Banaag At Sikat – Lope K Santos

There was no one there except her friend and her friend’s daughter. Meni trusted that Delfin would see her there. All these were Meni’s thoughts as she arranged her things. Suddenly, she saw Talia through her door, lying down on one of the lounge chairs. In a few seconds, Talia was suddenly up and approaching her. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Nothing. Why are you there? Where is Yoyong?’

‘He’s asleep. I really intended to be with you.’ ‘What if he looks for you?’ ‘Let him be then.’ ‘Does he know you’re here?’ ‘He knows. Yoyong sensed something was going on before I did.’ Meni turned pale. ‘You didn’t tell him?’ ‘No.’ ‘What does he know?’ ‘Everything.’ Talia saw the luggage on the bed. ‘What is this?’ Meni said nothing, but her sealed lips told her everything.

‘Please reconsider. You don’t want to see me angry, do you?’ ‘Talia! Please let me go! Father will just kill me if he sees me!’ Yoyong slept lightly and was awakened by the sound of the voices. He considered intervening, but thought it better not to.

Talia took some of the items being packed, and Meni grabbed them. Back and forth this continued, until Meni’s jewellery box dropped on the floor. ‘I can’t believe you!’ Meni cried. ‘It’s your fault!’ retorted Talia. While picking up the scattered pieces, Talia asked Meni if she was indeed going through with leaving the house, but she received no reply. Talia, despite her anger, persuaded her sister to stay. The elder would be the one to talk to their father.

She would ask for Yoyong’s help, also their brother Siano’s, so that Meni and Delfin could be wed in peace. ‘But that’s impossible!’ Meni said. ‘Come on. We’ll take care of it.’ ‘If Siano finds out, he’ll kill me!’ ‘I’ll ask Yoyong to vouch for you. You know they listen to him.’ Despite her doubts about Talia’s offer, Meni found comfort in the thought that Talia would support her. ‘And what if Father says no?’

‘Then you can elope.’ ‘When will you discuss this with Yoyong and Siano?’ ‘Tomorrow, I promise.’ ‘When will you tell Father?’ ‘Let’s see. It will have to be when he’s just with us at home and when he’s in a good mood.’ The sisters embraced. Talia kissed her little sister on the cheek, brow and on her hair. They were not able to sleep anymore, nor go to the church for the Novena Mass. Yoyong was drifting in and out of sleep while thinking of what was going on with the sisters.

Later, he felt Talia’s cold kiss on his cheek and her cold fingers on his nose, as he sensed the sunrise.

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 for his contributions to the development of Filipino grammar and Tagalog orthography. Santos pursued law at the Academia de la Jurisprudencia, then at Escuela Derecho de Manila (now Manila Law College Foundation) where he received the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. In the late 1900s, Santos started writing in his own newspaper Ang Kaliwanagan (The Light). This was also the time when socialism became an emerging idea in world ideology.

In 1903, Santos started publishing fragments of his first novel, Banaag at Sikat, in his weekly labour magazine Muling Pagsilang (The Rebirth) and was completed in 1906. When published in book form, Santos’ Banaag at Sikat was then considered the first socialistoriented book in the Philippines which expounded principles of socialism and sought labor reforms from the government. The book was later an inspiration for the assembly of the 1932 Socialist Party of the Philippines and then the 1946 group Hukbalahap.

In the early 1910s, he started his campaign on promoting a ‘national language for the Philippines’, where he organized various symposia, lectures and headed numerous departments for national language in leading Philippine universities. In 1910, he was elected as governor of the province of Rizal under the Nacionalista Party. In 1918, he was appointed as the first Filipino governor of the newly resurveyed Nueva Vizcaya until 1920. Consequently, he was elected to the 5th Philippine Legislature as senator of the twelfth senatorial district representing provinces having a majority of non-Christian population.

In 1940, Santos published the first grammar book of the ‘national language’, Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa (Grammar of the National Language) which was commissioned by the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (SWF). The next year, he was appointed by President Manuel L. Quezon as director of SWF until 1946. When the Philippines became a member of the United Nations he was selected to translate the 1935 Constitution for UNESCO.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 98963a51e844349f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,370,666 bytes (2.261 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 467
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 660.87 minutes
• Total Words: 132,173
• Total Characters: 727,125
• Average Words per Page: 283.03
• Average Characters per Page: 1557.01

Most Frequent Words

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