We read about how the Katipunan organ, Kalayaan, increased the Katipunan membership from 300 to 30,000, according to its managing editor Pio Valenzuela. We are also familiar with Antonio Luna’s La Independencia, which was the organ of the Philippine Revolution, and El Heraldo de la Revolucion, which served as the official gazette of the Aguinaldo government.

Rarely have we read about Filipinas Ante Europa.

It was edited by Isabelo de los Reyes, dubbed by historian and literary critic Resil Mojares as the "Brains of the Nation." Filipinas Ante Europa was the newspaper of the Filipino committees in Europe and Hong Kong which was sent to the Philippines and clandestinely distributed.

People know Isabelo de los Reyes as a pioneer Filipino folklorist, the first labor leader and union organizer in the country, and the founder of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, aside from being a lawmaker. His involvement in Filipinas Ante Europa, although cited by experts in some of his biographies, was not as emphasized by many historians.

The first issue of Filipinas Ante Europa came out on October 25, 1899 before Aguinaldo disbanded the Philippine Army after the fall of Tarlac and went to the mountains to fight a guerrilla war later that year.

According to William Henry Scott, the paper "was said to have brought tears to the eyes of men returning from the field of battle with its quotations from Rizal." Its long masthead had the words "Organo defensor de aquel pueblo" and "Contra Norte-America, no; contra el imperialismo, sí, hasta la muerte!" Each cover bears the photo of the president, Emilio Aguinaldo.

Scott said that de los Reyes, having advocated guerrilla warfare even before the revolution, was in his element with this newspaper. It serialized Aguinaldo’s account of the revolution, Reseña Veridica and Antonio Ma. Regidor’s narrative of the Cavite Mutiny, reports of battles as well as military abuses, and wrote editorials calling for "liquidation of traitors." Eventually, some of its best articles were collected as Filipinas¡Independencia y Revolución!

Possession of a copy of the newspaper could lead to arrest, and because postal clerks were made to be familiar with de los Reyes’ handwriting, his Manila house was raided by the Americans. Since, according to Wenceslao Emilio Retana, "the American authorities persecuted this biweekly even more that the Spaniards had persecuted La Solidaridad," few copies of the paper now exist.

Leon Gallery’s copies were that of February 28, 1900, which featured in its cover the martyrs of the land: Burgos, Gomes y Zamora and had a photo of Jose Burgos, identified as a victim of the events of 1872; March 25, 1900, which featured a photo of General Pio del Pilar with reports from the field; May 25, 1900, which alerted revolutionaries to the dangers of the local government law that would be instituted by the Americans; and finally the June 10, 1900 issue with an article written by an unsung patriot Isidoro de Santos, along with his rare photo. De Santos would subsequently become a member of the Philippine as‌sembly and Manuel Quezon’s personal doctor.

Being the clarion call of the guerrilla republic, Filipinas Ante Europa dwindled after the Aguinaldo surrender in 1901 and with no government to support, subsequently folded after 36 issues on June 10, 1901. De los Reyes then went back to his motherland to continue the struggle as the first labor organizer and leader in the Philippines.

Filipinas Ante Europa and its few remaining copies should have a place of primary significance not only in the history of journalism but also in our narrative of the struggle to create the nation.