Lope K. Santos

Who was Lope K. Santos?

Lope K. Santos was a Filipino Tagalog language writer and former senator of the Philippines. He is best known for his 1906 socialist novel, Banaag at Sikat and to his contributions for the development of Filipino grammar and Tagalog orthography.

Lope K. Santos was born in Pasig, Rizal, as Lope Santos y Canseco to Ladislao Santos, a native of Pasig and Victorina Canseco, a native of San Mateo on September 25, 1879. His father was imprisoned during Philippine Revolution because Spanish authorities found copies of José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and Ang Kalayaan in his possession.

Santos was sent to Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros for education and later finished schooling at Colegio Filipino. During Philippine Revolution of 1896, Santos joined revolutionaries. By the time of the death of his mother, she requested Lope to marry Simeona Salazar. Marriage happened on February 10, 1900 and they were blessed with five children.

He pursued law at the Academia de la Jurisprudencia then at Escuela Derecho de Manila where he received Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. In late 1900, Santos started writing his own newspaper Ang Kaliwanagan. This was also the time when socialism becomes an emerging idea in world ideology. When José Ma. Dominador Goméz was charged and sentenced by the Supreme Court of sedition and illegal association against the government in 1903, Goméz's labor group Union Obrera Democratica Filipina was absorbed by Santos. The group was renamed as Union del Trabajo de Filipinas, but was later dissolved in 1907.