Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr.

y Florentino, also known as Don Belong (July 7, 1864 – October 10, 1938), was a
prominent Filipino politician, writer and labor activist in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was the original founder of
the Aglipayan Church, an independent Christian Protestant church in the catholic tradition. Due to his
widespread Anti-Catholic writings and activism with labor unions, he is sometimes dubbed as the "Father of Filipino
Socialism". Pope Leo XIII formally excommunicated Reyes in 1903 as aschismatic apostate.

As a young man, Reyes followed his mother's footsteps by initially turning to writing as a career; he won a prize at
the age of 23 for his first written book. He later became a journalist, editor, and publisher in Manila, and was
imprisoned in 1897 for revolutionary activities. He was deported to the Kingdom of Spain, where he was jailed for his
activities until 1898. While living and working in Madrid, he was influenced by the writings of European socialists
and Marxists.

Returning to the Philippines in 1901, Reyes founded the first labor union in the country. He also was active in
seeking independence from the United States. After serving in the Philippine Senate in the 1920s, he settled into
private life and religious writing. He had a total of 27 children with three successive wives; he survived all his wives
and 12 of his children.

Writing and exile[edit]

As a journalist, de los Reyes almost faced the firing squad for attracting the ire of Spanish authorities in highlighting
Spanish church and governmental abuses during the movement for independence. He criticized the large haciendas
of the friars while so many peasants were landless. Accused of complicity in the Revolution of 1896, he was
arrested and jailed in the Bilibid Prison on February 13, 1897.[3] During this period, the writer José Rizal was among
those executed. A change in governors won de los Reyes a measure of leniency, and in April, General Fernando
Primo de Rivera ordered him deported to Spain and imprisoned in Barcelona.[2]

In 1898 de los Reyes was released and given a job in the Spanish government, as Counselor of the Ministry of the
Colonies (Consejero del Ministerio de Ultramar), which he held until 1901.[2] While in Madrid, he published articles
critical of the United States when they occupied the Philippines. He also published a biweekly newspaper, Filipinas
ante Europa, which had the editorial logo: Contra Norte-America, no; contra el imperialismo, sí, hasta la
muerte! (Against the Americans, no; against Imperialism, yes, till death!) It ran for 36 issues between October 25,
1899 and June 10, 1901. After closing (probably due to trouble with the authorities), it briefly reappeared as El
Defensor de Filipinas, which ran monthly from July 1 to October 1, 1901.

Don Belong was not only a journalist, as he did much religious writing during his life, starting when he was first
imprisoned. He helped to translate the Bible into the Ilocanovernacular. He became one of the few convicts to
translate the Scriptures.

The Philippines and politics[edit]

On July 1, 1901, the Spanish government permitted de los Reyes to return to the Philippines. He brought many
books with him, among which were those written by Karl Marx,Friedrich Engels, Victor Hugo, Pierre Joseph
Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, and other socialists of Europe. These books inspired him to introduce socialism to the
Philippines, where he became known as the first Filipino Marxist.

After returning, de los Reyes was jailed for inciting labour strikes against American business firms. Influenced by
anarchism and Marxism during his imprisonment in Barcelona, in 1902 de los Reyes founded the first labour union
in the country, the Unión Obrera Democrática. He wanted to protect Filipinos against what he perceived as the
exploitation of labour by American capitalist institutions. In the same year, he and other UNO members launched
the Philippine Independent Church, to create a national church independent of the Pope and the Catholic Church.
He chose his fellow Ilocano compatriot, Gregorio Aglipay, as its first bishop.

In 1912 at the age of 48, de los Reyes was elected a councilor of the City of Manila, and began his political career.
Winning re-election, he served as councilor until 1919.

Beginning his campaign for the senate in 1922, in 1923, de los Reyes won a Senate seat in an election
against Elpidio Quirino to represent the Ilocos region.
After his term and the death of his third wife in childbirth, Don Belong returned to private life in the 1920s. He
dedicated the remainder of his life to religious writings for the Aglipayan Church, in which he was made honorary
bishop. He wrote many sermons and other Christian literature, including basic materials for the Aglipayan Church.

José Protasio Rizal Mercado[7] y Alonso Realonda, popularly known as José Rizal (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse
riˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of
the Spanish colonial period of thePhilippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key
member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain. He was
executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellionafter an anti-colonial revolution, inspired in
part by his writings, broke out. Though he was not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately
approved of its goals which eventually led to Philippine independence. He is widely considered one of the greatest
heroes of the Philippines, and is implied by Philippine law to be one of the national heroes.[8] He was the author of
the novelsNoli Me Tángere[9] and El filibusterismo,[10] and a number of poems and essays.[11][12]

Personal life, relationships and ventures

José Rizal's life is one of the most documented of 19th century Filipinos due to the vast and extensive records
written by and about him.[24]Almost everything in his short life is recorded somewhere, being himself a regular diarist
and prolific letter writer, much of the material having survived. His biographers, however, have faced difficulty in
translating his writings because of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to another.

They drew largely from his travel diaries with their insights of a young Asian encountering the West for the first time.
They included his later trips, home and back again to Europe through Japan and the United States,[25] and, finally,
through his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong.

Shortly after he graduated from the Ate neo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University), Rizal (who was
then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano Katigbak, came to visit Rizal's maternal grandmother in Tondo, Manila.
Mariano brought along his sister, Segunda Katigbak, a 14-year-old Batangueña from Lipa, Batangas. It was the first
time they met and Rizal described Segunda as "rather short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at times and
languid at others, rosy–cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that revealed very beautiful teeth, and
the air of a sylph; her entire self diffused a mysterious charm." His grandmother's guests were mostly college
students and they knew that Rizal had skills in painting. They suggested that Rizal should make a portrait of
Segunda. He complied reluctantly and made a pencil sketch of her. Unfortunately for him, Katigbak was engaged to
Manuel Luz.[26]

From December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with his family in Number 2 of Rednaxela Terrace, Mid-levels, Hong
Kong Island. Rizal used 5 D'Aguilar Street, Central district, Hong Kong Island, as his ophthalmologist clinic from
2 pm to 6 pm. This period of his life included his recorded affections of which nine were identified. They were
Gertrude Beckett of Chalcot Crescent (London), wealthy and high-minded Nelly Boustead of the English
and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Seiko Usui (affectionately called O-Sei-
san), his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, and eight-year romantic relationship with a
distant cousin, Leonor Rivera (popularly thought to be the inspiration for the character of María Clara in Noli me
tangere).