I. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE Hardly could the Rizal Bill be passed in Congress, first, in the Senate in April 1956, as it was in a deadlock over the Bill. As Congress represents the broad interest and sentiments of whole country, there were strong interests for and against the Bill. Most naturally, the interest of the Catholic Church is adversely affected, while the proponent over the Rizal Bill wanted to achieve is to study Rizal to bring nationalism or love of country. A reading of the Rizal Law will inform the students that it is not a law declaring Rizal a national hero. Up to this day, there is no law that identifies a personality as a hero. To give a fair account of the various interests and sentiments involved in the process of deliberations, the interplay of personalities within the Catholic Church as they fought to suppress the Rizal Bill, Fr. Horacio Dela Costa, through his writings and unaware of events in 1956, emerges as an unlikely source in the Catholic Church to support the study of Rizal. Lesson 1 REPUBLIC ACT 1425 Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. explain the history of the Rizal Law and its important provisions, and 2. critically assess the effectiveness of the Rizal Course. History of Republic Act 1425 (The Rizal Law) Senate Bill 438 known as Rizal Bill which was first authored by Senator Claro M. Recto- -requiring the inclusion in the curricula of all private and public schools, colleges and universities the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo - is considered as one of the most controversial bills in the Philippines. Normally, the bill was approved and implemented in all schools and was signed into a law known as Republic Act 1425, it had been brought to the Upper and Lower House of the Congress for deliberations. But what made it controversial is that the bill was not just fiercely opposed by people from the Legislative Arm but also by the Catholic Church due to the inclusion of compulsory reading of Rizal's novels in which according to them, catholic dogmas are humiliated. The transition from being a bill (House Bill No. 5561 and Senate Bill No. 438) to becoming a Republic Act was not easy as the proposal was met with intense opposition particularly from the Catholic Church. In 1956, Sen. Claro M. Recto the main proponent, filed a measure which became the original RIZAL Bill recognizing the need to instil heroism among the youth at the time when the country was experiencing social turmoil. It was the time when the country was being ravaged by the hukbalahap insurgency. The imperialist presence in the form of American influence was strong in the country's economy and political policies. The communist insurgency became part of the global network to contain the spread of communism with the conclusion of a mutual defense agreement with the United States in 1951 and its joining the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). On the economic front, the US still reigned supreme with the enforcement of the Bell Trade Act back in 1947. Internally the country was buffeted by corrupt party politics and news of political corruption was rampant. The fifties was indeed confusing times. This was the period when Recto submitted his bill, calling for a return to patriotic values enunciated by Filipino heroes like Jose Rizal. Under the bill it shall be obligatory for college and university student to study the life and works of Jose Rizal. The issuance of the bill was not welcomed by various quarters. The Catholic Church assailed the Rizal Bill as anti-Church because it forces the students to read Rizal’s works like Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which contain passages that were anti-Church. Senator Recto brought the bill to the Senate and Senator Jose B. Laurel Sr. who was then the Chairman of the Committee on Education sponsored the bill that consequently led to exchange of arguments from the Congress. The bill was headedly opposed by three senators namely: Senator Francisco Rodrigo who was a former Catholic Action President, Senator Mariano Cuenco and Senator Decoroso Rosales who was the brother of Julio Rosales, an archbishop. Other oppositors were from the Lower House namely: Congressmen Ramon Durano, Marciano Lim, Jose Nuguid, Manuel Soza, Godofredo Ramos, Miguel Cuenco, Lucas Paredes, Congressmen Carmen Consing and Tecia San Andres Ziga. The Catholic Church was indirectly included in the debates and played a major role for the intervention of signing of the bill into a law. Allied with the church in battle against the Rizal Bill were the Holy Name Society of the Philippines, Catholic Action of the Philippines, Legion of Mary, Knights of Columbus and Daughters of Isabela. Oppositions argued that the bill would go against freedom of conscience and religion. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) submitted a pastoral letter to which according, Rizal violated Canon Law 1399 which forbids or bans books that attack or ridicule the catholic doctrine and practices. Oppositors argued that among the 333 pages of Noli Me Tangere, only 25 passages are nationalistic while 120 passages are anticatholic. While upon scrutiny of the two novels by some members of catholic hierarchical, 170 passages in Noli Me Tangere and 50 in El Filibusterismo are against catholic faith. Furthermore, oppositors pointed out that Rizal admitted that he did not only attack the friars who acted deceptively on the Filipinos but also the catholic faith itself. They suggested a reading material for students as to what they called Rizalian Anthology, a collection of Rizal's works that contain the patriotic philosophy excluding the two novels. Of course, Recto and Laurel defended the bill and argued that the only objective of the bill is to keep the memory of the national hero alive in every Filipino's mind, to emanate Rizal as he peacefully fought for freedom, and not to go against religion. Senators Lorenso Tanada, Quintin Paredes and Domocao Alonto of Mindanao also defended the Rizal Bill which was also favored by Representatives from the House namely: Congressmen Jacobo Gonzales, Emilio Cortez, Mario Bengson, Joaquin Roxas, Lancap Lagumbay and Pedro Lopez. Other supporters of the bill were Mayor Arsenio Lacson call anti-Rizal bill "bigoted and intolerant" and walked out of a mass when the priest read a pastoral letter from the Archbishop denouncing the Rizal Bill and General Emilio Aguinaldo with groups like the Knights of Rizal, Women Writers of the Vernacular, Philippine Veterans Legion, College Editors' Guild and Philippine School Teachers' Association. Excitement and intense scenes were eventually arisen in settling the Rizal Bill. One of which was the debate of Cebu Representative Ramon Durano and Pampanga Representative Emilio Cortes that ended with a fistfight in Congress. Bacolod City Bishop Manuel Yap threatened to campaign against pro-Rizal bill legislators and to punish them in future elections. Catholic Schools Representatives threatened to close down their schools if the Rizal Bill was passed. Recto Rizal Bill was passed. Recto told them that if they did, the State could nationalize the catholic schools. When there was a proposal to use the expurgated novels as textbooks and put the original copies under lock and key in the school libraries, Recto rejected this amendment and expressed: "The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the schools...would blot out from our minds the memory of the national hero...this is not a fight against Recto but a fight against Rizal...now that Rizal is dead and they can no longer attempt at his life, they are attempting to blot out his memory." Due to apparently never-ending debate on the Rizal Bill, approved amendments were formulated through ideas of three senators. Senator Laurel' created an amendment to the original bill in which, other than Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, works written by Rizal would be included and reading of the unexpurgated revision of the two novels would no longer be compulsory to elementary and secondary levels but would be strictly observed to college level. Senator Lim suggested the exemption to those students who feel that reading Rizal's would negatively affect his or her faith. Senator Primicias created an additional amendment that promulgates the rules and regulations in getting an exemption only from reading the two novels through written statement or affidavit and not from taking the Rizal Course. According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, no student has ever availed of this exemption. After the revised amendments, the bill was finally passed on May 17, 1956, and was signed into law as Republic Act 1425 by President Ramon Magsaysay on June 12 of the same year. The full name of the law is “An Act to Include in the Curricula of All Public and Private Schools, Colleges and Universities Courses on the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, Particularly His Novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Authorizing the Printing and Distribution Thereof, and for Other Purposes.“ According to the Official Gazette, the law took effect on August 16, 1956. While the school is empirically recognized as the most powerful agent of cultural transmission, it took the lawmakers sixty years to finally pass RA 1425 or Rizal Law. Rizal died in 1896 and sixty years had to pass before the Rizal Law was promulgated in 1956. Particularly, the Rizal Law aims to: a. recognize the relevance of Rizal’s ideals, thoughts, teachings, and life-values to present conditions in the community and the country and apply them in the solution to day-to-day situations and problems of contemporary life b. develop an understanding and appreciation of the qualities, behaviour, and character of Rizal, as well as his thoughts and ideas, and thus foster the development of moral character, personal discipline, citizenship, and vocational efficiency c. comply with the patriotic objectives of the Rizal Law given by the late Senator Jose P. Laurel According to Laurel in RA 1425, “Rizal was the founder of the Filipino nationality. He was the architect of the Filipino nation”… I dare say that we cannot know him without knowing and imbibing the great principles and ideals for which he stood and died. Rizal believed as should that we teach the young men and the young women, the boys and girls in all schools that virtue is the only foundation of national greatness. By approving this measure … it is hoped that the future generations and the generations after us by reading the life, teachings, and writings of Rizal may gain incorruptible confidence, direction, courage, and determination in order that we may continue forward our never-ending pilgrimage to a full, greater and more abundant life.” The following are excerpts from the viewpoints raised as regards the legislation of Rizal Law: Laurel, Jose B. Jr. 1960. The Trials of the Rizal Bill. Historical Bulletin (2): pp. 130-139. The object of the bill was to disseminate the ideas and ideals of the great Filipino patriot thru the reading of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo according to Sen. Claro M. Recto. However, to some senators, the two novels of Rizal are simply evil especially as it puts the Roman Catholic religion in a very bad light. Catholics in Congress evaluate the bill as an attempt to discredit their religion. The two novels contained views inimical to the tenets of their faith, they particularly challenged the nature of the bill as required (not as subject to choose like an elective) and a clear violation of religious freedom. Rizal’s novels are heretical according to a Pastoral Letter. In the Senate, the Rizal Bill is numbered Senate Bill 438 and filed April 3, 1956 by Sen. Claro M. Recto, however, deliberations started April 23, 1956 that gave way for debates to happen. The points raised by those who are in favor of the Rizal Bill (Protagonist) and those who are against the Bill (Antagonist) are summarized in the following: Senate Bill 438 filed April 3, 1956 Deliberations started April 23, 1956 Protagonist Antagonist Sen. Jose P. Laurel (Rizal Law sponsor/ author), Chairman, Committee on Education Rabid Catholics Sen. Mariano J. Cuenco, brother of Arch. Cuenco Sen. Claro M. Recto (Rizal Bill author/ supporter), ardent nationalist Sen. Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, former president of Catholic Action Sen. Decoroso Rosales. Brother of Cardinal Rosales, former Archbishop Sen. Recto’s arguments: Legal basis are: police power and Art. XIV (5) of the 1935 Constitution The purpose of the bill, to Recto, is to foster the better appreciation of Rizal’s times and of the role he played in combatting Spanish tyranny in this country. Sen. Recto denies that the novels is a smear campaign of the Catholic religion: “Rizal did not pretend to teach religion or theology when he wrote those books. He aimed at inculcating civic consciousness in the Filipinos, national dignity, personal pride, and patriotism, and if references were made by him in the course of his narration to certain religious practices in the Philippines in those days and to the conduct and behavior of erring ministers of the church, it was because he portrayed faithfully the general situation in the Philippines as it then existed. Nobody can dispute that the situation described by Rizal in those days, political, social and religious, was the one actually obtaining in the Philippines; but while he criticized and ridiculed the unworthy behavior of certain ministers of the church, he made exceptions in favor of the worthy ones, like the Dominican friar, Padre Fernandez, and the virtuous native priest, Padre Florentino, and the Jesuits in general (Constantino, 1969).” The pastoral letter had cited 170 passages from the Noli and 50 from the Fili which it regarded as attacks Arguments of Senators Rodrigo, Rosales, and Cuenco were: The compulsion to read something against one’s religious conviction was no different from a requirement to salute the flag (of an enemy of your country is at war with), which is an impairment both of freedom of speech and freedom of religion (with reference to a US Supreme Court decision). There is a need for national unity, for a nation with thousands of Catholics. Arguments by Fr. Jesus Cavanna: The novels “belong to the past” and it would be “harmful” to read them because they presented a “false picture” of conditions in the country at that time. The Noli Me Tangere is an “attack on the clergy” and its object was to “put to ridicule the Catholic Faith.” He alleged that the novel was not really patriotic because of the 333 pages only 25 contained patriotic passages while 120 were devoted to anti-Catholic attacks. The pastoral letter had cited 170 passages from the Noli and 50 from the Fili which it regarded as attacks on the doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church. Jesus Paredes, a radio commentator: some parts of the novels had been declared “objectionable” matter by the hierarchy, Catholics had the right to refuse to read them so as not to “endanger their salvation.” on the doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church. Sen. Claro M. Recto understands the foreign clergy taking such a position but he found it difficult to understand how Filipino bishops “who will be bishops now were it not for Rizal” could adopt such a stand when Rizal exalted (speak highly) the Filipino clergy in his novels. (Constantino, 1969) HB 5561 introduced April 19, 1956 Narciso Pimentel, Jr., another radio commentator: the bill was Recto’s revenge against the Catholic voters who, together with Magsaysay, were responsible for his poor showing in the 1955 senatorial elections. Deliberations started May 9, 1956 Cong. Jacobo Z. Gonzales (Author) Cong. Emilio Cortez, Mario Bengzon, Joaquin R. Cong. Ramon Durano, Jose Nuguid, Marciano Roces, and W. Rancap Lagumbay (Supporters) Lim, Manuel Zosa, Lucas Paredes, Godofredo Ramos, Miguel Cuenco, and Cong Carmen D. Consing and Tecla San Andres Ziga. Republic of the Philippines. 1956. RA 1425. Available online thru http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1956/06/12republic-act-no-1425/ The table below outlines the differences in between the Rizal Bill as originally proposed by Sen. Claro M. Recto in contradistinction against the Rizal Law/ RA 1425 as approved by the Senate tendered by Sen. Jose P. Laurel in a substitute bill thus making Sen. Laurel the final author of the Rizal Law replacing Sen. Recto. Originally proposed in Senate Bill 438 The Rizal Law/ RA 1425 approved by Pres. Magsaysay on June 12, 1956 Title: An Act to Make Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo Compulsory Reading Matter in all Public and Private Colleges and Universities and for Other Purposes Title: An Act to include in the Curricula of all Public and Private Schools, Colleges and Universities Courses on the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, Particularly his Novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Authorizing the Printing and Distribution Thereof, and for Other Purposes. Section 1. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Section 1. Courses on life, works and writings of Filibusterismo are hereby declared compulsory Jose Rizal, particularly his novel Noli Me Tangere reading matter in all public and private schools, and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the colleges and universities in the Philippines curricula of all schools, colleges and universities, public or private: Provided, That in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their English translation shall be used as basic texts. [(of a text) complete and containing all original material; uncensored.] xxx The Board (of National Education) shall promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption of students for reasons of religious belief stated in a sworn written statement, from the requirement of the provision contained in the second part of the first paragraph of this section; but not from taking course provided for in the first part of said paragraph. Said rules and regulations shall take effect thirty (3) days after their publication in the Official Gazette. Constantino, Renato. 1969. The Rizal Law and the Catholic Hierarchy. In The Making of a Filipino: A Story of Philippine Colonial Politics, pp. 244-247. Added comments in favor and against the bill are presented below. Arguments in favor of the Rizal Bill Arguments against the Rizal Bill The purpose of the bill is “to Catholics object it as an attempt to disseminate the ideas and ideals of discredit their religion. The novels the great Filipino patriot through the contained views inimical (i.e. hostile) reading of his works (Dr. Rizal’s ), to the tenets/ religious principle or particularly the Noli Me Tangere and philosophy of their faith El Filibusterismo’’ (Laurel, 1960, p. Reading the novels violates freedom 131) of conscience and religion Life, works and writing of Jose Rizal The novels “belong to the past” and are a source of patriotism for the it would be harmful to read them youth. because they presented a “false Rizal didn’t attack the teaching of picture” of conditions in the country the Catholic Church but rather the at that time. abuses committed by those The Noli is an “attack on the clergy” Catholics in the novel (cf. Horacio and its object was to “put to ridicule dela Costa). the Catholic Faith”. The Noli weren’t really patriotic because of the 333 pp., only 25 contained patriotic passages, while 120 were devoted to anti-Catholic attacks. The novels satirize and ascribe the most heinous crimes to the Catholic priests and the religious. The compulsion to read something against one’s religious conviction was no different from a requirement to salute the flag, which in a decision by US Supreme Court was impairment both of freedom of speech and religion. The approval of the bill would imperil the need for unity. The bill creates conflict between nationalism/government religion/ the church. and Senate Bill 438 has a corresponding bill in congress House Bill No. 5561 the latter is very much similar in content as it is in the senate. The four articles can be divided into accounts on the side of the Senate and House of Representatives and the side of the Catholic Church. The Rizal bill is originally authored by Sen. Claro M. Recto but since the original Rizal bill was hardly making its way in the Senate, Sen. Jose P. Laurel, Chair of the Education Committee introduced a modified version of the bill, an amendment by substitution. Hardly could the Rizal bill be passed in the Senate. The requirement for the reading of the two novels in all schools, colleges and universities, both public and private, is hard to come by to the Catholic Church most especially in catholic schools. How could you establish the reputation of the catholic schools when the church officials are placed that of ill-repute? The Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo shame the Catholic Church. It exposes the abuse of the friars. Most naturally, the opponent of the Rizal bill is the Catholic Church and they used the pastoral letter and the rabid Catholics in the Senate to fight and kill the bill. The pastoral letter contains the following arguments against the reading of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. It was violative of religious freedom and conscience. The intent of the pastoral letter was to gather the resolve and sentiment of the catholic faithful. Together with the rabid Catholics were three senators and nine congressmen. They have the power to not vote and kill the bill. Schumacher, John. 2011. The Rizal Bill of 1956: Horacio de la Costa and the Bishops. Philippine Studies. 59 (4): 529-553. (e-copy) Fr. Schumacher’s article The Rizal Bill of 1956: Horacio de la Costa and the Bishops brought the following points: Add this to your vocabulary: interlocutor is a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation. There was in the Catholic Church a force in the personality of Fr. de la Costa, a Harvard University graduate, that is in high regard for Rizal. But only that, he must naturally be removed from the picture in drafting the Pastoral Letter as he is in opposition, instead of supportive, to the objectives of the work at hand, which is to kill the Rizal bill. He is an authority in his field and reflecting his view on the Pastoral Letter would be contrary to the objective of the pastoral letter, which is to stop the bill becoming a law. Around late 1951 upon return to the Philippines, Fr. Dela Costa was requested to draft a pastoral letter on the novels of Dr. Rizal way ahead of 1956 when the Rizal bill was introduced in the Senate. Jesus Cavana was attributed to be the principal author of the pastoral letter “Statement of the Philippine Hierarchy on the novels of Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo” but to Fr. Schumacher the earlier drafts of the letter and the opening paragraphs are likely to be traced to Fr. Dela Costa according to several drafts of documents in the possession of Fr. Schumacher. Fr. Cavanna and Dela Costa may have met, but there was no evidence. But by argumentation, if Cavana and Dela Costa met, the drafts would in the handwriting of Dela Costa must be altered reflecting the views of Cavana, which it is not. Fr. Dela Costa has not known that in 1956 Fr. Cavana is preparing a draft of what became that pastoral letter of 1956 in opposition of the Rizal bill. There are 5 drafts of the pastoral letter named drafts A, B, C, D, E. Draft A – is the original draft of 20 pages Draft B – little changes of Draft A Draft C – Draft C with further changes; used by Cavanna; Draft C is the draft Dela Costa submitted to the episcopal commission in 1952 Draft D – very much shortened version of Draft C Draft E – is a copy of C but with analysis of Dela Costa comparing Draft C and the Pastoral Letter Fr. Dela Costa was in high regard of Dr. Rizal with his inspiring words: “Among the many illustrious Filipinos who have distinguished themselves for service to their country, the first place of honor belongs, by universal consent, to Dr. Jose Rizal”. For he “possessed to an eminent degree those moral virtues which together make up true patriotism.” More directly, Dela Costa instead supported the Rizal bill in the words: “Hence, we cannot but approve and applaud in principle the desire of many that the writing of Rizal be more widely circulated and read, and even introduced as reading matter in the public and private schools of the nation. We can think of no more effective means, after the formal teaching of religion, to develop in our youth a sane and constructive nationalism, the moral qualities of justice, responsibility and integrity, and civic virtue, so necessary in our times, of the subordination of the individual ambitions to the common good.” (p.535) Dela Costa favors the reading of the novels. “The most valuable of Rizal’s ideas are contained” in his two novels. But “since there is widespread impression that these novels are looked upon with disfavor by the Catholic Church as attacking the Catholic faith, we want to give our views.” “The Catholic Church in itself” is never “against the legitimate political and social aspiration so any people.” Hence, it follows that the clear and even forceful expression of such aspirations can never be injurious to the Catholic Church.” Fr. Dela Costa cited Leo XIII “to the effect that the Catholic Church does not condemn the desire that one’s nation should be free from foreign rule.” We must not let enemies of the church make “Rizal out to be an enemy of the church. Rizal himself asserted that it was not the church itself but the abuses he was attacking as may be seen from his letter to a friend, Resurreccion Hidalgo (p.544 of the book).” “Let us therefore by all means honor Rizal, but for the depth of insight with which he examined and analyzed our national problems.” (Schumacher 2011, p. 538) “Draft C does not contain all that he had wished to say about Rizal and his novels, but, having apparently accepted that the bishops were not likely to adopt a pastoral letter which held up himself with maintaining that the novels did not attack Catholic teaching if properly understood as novels and commending – with the proper caution of an annotated edition – their reading for those capable of understanding them with the help of a teacher.” However, the archbishop went on to say, in a statement directed to those of his archdiocese, not merely that the novels were forbidden by the church. Rather, he emphasized, “without due permission, it is a sin for any Catholic to read these novels in their entirety, or to keep, publish, sell, translate, or communicate the same to others in any form” ([Santos] 1956, 350). This may have caused apprehension among booksellers and librarians especially, but it was too extreme to be effective for most people. In fact, Rodrigo would later say in a private communication to the bishops that, as a result, the novels “sold like hotcakes”. The senators soon after worked out a compromise, by which a student who would “serve written notice under oath, to the head of the college or university that the reading and study of the . . . unexpurgated edition is contrary to his religion or religious beliefs, said student shall be exempt from using the said edition (Acosta 1973, 77). Although Acosta considered that this was ä victory for the local Catholic Church,” it was in fact face-saving compromise, which enabled it to receive the unanimous vote of the Senate, and the signature of President Ramon Magsaysay. Professors who have taught the Rizal course can testify that no student has ever come up with such an affidavit. The interlocutor to the drafts attributed to Fr. Dela Costa dramatically changed the position of the drafts that were carried to the final copy of the Pastoral Letter. The fact that the Pastoral Letter was questioned on its authenticity, it was a serious matter because it really indeed reflected the position of the church and if it weren’t signed, nevertheless, it achieved the situation that it was true in fact as the Church’s official position as it was indeed signed. The Teaching of the Rizal Course in College Life, Works, and Writings of Dr. Jose Rizal is the only mandated-legislated course in college, but almost always, it has been treated as petty or a filler course. Although some teachers consider Rizal course an academic course, a great number of teachers dwell on trivia and memorization of events, dates, names of persons, places, and objects which made the Rizal course boring and insignificant. As a result, the letter and spirit of Rizal Law are unconsciously neglected. As earlier mentioned, the subject Rizal has been taught in college in different styles and with different techniques, depending upon the background of the teachers who handle it. This course is commonly titled, The Life, Works and Writings of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Sometimes it is called Rizal or Rizaliana. Why Study Rizal? It is of great importance that students understand the rationale behind having to take up a Rizal course in college. For high school students, the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo are injected into the Filipino subject as part of the overall curriculum. In tertiary education, however, Rizal is a subject required of any course, in any college or university in the Philippines. Usually, during the first day of the course, the professor asks the well-overused questions: Why study Rizal? What is the importance of studying Rizal? Why is Rizal one of the general education subjects taken up in college? Why is Rizal included in the course outline? What relevance does Rizal have in college education? The answer to such questions can be summed up in two points: 1. First and foremost, because it is mandated by law. 2. Secondly, because of the lessons contained within the course itself. Let us discuss those reasons one by one: Point 1: Because it is mandated by law The teaching of Jose Rizal’s life, works, and writings is mandated by Republic Act 1425, otherwise known as the Rizal Law. Senator Jose P. Laurel, the person who sponsored the said law, said that since Rizal was the founder of Philippine nationalism and has contributed much to the current standing of this nation, it is only right that the youth as well as all the people in the country know about and learn to imbibe the great ideals for which he died. The Rizal Law, enacted in 1956, seeks to accomplish the following goals: 1. To rededicate the lives of youth to the ideals of freedom and nationalism, for which our heroes lived and died. 2. To pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in shaping the Filipino character. 