Isabelo de los Reyes Sr. was a prominent politician and labour activist. He is also the founder of the Aglipayan Church..

ISABELO DE LOS REYES SR.

Isabelo de los Reyes contributed to most of Manila's newspapers and in 1889 he founded the newspaper El Ilocano, said to be the first such newspaper written solely in a Philippine vernacular. He continued to write and research extensively on Philippine history and culture.

Influenced by European socialism as well as Marxism, de los Reyes founded the first labour union in the country in 1902, the Union Obrera Democratica Filipina, against what he perceived as the impending exploitation of Filipino labour by American capitalist institutions.

In the same year, he launched the Philippine Independent Church with the members of the Union Obrera Democratica in response against the Catholic Church, and chose his fellow Ilocano compatriot, Gregorio Aglipay, as its first bishop.

In 1923 he won a Senate seat, representing the Ilocos region. After his term, he prepared religious writings for the Aglipayan church. Writing sermons and other Christian literature, he translated the bible and its various components into his native Ilocano. Nearing death, he retracted and returned to the Roman Catholic faith.

De los Reyes was married and widowed three times and had 27 children.

7 July 1864

to 10 October 1938