126th Birth Anniversary of Lope K. Santos: Father of our national language

"Lope K. Santos was one of the prominent figures in our people's fight for freedom. Mang Openg, as he was fondly called, was born on September 25, 1879, in Pasig, Rizal. Poet, writer, patriot, journalist, scholar, labor leader, and public servant, Lope K. Santos tremendously enriched the annals of our country's history and culture.

Lope K. Santos used the pen to advance our people's dignity and identity. He was a staunch advocate of Philippine literature and zealously promoted Tagalog to be the foundation of our country's national language, Filipino.

His prodigious writings earned for him the title of Paham ng Wika. His Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa was chosen as the basis for the grammar of the national language while his socio-political novel Banaag at Sikat blazed the trail for other Filipino writers to espouse the cause of the Filipino workingman. These two works gave him the lofty title of Pillar of Philippine Literature.

The defeat of the Filipino republic after the Revolution of 1898 did not discourage him and many of his contemporaries. Through the pen, he espoused the interests of his country and people. In September, 1903, Filipino writers and journalists organized and published the nationalistic newspaper El Renacimiento. A few months later, they published Muling Pagsilang, the Tagalog version of El Renacimiento, with Lope K. Santos as its first editor.

The colonial authorities closed these newspapers and they were replaced By El Renacimiento Filipino, with Lope K. Santos as one of its writers, although he also published his own weekly, the Sampagita, the first Filipino national weekly. President Manuel L. Quezon appointed him Director of the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa, the government agency tasked to study the country's various languages in line with the efforts to develop a national language for the Filipinos.

Lope K. Santos was also active in politics. He was governor of Rizal Province from 1910 to 1913 and Nueva Vizcaya from 1918 to 1920. As a public servant, he authored the law creating Andres Bonifacio Day, thus honoring the Great Plebeian and the cause of the Filipino working class.

Before he died on May 1, 1963, he donated his rich Filipiniana collection to the National Library of the Philippines, thereby benefiting our countrymen pursuing knowledge about the country and its culture. May our youth copy Ka Lope K. Santos' many deeds."

As published in The Manila Bulletin Online, 9/25/2005.