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By Freddie Lazaro

City officials and employees marked Labor Day by paying tribute to Vigan’s illustrious son Don Isabelo de los Reyes (Don Belong) who is regarded as father of the Philippine labor union movement.

Mayor Eva Marie Singson-Medina and Vice-Mayor Franz Ranchez Jr. led the wreath-laying and floral offering at the foot of Don Belong’s memorial marker in front of Leona Florentino House located at the entrance of Mena Crisologo Street within Heritage Village.

This event coincided with formal opening of the city’s annual Viva Vigan Binatbatan Festival of the Arts.

Part of this event was awarding of the city’s outstanding traffic aides and watchmen.

The city government sponsored this awarding in cooperation with the Knights of Columbus.

Medina said Vigan always honors Don Belong for his achievements and efforts to advance labor causes.

Don Belong was a prominent labor leader, journalist, scholar, historian, folklorist, and poet.

He was born in Vigan on July 6, 1864 to Elias de los Reyes and famous poetess Leona Florentino.

He was educated at Vigan Seminary, then went to Manila at age 16 to enroll at the College of San Juan de Letran.

His father died two years later.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Letran, Don Belong studied law and paleography at University of Santo Tomas, finishing a course on notary public in 1886.

Being 22 years old at the time, however, he could not practice his profession as the law required 25 years as the minimum age to engage in such work.

To augment the monthly allowance he received from his mother, Don Belong worked as a journalist.

He wrote articles for El Diario de Manila, La Oceania Espanol, El Comercio, La Revista Popular, La Opinion and other Manila-based newspapers.

As a struggling journalist, he married on June 14, 1884 Josefa Sevilla of Malabon.

In 1889, he founded El Ilocano which became the Philippines’ first vernacular newspaper with himself as editor and publisher.

This newspaper did not last long, however.

As a journalist, he aroused the hostility of friars and Spanish officials due to his open criticism of evils amidst Spain’s rule over the country and because of reforms he advocated.

He particularly denounced the religious orders’ land ownership and demanded agrarian reform to improve lives of landless Filipino tenants.

For his deeds, Spanish authorities branded him a traitor. He was arrested and jailed in Bilibid Prison in January 1897, shortly after the 13 martyrs of Bagumbayan were executed, for being implicated in the revolution which Andres Bonifacio and other Katipuneros mounted in Balintawak in August 1896.

While he suffered torture and agonized in prison, his sick wife died.

Jail authorities disallowed him from attending his wife’s funeral and from seeing his children.

Inside prison, Don Belong was able to talk to several inmates who were Katipuneros and learned from them the Katipunan’s history and why they rose in arms against Spain.

With this information, he wrote during imprisonment the ‘Sensacional Memoria Sobre la Revolucion Filipina’ which became a valuable book on the revolution’s history.

Later, Don Belong fell in love with a Madrilena while he was working in the Spanish government’s Ministry of Colonies.

This lass, Senorita Maria Angeles Lopez Montero, was the daughter of a retired Spanish infantry colonel. They married in 1898.

This development did not diminish Don Belong’s love for the country.

In 1899, he published in Madrid La Sensacional Memoria Sobre la Revolucion Filipina which caused a stir in Spain for exposing evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Don Belong founded on Feb. 2, 1902 Union Obrera Democratica Filipina (Philippine Democratic Labor Union), the country’s first labor union.

He served as the union’s president while Hermenegildo Cruz became its secretary.

Realizing the value of propaganda, Don Belong founded and edited the first labor newspaper in the country, La Redencion del Obrero (The Redemption of the laborer) which promoted labor rights.

During a meeting of about 42 union members at Centro de Bellas Artes in Quiapo on August 3, 1902, Don Belong launched the Philippine Independent Church and proclaimed Father Gregorio Aglipay as Supreme bishop.

Afterwards, he led a strike of factory laborers and farm tenants against American business firms and friars who owned "haciendas."

As mastermind of the strike, Don Belong was arrested and jailed in Malabon. A court convicted him of public disturbance and sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment.

After his release, Don Belong left Manila in February 1903 for China and Japan.

He returned to Manila and in 1905 sailed for Spain where he worked as a juror for the Spanish government in Barcelona until 1908.

On April 3, 1909, he returned to Manila with his Spanish wife and children. His wife died on Feb. 10, 1910.

In 1912, two events changed Don Belong's life: his third marriage to 18-year-old Chinese mestiza Maria Um from Tondo and his election as Manila councilor.

For the 1922 senatorial elections, Don Belong launched his candidacy in the First Senatorial District composed of the Ilocos provinces. His opponent then was Rep. Elpidio Quirino, a rising Ilokano politician.

He won after campaigning hard.

On May 27, 1923, while serving his term in the Senate (1922-1928), his third wife died of childbirth.

When his Senate term ended, Don Belong gave up politics and devoted the last years of his life to religion and writing.

In January 1829, Don Belong was stricken with paralysis and became bed-ridden. He died on Oct. 10, 1938 at age 74, leaving behind 15 of his 27 children from his three marriages. (PNA)
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