13 FEBRUARY

Filipino patriot Isabelo de los Reyes

1897 - Filipino journalist, patriot, labor activist, and churchman Isabelo de los Reyes known for his stirring and pungent articles critical of the Spanish colonial friars, is jailed at the Bilibid Prison for supposed complicity in the Philippine Revolution that broke out in 1896; while in prison, he will write his Sensecional Memoria addressed to the Spanish Governor and wherein he points out that the friars are the ones responsible for sowing the seeds of discontent and revolution in the Philippines; during the Filipino-American War (1899-1914), de los Reyes will condemn the imperialist United States for invading the fledgling Philippine Republic in his book Independencia y Revolucion; in 1902, he will found the Philippine Independent Church and will nominate former Catholic priest Gregorio Aglipay y Labayan as Supreme Bishop; de los Reyes would be imprisoned in 1902 by the colonial American authorities for organizing a union that supposedly forces wage increase and upon his release, will leave for China and Japan in early 1903, giving him the chance to meet exiled Philippine Republic Gen. Artemio Ricarte y Garcia and apprise him of the situation back home; returning to the Philippines during the colonial American era, he would be elected senator of  Ilocos from 1922-1928, after which he will devote his time to his church and to writing, including most of Aglipayan literature and the landmark historical novel and classic love story rolled in one, "Ang Singsing ng Dalagang Marmol," the story of love born and thwarted during the bloody and protracted Phil-Am War. 



Photo credit: http://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladawan:Isabelo_de_los_Reyes,_Sr..jpg