3. To gain an inspiring source of patriotism through the study of Rizal’s life, works, and writings. Point 2: Because of the lessons contained within the course itself Aside from those mentioned above, there are other reasons for teaching the Rizal course in Philippine schools: 1. To encourage the application of such ideals in current social and personal problems and issues. 2. To develop an appreciation and deeper understanding of all that Rizal fought and died for. 3. To foster the development of the Filipino youth in all aspects of citizenship. Republic Act No. 1425 An Act to Include in the Curricula of All Public and Private Schools, Colleges and Universities courses on the Life Works and Writings of JOSE RIZAL, particularly his novels NOLI ME TANGERE and EL FILIBUSTERISMO, Authorizing the Printing and Distribution Thereof, and for Other Purposes. Whereas, today, more than other period of our history, there is a need for a re-dedication to the ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died. Whereas, it is meet that in honoring them, particularly the national hero and patriot, Jose Rizal, we remember with special fondness and devotion their lives and works that have shaped the national character; Whereas, the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, are a constant and inspiring source of patriotism with which the minds of the youth, especially during their formative and decisive years in school, should be suffused. Whereas, all educational institutions are under the supervision of, and subject to regulation by the State, and all schools are enjoined to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience, and to teach the duties of citizenship; Now therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled. SECTION 1. Courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the curricula of all schools, colleges and universities, public or private; Provided, That in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their English translations shall be used as basic texts. The Board of National Education is hereby authorized and directed to adopt forthwith measures to implement and carry out the provisions of this Section, including the writing and printing of appropriate primers, readers and textbooks. The Board shall, within sixty (60) days from the effectivity of this Act promulgate rules and regulations, including those of a disciplinary nature, to carry out and enforce the regulations of this Act. The Board shall promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption of students for reason of religious belief stated in a sworn written statement, from the requirement of the provision contained in the second part of the first paragraph of this section; but not from taking the course provided for in the first part of said paragraph. Said rules and regulations shall take effect thirty (30) days after their publication in the Official Gazette. SECTION 2. It shall be obligatory on all schools, colleges and universities to keep in their libraries an adequate number of copies of the original and expurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as well as Rizal’s other works and biography. The said unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their translations in English as well as other writings of Rizal shall be included in the list of approved books for required reading in all public or private schools, colleges and universities. The Board of National Education shall determine the adequacy of the number of books, depending upon the enrollment of the school, college or university. SECTION 3. The Board of National education shall cause the translation of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as well as other writings of Jose Rizal into English, Tagalog and the principal Philippine dialects; cause them to be printed in cheap, popular editions; and cause them to be distributed, free of charge, to persons desiring to read them, through the Purok organizations and the Barrio Councils throughout the country. SECTION 4. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as amending or repealing section nine hundred twenty-seven of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the discussion of religious doctrines by public school teachers and other persons engaged in any public school. SECTION 5. The sum of three hundred thousand pesos is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any fund not otherwise appropriated in the National Treasury to carry out the purposes of this Act. SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval. Approved: June 12, 1956 by President Ramon Magsaysay. Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 52, No. 6, p. 2971 in June 1956. Source: Republic Act No. 1425 : Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines Lesson 2 THE RIZAL LAW AND PHILIPPINE LITERATURE AND SOCIETY Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. explain the relationship between literature and society, and 2. evaluate how one learns “patriotism” and “nationalism” from literature. Literature and Society Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo made tremendous impact in literature, nationalism history, culture, society and social change. Specifically, the two novels are credited with the legacy of being an instrument for transforming Spanish colonial Philippines to one of the first republic in Southeast Asia at the turn of the century. Rizal’s legacy is also one as that of inventing the Filipino national literature that can be treated as separate from Spanish literature that for once we call our own literature by the mere fact that the Philippines was a colony of Spain. Readers of the English version of the two novels translated from the Spanish text by Leon Ma. Guerrero III are cautioned to its unfaithful translation, and there were seven of them. Hau (2000), in the introduction to her book Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946-1980, made several claims which are aptly telling of the power of the novels of Rizal (which are so right). She traces the intimate link, and a very influential one, of literature, nationalism, history, culture, society and social change. These are how she would justify the intimate link from literature to social change. “Literature came to occupy a mediating position between the ‘universal’ ideals of freedom and nationalism, on the one hand, and their realization within a specifically Philippine context, on the other hand.” “Literature’s ‘radical’ potential is premised on the ability of literary works to offer new insights into a given society, on the power of literature to illuminate a set of issues or questions central to the Filipino people’s experience.” “The capacity of literature to represent history truthfully, and the capacity of literature to intervene in history.” “[T]he multifarious meanings of ‘culture’ provide a way of talking about the problem of effecting social change and, more important, ‘culture’ itself is often held to provide a potential solution to that problem.” “[A] nation that can be actualized by a subject whose capacity to transform her society is informed by her knowledge of her country’s ‘true’ history, condition, and course of development.(p.)” “[S]ocial change is premised on powerful norms of freedom, self-determination, and development, most often encapsulated in the pedagogical associations surrounding the term ‘culture’” “Not only is history a matter of representation, of how to write and construct the country’s past, history is also a matter of action, of making that history and constructing the country’s future.” “One of the central issues in Philippine literature has been the question of whether literary texts, their producers, and their consumers, are able to fulfil the practical social function of rewriting Philippine history by transforming collective consciousness and spurring political action aimed at social change. This notion of literature’s role in representing and making history draws its main impulse and rhetorical charge from the foundational premise of nationalism which builds on a ‘grand’ narrative of moral development to posit a self-determining subject of history.’’ Literature is fiction (not real) but the brand of literature in the Philippines like what the novels of Rizal is depicting the true experience of the colonial past. Thus, Hau clarifies: “[T]here exists an influential critical tradition of reading Philippine literature in terms of its nationalist ‘content’ and its ‘realistic’ depiction of Philippine society (p.)” Consider, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are fiction, but as Rizal said it was based on real life, true events. Rizal’s novel is not only a piece of literature but leading to a (political) ideology and therefore a political tool that begs for political action and solution. (The problem is there is something wrong about how our society is being governed in Spanish colonial times. It begs the next question, what do we need to do? The answer to that, more often than not, is political. Spaniards be gone, independence here we go!) If you are the oppressed Indio, reading the novel will move you to identify with the sentiments of the Indio. If you are the Spaniard, you will favour the status quo that Spaniards have all the right to claim governance of the archipelago. Hau claims to caution: “[The danger] lay in two things [in reading the novels]: to be read meant read unavoidably in different ways; and different ways of reading are ideological, and therefore political.” Hau reviews the works of Rizal is identified in a specific socio-political position (may kinikilingan). However, different people in society have different socio-political positions, points of view on issues, and identification with these and society in the times of Rizal was so divided over issues of the Indio and the Spaniards. The tendency is, it is a difficult task for Rizal in his novel to lead the Indios towards understanding the need of development and freedom, to work towards the two that will involve, among other things, sacrifice. Thus writes Hau: “Yet Rizal’s narrative project of tendering the Filipino national community knowable was was also unstable and tentative, largely because Rizal’s literary project of depicting – representing – the people who inhabit the Philippines compelled the recognition that writing ‘about’ the Philippines always meant writing from a position. That is, the idea of writing from a specific social location necessarily implied the existence of other competing knowledges and perspectives. Furthermore, the existence of heterogeneous perspectives, embodied by individuals and groups of people, could not be fully recuperated by the universalist rhetoric of development and freedom that Rizal invoked in his depiction of Philippine conditions and in his call for action and self-sacrifice.” Looking back at the time of Rizal’s struggles, Hau reads Rizal’s novels bearing the theme as that which occupies societal problem and may have been purposed on moving the readers to action: “Rizal’s novels are a kind of ‘master-narrative’ within or against which modern Philippine fiction attempted to work through a set of unresolved issues relating to the problem of truth and action in a society that was split into different, contending groups for whom ‘independence’ had always been a tendentious issue.” Rizal’s novels are an example of how literature effects social change: “One of the central issues in Philippine literature has been the question of whether literary texts, their producers, and their consumers, are able to fulfill the practical social function of rewriting Philippine history by transforming collective consciousness and spurring political action aimed at social change.” To effect social change, in the case of literature like Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, it first evoked nationalism in the hearts and minds of the readers to create the resolve towards social change, writes Hau: “This notion of literature’s role in representing and making history draws its main impulse and rhetorical charge from the foundational premise of nationalism which builds on a ‘grand’ narrative of moral development to posit a self-determining subject of history.” The Rizal law was about the literature and nationalism as instruments of the government to cleanse ourselves of colonial culture. Caroline Hau articulates the interconnection between literature and society in that the Rizal Law uses Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo as sources of nationalism. At the time of Rizal, we were a colony of Spain so that nationalism is a remote, less understood, concept. Literature is part of culture. Culture is comprised of material and immaterial aspects. The immaterial aspect are the dialects of Ilonggo, Cebuano, Karay-a, bayanihan (community service) and pagmamano ng kamay sa nakatatanda, to respect elder siblings as Ate and Kuya, which are distinctively Filipino and nowhere to be found in any part of the world. The material aspect are the Bahay Kubo, the Manunggul Jar. She brought the idea that Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo forms part of our Filipino national literature. These pieces of literature by Rizal inspired the Filipino people to aspire the ideals of freedom and nationalism from what was then the colonial Philippines. The sentiments of the Indio, the native people of the future Philippines, were prepared and unified to a national resolve to end the tyranny and oppression by the Spaniards that the Indios need to do something to end their misery. The Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are fictional but based on true stories and these things happened in the past. And so these are literature, political novels and history which, in the contents of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, moves the reader for organized political action. In Hau’s succinct words: The bill made the act of reading literature an act of discovering/ rediscovering the nation’s origins in ideals embodied by the life and works of the nation’s heroes. The bill held that present and future generations of Filipinos could remake the national character, which these earlier generations of Filipinos has “shaped” in the past. The Rizal bill is answering the questions of and about the link between nation and culture: What is “Filipino” culture? And how do we go about preserving or reshaping “it”? The Rizal Bill identified literature to answer the preceding questions: “Literature came to occupy a mediating position between the universal ideals of freedom and nationalism on the one hand, and their realization within a specifically Philippine context, on the other hand. Literature assumed a mediating function precisely because Rizal’s novels served as artifactual, concrete examples of a “Filipino culture” that was conceived as the sum total of all the products of a society’s creative labor and aspirations. At the same time, these works were the means by which other (later) Filipinos could acquire, preserve, and reshape such a culture. In this manner, the relationship between literature and Philippine nationalism was cemented thru the paradoxical [seemingly absurd or self-contradictory] notion that literary works both embodied culture and helped create that culture.’’ Literature’s “radical” potential is premised on the ability of literary works to offer new insights into a given society, on the power of literature to illuminate a set of issues or questions central to the Filipino people’s experience. The dangers in reading Rizal are: To be read meant Rizal meant being read unavoidably in different ways; This means, what if you are a Spaniard, then the contents of the novels are derogatory to the people belonging to your race/ Hispanic culture. Naturally you would defend them because your race is smeared (nadungisan). What if you are an Indio/ native, then you are exposed to the evils of the Spaniards. The next question is to get rid of these evils in society or desire for the ideals that is rid of these evils in society (example, Father Damaso, him being a priest, has a child with Maria Clara!). Different ways of reading are ideological, and therefore political. The importance of Philippine nationalism accorded to literature, and vice versa, is founded on two presuppositions (it is rooted on): the capacity of literature to represent history truthfully, and the capacity of literature to intervene in history. Finding the various meanings of culture, according to Hau, achieves for us social change/ social transformation and it is usually the case that culture plays to solve the problem of social change. How does literature fit into the picture of culture? Culture includes material and immaterial aspects by inspecting the definition of culture, which is to Merriam Webster “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group”. The material aspect of Philippine culture are the Bahay Kubo, the Sundang, Jolo Kris, literatures from Noli and Fili, Si Malakas at si Maganda, and the Barong, while the immaterial aspect are the pagmamano ng kamay sa nakatatanda, patawag ng kuya at ate sa nakatatandang kapatid. Hau traces the intimate relationship of literature, history, nationalism, culture, and society, as it entailed social change/ social transformation, for as you can see literature is part of one society’s culture: The overall concept of using an iceberg to picture complexity of culture comes from American anthropologist Edward T. Hall. In his book Beyond Culture he describes the concept of culture iceberg model. It basically means that there is more than what we see. When looking to an iceberg you can recognise 3 levels each getting you deeper. Expelling the Spaniards out of the country is a big, radical, dramatic, social change that affected the whole Spanish colony in Southeast Asia so that it was referred to no doubt as social transformation. In writing the introduction to her book, Hau (quite an accident of sort but a welcome one) actually explained the intimate, close relationship of: literature, nationalism, history, culture, social transformation and society. (Source: Hau, Caroline S. 2000. Introduction (to the book). In Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946-1980, pp. 1-14. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.) National Artist for Literature Resil Mojares, a Cebuano and of University of San Carlos, brought the idea that Rizal’s main contribution was to start the process of inventing the Filipino/ Philippine literature. Mojares would define the process of inventing the national literature as to place a “claim to a distinct culture, history and identity” accomplished in a way to “disengage from a dominant discourse that rendered one voiceless and invisible, carve out autonomous space, and lay claim to one’s own resources for creative production.” What he meant most likely is when we were a colony of Spain, the Indio’s (or the future Filipinos’) literature is merged with Spain as we were a mere colony. To isolate later on after independence what is distinctly Filipino is for us to separate what is characteristic of a Filipino in literary works, although we cannot deny the fact that part of our national literature includes Spanish literature given the fact that we were under more than 300 years as Spain’s colony. In what way did Rizal start the process of inventing the national literature? There are three ways in how Rizal accomplished the process of starting the invention of a Filipino literatures as Mojares explains: Embedding the Philippines in a “high” and “ancient” Malay civilization, for example, Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Studying and extolling [praise enthusiastically] the virtues of local languages, Rizal’s third unfinished novel Makamisa is written in Tagalog Harnessing the “popular” and the “folk” as resources for the creation of an integral culture. We have to establish a culture separate from our colonizer Spain. And indeed, we have. We have our own set of languages, we have a village protected and governed by a Datu just after the arrival of Spaniards as confirmed by Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, we have the Balagtasan. We have Alibata as our own system of writing. These were good arguments of setting us apart culturally and was used to accomplish nationalistic ends. And in the move towards separation from Spain. What are the instances of these three that achieves for Rizal in inventing the national literature? He takes interest in the different dialects in the country. He did “shadow history” by annotating the work of a Spaniard Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas”. (Source: Mojares, Resil. 2013. Jose Rizal Law and the Invention of a National Literature. In Isabelo’s archive, 213-221. Mandaluyong City: Anvil.) There are seven errors (rubrics) of an unfaithful translation of Noli and El Fili from Spanish to English that Leon Ma. Guerrero III committed: 1. De-modernization is where every present was systematically turned by Guerrero into the past. By doing so, Anderson puts it: the effect is not at all to “update” Rizal’s novel, but rather to push it deep into an antique past. 2. Exclusion of the Reader is that which loses the close relationship of author and reader, where the reader is likened to a ghost or angel able to hear secret or private conversation. “Throughout the novel, Rizal regularly speaks to the reader … as if author and reader were ghosts or angels” (p.239). Rizal’s original technique set time aside and sucks the reader deep into the narrative, engaging her emotions, teasing her curiosity, and offering her malicious voyeuristic pleasures” (p. 239). That makes the reader more addicted, glued and impatient to continue reading. 3. Excision of Tagalog is to simply the act of removing Tagalog words, an important failure in the translation that if not done, creates the potential for the novels Noli and El Fili to draw the Filipino readers and to love the novels for the sheer familiar Tagalog words one Filipino can associate with. Excision of Tagalog is removing of familiar Tagalog words so the Filipino readers cannot relate or to be taken out of place, so better use Tagalog phrases to engage the Tagalog reader with the novel due the language of the reader is Tagalog, 4. De-Localization is manifested where Leon Ma. Guerrero committed errors in the translation of Noli and El Fili is by removing from the limitations of the locality/setting. 5. De-Europeanization is when Leon Ma. Guerrero’s errors, labeled as rubrics according to B. Anderson, in Spectre of Comparison (2004), is along eliminating or naturalizing European literature, references and quotations. 6. Anachronism is such an error according to B. Anderson in the translation of Leon Ma. Guerrero III of Rizal’s two novels as that which is described as something such as events, objects, and or persons that seems to belong in the past and not fit in the present are replaced with more recent equivalents. 7. Bowdlerization is the error of Guerrero in the translation of Rizal’s two great novels labeled by B. Anderson as rubric in his book that is described as omitting parts considered vulgar or offensive. (Source: Anderson, Benedict. 2004. Hard to Imagine. In Specter of Comparison: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World. pp. 235-247 only. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. II. THE PHILIPPINES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS RIZAL’S CONTEXT “Man is partly the product of his time. His life and his message are affected by his environment and the event that take place in the world he lives in. ” The 19th century was the era of challenges and responses. It is the Age of Enlightenment (a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the 18th century in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority) – the period of major changes that affect man and society. The 19th century was a dynamic and creative age especially in Europe and the United States. During this period, such concepts as industrialism, democracy, and nationalism triggered revolutionary changes in science, technology, economics, and politics. These changes enabled men to achieve the heights of prosperity and dignity. Rizal was born and raised in a period of massive changes in Europe, Spain and the Philippines. - During this era, the glory and power of Spain had waned in both in her colonies and the world. - Social scientists marked this period as the birth of modern life as well as the birth of many nation states around the world. The birth of modernity was precipitated by three great revolutions around the world: the Industrial Revolution in England, the French Revolution and the American Revolution. The global wave became the silver lining. Many imperial powers in Europe and the west were undergoing industrialization, there was an increase of demand for raw materials which presented an opportunity in the agricultural potential in the Philippines. In the late 18th century, monarchy in Spain experienced a dynamic shift from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons. With the goal of invigorating the profitability of the colonies like the Philippines, Bourbons policies and reforms were out. By the time Basco arrived, the Galleon Trade, the main economic institution existing in the Philippines, was already losing enterprise. Basco established the Royal Philippine Company in 1785 to finance agricultural projects and manage the new trade being established between Philippines and Spain and also other Asian markets. Resistance also came from various sectors like Catholic Church that was not receptive of the labor realignments by the planned reforms, and traders that were still holding the Galleon Trade. Many scholars consider the 19th century as an era of profound changes in the Philippines. Global events continued to affect the Philippines at the beginning of the 19th century, In 1810, the Mexican War of Independence rattled the Spanish Empire that may lead to the loss of the precious Latin American colonies. Manila opened to world trade by 1834, as a result foreign merchants and traders came and resided in Manila. In the half of the 19th century, majority exports of the Philippines came from cash crops like tobacco, sugar, cotton , indigo, abaca and coffee. The Binondo area (from the streets of Escolta and Divisoria to the bustle of Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz all the way to Ongpin), famous as the world’s oldest Chinatown - a slice of China outside the mainland, and the many who lived there and contributed to its rich history – has had a huge influence on the rest of Manila, as well as the nation. The Chinese Mestizos were an important element of the Philippine society in the 19 th century. The Chinese and Chinese Mestizos greatly benefited from the changing economy since pre-colonial times. The Chinese proved to be necessary outsiders in Philippine colonial economy and society. They influenced the economy in the 19th century by purchasing land, accumulating wealth and influence. The economic development precipitated social, political, and cultural developments as well. As Manila became a trading center, it became a viable destination for people seeking better opportunities or those wanting to escape the worsening conditions in the farmlands. As the new economy afforded the colonial state new opportunities, it also prompted the state to be more regulatory and to assert its authority. Although the 19th century Philippines was largely medieval, signs of progress or change were noted in certain sectors. During this period, vast economic, political, social and cultural currents were felt. Its social and economic structure was based on the old feudalistic patterns of abuse and exploitation of the Indios. Racial discriminatory practices were oppressive. Intellectual decadence prevailed and government processes did not respect the needs of the people. When Jose Rizal was born, the Philippines has long been colonized by Spain and many Filipinos were already experiencing the adverse effect of the Spanish colonization. To understand Rizal, it is imperative to explore the setting of his birth. It is important as well to find out the temper of time that helped shaped his totality as a human person. The world should be viewed in its socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts. Reading the works of Rizal against these backdrop will enable the readers to connect with them Rizal’s frame of mind, his motives in writing, his sentiments and his convictions. Lesson 3 THE PHILIPPINES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. analyze the various social, political, economic, and cultural changes that occurred in the nineteenth century; 2. appraise the link between the individual and society; and 3. understand Jose Rizal in the context of his times. These are the relevant events and conditions of the Philippines before, during and after Rizal’s time which contributed to the development of Filipino nationalism. - Before the Spanish conquest in 1565, Filipino had their own indigenous culture, government and religion. - The Spanish colonizers forced them to accept foreign culture and Catholicism. - Filipinos lost their ancestral lands to the colonial masters by way of the encomienda system. “Limpieza de Sangre” A doctrine that means Purity of Blood which were brought by the Spaniards into the Philippines, thereby creating a social ranking among various groups, namely: Spanish peninsulares, insulares, Spanish mestizos, the town ruling class, the native elites, the Chinese mestizos and the indios referring to the natives. Socio-Economic Situation Philippine society was predominantly feudalistic, the result of the Spanish landholding system imposed upon the country with the arrival of the conquistadores. An elite class exploited the masses, fostered by the “master-slave” relationship between the Spaniards and the Filipinos. The Spaniards exacted all forms of taxes and tributes, and drafted the natives for manual labor. Consequently, the poor became poorer and the rich, richer. Sociologists use the term social stratification to describe the system of social standing. Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socio-economic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power. You may remember the word “stratification” from geology class. The distinct vertical layers found in rock, called stratification, are a good way to visualize social structure. Society’s layers are made of people and society’s resources are distributed unevenly throughout the layers. The people who have more resources represent the top layer of the social structure of stratification. Other groups of people, with progressively fewer and fewer resource, represent the lower layers of our society. The pyramidal structure of the 19th century Philippine society favored the Spaniards. Their social structure is ranked into three groups: Highest class – the people that belong in this class include the Spaniards, peninsulares and the friars. They have the power and authority to rule over the Filipinos. They enjoyed their positions and do what they want. The Spanish officials The Peninsulares (pure-blooded Spaniards born in Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal). They held the most important government jobs, and made up the smallest number of the population. (Note: Insulares – pure-blooded Spaniards born in the Philippines.) The Friars are members of any of certain religious orders of men, especially the four mendicant orders (Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans). Middle Class – the people that belongs into this class includes the natives, mestizos and the criollos. Natives – the pure Filipinos The Mestizos are the Filipinos of mixed indigenous Filipino or European or Chinese ancestry. Lowest class – this class includes the Filipinos only. The Indios are the poor people having pure blood which ruled by the Spaniards. The pyramidal structure of the 19th century Philippine society favored the Spaniards. Its apex was occupied by the Spanish officials, the peninsulares, and the friars; its base, by the Filipino majority, the indios; and its middle area, by a small middle class which consisted of favored natives, mestizos, and criollos/creoles. Racial discrimination was prevalent as the Spanish-born peninsulares were given the highest offices and positions in society, while the creoles, the Philippine-born Spaniards, the half-breed or mestizos, enjoyed second priority, and the natives or indios were looked down upon. During the 19th century, Catholicism was widespread except in Muslim Mindanao and the hinterlands were paganism was practiced. Churches, schools, hospitals, universities that were established by Spanish missionaries were visible as they largely displaced the previously entrenched Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist faiths. Evidence of Spanish rule can be seen across the Philippines, particularly in the plentiful Baroque churches and the walled Intramuros district of Manila. Free education was introduced in 1863, but did not take off until much later. The culture of the Philippines in the 19th century was greatly influenced by almost 400 years of Spanish colonization. It comprises a blend of traditional Filipino and Spanish Catholic traditions. The annual calendar is packed with festivals, many of which combine costumes and rituals from the nation’s pre-Christian past with the Catholic beliefs. Even before Spanish colonization, the Filipinos were known to be family oriented and often religious with an appreciation for art, fashion, music and food. They were hospitable people who love to have a good time. This often includes getting together to sing, dance, and eat. Economic Development and the Rise of Filipino Nationalism. By the late 18th century, political and economic changes in Europe were finally beginning to affect Spain and, thus, the Philippines. Important as a stimulus to trade was the gradual elimination of the monopoly enjoyed by the galleon to Acapulco. The last galleon arrived in Manila in 1815, and by the mid-1830s Manila was open to foreign merchants almost without restriction. The demand for Philippine sugar and abaca (hemp) grew apace, and the volume of exports to Europe expanded even further after the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. The country was opened to foreign trade at the end of the 18th century which resulted in the rapid rise of foreign firms in Manila. This stimulated agricultural production and export of sugar, rice hemp and tobacco. The number of families which prospered from foreign commerce and trade were able to send their sons for an education in Europe. Filipinos who were educated abroad were able to absorb the intellectual development in Europe. The growth of commercial agriculture resulted in the appearance of a new class. Alongside the landholdings of the church and the rice estates of the pre-Spanish nobility there arose haciendas of coffee, hemp, and sugar, often the property of enterprising Chinese-Filipino mestizos. Some of the families that gained prominence in the 19th century have continued to play an important role in Philippine economics and politics. Factors that Contributed to the Development of Filipino Nationalism: Opening of the Philippines to International Trade and the Rise of the Middle Class Manila was opened to foreign trade which brought prosperity to the Filipinos and Chinese mestizo resulting to the existence of middle class. Influx of European Liberalism Ideas of the enlightened philosophers like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rosseau, masonry and the French Revolution reached the Philippines. Liberty, religious freedom, democracy, human rights such as suffrage, freedom of speech, press and form associations and assemblies. Opening of the Suez Canal on November 17, 1869 Connects the Mediterranean and the Red sea; shortened distance between Europe and Orient. Results: (a) Philippines became closer to Europe and Spain (b) encouraged European travelers to come to our country (c) exodus of literal ideas from Europe to the Philippines (d) more educated and young Filipinos were able to study abroad. Spanish Revolution of 1868 and the Liberal Regime of Carlos Maria Dela Torre (1869-1871) Glorious September Revolution of 1868: Queen Isabela II was overthrown resulting to the rise of liberalism in Spain. Generals Juan Prim and Francisco Serrano appointed Dela Torre as the governor-general in the Philippines (true democrat). Most liberal governor-general walked the streets in civilian clothes and dismissed his alabaderos (halberdiers) – the governor’s security guards – and went unescorted. Accomplishments: (1) abolished censorship of the press and allowed unlimited discussions of political problems and proclaimed freedom of speech (2) abolished flogging as a punishment (3) curtailed abuses particularly the tribute and the polo (4) allowed secular priests to be assigned to vacant parishes or seminaries and created an office which would prevent abuses by members of the regular religious orders (5) reformed the Royal Audiencia to bring about speedier administration of justice (6) decreed educational reforms, ordered the setting up of medical, pharmacy, and vocational schools decreed educational reforms, order (7) created the Council of the Philippines on December 4, 1870 which was a consultative body to study Philippine problems and propose solutions to them. Rafael de Izquierdo (1871-1873), the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and the Execution of GomBurZa (February 17, 1872) Monarchy was restored in Spain (Prince Amadeo of Savoy, son of Victor Emmanuel I) ascended the throne in 1870. April 4, 1871: Isquierdo became the governor-general; “with crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other” restored press censorship (b) prohibited all talk on political matters and secularization of the parishes (c) disapproved the establishment of arts and trades in Manila (d) dismissed natives and mestizos in the civil and military service. * Cavite Mutiny (January 20, 1872) About 200 Filipino soldiers and workers in Fort San Felipe mutinied, under the leadership of Sgt. La Madrid; caused by Izquierdo’s abolition of the exemption of the Filipino workers from polo and paying tributes; mutineers were able to kill the fort commander and some soldiers; mutiny leaders and participants were arrested and shot to death * GomBurZa (fought for the Filipinization of parishes and champions of liberalism and humanitarianism) They were charged of sedition and rebellion due to the false testimony of Francisco Zaldua (former Bicolano soldier and was bribed by the Spanish prosecutors to implicate them as the masterminds of the mutiny). Military Court: three priests guilty and sentenced them to die by garrote. Originally, Rizal’s plan was to take up priesthood and become a Jesuit father. When he heard of the martyrdom of GomBurZa, he changed his mind and swore to dedicate his life to vindicate the victims of Spanish oppression. Political Situation The Spaniards ruled the Filipinos in the 19th century. The Filipinos became the Spaniard’s slave. The Governor General appointed by the Spanish monarch headed the central administration in Manila. He was the king’s representative in all state and religious matters, and as such, he exercised extensive powers. He issues executive orders and proclamations and had supervision and disciplinary powers over all government officials. He was commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He had supreme authority in financial matters until 1784. The Governor General was theoretically responsible for all government and religious activities during his term. Including petty official negligence and faulty administration of justice. Next to the central government in the hierarchical structure were the provincial governments or alcaldes mayors (civil governors); and the city governments called cabildo or ayuntamiento administered by two alcaldes en ordinario (mayor and vice mayor). The gobernadorcillo, fondly called captain by his constituents, was the chief executive and chief judge of a town. He was elected at the beginning of every year by a board composed of members of the town principalia, a body of citizens of high standing, usually made up of the incumbent or ex-cabeza de barangay. The smallest unit of government was the barangay or barrio. Each barangay was controlled by a cabeza de barangay, whose main responsibility was to maintain peace and order and to collect tributes and taxes in his barrio. The guardia civil and cuadrilleros performed police duties and helped maintain peace and order. The Alferez (second lieutenant), usually a Spaniard, headed the corps of guardia civil in each town. Under the Spanish colonial rule, the Filipinos were unfortunate victims of the evils of an unjust, biased and deteriorating power and this condition was due to the following reasons: 1. Instability of colonial administration The instability of Spanish politics since the turbulent reign of King Ferdinand VII (1808- marked the beginning of political chaos in Spain. This political instability in Spain adversely affected Philippine affairs because it brought about frequent periodic shifts in colonial policies and periodic rigodon of colonial officials. From 1835 to 1897, there were 50 Governor-Generals each serving an average term of only one year and three months. 2. Corrupt Colonial Officials The following were identified as corrupt colonial officials: a. Gen. Rafael de Izquierdo (1871-1873) - a boastful and ruthless governor general who ordered the execution of Father Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora. b. Admiral Jose Malcampo (1874-1877) - was good Moro fighter, but was an inept and weak administrator. c. General Fernando Primo de Rivera (1880-1883 and 1897-1898) - Governor General for two terms enriched himself by accepting bribes from gambling casinos in Manila which he scandalously permitted to operate. d. General Valeriano Weyler (1888-1891) - a cruel and corrupt governor general of Hispanic-German ancestry, arrived in Manila a poor man and returned to Spain millionaire. e. General Camilo de Polavieja (1896-1897) - an able militarist but heartless governor general, was widely detested by the Filipino people for executing Dr. Jose P. Rizal. 3. No Philippine Representation in Spanish Cortes To win the support of her overseas colonies during the Napoleonic invasion, Spain granted them representation in the Cortes (Spanish parliament). Accordingly, the Philippines experiences her first period of representation in the Cortes from 1810 to 1813. Ventura de los Reyes was the first Philippine delegate who took active part in the framing of the Constitution of 1812. Another achievement was the abolition of the Galleon Trade 4. Human Rights Denied to Filipinos Since the adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and other constitutions in succeeding years, the people of Spain enjoyed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and other human rights (except freedom of religion). The Spanish authorities who cherished these human rights in Spain denied them to the Filipinos in Asia. 5. No Equality Before the Law Spaniards arrogantly regarded the brown skinned Filipinos as inferior beings. Spanish Penal Code which was enforced in the Philippines, particularly imposed heavier penalties on Native Filipinos or mestizos and lighter penalties on white-complexioned Spaniards. 6. Maladministration of Justice The courts of justice in the Philippines during Rizal’s time were notoriously corrupt. Justice was costly, partial and slow. Wealth, social prestige and color of skin were preponderant factors in winning a case in court. The judicial procedure was so slow and clumsy that it was easy to have justice delayed. 7. Racial Discrimination Filipinos as inferior beings who were infinitely underserving of the rights and privileges that the white Spaniards enjoyed. Spaniards called the brown-skinned and flat-nosed Filipinos “Indios” (Indians), in retaliation, the Filipinos dubbed their pale-complexioned detractors with the disparaging term “bangus” (milkfish). 8. Frailocracy The friars (Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans) controlled the religious and educational life of the Philippines, and later in the 19 th century they came to acquire tremendous political power, influence and riches. Almost every town in the archipelago, except in Islamic Mindanao and Sulu and in Pagan hinterlands, was ruled by a friar curate. 9. Forced Labor (known as polo) Compulsory labor imposed by the Spanish colonial authorities on adult Filipino males in the construction of churches, schools, hospitals, building and repair of roads and bridges, building of ships and other public works. 10. Haciendas Owned by the Friars During Rizal’s times, the Spanish friars belonging to different religious orders were the richest landlords for they owned the best haciendas (agricultural lands) in the Philippines. 11. The Guardia Civil They had rendered meritorious services in suppressing the bandits in the provinces. They later became infamous for their rampant abuses such as maltreating innocent people – looting their carabaos, chickens and valuable belongings and raping women. Rizal himself witnessed the discrimination of how the guardia civil (either Filipino or insulares) treated the Filipinos. Sources of Abuses in the Administrative System: 1. There was an appointment of officials with inferior qualifications, without dedication of duty and moral strength to resist corruption for material advancement. Through the power and authority the Spaniards possess, they collected and wasted the money of the Filipinos. 2. There were too complicated functions to the unions of the church and the state. 3. Manner of obtaining the position. Through the power that the Spaniards possess, they had the right to appoint the different positions. The appointment of positions is obtained by the highest bidder which is the Governor-general of the country. 4. Term of office Term of office or term in office is the length of time a person (usually a politician) serves in a particular office is dependent on the desire of the King of the country. 5. Distance of the colony The Spanish officials travelled to various places and the needs of the Philippines were ignored. They did not put too much attention to the needs of the other people. There were inadequate administrative supervisions, they were unable to face and solve the problems regarding to the Philippines. There were also overlapping of powers and privileges of officials which made them competitive. 6. Personal interest over the welfare of the State 7. They were corrupt during the 19th century and the Alcaldias/Alcalde is considered as the most corrupt over the other corrupts. The Alcaldias/Alcalde includes the administrators, judges and military commandants. They usually have P25/month liberal allowances and privileges to take a certain percentage of money from the total amount of taxes. There were also monopoly trades or business practices known as indulto para comerciar. Renato Constantino in his book, The Colonial Landscape: The Philippines A Past Revisited, provided an overview of the Philippines during the mid 19 th century, as follows: Spaniards wrought fundamental changes in the lives of the indio Introduced new customs, relgion, practices and institutions Influx of Chinese due to presence of Spaniards New plant (corn, cassava, sweet potato, cotton magueg, indigo, ahuete, tobacco, cacao) and animals (horses, cows, sheep, goats, water buffalo, geese, ducks and swans from China and Japan) – modified eating habits and economic development 1. Colonial Outpost - The Philippines lacks economic promise for Spain/Crown but was RETAINED as colony due to the following considerations: a. Stepping stone to China and Japan b. Staging ground for missionary efforts c. Useful as outpost of Spanish empire for curving out an Oriental Empire – Philippines to be used as base for the conquest of neighboring nations - Due to these – Philippines was relegated to the role of a mere missionary and military way – station. These are the factors that discouraged serious efforts for economic development. Philippine geographic isolation from Europe precluded growth of direct trade – island to be administered through Mexico. Philippine rules by military administrators who received “situado” an annual subsidy from Mexico; “The rest of their needs had to be extracted from the Indios”. 2. Economic Neglect a. Galleon Trade – lasted until 1815 – involved only Spaniards b. Trade was essentially between China and Mexico with Manila as trans shipment point. c. One to Quick Returns from Galleon Trade dissuaded Spaniards from productive work therefore neglected to develop the agricultural potential of the Philippines. 3. Moves for Abandonment a. Financial and commercial consideration Income from Galleon trade is lower than “situado” b. Chinese silk brought to America by the Galleons competed with Spanish export to that region (America) seriously threatening Spanish silk industry. *Proponents of retention of Colony (Philippines) countered that large part of the SITUADO was used to finance the expeditions against the Moluccas. c. Trade was essentially between China and Mexico with Manila as trans shipment point. 4. The Compromise - In line with Spanish policy of MERCANTILISM and responding to pressures from Merchants of Cadiz and Seville, Spain tried to save trade of the American Market for Spanish manufacturer. - Also limited the outflow of SILVER from Latin America to the East (China) - Galleon trade was restricted to only 2 ships a year and to only one port of entry in Mexico: ACAPULCO. - EXPORT from Manila is pegged at P250,000 worth of goods (later raised to P500,000) and IMPORTS from Mexico were not supposed to exceed double the value of the exports – to limit the revenue from Galleon Trade enough only to maintain Spanish establishments in Manila. - CHURCH – Missionary undertaking/substantial material interest - Philippines as base for future maneuvers in the East - Philippines as colony of Spain – Prestige of the Crown/Pride of Spanish Kings - Profits from Galleon Trade – need to construct walls/buildings bequitted to the religious orders and pious works (Obras pias) – establishment of schools, hospitals and charitable institutions 5. Plural Economies a. Western economy – Galleon Trade b. Native economy – products were not in great demand in either China or Mexico. Thus, Philippine Spaniards did not find it profitable to develop local products for export – locally oriented/underdeveloped. c. Chinese economy – adjunct of the Galleon Trade/provide local Spaniards with luxuries they need - Chinese as artisans - Chinese as intermediaries between West and the native economies – Chinese distributed Chinese imports to the Philippine village and gathered in return local products which they sold to the Spaniards. 6. The Chinese Role - Mid 19th Century: while the Spaniards were trying to graft their administrative institutions onto the indigenous social structures, the Chinese were wrecking havoc on primitive economy of the natives. - Rice production had fallen off and the local textile industry had decline disastrously in Pampanga and Manila in late 16th century due to movement of native population to the city to provide domestic service to the Spaniards. - Indios begun to buy staple food and clothes from the Chinese. 7. Reducciones - - - NEGLECT of the Philippines INTERNAL ECONOMY was accompanied by ADMINISTRATIVE DIFFERENCE such as extraction of TRIBUTE and FORCED LABOR and the PROSELYTIZING (spread of Christianity) tradition requiring CONTROL. BARANGAY had to be integrated into colonial framework, few members of friars and scattered population had to be consolidated into RECUCCION – policy of resettlement of small villages into one larger village for easy CONTROL. FRIAR TECHNIQUES a. Offering of gifts like shirts, salt, needles, combs, etc. b. free housing c. participation in colorful church rites d. high sounding titles (gobernadorcillo, capitan, etc.) and honors for the chiefs e. THREATS - Friar’s inducement and pressure on Chiefs of Villages and making chieftains or CABEZAS de BARANGAY insured a measure of Indio’s social continuity which facilitated ACCEPTANCE of Spanish rule. - Conversion of Indio Chieftains into willing ALLIES and useful intermediaries (as cabeza de barangay) formed a reservoir of reliable minor civil servants for the Spaniards – This is bolstered by colonial recognition evidenced by their title of PRINCIPALES. 8. Population Centers – compromise of friars for Indios that did not join reduccion - POBLACION – BARRIO – SITIO system with the CHURCH as the nucleus – This community is called cabecera. - Friars constructed chapels to say mass in barrio or sitio where Indios chose to settle away from Cabesera. This is called VISITAS. 9. Colonial Intermediaries – GOBERNADORCILLOS (petty governor) equivalent of MAYOR today - They are exempted from paying tributes and rendering forced labor but they have the DUTY to COLLECT TRIBUTES which should tally with census. UNPAID or DELAYED tribute means FINE or IMPRISONMENT. Gobernadorcillos – also responsible for maintenance of municipal guards/jail, feed the prisoners, provide municipal government with personnel and supplies, also entertainment of visitors. 10. Third Prop of Power PRINCIPALIA – third prop: that of ECONOMIC POWER - From Indios concept of COMMUNAL LAND to Spaniard’s individual concept of land OWNERSHIP and regarded the land itself not merely its USE as source of WEALTH. 11. Appropriation of Communal Landholdings - Principales – by virtue of being ADM and FISCAL MIDDLEMEN between Spaniards and their people (Indios) became aware of EXPLOITATIVE KIND OF LAND OWNERSHIP and took advantage of it - CHIEFTAINS (principals) appropriated the lands cultivated by their dependents/tillers who were institutionalized as tenants – sanctioned/allowed by the Spaniards. 12. Resultant Stratification - PRINCIPALIA – perpetuated its dominant status through INTRA-CLASS MARRIAGE; principalia’s residence in plaza complex manifest physical expression of socio-economic ascendancy - CHURCH – CONVENT (Frailocracy/ecclesiastical power) and the MUNICIPIO (seat of Civil Authority) dominated the plaza. - THREE-TIERED heirarchy in rural society – Spanish Priest, Principalia and the Masses. - Manila/Suburbs – Spaniards, Chinese Mestizos, Native principals, Chinese and the people – This persisted into the beginning of nineteenth century with the SPANISH CLERGY constituting the leading instrument of POWER and EXPLOITATION. III. RIZAL’S LIFE One of the major parts in the study of Rizal course is about his life. Thus, teaching Rizal course starts from a backgrounder: the socio-economic and political situation of the world in general and the Philippines in particular. An individual is affected by his environment as well as his pleasant and unpleasant experiences. So, with the end in view of knowing Rizal as a person, there is a need to understand how his thoughts, ideas, ideals, and his feeling as a child, as a student, as a man, and as professional relate to his works and other undertakings. Through this study, explanation may be drawn out from his works, why they were written, and how they were written. These are necessary because one’s works reflect his conviction, his sentiments, perceptions, frustrations, happiness, and aspirations. They speak about the situation surrounding while he is writing. Consciously or incidentally, a writer reveals how he views God, the universe, life, society, man, and himself as reflected in his works. The latter part of this section discusses the finale of Rizal’s life – his exile, trial, and death. Lesson 4 RIZAL’S LIFE: FAMILY, CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. analyze Rizal’s family, childhood, and early education, and 2. evaluate the people and events and their influence on Rizal’s early life. The Genesis Genealogy is the study of ancestry and family histories. An expert in this field is called a genealogist. As the term applies, it traces the origin and history of the name of the martyr-national hero of the Philippines. