a general strike in August 1902 that had mobilized more than 2,000 factory and plantation workers, de los Reyes was again arrested. He was released in 1903. As American colonial policy allowed more political participation to Filipinos, de los Reyes became involved in politics. In 1922, he defeated Elpidio Quirino to win a seat in the Philippine Senate. De los Reyes retired from politics after his Senate term ended in 1928. He died on Oct. 10, 1938.
See also Philippine Independent Church.
