LAST Friday, 7 April, on the 29th birthday of his great great granddaughter Andrea, Epifanio de los Santos y Cristobal’s 135th birth anniversary was celebrated by the De los Santos clan (led by the great man’s living daughter Guerty de los Santos Paez) in Malolos City. In full force were the De los Santoses, among them Ching Suva, while the lone Cristobal representative was Boots Anson-Roa.

To this generation, "Don Panyong" is mainly remembered for the long stretch of highway from Pasay to Caloocan that carries his name, which was constructed during the time of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. There’s some irony in the fact that EDSA has been the venue in the ouster of two presidents and the near ouster of a third. It has also been enshrined to the Virgin of EDSA despite the secular character of the Philippine Revolution.

It’s fitting perhaps to recall that Epifanio de los Santos was associate editor of the revolutionary paper La Independencia and co-founder as well of Libertad. He was said to have been second only to Marcelo del Pilar (Plaridel) as one of the best Filipino writers in Spanish, probably a bit of a hyperbole, since Jose Rizal, of course, and Graciano Lopez Jaena were not exactly feeble in Spanish.

He wrote "scathing prose," just like the rebellious illustrados of the nineteenth century, although with the coming of the Americans, the prose became less acerbic as he turned to writing about literature, the arts, and music. He also wrote biographies of notable Filipinos, among which was a sympathetic essay on the ill-fated founder of the Katipunan and father of the Revolution, Andres Bonifacio.

Like many of those who defended the first Philippine Republic against the Americans, he went into politics (he was elected governor of Nueva Ecija), but he’s chiefly remembered by later generations as the director of the Philippine National Museum and Library.

Nothing is more fitting in these sunny times when Liberty seems to be on the way to becoming a museum piece.