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso was born, a legitimate son, according to the birth certificate, of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso, on June 19, 1861, between eleven and twelve in the evening, a few days before the full moon in Calamba, on the southwest shore of the picturesque Laguna de Bay, some forty miles south of Manila. Three days after his birth, Rizal was baptized in the Catholic church of Calamba on June 22, 1861 by Fr. Rufino Collantes, a Filipino priest from Batangas, while Pedro Casanas, a native of Calamba and friend of Rizal’s family, stood as Rizal’s godfather. Rizal’s Ancestors. Like most Filipinos, Rizal was of mixed racial origin In his veins flowed the blood of the East and West. Rizal’s great-great-grandfather was Domingo Lamco, the intelligent and industrious Chinese merchant who married Ines de La Rosa, a Chinese mestiza. From Parian, the family migrated to Binan and became tenants in the Dominican estate. Lamco’s only son, Francisco, who was to be Rizal’s great-grandfather was a keen, witty, and liberal young man. He became quite well-to-do and popular enough to be appointed municipal captain of Binan in 1783. The family adopted the surname ”Mercado” to free the younger generation from the prejudices that followed those with a Chinese name. Francisco Mercado’s wife, Bernarda Monicha, was a Chinese mestizo. They were blessed with two children: Juan and Clemente. Juan married Cirila Alejandra, also a Chinese mestizo. The couple had fourteen children, including Francisco who was to be Rizal’s father. Francisco and two of his sisters moved to a Dominican estate in Calamba and became pioneer farmers. Materially, socially, and professionally, the family of Teodora Alonso was better off than the family of her husband. In those days when professionals were few, the Alonso clan could boast of a number of lawyers, priest, engineers, and government officials. Teodora, Rizal’s mother whose parents were Lorenzo Albert Alonso and Brigida Ochoa belonged to a professionally famous family from Baliuag, Bulacan. The Rizal Family The family name of Rizal’s parents did not coincide with his own as inscribed in his birth certificate. This can be explained as follows: The name of Rizal’s mother was Teodora Alonso Quintos and according to some notes of Rizal’s brother, Paciano, the birth certificate of Jose bore the name Realonda because there was a time when many Filipinos had the custom of adding the name of the godmother or godfather to the child’s name. Thus, when his mother Teodora was baptized, the name Realonda (her godmother’s) was added to her name, and later to Rizal’s. Rizal himself gave in a letter to Blumentritt the complete name of his mother: Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda. As regards, the family name, this was a matter of selection, in conformity with the order in force about the middle of the 19th century, to the effect that the natives chose the family name they wished from a list provided for this purpose. Rizal’s father ignored these orders and reapplied for the name Rizal. The petition was rejected by the Spanish authorities, but despite this, the Mercado family used the name Rizal as a second family name. Jose was the first to use the family name “Rizal” in 1872 when he went to Manila to enroll at the Ateneo Municipal, directed by the Jesuits. There was a good reason for the change. Only six months had elapsed since the Cavite Mutiny in 1872. This event was to have a profound effect on the ideological genesis of Jose, despite the fact that he was only eleven years old at that time. His brother Paciano had contacts with Father Burgos, who was executed as a consequence of the uprisings. The name Mercado thus became subject to suspicion. Hence, the adoption of Rizal as the first family name. The Mercado Clan. Rizal was the son of a prosperous landowner, sugar and rice planter, of Chinese-Filipino descent Francisco Mercado y Chinco, who apparently owed his surname to the Chinese custom of looking for names with appropriate meanings. Mercado was used for trader. Francisco Mercado was born in Binan, and lived to be eighty years old, the youngest in a family of thirteen siblings. His parents were Captain Juan Mercado, who had been the gobernadorcillo or mayor of Binan, and Cirila Alejandra, daughter of Maria Guino. Juan Mercado was the older of the two brothers—Juan and Clemente—sons of Francisco Mercado and Bernarda Monicha. The hero’s father was named Francisco in memory of his grandfather. Francisco Mercado was forty-three years old when Rizal was born. He was older than his wife by six years. Of more than average in height, his face was serious and noble. He was a man of few words, dignified and hospitable. Jose Rizal’s father was a well-educated farmer who studied Latin and philosophy at the Colegio de San Jose in Manila. Early in his adult life, he moved to Calamba and was sufficient to successfully carry out the management of a large agricultural property that was leased to him. He attained a degree of wealth, established a fine library, and cultivated friends among the friars and Spanish government officials. The name Francisco was a name held in high honor in Laguna for it had belonged to a famous sea captain who had been given the Encomienda of Bay for his services and had won the regard of those who paid tribute to him. The Alonso Clan. Teodora Alonso, mother of Jose Rizal, was the second daughter of Brigida de Quintos who was the daughter of Manuel de Quintos of an affluent family in Pangasinan and of Regina Ursua. The Alonso family was a distinguished one. An uncle, Jose Florentino, was elected to the Spanish Cortes. Teodora Alonso had the most striking personality in the family circle, due to her intelligence, her upbringing, and her disposition. A well-read person, she knew how to appreciate literature, corrected her son’s verses, and had good knowledge of mathematics. Educated in the College of Santa Rosa, she was a devout Catholic and believed in the intercession of the saints in earthly happenings. She took great efforts to imbue her sons with the maxims of Christian morality. The Siblings. Don Francisco and Dona Teodora were blessed with eleven children: two boys and nine girls. They were in the order of birth as follows: 1. Saturnina (1850-1913) – oldest of Rizal children, nicknamed Neneng; married to Manuel Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas. 2. Paciano (1851-1930) – older brother of Rizal and became a general; later he retired to his farm in Los Banos. 3. Narcisa (1852-1939) – she married Antonio Lopez, a school teacher of Morong. 4. Olympia (1855-1887) – she married Silvestre Ubaldo, a telegraph operator from Manila. 5. Lucia (1857-1919) – she married Mariano Herbosa, a Batangueno farmer. 6. Maria (1859-1945) – she married Daniel Cruz of Binan, Laguna. 7. Jose (1861-1896) – greatest Filipino hero and peerless genius. 8. Concepcion ((1862-1865) – she died at the age of three. 9. Josefa (1865-1945) – she died unmarried at the age of 80. 10. Trinidad (1868-1951) – she also died unmarried at the age of 83. 11. Soledad (1870-1919) – she married Pantaleon Quintero of Calamba. The sisters of Rizal did not become prominent in occupying important public positions. It would have been in those times unusual for women to do so. But they were greatly responsible for the solidarity of the family, giving Rizal moral and spiritual support – the heroic mission that dominated their lives. The care and attention with which the sisters of Rizal showered him during his deportation in Dapitan and his stay in Hong Kong are difficult to equal. Also, the determination of Narcisa to find the tomb of her brother in the afternoon of his execution clearly shows the unifying bond of affection that held the Rizal family. As to the family finances, they not really as rich as ay biographers have claimed but were just comfortably well-to-do. The couple was ambitious as regards to the education of their children, desiring to give each the means to acquire a solid preparation. The lands they cultivated were not the property of Francisco Mercado. They belonged to the Dominicans who had leased a part of the property to the Rizal’s. Childhood Calamba. Calamba is a small town in the province of Laguna nestling at the foot of Mt. Makiling as it slopes down to Laguna de Bay. The name Calamba was derived from kalan and banga. This is probably because the place is known for clay pottery. The town where Rizal grew up was a prosperous town devoted to the production of sugar. Despite their hardships as tenants of the Dominican friars whose estate covered practically the whole town, its inhabitants were happy. Its soil was fertile; its climate favorable. Its scenic environment influenced the young Rizal for his poetic and artistic creativity. Its share of unhappiness also shaped his noble and heroic spirit. In the midst of the orchard that surrounded the house in Calamba, the father of Rizal constructed a modest nipa hut. The surroundings of his home opened to him the many wonders of nature. Verdant meadows all around, a fruit laden orchard, and Mt. Makiling in the distance – all these broadened his perception. The beauty of the orchard and the gentle atmosphere of the family’s rambling house left a deep impression on the young Rizal. At the age of four, he could recognize the martin, the maya, multi-colored kuliawan, and many others. In the afternoon, protected from the tropical sun by the shadow of Mount Makiling, the young Rizal contemplated at these birds with joy. How happy he was in that communion with nature. As a young boy, Jose was called “Ute” by his brother and sisters. The townspeople of Calamba called him “Pepe” or “Pepito.” Early Education His mother Teodora nurtured his mind, equipped with a great capacity for assimilation and with exceptional intelligence. She taught him how to read and write; she inculcated in him a sense of duty. She corrected his faults, especially his obstinacy. To accomplish this, she used parables, which Jose, like other children loved to listen to. At the end of each parable, the mother, explaining the symbolism, brought out a moral lesson (Refer to “The Story of the Moth” below.) One late night, while Rizal’s mother was narrating the parable of the moth. The parable told that the young moth was attracted to the flame and thought that it could conquer it; it pushed itself to the burning flame and got burned. The young Jose was inattentive to the story; his attention was focused on the moth encircling the tongue of the flame of the oil lamp. Teodora scolded Jose and told him that if he would not adhere to the advice of his parents or old people for that matter, he would be like the moth that burned itself in the fire. The Story of the Moth: One of the stories that Dona Teodora Alonso told Jose Rizal was that of the moth and the flame. In the story, an old moth warned a young moth not to come closer to a lighted candle otherwise it might die. But the young moth, so attracted to the candle’s light and warmth, disobeyed the old moth’s advice. The young moth flew close to the candle’s light, which caught its wings, burned and died. While listening to the story, Rizal was watching the moths flying around the lamp in their table. Just like in the story, one of the moths flew near the flame burning its wings. But that’s not how it died, it fell into the pool of coconut oil at the bottom of the lamp were it drowned and died. In his hours of leisure, he would return to the orchard where the study of insects held his interest. Since childhood hobbies are usually those that last, Jose retained his inclination to botany and zoology in his lifetime. As a local family with enormous business skills, Rizal’s parents blended education, culture, family life, and local politics into a new sense of Philippine nationalism. In 1863 the introduction of general primary education in the Philippines contributed to the rise of an even larger class of educated Filipinos. Young Jose Rizal immediately became a top flight student. At the age of three, he learned the alphabet and the prayers from his mother Teodora who was his first teacher. He paid great attention to the lessons that his sisters received from their tutors. This great diligence was not forced on him by his mother. It was he, himself, who evinced an innate curiosity for and interest in learning. In Calamba, he learned how to write. It is said that his father paid an old man to teach him the elements of Latin. The classes lasted only five months owing to the death of the old man. He went to a school in Calamba, but after a short time it was clear that he had learned all there was to learn from his school teacher. He was made to stop going to school. He was at that time seven years old. In 1868, at the age of seven Jose Rizal wrote a comedy, which highlighted his literary talent, for the local fiesta. The municipal captain rewarded him with two pesos. Teodora Alonso was able to recognize Rizal’s creativity and she encouraged the boy to express his thoughts and sentiments in verse. With her encouragement, at the age of eight in 1869 Rizal was able to write his first poem, “Sa Aking Mga Kabata.” (See below.) SA AKING MGA KABATA Kapagka ang baya’y sadyang umiibig Sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit, Sanglang kalayaan nasa ring masapit Katulad ng ibong himpapawid. Pagka’t and salita’y isang kahatulan Sa bayan, sa nayo’t mga kaharian, At ang isang tao’y katulad, kabagay Ng alin mang likha noong kalayaan. Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda, Kaya ang marapat pagyamaning kusa Na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala. Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin Sa Ingles, Kastila at salitang anghel, Sapagka’t and Poong maalam tumingin Ang siyang naggawad, nagbigay sa atin. Ang salita nati’y huwad din sa iba Na may alfabeto at sariling letra, Na kaya nawala’y dinatnan ng sigwa Ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una. In his early life, Rizal was a voracious reader. Legend has it that he was able to read at age three. His mother was a strong influence upon his education and helped develop his early interest in poetry, music, and European literature. Readings in Tagalog poetry and daily assignments in Philippine history by his mother inculcated in him a sense of the Filipino culture. Rizal continued his studies at home. But the situation could not go on, so when he was nine years old, his parents sent him to Binan, his native town bigger than Calamba, along the banks of Laguna de Bay which was an hour-and-a-half ride away, to begin his formal schooling in a private school. Under Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz, Rizal was able to improve his Spanish and Latin. He followed a regular daily routine, attended to his studies and excelled in them. This made him the best student in school, surpassing everyone in all subjects. Besides taking formal lesson in Latin and Spanish, Rizal availed himself of the services of a local painter in order to improve his talent in the field. He soon became one of the best painters of the school. Occasionally, he would take a trip to Calamba, but not as often as he wished. He was not happy in Binan. The stronger reason was that he was homesick for his town and family. However, being a fervent Catholic, he invoked the Virgin of Binan to intercede for his return to Calamba. By about the middle of 1870, he received a letter from home announcing that the boat Talim would pass for him on his return home. Not only was he going home, but he was also going by boat, an experience he had never had before. Rizal spent Christmas with his family and there it was decided that he would not return to Binan. Rizal at Ateneo Municipal The early education of Jose Rizal was an important aspect of his political thought. Like many children of the well-to-do, he received his early education at home. He had private tutors, but it quickly became obvious that he was advance beyond his years. Although he attended school in Calamba, young Jose primarily educated himself in the family library and through conversation with family and friends. In 1870, Jose Rizal left Binan to go back to Calamba. It was with a sad heart that Francisco Rizal finally decided that Jose Rizal would be sent off to a school in Manila. His brother Paciano was studying in the College of San Jose under its famous teacher Fr. Jose Burgos, a noble and courageous Filipino priest. Two years later an injustice occurred and threw a shadow across his happy young life: The first was the detention of Teodora Alonso and the second was the execution of Gomburza in 1872. The Rizal family now determined that Jose should continue his education in Manila. Before Rizal his eleventh birthday, he was sent to Manila and enrolled at the prestigious Ateneo Municipal in Intramuros (which means “within walls”), a college under the supervision of the Spanish Jesuits. Ateneo’s first name was Escuela Pia, which name was changed to Ateneo Municipal and later became Ateneo de Manila. Prior to Ateneo, Rizal took and passed the entrance exam at Colegio de San Juan de Letran, but his father Francisco opted for Ateneo. On June 10, 1872, his brother Paciano accompanied Jose to matriculate at the Ateneo. Fr. Magin Fernando, the college registrar, refused to admit Rizal because he arrived late for the registration and he appeared sickly and undersized for his age. Upon the intercession of Manuel Xeres-Burgos, nephew of Fr. Burgos, Rizal was admitted at the Ateneo. Jose was the first in his family to adopt the surname “Rizal”. He registered under this name at the Ateneo because their family name “Mercado” had come under the suspicion of Spanish authorities. Jose boarded in a house outside Intramuros in Caraballo Street, just a 25-minute walk from college, where Ateneo was once located. This boarding house was owned by Titay, a spinster. The role of the Jesuits in Philippine education is very important. After they were expelled from the Philippine archipelago in 1768, the order remained dormant until its members returned in 1859. When the Jesuits re-emerged to convert the Mindanao population, they were also asked to take charge of Ateneo. By 1865 Ateneo was a secondary school that offered rigorous courses almost equivalent to college academics. Ateneo was considered the finest school in the Philippines because of the rigorous intellectual standards of the Jesuits. The Ateneo students were trained on the system of education given by the Jesuits. Rigid discipline, character building, and religious instruction were given emphasis. Class in every subject was opened and closed with prayers. Following the rigid methodical habits which he had learned from his father and his Jesuit teachers, Jose prepared a schedule so that he would not lose an hour: study and reading until four pm, exercise from four to five pm, and social and miscellaneous obligations from five to six pm. This careful management of his time yielded results almost at once. His love for books grew tremendously. He even asked his father to buy him a complete set of the “Historia Universal” by Cesar Cantu which he conscientiously read, and the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas which reminded him of the sufferings of his mother in prison and his motherland. He was only 12 years old when he made these demands. But the book which intrigued him was Dr. Feodor Jagor’s Travels in the Philippines. His book severely criticized the Spanish regime. In Ateneo, Rizal exemplified scholastic excellence. He was able to showcase his talents in various fields such as poetry. He began at the bottom of the school, but within a month he became “Emperor of Carthaginian.” Ateneo had divided the students into two “empires,” Roman and Carthaginian, to fight for academic supremacy. It was this war that soon brought young Rizal triumph and prizes. In March 1874, he went to Calamba to spend his summer vacation. On June 16, 1875, Rizal went back to Ateneo as an “interne”. Rizal resumed his studies with vigor and zest. He topped all his classmates in all subjects and won five medals. He returned to Calamba for his summer vacation in March 1876. Rizal returned to Manila in June 1876 for his last year in Ateneo. His studies continued to fare well. He was considered to be the best and most brilliant. On March 23, 1877, Rizal received the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (a high school certificate) with grades rated “excellent”, and he had five prizes and several awards. At sixteen, the young graduate was a mature man. Jose Rizal’s four years in Ateneo were a continuous pageant of brilliant scholastic triumphs, which made him the pride of the Jesuits. Nonetheless Ambeth Ocampo, Filipino revisionist historian, suggests: “We must never assume that Rizal graduated valedictorian or at the top of his class.” Rizal stood out as a student leader and a national spokesperson, because he had the ability to talk to the average Filipino. The Detention of Teodora Alonso. While Rizal, happy in his family, awaited his transfer to study in Manila, something happened that darkened the life in that home. His mother was thrown into prison, accused of a crime of which she was so wholly incapable of doing that everybody knew it was pure fabrication. She was charged with conspiracy with her brother, Alberto Realonda, to poison his wife who had separated from him. As a result, Teodora Alonso was forced to walk from Calamba to Santa Cruz, Laguna (30 kilometers away) where she was imprisoned for two and a half years. During Jose’s two-year stay in Ateneo, his mother was imprisoned in Santa Cruz. Her case dragged for two and a half years before she finally gained release. The Execution of Gomburza. Rizal was only 11 when the events in Cavite transpired. One of the closest friends of Paciano, Fr. Jose Apoloio Burgos, was indicted for treason and sentence to death via garrote. Paciano was so enraged by the execution of Fr. Burgos and two other Filipino priests, Fr. Mariano Gomez and Fr. Jacinto Zamora, he could not contain his frustrations and depressions that he told the heroic story of the three priests to the young Rizal. As in previous uprisings, the root cause may be found in the discrimination against the Filipinos. Father Burgos published a manifesto in defense of the native clergy of which he was the most qualified and courageous spokesman. He asked for the equality of rights and opportunities; he showed how the most lucrative parishes were never granted to the Filipinos but to peninsulares, priests, or friars. In effect, the existing rule was that the native priests should not be given the positions of parish priest. On the night of January 20, 1872, there was an insurrection which should be called a mutiny, owing to its special significance. Some two hundred Filipino and Spanish mestizo workers and soldiers rose in mutiny in Cavite because of the abolition of their usual privileges including exemption from tribute and polo y servicio (forced labor) by the Governor General Rafael de Izquirdo. The military character of the rebels and the proximity to Manila and to Manila Bay drew attention to the mutiny. Very soon came the repression, as it was not only limited to those who took active part in the mutiny but was also extended to those who were known to have worked in the propaganda for the political enlightenment of the Filipinos. Hundreds of them were imprisoned, the most prominent being Fathers Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora (known as Gombuza), although their participation in the mutiny was not proven. The accused were summoned before the Council of War and were condemned to die on February 17, 1872. The execution took place in Bagumbayan, and the garrote was used. Fr. Gomez was a native of Cavite, a parish priest of Bacoor, and more than 70 years old at the time of execution. Fr. Burgos was described by the Spanish newspaper La Nacion as a “Spaniard born in the Philippines and a parish priest of the Manila Cathedral.” Fr. Zamora was also a Spaniard born in the Philippines and a parish priest in Marikina. He had given serious offense to the Spanish authorities, especially Brigadier Oran, the governor of Manila in 1867. Fr. Zamora denied him the honors due to any provincial governor when he made a trip to Marikina. The intellectuals of the period supported the propaganda carried out by Burgos and his colleagues to gain for the Filipino priests the same rights as those enjoyed by the Spanish clergy. According to them, their controversy with the friars influenced the decision of the authorities. The knowledge of these facts and the conclusion that can be drawn from their repercussion and influence on the shaping of the personality of Rizal are very significant. He himself says in his memoirs that as a result of these, he became skeptic. The emotional trauma was very painful, to such a sensitive boy. Lesson 5 RIZAL’S LIFE: HIGHER EDUCATION AND LIFE ABROAD Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. evaluate the propaganda movement; explain the principle of assimilation advocated by the Propaganda Movement; distinguish Rizal’s involvement in the movement; appraise Rizal’s relationship with other Propagandists; and analyze Rizal’s growth as a Propagandist and disavowal of assimilation. Rizal at the University of Santo Tomas Jose Rizal, having completed his Bachelor of Arts at the Ateneo Municipal with the highest honors, was now eligible for higher education at a university. Both Don Francisco and Paciano agreed that Jose should pursue a higher learning. But Dona Teodora, had second thoughts about allowing her son to acquire higher education because of the previous incident involving the execution of friars Gomez, Burgos and Zamora. Fearful of the Spanish authorities who seem to frown on those Filipinos who learn too much, she warned her husband not to send Jose again to Manila for they will cut off his head if Jose gets to know too much. However, it was Don Francisco who decided his son should to the University of Santo Tomas, a prestigious Dominican school founded in 1611 which was the only university in the Philippines during that period. Rizal enters the University of Santo Tomas in April 1877. He was barely 16 years old and was not certain which course of study he wanted to pursue. In the end, he decided to sign up for Philosophy and Letters during his Freshman year because of the following reasons: 1. It was what his father would have wanted for him. 2. He had failed to seek the advice of the rector of the Ateneo, Father Ramon Pablo who has been good to him during his days in Ateneo. Unfortunately, Father Rector was in Mindanao . As part of the course, he had to complete units in the following subjects: Cosmology and Metaphysics Theodicy History of Philosophy During his term in the University of Santo Tomas, 1877 – 1878, Rizal also studied in Ateneo where he took the vocational course in Surveying and excelled in all subjects. At age of 17, he passed the final examination but could not be granted the title because of being underage. The title was porito agrimensor (expert surveyor) was issued to him only on November 25, 1881. He was already twenty then. In those days it should be remembered, the college for boys in Manila offered vocational course in agriculture, commerce, mechanics and surveying. His report card was very impressive. After completing his first year, Rizal decided to take up medicine as his university course. This change of heart was due to two factors: 1. Father Ramon Pablo, rector of the Ateneo, had advised him to pursue medicine. 2. Rizal's mother had failing eyesight and he thought he owed it to her to become a doctor and cure her condition. At the start of the school year of 1878-1879, Rizal’s second year at UST, he decided to become a doctor though somewhat against his natural inclination. Despite his reluctance toward science, he registered at the College of Medicine, a choice he made to defuse and minimize his growing political interests. He found medicine tedious but reasoned out that it would provide a good living and a level of prestige. This, however, did not become the cause for his wholehearted studies. At the same time, he did not lose contact with the Jesuits, for they founded a literary academy, of which he was the president. With his great versatility, he still had time to write poetry, to paint, to sculpt, and to indulge in courtships prompted by his easy inclination to love. His poem entitled “A La Juventud Filipina” won first prize, consisting of a silver pen. The poem cannot claim excellence, but it is significant in that it was the first public expression of patriotism of Rizal. It urges the Filipino youth to hold its head high for “it is the fair hope of my motherland”. While at UST, Rizal had his first love in the person of a young girl of 14 named Segunda Katigbak who was already engaged to Manuel Luz. He also fell in love with his cousin, Leonor Rivera (a.k.a Taimis), who was a young girl of 13. But he never sacrificed his studies for his feelings, invariably he fished his tasks first nor did he enter into significant, binding compromises. Rizal’s interest in literature, science, and philosophy grew even more while he was in UST. His mind opened to new ideas. With characteristic humility, Rizal suggested that UST helped him develop patriotic sentiment. At UST Rizal received passing marks but found that the heavy emphasis on science was not to his liking. He remained a poet at heart and his educational goal was toward the liberal arts. Quietly on his own, his continued to work on his political ideas. Rizal's performance at the University of Santo Tomas was not as excellent as his time at the Ateneo. His grades after shifting to medicine had suffered as well. Unfortunately, Rizal was not happy of his medical studies at UST and this reflected on his grades (Zaide & Zaide, 1999). There were three main factors that contributed to his unhappiness at the university, namely: 1. The Dominican professors were hostile to him. 2. Filipino students suffered discrimination. 