Isabelo de los Reyes , popularly known as " Don Belong", was a law graduate of the University of Santo Tomas majoring also in philosophy, history and anthropology. He was a Notary Public at age twenty-two. He was the founder and the first president of the first Labor Union in Manila. A founding member of the Philippines Independent Church, he also served as councilor of Manila for two years and finally as senator for six years. Born to Elias de los Reyes and the poetess Leona Florentino in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, he attended schools in Vigan and Manila. He followed his mother's footsteps by initially turning to writing as a career and became a journalist, editor, and publisher in Manila. At 6 years old, due to troubled marriage of his parents, Isabelo was entrusted to a rich relative, Meno Crisologo, who later enrolled him into a grammar school attached to their local seminary run by Augustinians. In 1880, at age 16 he escaped to Manila where he finished Bac...