Abad Santos, Pedro

Born 1876 in San Fernando; died there 1944. Figure in the national liberation movement in the Philippines.

By profession a lawyer, Abad Santos took part in the liberation revolution of 1896 and fought in the war against the United States of 1899–1901. From 1907 to the end of the 1920’s he was active in the Nationalist Party. Influenced by the ideas of L. Tolstoy and H. George, he defended the interests of the oppressed peasantry. Later, he became an adherent of Marxism. In 1933 he organized and headed the legal Socialist Party, which in 1938 united with the Communist Party, recently emerged from the underground. Together, the two parties formed a legal Communist Party of the Philippines; Abad Santos was elected its vice-chairman. From 1942 to 1944, Abad Santos was imprisoned by the Japanese occupation authorities.