3. The method of instruction at UST was obsolete and repressive. After finishing the fourth year of his medical course, Rizal decided to study in Spain. He could no longer withstand the rampant bigotry, discrimination, and hostility in UST. His uncle, Antonio Rivera, Leonor’s father, encourage him to go abroad. Both Paciano and Saturnina, whom he contacted secretly, were of similar opinion. For the first time, Rizal did not seek his parents’ decision and blessing to go abroad because he knew that they, especially his mother will disapprove his plan. He did not bring his beloved Leonor in his confidence. He had enough common sense to know that Leonor, being a woman, young and romantic, could not keep a secret. Thus, Rizal’s parents, Leonor, and Spanish authorities knew nothing of his decision to go abroad in order to finish his medical studies in Spain, were the professors were more tolerant and understanding than those of the University of Santo Tomas. The Departure Rizal prepared well for his departure as per agreement with Paciano and his uncle Antonio. To outwit the Spanish authorities, he went to Calamba ostensibly to attend the town fiesta. A cryptic telegram by Manuel Hidalgo from Manila arrived, announcing that the Spanish steamer Salvadora was scheduled to sail to Singapore that is why he was able to leave on May 1, 1882. Early morning of May 1, 1882, Paciano woke him up at dawn to go to Binan and thence to Manila. He called his servants to hire a carromata to transport him to the next town. Paciano gave him 356 Mexican pesos, the legal tender in the Philippines. He did not bid goodbye to his six sisters who were still sleeping. He took a cup of coffee and kissed the hands of his parents who thought that he was only bound for Manila, not for abroad. Rizal left Calamba by carromata to go to Binan. After having changed carromata twice, they arrived in Manila after 10 hours of travel. The carromata arrived and the brothers went to the house of their sister Neneng (Saturnina), wife of Manuel Hidalgo to pick up a diamond ring which she had promised Jose and which helped Rizal very much during his days of poverty in Europe., but since she was still asleep, they decided to proceed to the house of Lucia, wife of Mariano Herbosa, who was already awake. To maintain his studies and sojourn abroad, he needed a monthly allowance of 35 pesos, and this amount Paciano promised to send regularly through uncle Antonio. They went to see Jose Ma Cecilio, a great friend and confidante of Rizal in his love affairs who informed him that his passport would be ready that same day, as indeed it was. His uncle Antonio arrived with the passport. The passport bore the name Jose Mercado. On the second of May, he rose early. He had time to book passage on the Salvadora, to write formal letters to his family and friends, and bid goodbye to his friends. At seven his compadre (Mateo Evangelista) arrived and together they went to see the Salvadora which was anchored at the Pasig. In the afternoon, he attended to his obligations. He went to say goodbye to Pedro A. Paterno who gave him a letter for Mr. Esquivel, an important Filipino resident in Spain. The kind Jesuit father, whom he visited to say adios, gave him letters of recommendation to members of their Society in Barcelona.. He said also a tearful farewell meeting to his beloved, Leonor. This proved to be their last meeting. The many visits of Rizal that day are proofs that there was nothing secret about his trip; it was a secret only to his parents. What was kept secret was the motive of the journey. On the third day of May, he woke up at five in the morning. He heard mass; later had breakfast but could not eat well owing to his emotional state. Only his brother Paciano, two sisters, and few close friends knew his secret departure. Accompanied by Gella and Tio Antonio, he went to the Paseo de Magallanes and then to the wharf on the Pasig River where the S.S. Salvadora was docked. They accompanied him up to the bay. Our hero was deeply touched by these acts of his friends who had been like a second family to him. During the voyage, Rizal keenly observed the persons and things around him. As in all his trips, he wrote, describing the passenger, the incidents and circumstances of life on board, always in a poetic vein inspired by the seascape. Rizal in Barcelona Barcelona, the greatest city of Cataluna and Spain’s second largest city where Jose Rizal first stayed. He met fellow Filipinos, some were his classmates from the Ateneo. They gave him a party and in return, he gave them the latest news and gossips in the Philippines. He came into contact with Filipinos who were plotting revolution. Barcelona was a rendezvous for radicals and revolutionaries. Not one of the desperate plans he heard appealed to him as having any hope of success. He had a definite mind, set in favor of education and against revolution at this period and during all his life. Barcelona left him surer than ever that, as he had written six years before, education must give his country light before she could hope for more freedom. On August 1, 1882, the Diariong Tagalog was founded, the first Philippine bilingual newpaper. This paper published nationalist and reformist articles. Because of lack of funds, the paper ceased publication on October 31, 1882. In a short period after his arrival in Spain, Rizal wrote an essay “El Amor Patrio,” which means “love of country” or patriotism and gave it to his friend, Basilio Moran, the publisher of Diariong Tagalog. This essay appeared in the Manila newspaper Diariong Tagalog on August 20, 1882 under the pen name Laong-Laan, which means “ever prepared.” Originally written in Spanish and translated by Marcelo H. del Pilar in Tagalog and became popular among reformers in Manila. Rizal was able to explain his views through this essay, emphasizing that the Philippines is the country for Filipinos and not for Spain, urging his countrymen to love their fatherland, the Philippines. This alerted Spanish officials to Rizal’s nationalistic tendencies. Francisco Calvo, the editor-in-chief of the Diariong Tagalog, urged Rizal to write more articles for publication. Among the articles Rizal wrote included “Travels” (“Los Viajes”) and “Review of Madrid” (“Revista de Madrid”), which unfortunately was not published anymore because the newspaper had ceased publication. Rizal in Madrid From Barcelona, Rizal moved to Madrid, the capital city of Spain. On November 3, 1882, Rizal enrolled in two courses, Medicine and Philosophy and Letters in the Universidad Central de Madrid (Central University of Madrid). He also studied Painting and Sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts and took lessons in French, German, and English. He attended operas and concerts to improve his knowledge on music. He spent his money wisely and never on wine and women. His only extravagance was the Spanish lottery. Jose Rizal sometimes spent his time visiting the home of Don Pablo Ortiga, a former liberal-minded Spanish Civil Governor of Manila, where Rizal met his two daughters, Pilar and Consuelo. It was Consuelo who again awakened the lonely heart of Rizal. On August 23, 1883, Rizal wrote a poem “A La Senorita” which was dedicated to Consuelo. With great will power, Rizal did not allow the romance to blossom because he was still engaged to Leonor Rivera and his friend Eduardo de Lete was deeply in love with Consuelo. While in Madrid, Jose Rizal joined the Circulo Hispano-Filipino, a Filipino student organization. The organization met regularly to discuss political issues. It was established in 1882 by a group of Filipino students in Madrid led by Juan Atayde, a Spanish born in Manila and concerns of Filipinos. Notable members of the organization included Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Juan Luna, and Graciano Lopez Jaena. The organization was able to publish the Revista del Circulo Hispano-Filipino, a newspaper aimed at expressing thoughts about the abusive Spanish government. However, the publication was short-lived due to lack of funds and conflicting political issues, which led to the dissolution of the organization. Upon the request of the members, he wrote the poem entitled “Me Piden Versos” which he declaimed during the New Year’s Eve reception of Filipinos in Madrid. Rizal spent his past-time reading books until midnight. Among the many books which he read, two made an especially deep impression upon him, for they gave him one answer to the questions he was forever asking: How could he meet his country’s need? The first book was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle’s Tom Cabin, which had been such a potent factor in arousing American sentiment against slavery before Lincoln finally issued the emancipation proclamation. The other book, which affected Rizal even more deeply, was Eugene Sue’s The Wandering Jew. The only balm Rizal found for homesickness was hard work. He never failed in his classes though in Madrid he carried two courses simultaneously. In Medicine he received “fair” in two subjects, “good” in four, and “excellent” in two. In Philosophy and Letters he received “good” in one, “very good” in one, “excellent” in four, “excellent with prize” in one (Greek and Latin Literature), and “excellent with free scholarship” in two (Spanish Literature and the Arabic language). How he longed to go back to his mother. But he must continue studying medicine until he could restore her sight. So he fought down his longing to return although “”homesickness invaded in spirit every hour …” In the first and most acute stages of his longing for home, his of aching soul. He wrote the poem “They Ask Me For Verses” which was published on October 7, 1882. One of the least known facts of the life of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal was his being a member of a worldwide fraternity called Freemasonry. While he studied in Spain in 1883, Rizal joined Masonic Acacia Lodge in Madrid. Rizal was taken aback by the free-thinking. According to Filipino historian Reynold Fajardo, in his book “Dimasalang: The Masonic Life of Dr. Jose Rizal,” Rizal was not only a Mason, he was the only one among the leaders of the revolutionary movement during the Spanish era who “deserved to be called an international Mason since he was a member of various Masonic lodges in Spain, Germany, France, and possibly England.” According to Fajardo, at the time Rizal was studying in Binan and Manila, Masonry was relatively unknown in the Philippines. Masonic Lodges were very few and most of their members were Spaniards. However, Rizal’s uncle, Jose Alberto Alonzo, was a Mason and lived in Spain. Alonzo was make a Knight of the Order of Carlos III and later King Amadeo, also a Mason, made him a Knight Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic. Rizal’s elder brother, Paciano, also had several links with Spanish Masons in the Philippines during the latter’s student days in Manila. On Rizal’s way to Madrid, his ship docked at Naples on June 11, 1882. He took a coach for a tour and he saw numerous posters put up by Masons announcing the death of Giuseppe Garibaldi, their Grand Master. Rizal must have been impressed that he joined the Acacia Lodge No. 9 in Madrid under the Gran Oriente de Espana. So far there is no exact date as to when Rizal was initiated; but based on a photograph of him wearing the habiliments of the Mason, historians deduced that he must have been around 23 years old then. In accordance with Masonic practices then observed in Spain, Rizal selected a symbolic name by which he was to be known, ‘Dimasalang’. The Spanish Masons proclaimed a new era of freedom from restrictions of government and the church. Joining the Mason order made sense because it was a dedicated organization which pointed out the friars’ abuses in the Philippines. It was an acknowledgment that the Spanish government in Manila needed to reform itself. What was the significance of joining a Masonic Order? It was an act that helped Rizal’s political reputation. The Masons were known for their liberal ideas. In 1884 in Madrid, Juan Luna and Felix Resurrection Hidalgo won gold and silver prizes, respectively, during the national exhibition of fine arts. At a victory banquet held on June 25, 1884, Jose Rizal gave a toast that made history. In his speech, Rizal stated that the hold of Spain over the Philippines was rapidly ending. It was one of the earliest pronouncements of a new nationalism. Just as fame beckoned, Rizal found out that his family was worried about the impact of his “toast speech” and his joining the Masonry. Paciano informed his brother that his family was visibly upset with his sudden political impact if he returned home. Paciano warned his brother that he might not be welcome in the family. The speech Rizal delivered afflicted his mother and made her sick. As a result of this controversy, Jose decided to continue his education. He had planned for some time to study in Germany. But the family’s economic condition and his own uncertainty about expenses prompted some indecision. In a brief span of time, he would earn the name “The First Filipino” for his pronouncements on Philippine nationalism. Rizal in Paris, Capital City of France During his summer vacation, Rizal went to Paris and stayed there from June 17 to August 20, 1883. Like all tourists, Rizal was attracted by the beautiful sights of Paris. He visited important landmarks, spent hours visiting museums, botanical gardens, art galleries, and hospitals. Prices in Paris, however, were too high. When Rizal returned to Madrid, he completed his medical course and was conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine in 1885 by the Universidad Central de Madrid, but could not be given his diploma because he could not present his thesis. The licentiate is an undergraduate degree similar to the bachelor’s degree but with a more vocational focus. Further medical education was not required to call oneself a physician or to practice medicine at that time. Nevertheless one could obtain a doctorate after passing examinations and writing an approved thesis. That same year, he also completed his studies and obtained the degree of Licentiate in Philosophy and Letters and was qualified to become a professor in Humanities in any Spanish university. History and historians doubt whether Rizal finished doctorate in medicine. Oddly enough it would appear that, contrary to the general assumption, he never got his doctorate in medicine although he took and passed the course in the history of medicine , surgical analysis, and normal histology in 1884-1885. However, he never submitted his doctoral thesis. He was never really a “doctor” Rizal as he would be known for posterity. In the long correspondence with the authorities of the university, which he started from Geneva in June 1887, he requested only the issuance of his licentiate; this was applied and paid for in his name by Julio Llorente, who for some reason or another asked that it be sent to the Governor in Manila, where it was promptly lost; so that after a typical bureaucratic jumble, Rizal had to be content with a certified copy, which he received from the Spanish Consul General in Hong Kong in May 1892, eight years after his graduation. After his studies in Spain, he went back to Paris in 1885 and continued his medical studies. He was 24 years old and already a physician. Rizal arrived in Juan Luna’s studio on Boulevard Arago near the Place d’Italie. During that time Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere was half-finished. It was in Paris where Rizal worked as an assistant to Dr. Louis de Wecker, a leading French ophthalmologist. Under his tutelage, he rapidly improved his knowledge on ophthalmology. While in Paris, Rizal learned much during his stay in Dr. Wecker’s clinic. Paciano supported Jose’s desire to study further as it would be very useful to the family and because few or nobody practices such branch of medicine. From October 1885 to January 1886, Rizal studied in Paris and took advantage of Parisian culture. He also honed his medical knowledge and learned the various techniques of eye operation. But it was the German method of diagnosis that Rizal hoped to perfect. Rizal in Germany From Paris, on February 1, 1886, Rizal left for Germany. On February 3, 1886, he arrived in Heidelberg, a historic city in Germany famous for its university and romantic surroundings. While in Heidelberg, Rizal worked at the University Eye Hospital under the direction of Dr. Otto Becker, a distinguished German ophthalmologist. Under Dr. Becker there was a vigorous course of study with less attention to actual operations. Rizal’s experience with actual patient operations in Paris helped him emerge as one of Dr. Becker’s best students. Rizal also had a practice at a certain hospital in Germany. During weekends, Rizal visited the scenic spots including the famous Heidelberg Castle. While continuing his medical studies in Germany, Rizal heard of an Austrian scholar in Leitmeritz whose historical and ethnographic publications on the Philippines reflected his abiding interest in a people and a country he had never even seen with his own eyes. Rizal became friends with Ferdinand Blumentritt, who was born in Prague on September 10, 1853. Blumentritt studied History at Prague University. When his correspondence with Rizal began, he was a master teacher at Leitmeritz (today known as Litomerice in the Czech Republic) and had already published scholarly writings on Philippine languages and ethnography. The 33-year old Blumentritt was married to Rosa Muller and had three children: two sons, Friedrich and Konrad, and a daughter named Dolores, whom Blumentritt sometimes affectionately addressed with the Tagalog nickname, “Loleng”. Upon learning that Blumentritt was studyng the Tagalog language, Rizal sent him a letter in German. Blumentritt reciprocated with a gift of two books as evidence in Rizal’s letter. The two continued to exchange letters about their scholarly endeavors. Books, manuscripts, and maps were gifted as well from one to the other. Oftentimes, Rizal would write about his search for Filipiniana and his efforts at translating German works on the Philippines. Blumentritt would respond by sending his own ethnographic studies and also provided Rizal with letters of introduction to a number of German scholars. Here was a budding friendship born of an intimate love for all things Philippines – a beautiful friendship that lasted all their lives. Leon Ma. Guerrero remarked in his biography of Rizal, “It is a charming and, in its own way, fascinating correspondence … the letters they exchanged also illustrate something that is very rare, the evolution of a purely intellectual friendship … Clearly Blumentritt, the Austrian schoolmaster, is Rizal’s mentor; he has a greater command of the authorities, a better knowledge of the world; but the young Malay can also teach the erudite Czech what cannot be found in maps and ethnographical treatises: political realities, the feeling of a people.” After four months of correspondence between them, Rizal mustered the courage to suggest that they exchanged photographs. Blumentritt readily obliged, while Rizal sent a self-portrait done in crayon. It was also to Blumentritt that Rizal sent one of the earliest available copies of his Noli Me Tangere. In Blumentritt Rizal found a friend and teacher. They plotted together for the independent future of the Philippines. They agreed on a common Philippine problem, the role of the friars. Before Rizal left Germany to return home, he received a letter from Blumentritt which praised the young Filipino for his advanced thinking. Soon Blumentritt became an advocate of Philippine independence and one of the strongest European voices in praise of Filipino culture. Rizal attended lecture course in the famous old University of Heidelberg. He lived with Dr. Karl Ullmer, a Lutheran minister with whom he took delightful walks nearly every afternoon, learning much about German religious ideas. The ancient city of Heidelberg is one of the scenic attractions of Europe, charmingly situated at the junction of the Neckar and the noble Rhine. Rizal wrote a tenderly beautiful poem, “A las Flores de Heidelberg” (To the Flowers of Heidelberg) on that beautiful spot on April 22, 1886. Rizal also contemplated to enroll as a student of law at the University of Heidelberg, but his brother Paciano was not in favor of it. Perhaps Paciano was wrong in discouraging him from taking up law. Rizal, a born polemicist, with a talent of self-expression and a keen sense of justice, would have made a splendid lawyer. He made up his mind to study medicine because his mother’s sight was failing although he was far below his usual standard in the pre-medical and medical courses which he took in the university as shown in his grades in 16 subjects: 3 passing, 8 “good,” 3 “very good,” and only 2 “excellent.” He remained in Heidelberg for three months, long enough to complete his short course. On August 9, 1886, Rizal left Heidelberg and proceeded to Leipzig, He went to the University of Leipzig to study psychology and history. There he became a friend of Professor Friedrich Ratzel, one of the historians who helped change the methods of historical research. Rizal continued to write Noli Me Tangere with passion and great inspiration. At the end of the school term, he travelled to Berlin on November 1. He was enchanted by Berlin because of its scientific atmosphere and the absence of racial prejudice. As was his custom, he at once sought the friendship of eminent scholars and found them democratic and responsive to his friendly approach. Men of science as a rule are somewhat retiring and unassuming but extremely eager to help any young person who thinks deeply and seriously. Dr. Feodor Jagor, who wrote the Travels in the Philippines, became Rizal’s warm friend. Dr. Rudolf Virchow and Dr. Wilhelm found Rizal’s deep and brilliant mind delightful and made him a member of the Berlin Anthropological Society, of which Dr. Virchow was president. Noli Me Tangere was finished in Berlin on February 22, 1887. In Berlin, Rizal lived a frugal life because no money arrived from Calamba. Rizal was desperate then. He had no money to publish his book. Vainly he was struggling to save money by eating only one meal a day, largely bread and coffee, which cost him but a few centavos. His health broke down due to lack of proper nourishment. He began to cough and feared he was going to be sick with tuberculosis. Rizal confided to his old friend Fernando Canon about the dark period. A telegram came from Dr. Maximo Viola, a rich young Filipino whom Rizal had known in Madrid, saying he was on his way to visit Berlin. Hope sprang in Rizal’s heart. Thanks to the providential help of Maximo Viola, Noli Me Tangere appeared a few weeks later. One of the first copies was sent to Dr. Blumentritt. Bound copies were boxed and sent to some friends in Barcelona and Madrid. These friends employed a clever ruse for getting them into the Philippines disguised as merchandise. Then big-hearted Dr. Maximo Viola took the eager author off for a jaunt on foot through lovely sections of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Hiking was popular in Europe then as it is today. Rizal’s spirit began to soar again. The two friends visited Dresden, where Rizal was already known and admired by Dr. Adolph B. Meyer and other scientists. Our many-sided Filipino genius was, among other things, an outstanding student in zoology and ethnology. After a visit to Vienna, Rome, and a few other cities of Italy, Dr. Rizal took a ship from Marseills and started home on July 5, 1887, at last ready to operate upon the cataracts in his mother’s eyes. First Homecoming After five years of memorable sojourn in Europe, Rizal returned to the Philippines in August 1887. Rizal was warned by Paciano and other relatives not to return home, yet he did not heed their warning. He was determined to return to the Philippines for the following reasons: 1. To operate on his mother’s eyes; 2. To serve his people who had long been oppressed by Spanish tyrants; 3. To find out for himself how the Noli and his other writings were affecting Filipinos and Spaniards in the Philippines; 4. To inquire why Leonor Rivera remained silent. Rizal’s arrival was like a storm over his novel. One, day Rizal received a letter from Governor General Emilio Terrero requesting him to go to Malacanan Palace. Rizal went to Malacanan. He was informed by the Governor General of the charges and explained that he merely exposed the truth. Rizal’s enemies were powerful. The Dominicans examined the text of the Noli and found it to be subversive of public order and ordered the importation, reproduction, and circulation of the book be absolutely prohibited. Repercussions of the storm over the Noli reached Spain. During the days when the Noli was the target of a heated controversy, all copies of the Noli were sold out. What marred Rizal’s happy days in Calamba was the death of his older sister, Olimpia, and the news circulated by his enemies that he was a German spy. Rizal’s exposure of the deplorable conditions of tenancy in Calamba and the friars, forced him to leave his country for the second time in February 1888. He was then a full-grown man of 27 years of age. Rizal in Hong Kong On February 3, 1888, after a short stay of six months in Calamba, Rizal left Manila for Hong Kong on board the Zafiro. He arrived in Hong Kong in February 8. In Hong Kong, Rizal stayed at the Victoria Hotel and he was introduced to some leading Spaniards, one of them Varanda, who was Secretary to Governor General Emilio Terrero. He travelled about with him for several days, especially on a trip which he, Varanda, and Jose Maria Basa took to Macao aboard the ferry steamer Liu-Kiang to see the Portuguese colony and to visit Mr. Lecaroz in whose house they were guests. Lecaroz, Basa, and the other Filipinos in Hong Kong were partisans and promoters of the book Noli Me Tangere. (Note: Basa was exiled in 1872, a victim of Spanish vengeance for the uprising in Cavite, though he had not a shadow of guilt . A noble gentleman with a beautiful influence on Filipino youth, he became one of Rizal’s most trusted friends from the time of this Hong Kong visit and played a vital part in Rizal’s career thereafter.) During his two-week visit in Hong Kong, Rizal studied the Chinese life. Rizal investigated many important matters, for example concerning the riches of the Dominicans, concerning their missions, concerning the Augustinians, etc. (Note: The study of the Dominicans, which Rizal mentioned, is to be remembered because four years later a terrific arraignment of the wealth and greed of that society was found in his sister Lucia’s baggage and led to Rizal’s arrest and ultimately to his execution.) On February 28, 1888, Rizal left Hong Kong on board the Oceanic. His destination was Japan. Rizal in Japan Rizal arrived in the Land of the Cherry Blossoms on February 28, 1888. He was enchanted by the natural beauty of Japan, the charming manners of the Japanese people and picturesque shrine. There he met a Japanese girl and fell in love with her. She was Seiko Usui, whom Rizal affectionately called O-Sei-San. Rizal first arrived in Yokohama in February 28, and on the next day he went to Tokyo. There he was invited to live at the Spanish Legation although he was staying at Tokyo Hotel. Rizal did not know how to speak the Japanese language although he looked liked a Japanese. To avoid embarrassment, Rizal decided to study the Japanese language. O-Sei-San’s beauty and affection tempted Rizal to settle down in Japan. Rizal saw in lovely O-Sei-San the qualities of his ideal woman: beauty, charm, modesty, kindness, intelligence, and sincerity. O-Sei-San reciprocated his affection. She helped Rizal in many ways. She was more than a sweetheart, guide, interpreter, and tutor. Rizal bade farewell to her. The beautiful romance between them came to a sad ending. Sacrificing his personal happiness, Rizal had to carry his mission of being acquainted with different people in Europe and resumed his voyage leaving behind O-Sei-San. Despite his sorrowing heart, Rizal enjoyed the pleasant transpacific voyage to the United States. Rizal in the United States Rizal first saw America on April 28, 1888. His arrival was marred by racial prejudice. Rizal arrived in San Francisco on board the steamer Belgic. All passengers were not allowed to land and the ship was placed under quarantine on the ground that it came from the Far East where a cholera epidemic was raging. After a week of quarantine, all first class passengers including Rizal were permitted to land. On May 4, 1888, Rizal arrived in San Francisco and registered at the Palace Hotel and stayed for two days. Americans would smart as they read what this genius with a penetrating eye and a painfully accurate pen saw in eighteen days. California labor was at the time in the throes of violent hatred toward Chinese laborers. He started across the continent by rail, sitting in a coach all night to save money. He travelled to Oakland, then to Sacramento and on May 6, he arrived in Reno, Nevada. He continued his trip to Colorado and Nebraska, then Chicago, Albany and on Sunday of May 13, he reached New York. He visited the