whether he retracted his Aglipayan beliefs and died a Catholic up to this day. He had both funeral blessings from Gregorio Aglipay at the Funeraria Nacional, Manila and then according to Roman Catholic rites at the San Sebastian Church, Manila. His body was initially interred at the Manila North Cemetery before being transferred to the former location of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente National Cathedral in Tondo, Manila in 1944. However, after the World War II, his remains were permanently transferred to the María Clara Parish Church of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in Sta. Cruz, Manila, on order of his son, Isabelo Jr. Philippine Independent Church De los Reyes was involved with the secular Filipino clergy as early as 1899, when he became a part of negotiations with the Holy See. On January 22, 1899, de los Reyes, representing the "Committee of Paris", visited the Papal Nuncio Giuseppe Francica-Nava de Bontifè in Madrid to convey the Aguinaldo government's desire for the Holy See to send a delegate to look into the conditions of the Philippines. However, de los Reyes discerned that the Holy See was more inclined to listen to the Spanish friars. De los Reyes wrote in Filipinas Ante Europa: Enough of Rome! Let us now form without vacillation our own congregation, a Filipino Church, conserving all that is good in the Roman Church and eliminating all the deceptions which the diabolical astuteness of the cunning Romanists had introduced to corrupt the moral purity and sacredness of the doctrines of Christ... On his return to the Philippines in 1901, de los Reyes campaigned for the establishment of a Filipino Church. On August 3, 1902, with the help of Pascual H. Poblete and members of the UOD, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) was formed, with Gregorio Aglipay, an excommunicated priest from the Roman Catholic Church, as its proposed head. At the time, Aglipay was in talks with the Protestants and the Jesuits to prevent a schism, though neither of these events bore fruit. Aglipay initially dissociated himself from the schism, before realizing the futility of staying outside it. In September 1902, he accepted de los Reyes' offer of the position of Obispo Maximo (Supreme Bishop) and consecrated some bishops for the new church. De los Reyes, who was also later excommunicated formally by the Roman Catholic Church as a schismatic apostate, traveled all over the country to rally people