Epifanio de los Santos
Epifanio de los Santos y Cristóbal ( born April 7, 1871 in Malabon, † April 18, 1928 in Manila ) was a Filipino scholars, lawyer, patriot and director of a precursor of the National Library of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines.
He was born the son of Don Escolastico de los Santos and Doña Antonina Cristobal. At the age of seven he began his education at the Ateneo Municipal, Ateneo de Manila University today in Manila. He was regarded as open-minded and had a quick mind, so that he earned the Bachelor of Arts on 16 March 1890 with a grade of summa cum laude. After the graduation, he began his studies of law at the Pontifical and Royal University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Manila, where he graduated with the Licentiate in Law in 1898. During his studies he was instructed by Cayetano Arellano.
In the final phase of the Philippine Revolution in 1898 he was the editor of the newspaper La Libertad. After the ban, he wrote articles in the newspaper La Independencia under the pseudonym G. Solon, which alluded to the Greek philosopher Solon. After the end of the war he was Provinzgoverneur of Nueva Ecija in 1902, he was re-elected in 1904. During his tenure, he was appointed to the Philippine Commission, and represented the Philippines at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. According to his second term he was 1906 appointed as prosecutor in the provinces of Bataan and Bulacan.
Beginning of the 1920 decade, he traveled to Europe and visited England, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Austria. During his trip, he collected numerous rare books and documents about the Philippine History.
On 16 May 1925 he was appointed director of the Philippine Library and Museum, today's National Museum of the Philippines and the National Library of the Philippines. De Los Santos died on 18 April 1928 in his office of a heart attack. According to him, the Highway the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue 54 was named. Among the nicknames EDSA his name entered the history of the Philippines with the EDSA Revolution in 1986, the EDSA II Revolution in 2001 and the EDSA III Revolution in 2009.