scenic and historic places. Rizal’s journey across America is delightfully told in his diary, written in short sentences and looking as though the track was rough—as it was in those days. It illustrates the precision with which he saw and recorded everything. On May 16, 1888, he left New York for Liverpool on board the City of Rome. Rizal in London From New York he arrived in London and in Liverpool on May 24, 1888. For a short time, he stayed as a guest of Dr. Antonio Regidor, an exile and a practicing lawyer. Rizal at once secured a card permitting him to work in the British Museum Library. He plunged into study and writing, which occupied his time for the next ten months. He found here one of the few remaining volumes of Antonio de Morga’s book Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (literally translated as Events in the Philippine Islands), which had been published in 1609. This work perhaps was the best account of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines during that time. It was based partly on documentary research, keen observation, and Morga’s personal knowledge and involvement. Rizal was impressed about the book, so he decided to annotate it and publish a new edition. Ferdinand Blumentritt wrote the foreword of the annotation. By the end of May, he transferred to a new boarding house owned by the Beckett family. It was here that Rizal met Gestrude Beckett, a true-blooded English woman. Her case with Rizal was quite different from the others because it was a one-way affair. She showed sign of being very much in love with our hero. It was she who carried Rizal’s breakfast to his room and his tea in the afternoon. Rizal’s charm and chivalry might have been interpreted by the English lass as a proposal. It was then that Rizal made up his mind to leave London before this new development grew serious, because he respected the love of Gestrude or Gettie as she was called. Rizal copied every word of Morga’s book and had it published at his own expense. It was of utmost importance to Rizal, the patriot, as well as to Rizal, the anthropologist, for it completely refuted a falsehood which all Spaniards and nearly all Filipinos had come to believe. Morga showed that when Spain reached the Philippines, she did not find the people “in caves eating raw meat”; for there were creditable civilization centuries old and flourishing commerce with foreign countries on the mainland of Asia. The book revealed that in certain respects Spain had actually done the Filipinos harm. Morga’s book with Rizal’s annotations finally came out in 1889, and Mariano Ponce, after reading it, pronounced it a “tremendous blow to our enemies…. Your book will change ideas which now prevail concerning our country.” Ponce said he was so much inspired by the book that he too would write a book on “the lives of Filipinos who have stood out from the crowd in the past and during the present time …. It would be possible to demonstrate to all the world that our race has produced men who may be ranked with the wisest.” Immediately Rizal set about to furnish Ponce with material. “Our whole aspiration,” he declared, “is to educate our nation; education and more education!” He discovered that history and anthropology were the best friends of the Philippines, for these sciences were exposing the lies which the Spaniards had told for generations. He had nothing to fear and everything to gain by exploring every corner of the past, so he enlisted his friends in scouring all the libraries of Europe for ancient documents and abstruse knowledge concerning his country. Simultaneously, he went on writing El Filibusterismo which he started in October, 1887 (two months after he arrived in Calamba in his first homecoming). Supplementary to these literary works, was his attempt to produce a dictionary and a grammar book for the Philippine languages. La Solidaridad (The Solidarity) was an organization composed of exiled Filipino liberals and students attending Europe’s universities. The organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of the Filipinos and to propagate a closer relationship between the Philippines and Spain. It also launched a newspaper of the same name, which served as the organ of the reform movement. Mariano Ponce, a new friend who ardently loved Rizal and was hunting books which Rizal needed in Spain, urged him to accept its directorship, and an overwhelming majority of the Filipinos pressed this position upon him. He declined to accept the management because others were ambitious for the position. The insincere attacks, which are common among candidates for an elective office, hurt him. He was eager for true criticism but wounded when he knew it was false. The man finally chosen to head La Solidaridad was Graciano Lopez Jaena, while Rizal was unanimously elected as honorary president. Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce were associate editors. In February 1889, Del Pilar wrote exultantly that “at last our little periodical is born, democratic in its criticisms but much more democratic in its personnel.” The newspaper published not only articles and essays about the economic, cultural, political, and social conditions of the country, but also current news, both local and foreign, and speeches of prominent Spanish leaders about the Philippines. Articles from the pen of Rizal appeared in nearly every issue, very much the most important material the paper ever published. And every article drove a nail into its author’s coffin if ever he should dare to place himself in the power of his enemies. When Jose Rizal’s heart was bleeding over reports of persecutions in the Philippines, he received a request from Del Pilar, who had replaced Jaena as editor of La Solidaridad, to write a letter to the courageous women of Malolos, who had dared to hoot at some disreputable friars. Instead of a letter, Rizal wrote almost a book. “We ought to be reasonable and open our eyes. Especially ought you women, because you are first in influencing the consciences of men. Bear in mind that a good woman must bring up her son in a way becoming the image of the true God – A God who is not an extortioner, nor covetous for money; a God who is Father of all, and perfectly just; a God who is not a vampire of the poor, who does not make sport of the agonies of those in tribulation, nor twist the straight course of justice…. ” “I do not expect the country to have honor and prosperity so long as woman is a slave and ignorant and does not know how to protect the steps of her child… The friars have blinded her, bound her, and left her feeble-hearted; and they live without risk, because while the Filipino woman is enslaved, they can enslave all her children. This is the cause of Asia’s prostration – the womanhood of Asia is ignorant and in slavery. Woman is powerful in Europe and in America, because she is free and educated, with clear intelligence and a strong will of her own…” Rizal Back in Paris From London Rizal reluctantly gave up the wonderful library of the British Museum and departed for Paris in the middle of March 1899 to continue working on El Filibusterismo, his sequel to Noli Me Tangere. It was extremely difficult for a visitor to find living quarters there. For a short period, Rizal lived in the house of his friend, Valentin Ventura. He transferred residence several times, moving from one hotel to another. From the Philippines came news that Noli Me Tangere was reaching farther and farther every month. The book was setting the Filipinos on fire. The friars retaliated by persecuting Rizal’s relatives and town. Although life in Paris was gay, Rizal continued to be very busy. Hours were too precious for him to waste. In his spare time, Rizal used to dine at the homes of his friends. On December 25, 1889, Christmas Day, although Rizal lived a frugal life, he prepared a sumptuous Christmas dinner for some of his friends. After a one-month stay, Rizal prepared to go to Brussels in Belgium. Rizal in Brussels On January 28, 1890, Rizal left for Brussels, capital of Belgium. He left Paris for two reasons: 1. the cost of living in Paris was very high; and 2. the gay social life of the city hampered his literary works especially the writing of his second novel, El Filibusterismo. Rizal was accompanied by Jose Albert when he moved to Brussels. There Rizal became busy writing his second novel which was a continuation of the Noli. Aside from this hectic schedule, Rizal wrote articles for La Solidaridad and letters to his family and friends. In Brussels, Rizal received news from Juan Luna and Valentin Ventura that many Filipinos in Spain were involved in gambling. He wrote to M.H. del Pilar on May 28, 1890 to remind the Filipinos in Madrid not to gamble, but to help work for their fatherland’s freedom. While in Brussels, Rizal came to know Suzanne Jacoby or petite Suzanne who was attracted to him. Like other women, Rizal ignored her, and when he left for Madrid she cried. Rizal Back in Madrid In August 1890, Rizal arrived in Madrid. He tried all legal means to seek justice for his family and the Calamba tenants but they were all to no avail. On top of his misfortune, Leonor Rivera, whom he was engaged for eleven years, broke his heart by saying that her mother was against their relationship. Because of the disappointment in Madrid, Rizal took a vacation on the French Basque Coast upon the invitation of the rich Boustead family. He had befriended Eduardo Boustead when they met in Paris, where the latter was also with his two charming daughters (Adelina and Nellie). It was here when he had serious romance with Nellie and finished the last chapter of his second novel, El Filibusterismo. His one-month vacation worked wonders for Rizal. He spent it in scenic beaches and the festive atmosphere made him forget the bitter memories of Madrid. Rizal, having lost his beloved Leonor, came to entertain considerable affection for Nellie whom he treated to be a real Filipina. He had intention to propose marriage to her. Rizal’s marriage proposal failed because he did not like to give up his Catholic faith; Nellie was a Protestant and besides, the parents of Nellie, especially her mother, did not like Rizal as a son-in-law. Although they could not get married, Rizal and Nellie parted as good friends. From Madrid, he went back to Brussels where he became busy revising and polishing the manuscript of El Filibusterismo. He went to Ghent where he searched for a printer for his novel. At last on September 18, 1891, El Filibusterismo came off the press. Rizal, a very happy man, sent two copies to Hong Kong – one for Basa and the other for Sixto Lopez. The book was dedicated to the three Filipino priests who were executed in the Philippines. After the publication of El Filibusterismo, Rizal left for Hong Kong where he lived from November 1891 to June 1892. Rizal was convinced that he could accomplish nothing further in Europe. Against his will he had been drawn into a political controversy among the Filipinos. One Marcelo H. del Pliar. Friends of Del Pilar were beginning to print the kind of attacks that always appear in political conflicts. Rizal resolved to take himself out of the picture at once. He wrote to Del Pilar: “I ought not to introduce division in this publication (La Solidaridad). I prefer to be buried in solitude and isolation, rather than disturb the harmony and peace of its editors.” He left Europe because life was unbearable and he really wanted to see his family and his country. Rizal desired to get away from Europe for still another reason. Persistent rumors reached him that some of the Filipinos in Madrid were getting money from the Philippines by using his name, and then wasting and misappropriating it. Old Graciano Lopez Jaena who had been the founder of La Solidaridad but had been jockeyed of his position and left in poverty, wrote to Rizal urging him to help bring about the “downfall of these little patriots who exploit patriotism for their own profit… We should swear to prevent, by every means, the triumph of these false apostles of the salvation of the Philippines.” Rizal would not then nor at any other time lift a finger against his countrymen, but he could not rest so long as he was entangled with any affair which was in the slightest degree questionable. He must get away! Rizal Back in Hong Kong Rizal sailed for Hong Kong on the S.S. Melbourne on October 18, 1891 and arrived in Hong Kong on November 20, 1891. With him he carried eight hundred copies of the first edition of El Filibusterismo, hoping that he might be able to introduce them into the Philippines little by little, through ship captains, Chinese, or other travellers. Hong Kong was clearly the right place to go, at least for the time being, not only because it was near the Philippines but also because his dear friend Jose Ma. Basa was there who welcomed him together with other Filipino residents. While in Hong Kong, Rizal sent a letter to his mother asking permission to return home. Rizal also had a plan of taking his relatives and the families who had been dispossessed in Calamba to Borneo and there to establish a new Filipino colony under the free British flag. He took a steamer from Hong Kong to Borneo. The British governor of that Island conceded the Filipinos 100,000 acres of land, a beautiful harbor, and a good government for 999 years, free of all charges. Rizal began to gather his loved ones about him in Hong Kong in spite of many difficulties. Rizal’s family composed of his father, mother, brother, and sisters who arrived late had a reunion in Christmas of 1891. It was one of the happiest yuletide celebrations in Rizal’s life. It was in Hong Kong where Rizal practiced his knowledge in ophthalmology. He joined the clinic of a Portuguese physician Dr. Lorenzo Marquez who became his friend an admirer. He had many patients and it was here where he successfully operated on his mother’s left eye so she was able to read and write again. In due time, he became a successful medical practitioner. He had many patients including British, Chinese, Portuguese, and also Americans. Some of his friends who were in Europe gave him substantial and moral aid in his medical practice in Hong Kong. Rizal possessed the quality of a great ophthalmic surgeon. Had he devoted his lifetime to the practice of medicine he would have become one of Asia’s eminent ophthalmologist. Rizal’s Borneo project still remained. It alone promised to give his relatives and neighbors relief. Besides, Borneo would be an admirable location from which to pursue the process of education which he believed the Philippines needed the most. However, in May 1892, Rizal made up his mind to return to Manila. Relatives and friends of Rizal opposed his decision to return home. Not even fear of death could deter Rizal from his decision. On June 19, 1892, he spent his 31st birthday in Hong Kong. He had a premonition of his death for he wrote two letters, one addressed to his parents, brother, and friends, and the second letter to the Filipinos. He gave them to his friend Dr. Marquez for safekeeping and instructed him only to open the letter after his death. Prelude to the Departure for Manila With only two more days before his departure, Rizal wrote a number of letters. These letters revealed his overwhelming feeling that he was returning home to give his life for his country. Governor General Weyler departed and a new Governor General named Eulogio Despujol arrived in Manila. Despujol promulgated a fine-sounding program of reforms. Was this the opportunity for which Rizal had been praying? Who was Governor Despujol? Was he a friend or a traitor? Despujol’s first few months in office gave Filipinos ground for hope. In him they thought they saw the reverse of Valeriano Weyler—Despujol was a second Governor de la Torre, the most liberal executive that the Philippines ever had in the nineteenth century. On Despujol’s birthday, March 17, 1892, he rescinded an order banishing thirteen of the seventeen relatives and followers of Rizal exiled in Jolo, capital of Sulu. A big fiesta was held in Malacanan Palace. Hundreds of prominent Filipinos came tendering gifts, and to all of them Despujol was the mirror of Castilian virtues, continually protesting that he did not deserve such tokens of esteem and affection from the native population. Rizal wrote the Governor General a beautiful letter of congratulations. Then he offered the Governor General his aid, but no reply came from the Governor General. On the contrary the persecution of Calamba continued unabated. The replacement of Weyler by Eulogio Despujol late in 1891 heartened Filipino nationalists, including Rizal, who immediately wrote a letter offering his services to the government in the interest of justice and reform. The letter was never answered. The following March Rizal again wrote a letter to Governor Despujol asking for official permission to allow Filipinos to change their nationality and sell their holding in the Philippines for the purpose of emigration to Borneo. The next necessary step was to secure permission from the government for the colonists to go. After waiting for three months for a reply to his first letter to the Governor General and receiving no reply, Rizal wrote a second letter (March 22, 1892) and gave it a sea captain who promised to deliver the letter in person to Governor General Despujol. The Governor General did not grant him “the courtesy of a reply” in writing but sent word by the Consul General in Hong Kong “that seeing how the Philippines lacked labor, it was not very patriotic to go off and cultivate a foreign soil, and hence we cannot favor the project, but we added that every Filipino was free, in any part of the Archipelago he chose, to contribute to the prosperity of the country so long as he obeyed the laws.” In Hong Kong he wrote on June 20, 1892, the first letter addressed to his beloved parents and friends. The importance of the letter as well as the shortness of time made him decide not to mail it. Instead he gave the letter to Dr. Lorenzo Pereyra Marquez, closed and sealed for safekeeping, and so with the second letter addressed to his countrymen. They constitute what has been called Rizal’s “Political Testament”. Because of their importance, the two letters are herein reproduced in their entirety. “Hong Kong, June 20, 1892 To my beloved parents, brothers, and friends: The love which I have always borne for you is what impels me to take this step which whether or not it is wise, only the future can tell. The success of an act is judged according to its consequences. Whether this step ends up favorably or unfavorably, it shall be said that I was dictated by my sense of duty, and if I perish in fulfilling it, it does not matter. I know that I have caused you much suffering, but I am not sorry for what I have done, and if I had to begin all over again I would do the same thing, becauseit is my duty. Gladly, I go to expose myself to danger, not to expiate my faults for up toto this point I do not believe I have committed any, but to crown and to attest with my example what I have always taught: man should be willing to die for his duty and for his convictions. To this moment I hold on to all the ideas I have expressed relative to the state and the and the future of my country and I shall gladly die for her and, more than that, to obtain justice and peace for you. Gladly, I risk my life in order to save many innocent people, so many nephews and children of friends who suffer because of me. What am I? A man alone, almost without a family, quite frustrated in life. I have been disillusioned, and the future that faces me is, and will be a dark future if it is not illuminated by the light and the dawn of my country. Since there are many persons, full of hopes and dreams, who will perhaps rejoice at my demise, I hope that my enemies will be satisfied and cease to persecute so many innocent ones. Their hatred for me is, to a certain point justified, but not with respect to my parents and relatives. If my fate is adverse then let it be known by all that I shall die happy in the thought that with my death I have gained for them the end of all sorrows. Go back to our country and may you be happy in her blossom. Up to the last minute of my life I shall think of you and shall wish you all happiness. Jose Rizal” In this marvelous letter, Rizal has bequeathed to us an example in conduct, upholding the principle that man should above all fulfill his duty, never to relinquish his convictions, to the extent of giving up his life rather than renounce them. This declaration serves as an example for his people as well as for all humanity, for despite the passing of the years, if we today examine the multifarious aspects of Rizal’s ideas we see that they have transcended time. The Spaniard Miguel Seruet, the Filipino Father, Gomez, who preferred death rather than renounce his ideals, and the Italian Galileo, also offered their lives to the service of their convictions. It appears that man needs to be reminded from time to time, through the examples of extraordinary men, so that this virtue of fidelity to duty and conviction may stay ever vigorous through the ages. In the case of Rizal he was overly confident that upon his death the persecution of his family and friends would automatically cease. In truth, the moral and spiritual suffering that his death was to inflict on them was greater than those they would have felt had he lived on. The only explanation for this part of Rizal’s letter is his over ingenuous and trusting nature. The second letter overflows with patriotism and love for his compatriots. He repeats the idea that with his death he would spare many innocent persons of unjust persecution. The reader will perceive the allusion to the division among his collaborators, which reveals that the old wound was reopened by Lete’s letter. The final words of the letter constitute the poetic quintessence of his patriotism. The second letter thus reads: “Hong Kong, June 20, 1892 To the Filipinos: The step I have taken, or which I am about to take, is, without doubt, very risky and, needless to say, I have given it much thought. I know that almost everybody is against it; but I also know that very few are conscious of what lies in my heart. I cannot live on knowing that because of me many are suffering persecution; I cannot live on seeing my brothers and their numerous families persecuted like criminals. I prefer to face death and gladly give my life if only to free so many innocent people from such unjust persecution. I know at this point that the future of my country hinges partly on my actuations; I know that with my death many will triumph and that therefore many are wishing for my perdition. But what can one do? I have my duties of conscience, first of all with the families that suffer with my aged parents, whose sighs reach innermost heart; I know that I alone can make them happy, even with my death, in order that they may return to their native land and to the peace of their homes. I have no one but my parents, but my country has many more sons who can take my place and who are now taking my place to advantage. Furthermore, I want to know those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our duties and for our convictions. “What matters death if one dies for what one holds dearest; for one’s country and for the people one loves?” If I were sure that I am the only support of the political situation in the Philippines, if I were sure that the Filipinos would utilize my services, I would hesitate in taking this step. There are some who consider me unnecessary, and who think that my services are not needed, hence they have rendered me inactive. “I have always loved my unfortunate motherland … Whatever be my fate, I shall die blessing her and wishing for the dawn of her redemption.” Let these letters be published after my death. Jose Rizal” The next day, June 21, Rizal wrote Governor General Eulogio Despujol. The content of the letter is as follows: “Your Excellency: This is to inform you that on this mail boat I am returning to my country; first, to be at your disposal and, secondly, to attend to some private matters of mine. Both friends and strangers have tried to dissuade me from taking this step, pointing out the dangers to which I am exposing myself. But I have confidence in you Excellency’s justice, which protects all the Spanish subjects in the Philippines. I have confidence in the justness of my cause and my conscience is at peace; God and the law shall guard me from pitfalls. For some time now my aged parents, relatives, friends as well as persons unknown to me, have been cruelly persecuted because of me, they say. I am, therefore, offering myself now; to answer for all such persecutions, to respond to the charges they have against me, in order to put an end to this matter, so bitter for the innocent and so sad for your government, which is desirous to be known for justice. In view of the silence which your Excellency has kept, with respect to my previous letters, a silence which can only be attributed to the great gap between your very elevated position and that of my humble self – for your great courtesy and kindness is well known – I do not know if your Excellency would deem it proper that I present myself without being called. I shall, therefore, wait in one of the hotels in Manila, possibly the Hotel Oriente, just in case your Excellency wants something of me, and to wait your orders. After two days, and if your Excellency has no objection, I shall feel free to attend to my personal affairs, with the conviction that I have complied with my duty towards the government and to my countrymen.” The letter is very proper and respectful, but interwoven among the phrases, and adorned with many compliments, there flows a sarcastic undercurrent. After citing Despujol’s supposed justice, Rizal implies that because of him the innocent are persecuted, for which reason he offers to answer for the charges. Finally, he points out the breach of propriety in not having answered his two letters. Rizal decided to go to Manila and see what could be done. What was the point of Rizal in his proposed changing of his citizenship? Would the change of his citizenship make him less of a hero and degrade his sense of Philippine nationalism? The answer to this rhetoric is of course no. During that time the life of Rizal was extremely low because of persecution to members of his family. In many instances history witnessed extreme poverty and poor living condition of Rizal in his life in different parts of Europe, yet he never gave up. But when the lives of the members of his family were at stake, there was nothing he would not do for their sake. Yet in his heart and mind he remained loyal and true to the cause of reforms. Indeed there is time for everything. The Filipino value of love of family that was exhibited by Rizal in his time survived the test of time. In the contemporary life, countless Filipino workers seek employment abroad or even change their citizenship, but it does not mean that they do not love the Philippines anymore; in fact, they are considered “Mga Bagong Bayani.” The Arrival in Manila Rizal made his preparations to leave for Manila in spite of the frantic opposition of friends and relatives. The day after writing the letters to his relatives and to the Filipinos, on June 21, 1892, Rizal sailed to Manila. Rizal arrived in Manila, accompanied by his sister Lucia on the 26th of June 1892. He bore with him passports and assurances of safe conduct in the Philippines. The ship had barely hoisted anchor at Hong Kong when the Spanish Consul General thereat cabled to Governor General Despujol that the victim “is in the trap.” The Governor General ordered an inquiry to make sure that Rizal had not become a German citizen, for to arrest a German would have caused international difficulties. An accusation was at once filed against Rizal for anti-religious and anti-patriotic campaigns of education. They thought they had outwitted him. They did not dream that he had left two letters behind him anticipating their treachery. When Jose and Lucia disembarked in Manila on Sunday, June 26, 1892, they were met at the dock by several carabineers and a major. Their baggage was searched at the customs house and then they were allowed to go without a word. But those who searched the baggage carried to the office of the Governor General a “package of seditious paper,” which they said they had found in the pillowcase of Lucia. The package included copies of a tract called “The Poor Friars,” a caustic attack on the Dominicans. This paper was called “seditious” though one will search in vain for the slightest word against the government. In our day it would not be treasonous, but in that period, when the State and Church were united, an insult to a religious order could be construed as sedition. Besides, the religious orders in that period were the powers behind the throne, seating and unseating officials at will. Since there were no Filipinos who came to meet Rizal, there was no sense in that manifestation of force. The disguised sergeant followed Rizal and his sister to find where they were going to stay. They registered at the Hotel del Oriente, the best and the most modern hotel at that time. In the afternoon of four o’clock, Rizal proceeded to Malacanan Palace, residence of Governor General Eulogio Despujol. When he arrived in Manila, he announced a series of reforms, which created a certain wave of popularity in his favor. Now, the General sent words to Rizal that he could not receive him at the moment, but requested him to come back at seven o’clock in the evening. At that hour, the interview started, and as a result Despujol annulled the deportation of Rizal’s father, but not that of his brother nor his brother-in-law, Antonio Lopez. Another meeting was arranged for Wednesday, the 29 th or three days later. From Malacanan, he proceeded to see his sisters Narcisa and Saturnina. On the following day, Rizal left by train to visit various towns where some of his companions in Spain resided, among them Pedro Serrano Laktaw, Timoteo Paez, and the parents of Valentin Ventura, who had collaborated with him in financing, El Filibusterismo. He was gone only two days. He failed to notice that he was being followed by the police. On Wednesday, the 29th, he went to Malacanan for his appointment with the Governor General. The interview lasted for two hours. He did not succeed in obtaining the freedom of his brother; he left with the prospect of succeeding in the near future. On Thursday, he had another meeting with Despujol. This time, the matter on the Borneo settlement was taken up. Despujol expressed strong opposition to the idea. What is surprising is that Rizal had hoped for the acceptance of the project. The Governor General offered lands, a league and a half from Calamba. In this particular session, Despujol annulled the deportation of Rizal’s brother, and on Sunday, July 3, Rizal went personally to thank the Governor, and to inform him that his father and brothers were arriving by the first boat available. Rizal had written to Hong Kong instructing the men to come first, to be followed by the women later. The General then inquired whether or not Rizal wanted to return to Hong Kong. Rizal replied affirmatively. The meeting ended up with an agreement to resume talks the following Wednesday, July 6. On the night of July 3, Sunday, a week after Rizal’s arrival, the La Liga Filipina was formally established at the house of Doroteo Ongjunco. His friends wanted to call it “The Rizal Party,” but he would not hear it. While still in Hong Kong, Rizal, his friend Basa, and others had prepared the details of the plan and had had many copies sent to the Philippines for critical study. Now that he had reached Manila, he wasted no time in organizing the new League. Its constitution named these five purposes: 1. Unity of the whole archipelago into one compact, vigorous and homogeneous body 2. Mutual protection in every grievance and need 3. Defense against violence and injustice 4. Encouragement of instruction, industrial, and agricultural enterprises 5. The study of reforms, putting them into practice Though the League constitution contained not one seditious sentence, the fact that it began among members of the Masonic Order in Manila and that it was as a secret organization somewhat resembling Masonry was enough to bring it under the suspicion of the government. It contained provisions which a despotic government would find intolerable such as: 1. Guard in absolute secrecy the decisions of the League Councils 2. Not submit to humiliation nor treat anybody with disdain 3. Obey unquestioningly and punctually every command that emanates from a League Councilor or a Chief On July 5, Tuesday, all the houses Rizal had previously visited were searched by the police. Suspicion arose from the fact that all the houses visited by him were inhabited by Masons. The police found some denunciations against the friars, some Masonic signs, and some copies of the Noli and Fili. The worst fear was confirmed. Rizal’s steps had been constantly tracked. On July 7, Jose was summoned to Malacanan. Nothing was said at that time about the La Liga Filipina, for that would have revealed the espionage which had been going on. The Governor had another excuse. Despujol asked him again whether he still wished to return to Hong Kong and again Rizal replied in the affirmative. Then, taking up another topic, Despujol inquired if he had brought in his baggage some leaflets against the friars. Rizal emphatically denied it. Despujol showed him one of the leaflets which allegedly had been found inside suitcases in his room at the Hotel del Oriente. He then asked Rizal to whom the pillows and mats belonged, and latter answered “To my sister …” The General concluded that Rizal was trying to throw the blame on his sister Lucia. This was, of course utterly improbable. Such conduct was contradictory to, and unworthy of a man who did not fear death, as proven by the act of presenting himself in the Philippines despite all the perils and in spite of all the advice to the country. Despujol then informed Rizal that he was under arrest as of that moment, and that his nephew and assistant, Ramon Despujol, would escort him in the palace coast to Fort Santiago. He had the means to discredit Rizal and to render him impotent for it was thought that his further stay in Manila was indeed dangerous. From July 6 to 14, he was in a state of incommunicado. During those nine days, there were three forces that exerted various pressures on the Governor to influence the Governor’s decision on the fate of the prisoner. The same night that Rizal was held incommunicado at Fort Santiago, a group of resolute men secretly met in the house of Deodato Arellano. The group was composed of Arellano himself, Andres Bonifacio, Valentin Diaz, Teodoro Plata, Jose Dizon, and Ladislao Diwa. It has been said that it was at this meeting that the Katipunan was founded. One might say that while the Katipunan was coming to life, La Liga Filipina, with its program of deferred action was dying. Rizal did not have any participation in the Katipunan. Lesson 6 EXILE, TRIAL, AND DEATH Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. analyze the factors that led to Rizal’s execution and 2. analyze the effects of Rizal’s execution on Spanish colonial rule and the Philippine Revolution. Rizal Nailed His Own Coffin All the newspapers in Manila published the long curious decree of the Governor General, bearing the three charges that sent Rizal into exile. 1. During his “voluntary exile,” he had published books and proclamations of very doubtful loyalty to Spain, which are not only frankly anti-Catholic, but imprudently anti-friar, and introduced these into the Archipelago. 2. A few hours after his arrival in the Philippines, there was found on one of the packages belonging to the said subject a bundle of handbills entitled “The Poor Friars” in which the patient and humble generosity of the Filipinos was satirized and in which accusations were published against the customs of the religious orders. 3. His last book El Filibusterismo was dedicated to the memory of three traitors to their country (Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora), but extolled by him as martyrs, while in the epigraph of the title page of said book was the doctrine that because of the vices and errors of the Spanish administration, there was no other salvation for the Philippines than separation from the mother country. The end which he pursued in his efforts and writings was to tear from the loyal Filipino breasts the treasure of our holy Catholic faith. It is interesting that three of the charges were religious, and only one was political. In those days an insult to the clergy was a crime against the state. Rizal Deported to Dapitan Rizal was visited by the nephew of Despujol to inform him that at ten o’clock that night he was to leave for Dapitan. Rizal prepared his baggage, but when the men who were suppose to take him did not come at the appointed time, he went to sleep, an indication that he was not worried at all. This equanimity of Rizal could perhaps be explained by his strong fatalism, a fact shown in the letter he had written that day to his family, where he reiterated that “Wherever I go, I shall always be in the hands of God, in whose hand lie the destinies of all men.” Rizal did not elaborate, in spite of the fact that Nellie Boustead had once said, “He leaves us the duty to protect ourselves and He wants His children to take care of themselves and not to wait, with arms folded, for His Help.” At 12:15 in the morning they woke him up; the attendant took him to the sea wall in the same coach that had taken him to Fort Santiago. In spite of the unholy hour, General Ahumada, next in rank to Despujol showed up, together with some other persons. In the ferryboat were another assistant and two other individuals of the Guardia Civil. Only after the Cebu had gone past Corregidor Island did the captain open the sealed letter and read the instructions therein. According to the letter, only Gen. Ahumada, the nephew of Despujol, and Father Pablo Pastells, superior of the Jesuit Mission in the Philippines, knew the destination of the deportee. We know now with the letter just transcribed that Rizal also knew it. On Sunday, July 17, 1892, at seven in the evening, they arrived in Dapitan. This was the beginning of an epoch of Rizal’s life which was to last four years. The climate, the solitude, the lack of social relationship, the heavy feeling of injustice committed against him – all these hung heavily on him and left their imprint on his very sensitive spirit. Dapitan The small town to which Rizal was in exile was a little port situated on Dapitan Bay at the northern coast of the island of Mindanao. It was previously under the care of Recollects but later its jurisdiction was taken over by the Jesuits. Dapitan then constituted a politicomilitary district, with the category of a commander’s headquarters. The captain of the Cebu carried instructions for Captain Ricardo Carnicero regarding the treatment of the deportee. According to the instructions, Rizal was to be given the option to live in Captain Carnicero’s house or in the mission house of Fr. Francisco P. Sanchez, the Jesuit missionary. Rizal opted for the latter, but quickly changed his mind when Father Obach, following the instructions of the superior, Father Pastells, informed him that if he was to stay with them, he had to conform to the following conditions: 1. That Rizal publicly retracted his errors concerning religion and made statements that were clearly pro-Spanish and against revolution 2. That he performed the church rites and made general confession of his past life 3. That henceforth he conducted himself in exemplary manner as a Spanish subject and a man of religion The fact that as soon as Rizal arrived, Father Obach had these instructions ready is proof that there was connivance all along between Father Pastells and Despujol. Since Rizal did not agree to the conditions, he was placed in the home of Captain Carnicero. Dapitan a beautiful spot with a slow pace of life, was an ideal retirement place. For Rizal it was a prison with a beautiful garden, elegant town square, and friendly local people. Because he was no longer actively in the middle of Philippine politics, Rizal grew increasingly hostile and distant to many revolutionaries. In Dapitan, two tasks were simultaneously undertaken by Carnicero, with whom Rizal stayed and Father Obach. The former’s task was to soften Rizal; the latter was to convert him. Both of them, however, underestimated the dimensions of Rizal’s character. With his good nature, his natural charisma, his propriety, his neat and stylish looks, he gradually won the confidence of the captain. But Carnicero took advantage of this to get to know the thinking of Rizal, his projects, which later he transmitted to Despujol in his report. The first of these reports was dated August 20, 1892. It began with a transcribed conversation with the deportee. Carnicero reported Rizal’s conviction that the leaflets found in the pillows of his sister were placed there in Manila. If Rizal, however, were the one interested in smuggling them into Manila, he would have placed them close to his person, or probably in his socks. He added that he could seek the help of Pi y Margall or Linares Rivera as lawyer but he did not wish to create obstacles in their campaign for reforms for the Philippines. Rizal did not know that all Europe and the Archipelago were informed of his deportation. Captain Carnicero continued with the report in the manner of a conversation: What were the reforms desired by Rizal? He replied: representation in the Cortes; secularization of the friars; the provision of curates from among both peninsulares and the insular clergy; the implementation of primary instruction; the filling up of positions or assignments in equal proportions between Filipinos and peninsulares; and finally, the setting up of a clean and honest administration. On the 21st of September 1892, Carnicero sent his second report on Rizal to Despujol. He informed him that he had forgotten to include something in his previous communication: the fact that among the reforms desired by Rizal was freedom of religion and freedom of the press. He also reported that Father Obach had informed Rizal of the acquittal of those involved in the Calamba case including Paciano. The deportee, meanwhile, thought of acquiring lands and building a house. In September also, an unexpected fortune came along to provide the funds needed for the projected improvements and planting of crops. Rizal won the second prize in the lottery. The prize was shared equally: one third for Carnicero, another Spaniard (residing in Dipolog), and Rizal himself. Each won a little more than P6,000. A good son and a grateful soul, he notified his mother in Hong Kong that he had sent P2,000 to his father after paying a few small debts in Manila. With the rest, he planned to build a small house in Dapitan. He told them also that he had sent Basa P200. From Rizal’s letter to his family, we learned that Dapitan had 6,000 inhabitants at the time, but that it had neither electric light nor an adequate water system. The food supply was very inadequate in spite of the abundance of fish in its waters. Early in 1893, Rizal left his quarters with the Captain, having been granted some lands a kilometer away from Dapitan. He now had his own hacienda, with lanzones, mangoes, cacao, santol, and mangosteen. The site of his new home was called Talisay. In March 8, Rizal’s own house was completed. It was simply constructed with nipa roof, post and rafters of unhewn wood, as he himself describes it in his poem “Mi Retiro”. Since there was no regular supply of fish for the town’s consumption, he went into partnership with the Spaniard Miranda in a fishing project. In the first few months of 1893, many changes took place. Father Pastells was replaced by Father Ricart. In February, Father Sanchez’ term in Dapitan came to an end. In May 4, Carnicero left for Manila, a result of pressure exerted by the new Jesuit superior who blamed the failure of the attempts to convert Rizal on Carnicero’s liberal thinking as well as his overly generous treatment of the rebel. Carnicero had treated Rizal with rigor, tempered with humanness. The Minister of the Colony, Maura, asked Despujol to resign, and when the latter refused, Maura dismissed him. The Jesuits’ action to have Despujol removed may have been based on the fact that he had ordered the investigation of the notorious anti-friar leaflets which were discovered and printed at the printing press of the friars. This was the reason for the deportation of Rizal. The incarceration of Rizal coincided with the rise of the revolutionary Katipunan. When Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan, he did so because he believed that Rizal was no longer an effective revolutionary. But Rizal was still an important patriot, so Bonifacio listed Risal as honorary president of the Katipunan. Rizal’s exile ended his chances to partake in the coming revolution. He would remain the ideological head of Philippine nationalism and the catalyst to the independence movement. As a participant, however, Rizal was doomed by his writings, his speeches, and his refusal to recant his nationalistic ideas. In Dapitan he became a symbol of all that was unjust about Spanish rule. For three years there were continued rumors that the Katipunan would rescue, (or perhaps escape) Rizal. But these were simply rumors and Rizal was never seized. Dapitan turned out to be a pleasant exile. The Jesuits often referred to it as one of the most civilized places in Asia. Juan Sitges Juan Sitges the new politico-military captain, aside from being a captain of the infantry, was a physician, but in spite of this common circumstance which should have led to a fellowship between him and Rizal, their relationship was distant, either because of instructions he received or because he had learned that Carnicero was removed precisely because of his intimacy with Rizal. Rizal stopped taking his meals at the captain’s house as he used to do. He had to report frequently at headquarters and so had to live in a nearby house. These and other security measures were adopted by Sitges. In his report to Ochando, Sitges said that in spite of the distance he set between himself and Rizal, the latter seemed to like him, making a good impression on the commandant. This is another proof of the naturally pleasing personality of our hero. As time passed, Sitges became more liberal with the prisoner. He was to report only once a week now, and his mail was no longer censored. The family was reunited. Jose lived with his sisters and mother in the square house; “his boys” or students of Arithmetic, Spanish, English, in the octagonal house, and his chicken in the hexagonal house. All in all, there were three houses; all of them made of bamboo, wood, and nipa. It can be said that Rizal’s exile was not as painful as to be imprisoned today. Rizal was loved by the local people; he was able to influence the thinking of the captain who shared the view that Rizal needed his personal freedom; his books and ideas became more popular; he was able to practice medicine and made a nice living. He wrote to Blumentritt that “he had made thousands of dollars.” Rizal also formed an agricultural land fishing commune to improve the local economy. A school was also founded and Rizal taught the European ideas for which he was condemned. Rizal’s life went on as before: teaching his boys as he called them, attending to the sick, treating fractures with rattan and bamboo, and gradually falling into a state of depression. What is surprising is that he did not have a nervous breakdown. Josephine Bracken Rizal’s daily life continued without change. The only novelty being his project of constructing a water dike and reservoir. He was helped by 14 boys who, in exchange for gratuitous help from Rizal, worked for him. He also put up a water conveyor system out of the primitive materials available then: bamboo, bricks, and mortar. This conducted the water to a fountain with a lion’s head of clay molded by Rizal himself. The last days of February 1893, three passengers arrived; one of whom would change the monotonous life of Rizal in Dapitan. The newcomers were George Taufer; Josephine Bracken, his adopted daughter; and Manuela Orlac, a friend of a churchman from the Cathedral of Manila. Taufer had lived in the vicinity where Rizal’s family had stayed in Hong Kong, and he knew him by reference. He presented himself with a letter of introduction from Julio Llorente who recommended that Rizal treat him. Taufer who came from Hong Kong was blind. He was about 65 years old, and last 25 years were spent in Hong Kong. He had gone there as a sailor, working in the machine shop of the fire brigade. During his first year in Hong Kong, he had a daughter by a Chinese woman. Two years later, Taufer married a Portuguese woman from Macao whose child, Sara, was brought up and educated as a daughter of the family. He had no children by the Portuguese woman. This was fortunate, according to Coates, for Taufer was a syphilitic. Six years after his marriage in 1876, he adopted the daughter of an English soldier by a Chinese woman. The soldier was a married man; when his wife died, he registered his illegitimate child, Josephine Bracken, as the legitimate daughter of his recently deceased wife. The arrival of Taufer and company disturbed the peaceful life of Rizal. Taufer’s blindness was not due to a cataract according to Rizal. It might have been due to a complication of the nervous system brought about by his syphilitic condition. In a letter to Blumentritt, Rizal wrote that the disease was incurable. Rizal observed Josephine day by day and with his natural intuition, his confidence in her grew as time passed. He was by nature inclined to fall in love; this time it was a combination of physical and spiritual attraction. In that situation of stress, he could not help but be attracted to her more so because he was a man, 33 years of age without any known sexual experience. Thus love flourished day by day. Taufer left for Hong Kong blind, alone and abandoned, in search of death, which misery was to precipitate. This act of abandonment does not speak well of Josephine, but one has to consider the fact that Taufer had attempted to set aside the respect due to the daughter, even if only an adopted one. Taufer as we know was blind but not deaf. It is a known fact that when one sense is lacking, other senses are sharpened. The old man soon realized that Rizal and Josephine were in love. He wanted to find out the truth, and when he did, he threatened to take his life with a razor which he had in his hand unless they swore to break up their relations. Rizal was able to snatch the razor away from him. This incident which could have ended in tragedy broke up the engagement of Josephine with Rizal, but it did not leave him without hope. She accompanied Taufer to Manila. The sisters of Rizal did not favor the union because they feared for his safety in view of the friendship between Josephine and Miss Orlac. Neither did they approve of their union without the sanction of the Church. But Rizal’s letter put her within the family circle, because of their regard and love for Jose. In the middle of May 1894, when Josephine returned from Manila, Rizal went to see Father Obach about their marriage. The reply was harsh: If there was no retraction there would be no marriage. The Bishop of Cebu was consulted, for the parish belonged to that diocese. The bishop supported the decision of Obach. Rizal sent a draft of retraction, without signature, but the Bishop rejected the draft. Rizal allowed matters to ride over, living with Josephine and considering her, until his death, as his wife. With great tolerance, his mother said it was better to be united in the grace of God than to be married in a state of mortal sin. Owing to the troubled atmosphere in which she had lived, Josephine lacked the delicate refinement and social graces which characterized the family of Jose, and the culture of her sisters-in-law. She had been suspected of being a spy, but after she fell in love with Jose, such suspicion was found to be without basis. In his letters to his family, Rizal always had good words for her saying that she was industrious, good, obedient, and docile. Coates stated that Josephine became pregnant during the last part of 1895, but as a consequence of some incident which frightened her, she had a miscarriage. This unfortunate happening filled her cup of sorrow to the brim. The year 1896 began with bitter events for Rizal. He wrote his mother that he had many enemies and that they were working for the extension of his stay in Dapitan. In July 1896, Governor Blanco sent a communication to Rizal acceding to his wishes of going to Cuba as a physician of the Military Health Corps. The other event was the arrival in Dapitan of PIo Valenzuela, a young doctor, a revolutionary, the only affiliate of the Katipunan known to have had a university education. Valenzuela informed Rizal that the group had 43,000 members of the organizational structure, the arms in their possession, as well as those they planned to appropriate from the government armories. Rizal saw that the constituents of the Katipunan were mostly townspeople without any educational preparation. This opposed Rizal’s concept that revolution should be directed by the intellectual elite, who were to lead and guide the people. Valenzuela invited Rizal to head the revolution, for which purpose they would arrange for his escape. Whether or not he accepted the leadership, when the revolt broke out, reprisal against him was inevitable. Rizal rejected the invitation, for in his opinion they lacked the necessary logistics – money, forces, prepared plans to guarantee the success of the revolt, for which reasons he considered the plan premature. On the 30th of July 1896, Rizal received a notification to appear before Governor General Blanco in connection with a letter of recommendation. In the home of the Rizal’s, the news was received with rejoicing. Since the boat was leaving the next day and he could not possibly settle his affairs within 24 hours, he inquired form the captain whether he could take the next boat. However, upon returning home and exchanging views with his family, he decided to leave the next day after all, even if he could not sell his property. Rizal did not explain his sudden decision but it had something to do with the imminent insurrection and the possibility of his being implicated when he had no participation in it. This was confirmed in his letter to Blumentritt. From Dapitan to Manila At midnight on the 31st of July 1896, Rizal was on the Espana boat on the way to Cuba. He was accompanied by his sisters Narcisa and Josefa and his niece Angelica Lopez, with his three nephews and three boys. His departure was a grand event – the whole town saw him off without any urging. The town band was there. As the hour of sailing approached, more and more people filled the port. Rizal felt deeply touched. When Rizal boarded the banca which to take him to Spain, the band struck Chopin’s Marcha Funebre. Was this the mourning hymn of Dapitan for the loss of Rizal? Yes, and at the same time it seemed an omen to the tragic destiny of the hero, who was not on the way to Cuba, but on the way to his death. On the 6th of August, Rizal arrived in Manila. To his surprise and disgust, he learned that the mailboat Isla de Luzon had sailed a few hours earlier. As soon as the boat docked, a guardia civil relayed the orders from the Governor General that Rizal must not be allowed to disembark. Soon after, his mother and sisters Lucia, Trinidad, and Maria and several of his nephews came to see him. The guard returned saying that he was to keep him company and that at 7:30 a.m. they would take him to the commandant’s office. At the stated hour, nobody arrived, but at ten o’clock in the evening the same guard came to inform him that the Governor General had changed the itinerary and that he was to transfer to the cruiser Castilla, anchored in Cavite. Rizal’s arrival at the Castilla was announced to the commandant who received him in his office. After kindly offering him a chair, he informed him of the Governor General’s order that he was to be detained but not imprisoned so as to avoid the displeasure of both friends and enemies. With his usual good nature, Rizal thanked the captain. He was given a good cabin which he occupied until September 2 when he was transferred to the Isla de Panay. On the 13th of August, Rizal received news that hurt his soul. Jo – as he called Josephine – had written him of her exchange of words with one of his sisters, arising from some remarks referring to their unmarried state. She made an exception of Narcisa and his parents. Though deeply in love with Jose, she generously told him that if he met a girl in Spain, he should marry her. It was better for him to get married and not live together as they did. This way his sisters would be ashamed of him. The replies of Rizal to Josephine are included in the Epistolario, but it is evident that he wrote to her. Two days later, the Revolution broke out. It began with the historic cry of Balintawak, a suburb of Manila. Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, a barrio of Manila, had discovered the Katipunan. The outbreak of hostilities was precipitated by this discovery. The Filipino insurgents gained victories in the area of Cavite. Rizal must have heard the booming of the guns from the Castilla, which was moored opposite Caloocan, a town which together with many others came under the power of the insurgents. In August 30, there was a great battle in Santa Mesa and in Mandaluyong, which initiated the attack on Manila. The Governor General had to move out of Malacanan Palace to Santa Potenciana. Departure for Spain On the 2nd of September 1896, Rizal was transferred to the mailboat Isla de Panay. A friend presented him to the captain who attended to him kindly and assigned him a private cabin, which according to Rizal could not have been better. These were the external happenings. On the day of the departure of Isla de Panay, the wealthy businessman Pedro Roxas, accompanied by his son, boarded the ship. The Roxases dined in the dining room with Rizal at the captain’s side. He suspected nothing, possibly because he was being closely guarded. On the other hand, the fact that he was on board should have prevented his being responsible for the events connected with the uprising. The next day, the 8th, was a crucial day for our hero. The Isla de Panay arrived in Singapore. Had Rizal known of the secret communications and the coded telegrams, perhaps he would have remained in the British colony. But he had given his word and he had two letters from the Governor General of the Philippines which in his belief were a strong endorsement. Several Filipinos headed by Don Manuel Camus came on board attempting to convince him to stay, but they did not succeed in making him break his promise. They had even arranged to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus if Rizal acceded, but Rizal had decided to proceed with the trip. The destiny of Rizal had been decided. From then on, he would no longer be able to extricate himself from the trap in which he had found himself. He had been chosen to be the sacrificial lamb, a role he would play with dignity up to the last moment of his life. On the 12th of September, the Minister of the Colonies sent another communication to the Government, with the information that Rizal had left Isla de Panay boat for Barcelona with the instructions from the Governor General. On the 28th, Rizal wrote to Blumentritt, his close friend. In the letter, he wrote that a passenger had given him an almost unbelievable information which, if it were true, would be the end of the prestige of the authorities in the Philippines. In it, he related the entire series of events regarding the petition and the authorization to go to Cuba. Then, for the first and last time in his life, he hurled a strong invective at another – Blanco. He insisted that he had nothing to do with the insurrection, as Blanco himself had stated. With dramatic impact, he concluded the letter: “I have offered to serve as a physician, risking my life in the dangers of war and leaving all my affairs and my business; I am innocent. And now, in return, they send me to prison.” The Isla de Panay arrived in Barcelona on October 3, 1896. In accordance with the rules enforced, nobody disembarked for three days during which the boat would be under observation. Rizal was watched by three pairs of guards and was forbidden to communicate with anybody. On the same date, three days after the issuance of the Royal Order deporting Rizal to Alhucemas (Ceuta in Spanish Morocco), the Minister of War course a telegram to the Governor General of the Philippines asking the responsibility of Rizal in the insurrection and as to the treatment of the said deportee. The response of the Governor General was to close forever all possibility of saving Rizal’s life. From Barcelona to Manila on Board the Colon Rizal was treated with consideration on board, except or a minor officer who was ignorant of the circumstances. Three days earlier, on the 3rd of October 1896, the Minister of War had wired Despujol that in accordance with the instructions from the President of the Council and Minister of the Colonies, he should be allowed communication and correspondence and treated with such consideration as allowed by security reasons. In the Philippines, meanwhile, the revolution was fast spreading. It is an established fact that the root cause was the abuse of power in all levels, but the Filipino people rose up principally against the friars to interfere in politics, particularly the raising of the amount of the canon which the tenants of the lands had to pay regardless of economic and weather contingencies and of the plagues which broke out. On the 8th of October 1896, an officer informed him that a newspaper in Madrid held him responsible for the insurrection. This disturbed him very much. On the 9th of October 1896, he noted down in his Diario the speculations about his future. The notes express in summary, his concepts regarding his destiny, his attitude toward life, and the judgment of posterity. He believed that this is a blessing from God, to return to his country and be able to answer all the accusations against him. For either they do him justice recognizing his innocence or condemn him to death. He thought that what was happening to him was for the best. It was God’s will. Once again Rizal bared his thoughts, pervaded by an acceptance of martyrdom as part of a historic destiny as savior of his country, his fatalism and his conformity to the will of God. His understanding of his fate, together with the concept of predestination and the divine will, gave him strength and prevented him from falling into despair. On the 9 th of October, he wrote a note in German in his Diario, in which, after saying that God’s will be done, he added “I am happy and ready.” Not many years before, he himself had chosen the pseudonym Laong Laan which means “predestined” or “prepared long ago.” On the 24th of October 1896, the Colon arrived in Singapore. They placed him behind bars 16 hours before arrival instead of the usual four. In his stopover, an attempt was made to save Rizal. Regidor, a Filipino lawyer residing in London, made efforts to save his friend. Charles Burton, English lawyer and solicitor of Singapore, submitted a written declaration stating that Rizal bore two letters of introduction, to the effect that he was not involved in the insurrection and that the Spanish Constitution prohibited imprisonment without order of the judge prosecutor. The English law authorized anybody to ask for the freedom of Rizal while he was in English territory, in exercise of the right of habeas corpus. As to be expected, the results were negative. On the 3rd of November, he arrived in Manila. Fort Santiago Closely guarded, Rizal was transferred to Fort Santiago, a fortress which he already knew, for it was there that they took him in 1892 before taking him to Dapitan. An anteroom and an adjacent bedroom comprised his cell. He was held incommunicado. This time his relations with the wardens assigned to him were rigorously controlled. He knew nothing of what was happening outside and could not plan his course of action. Blanco had named Col. Francisco Olive judge advocate in charge of the general proceedings against the insurrection. This man was always showing up in Rizal’s way. He had taken the declarations of numerous detainees in an attempt to find out the names of supposed organizers and accomplices, the possible relations between Rizal and the Katipunan. In addition to the declarations, there were documents mainly letters from those involved in the rebellion, previous to and after the founding of the Katipunan. Another factor unfavorable to Rizal was the atmosphere prevailing in Manila, especially among the wealthy Spaniards, including the friars. It was not only the risk of losing their material possessions, acquired through many years, and accumulated through generations that moved them. The Preliminary Investigation The trial of Jose Rizal began forty days before his execution with a preliminary investigation on November 20, 1896, without benefit of counsel or the right to confront his accusers. The investigator, Juez de Instruccion, was Col. Francisco Olive. In the legal preliminaries, the prisoner gave his name as Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso, native of Calamba, Laguna, of age, single, never before subjected to criminal prosecution. The questioning on the first day of investigation centered on two points: first, whether Rizal knew certain individuals and what his relations were with them; second, Rizal’s subversive activities in Madrid and in the Philippines. Rizal appeared before Colonel Olive and read the documents pertinent to the case. The documentary “proofs” gathered by Olive consisted of letters found during the searches made in the houses of suspected organizers of the Katipunan. Most of the documents did not constitute proof against Rizal at all, since he never talked of separatism nor of insurrection. There were some Masonic letters mentioning the matter of liberty, of oppression, as well as some protests against deportation without trial. Also among the papers were the lyrics of a Kundiman allegedly written by Rizal but were really from Pedro Paterno’s pen. In addition were the testimonies of detainees from September to November 1896. Two of these were those of Aguedo del Rosario and Francisco Quizon who indicated that Rizal was the honorary president of the Katipunan and this his picture presided over the session hall. This does not actually signify Rizal’s knowledge or approval of the Katipunan for the reason that Rizal was already in Dapitan when the Katipunan began its operations. For five days, Olive interrogated Rizal regarding all the points in which, it appeared, he was implicated, based on documents and testimonies. The first name mentioned was Pio Valenzuela. Did Rizal know Valenzuela, were they relatives, were they on friendly or unfriendly terms, did Rizal consider him a suspicious character? Obviously the authorities had known of Valenzuela’s visit to Rizal in Dapitan. They also knew him to be among the top leaders of the Katipunan and considered Rizal’s relationship with him as the most suspicious. Rizal answered that Don Pio had brought him a patient with an eye ailment. Rizal had not known Valenzuela before, but he considered him a friend in view of the courtesies he had shown to members of Rizal’s family during the voyage from Manila. And so Don Pio had brought Rizal a gift: a portable medicine chest (one physician’s gift to another, for Valenzuela was himself a physician). When Olive asked whether Valenzuela had gone to Dapitan on a mission, Rizal replied that the former told him that an uprising was in the offing, and they were concerned about what might happen to Rizal in Dapitan. To which Rizal replied that an uprising would be disastrous. He added that he had expressed his opinion that was not the opportune time for they lacked education, arms and ships; that the case of Cuba should be taken as a lesson; that it was to the interest of Spain to grant concessions and institute reforms. Therefore, it would be better to wait. It should be noted that Rizal did not condemn a revolution as such. What he deplored was to attempt one when people were not ready. That would only lead to disaster. Later in the investigation, the Spanish authorities would note (and condemn) that attitude of Rizal. The investigator then mentioned other names, asking the same question as in the case of Pio Valenzuela. The majority of the individuals mentioned were unknown to Rizal. In most cases he had not even heard of them and did not know them personally. For instance, when he was asked if he knew the detainees who had given testimonies implicating him in the rebellion. that he had bought a pair of shoes from a bazaar said to be owned by a man named Salazar, but he did not know him personally nor did he know if the name was Antonio. One of those whom Rizal said he did not know and had not even heard of was Apolinario Mabini. He said that he knew him neither personally nor by name. There were individuals whom Rizal had known slightly. For instance, asked if he knew the brothers Alejandro and Venancio Reyes who owned a tailoring shop in Escolta, he said that he had a schoolmate named Reyes who now owned a tailoring shop in that street where he had a suit made, but they were not personal friends. He admitted having met Moises Salvador in Madrid as a fellow countryman. Moises had introduced Rizal to his father Ambrosio. The rest whom Rizal admitted knowing and with whom he had some dealings were: Arcadio del Rosario – Rizal said that he had known him as a boy, and later, also in Madrid where they had some contact. Deodato Arellano - brother-in-law of Marcelo H. del Pilar. In 1887, during Rizal’s first return to the Philippines, Arellano had come to congratulate Rizal about Noli Me Tangere . But later Arellano had turned hostile to him to the extent that he was quoted as saying it was a good thing Rizal had been deported to Dapitan owing to the differences between him (Arellano) and del Pilar. Pedro Serrano – (known today as Pedro Serrano Lactaw, author of the scholarly Tagalog-Spanish Dictionary). He was also one of those whom Rizal met for the first time in 1887, and for a tie they were on friendly terms, but later Serrano had also turned hostile to him. Temoteo Paez – Rizal said that Paez had been introduced to him by Pedro Serrano in 1892, at the time of Rizal’s second return to the Philippines. But Paez later also turned hostile to him. When asked whether he had organized an association La Liga Filipina in Madrid, Rizal replied affirmatively, but said that the ends of the association were to promote discipline among the members. Asked whether there was a relationship between La Liga and La Solidaridad, he replied that the two were independent from each other and that del Pilar worked for the union of these two, and he had left for Paris. He added that the La Liga did not have any political leanings and that politics was the concern of La Solidaridad which was not under his direction. When asked if he had written the by-laws of La Liga, he answered in the affirmative, specifying that the ends were to promote unity among Filipinos and to promote commerce and the cooperative system in business, but without political orientation. Olive gave special attention to the meeting in the house of Ongjunco. Rizal admitted having attended the meeting for there were some Filipinos who wished to know him. The topics discussed in the meeting were La Liga and Masonry. Rizal had also spoken during the meeting encouraging the Filipinos to be a worthy and free nation. Rizal declared that he did not know Bonifacio, the head of the Katipunan, although he attended the meeting at the Ongjunco house. As to his picture, he said that it was possible to get copies of his picture without his consent. Olive asked Rizal if he knew that there was a plan to rescue him from Dapitan to which Rizal replied that he heard rumors but he never had been directly informed of the plan. When the interrogation was finished, Colonel Olive sent a transcript of proceedings to Governor Blanco, together with letters and documents. Blanco submitted all the papers to Capt. Rafael Dominguez who had been designated special judge for the case of Rizal. The preliminary investigation lasted for five days. Rizal was being informed of the charges and questioned by the Judge Advocate but deprived of his right to confront those who testified against him. There were testimonies and documentary evidences being presented. The following documents served as the bases for the charges by the prosecution: 1. A letter of Antonio Luna to Mariano Ponce, showing Rizal’s connection with the Filipino reform Campaign in Spain 2. Rizal’s letter to his family, stating that the deportation was good for they will encourage the people to hate the tyranny 3. A letter from Marcelo H. del Pilar, implicating Rizal in the Propaganda Campaign in Spain 4. A poem entitled “Kundiman,” allegedly written by Rizal in Manila, which contained the lines: She is the slave oppressed Groaning in the tyrant’s grips Lucky shall he be Who can give her liberty! 5. A letter of Carlos Oliveros to an identified person, describing Jose Rizal as the man to free the Philippines from Spanish oppression 6. A Masonic document honoring Jose Rizal for his patriotic services 7. A letter signed Dimasalang (Rizal pseudonym) to Tenluz (Juan Zuleta), stating that he was preparing a safe refuge for Filipino people who might be persecuted by the Spanish authorities 8. A letter of Dimasalang to an identified committee, soliciting the aid of the committee in the patriotic work 9. An anonymous and undated letter to the editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph, censuring the banishment of Rizal to Dapitan 10. A letter of Ildefonso Laurel to Rizal, saying that the Filipino people looked up to him as their savior 11. A letter of Ildefonso Laurel to Rizal, informing him of an unidentified correspondent of the arrest and banishment of Doroteo Cortes and Ambrosio Salvador 12. A letter of Marcelo H. del Pilar to Juan Tenluz, recommending the establishment of a special organization, independent of Masonry, to help the cause of the Filipino people 13. Transcript of a speech of Pingkian (Emilio Jacinto), during a reunion of the Katipunan, wherein the following cry was uttered: “Long live the Philippines! Long live liberty! Long live Dr. Rizal! Unify!” 14. Transcript of a speech of Titik (Jose Turiano Santiago) in the same Katipunan reunion, wherein the Katipuneros shouted: “Long live the eminent Dr. Rizal! Death to the oppressor nation!” 15. A poem by Laong Laan (Rizal) entitled “A Talisay” in which the author made the Dapitan school boys sing that they knew how to fight for their rights Dominguez initiated action on the case. It took him two days to draw his conclusions which were expressed as follows: “The accused is the principal organizer, the moving spirit of the Philippine insurrection, founder of societies, of newspapers and has written books designed to foment the ideas of rebellion and sedition among the people and the principal leader of the anti-government movement in the country.” He made the following recommendations: 1. That Rizal be immediately brought to trial 2. That he should be kept in prison 3. That an order of attachment be issued against his property to the amount of one million pesos as indemnity 4. That he should be defended in court by an army officer, not by a civilian lawyer What Rizal was responsible for was kindling awareness to the Filipino people of their rights, and urging them to work for obtaining the same rights as those enjoyed by the peninsulares; he was responsible for having inculcated a sense of dignity. In truth, it is a grave thing to awaken the political conscience of the people, even without recommending violent means as in the case of Rizal. Governor Blanco decreed that the case be passed on to Don Nicolas dela Pena who was then the auditor general. He was not aware that the Dominicans had sent a cable to the general prosecutor in Madrid about his indolence and urging immediate action on his case. Don Camilo Polavieja arrived in the Philippines on December 3, 1896. He was the person whom the friars had in mind to replace Blanco as soon as they had succeeded in his transfer. The auditor issued instructions that the papers be elevated to plenary, specifying that the defense must be undertaken by an officer of the army and not by a civil lawyer. With this, Rizal’s chances were further reduced, for in the hands of an officer who did not know the law, the chances for the use of rights favorable to the accused were reduced. It is to be noted, that La Liga was not separatist or revolutionary in nature and that it did a few days after it was founded when Rizal was deported to Dapitan. Between the dissolution of the La Liga and the Cry of Balintawak, there was a gap of four years. It was impossible for Rizal to have maintained a connection with the insurrectos from Dapitan where he was held incommunicado and was so closely guarded. On December 8 Rizal was given a long list of officials from which to select his counsel. Since he knew no other person in the list, he selected Don Luis Taviel de Andrade, a lieutenant of artillery and brother of his bodyguard during his first homecoming. Andrade did all that intelligence and devotion could do to get a fair trial for the stranger dependent on his chivalry. It took real courage to make such a defense as he did in so unpopular a cause. On December 11 he was formally informed of the charges and he pleaded not guilty to the charge of rebellion although he admitted that he wrote the constitution of the La Liga Filipina. The Dilemma of the Defense For the defense Taviel de Andrade took what would seem to be an excessively technical position, conscious perhaps of the prejudice against the accused in the broader field. His main argument rested on a rule of evidence, in the law applying the Penal Code of Spain in the Philippines, which provided that its penalties could be imposed only when guilt had been established through the following means: ocular inspection, confession of the accused, credible witnesses, expert opinion, official documents, or conclusive circumstantial evidence. None of these, he argued, was available against Rizal. He challenged the veracity and impartiality of those who had given statements incriminating Rizal; they had a direct and very marked interest in trying to ascribe to Rizal the leadership of the insurrection since they themselves faced the same charge would reduce their liability to that of mere followers or accessories if their stories were believed. On the other hand, Rizal himself had confessed to nothing but writing the statutes of the Liga and there was nothing illegal to be found there. The official reports submitted against him were equally worthless; they might be admissible in the administrative proceedings but not at a trial to prove a criminal offense punishable by death. What remained? Only his life, his past works and writings, his previous record as agitator for reforms, but all these were known before the present insurrection. Following is a summary of Rizal’s own defense, collated from his memorandum on the His oral argument of the 26th and his answers to Olive’s interrogation are here contrasted with the case for the prosecution as presented by Leon Ma. Guerrero. 12th. 1. Subversive Propaganda – While is Madrid Rizal founded an association of Filipinos which supported the subversive newspaper, La Solidaridad. Rizal – It is false that I founded the Spanish-Philippine Association; this was in existence long before I went to Madrid. The same can be said of La Solidaridad; this was founded by Marcelo H. del Pilar and was always edited by him. (The Association) I founded in Madrid had no other object than to make the Filipinos (there) lead more moral lives, to get them to attend their classes, or to discourage them from confronting debt, etc. When I wanted to criticize the actions of La Solidaridad, Marcelo H. del Pilar was against it. This proves that the political (policy) of the paper was never under my direction. 2. Masonry – Rizal was one of the leaders of Philippine Masonry and sent Pedro Serrano back to the archipelago to organize lodges for the purpose of disseminating subversive propaganda. Rizal – It is false that I gave Serrano orders to introduce Masonry in the Philippines Serrano had a higher degree than I had … This is proved by the letters he afterwards sent to me when I was in Hong Kong … in which he named me Worshipful as if it were a great thing. If I were the head, since when does an officer permit himself to promote the Captain General? … I left Madrid in January or February 1891 and since then … left Masonry. I had nothing to do with Masonry among the Filipinos. 3. The Liga – Rizal wrote the statutes of the Liga and sent Moises Salvador to the Philippines to organize it, its purpose being supply means for the attainment of the Philippine independence. Upon his return to the Philippines in 1892 Rizal called a meeting in the house of Doroteo Ongjunco at which he explained the need for the Liga and said more or less the following: that he had found the Filipinos discouraged and without any aspirations of becoming a free and selfrespecting people, that consequently they were always at the mercy of the abuses committed by the authorities, that through the Liga the arts, the industry, and commerce woud make progress, and that, once the country was prosperous and united, it would attain its own freedom and even independence. Rizal – I agree that I may have said what I am alleged to have said at the house of Ongjunco because I have said it many times but I am not sure that I actually did … It is true that I drew up the statutes of the Liga at the promptings of Basa and that they were sent to Manila, its purposes being unity and the development of commerce and industry. But I did not call the meeting in the house of Ongjunco, whom I do not know. How could I convoke persons whom I did not know to meet at the house of one who was equally stranger to me? The Liga never became active for it died after the first meeting upon my banishment. If it was reorganized nine months later by others, I knew nothing about it. 4. The Katipunan – Rizal was the honorary president of the Katipunan, which was the same thing as the Liga and whose purposes were to proclaim the independence of the Philippines, make Rizal supreme leader, and kill the Spaniards. His photograph was displayed in the Katipunan’s headquarters. Shortly before the insurrection, the Katipunan had sent Pio Valenzuela to Rizal in Dapitan to seek his decision, as supreme leader, on the proposed rebellion and the plan of seeking aid from Japan. Rizal – I know nothing of the Katipunan and had no relations or correspondence with them. I do not know Andres Bonifacio, even by name. It would have been easy to secure a copy photograph which I had taken of myself in Madrid. I gave no permission for the use of my name, and the wrong done to me is beyond description… I had absolutely nothing to do with politics from 6 th of July 1892 until the 1st of July 1896 when I was informed by Pio Valenzuela that an uprising woud be attempted. I gave advice to the contrary… Someone has alleged that I was the leader. What kind of a leader is that who is not even consulted on plans and is only given notice of them so that he can escape? What kind of leader is that who, when he says no, (his followers) say yes?... Even more, when the rebellion started, I was incommunicado aboard the Castilla, and I offered myself unconditionally (something I had never done before) to his Excellency the Governor General to suppress the uprising. It cannot be denied that Rizal’s defense is more sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to his guilt. He was fighting for his life, convinced of his own innocence. Did he prove too little for the court martial, and too much for history. In fact Rizal’s defense presents us with a dilemma. Was he innocent or guilty? If innocent, then why is he a hero? If guilty, how can he be a martyr? In December 13, Camilo Garcia Polavieja assumed his post as Governor and Captain General of the Philippines. As compensation, Blanco was named Chief of His Majesty’s Casa Militar. He was replaced by Polavieja. In December 15, Rizal presented to the judge his Manifesto. The Manifesto was a long and rambling document, but the message was a simple one: Rizal did not support Bonifacio and the Katipunan. Yet within the manifesto there was implicit recognition of Philippine nationalism and the right to revolution. He had written a manifesto declaring that he had nothing to do with the present revolt, and that his name was being used as its leader without his knowledge or consent. But the Spanish authorities rejected such manifesto since it did not categorically condemn the revolt but merely called it inopportune. The auditor was opposed to its publication. If it had been published, it would have caused confusion While Rizal was on trial, Aguinaldo was winning on the battlefield against superior Spanish troops. So Rizal’s future was not bright. The Manifesto is a reiteration of the political concept of La Liga: Liberty through education – the reforms to be obtained through the intelligentia. On the 19 th of December, Polavieja decreed that Rizal’s case be forwarded to lieutenant auditor, Don Enrique de Alcocer, who in turn should forward it to the prosecutor, Capt. Rafael Dominguez who would then send it to the Council of War. Double Jeopardy What was anomalous about the trial of Jose Rizal was that it violated a basic tenet of justice: the prohibition on double jeopardy, which stipulates that nobody can be made to face charges on which he has already been tried and found innocent, or found guilty and already penalized. In July 1892 Rizal had been arrested on the charges of being anti-Spanish because of his anti-church writings, of having smuggled to Manila anti-friar leaflets, and of having dedicated his second novel to three traitor priests—all these accusations being prompted by the suspicion that he was going around the country organizing Masonic Lodges and other illegal associations like the La Liga Filipina. True that he was not tried on these charges, which made his case even more unjust, since he was pronounced guilty and sentenced to deportation without benefit of due process. Thus he was force to undergo penal servitude during those four years in Dapitan. Then in December 1896, he was brought to trial again on charges that he was anti-Spanish writer, that he had smuggled into Manila anti-friar propaganda, that he dedicated one of his books to the three traitor priests, and that he had organized illegal associations. His being thus exposed to double jeopardy was sensed by his counsel, Lieutenant Taviel de Andrade, who pointed out that, aside from the charge of being involved in the Katipunan (based on the testimonies of Katipuneros wanting to save their own necks), the case against Rizal evolved around his past life, his past works and writings, and his past record as reformer—all of which were already notorious long before but had not been considered cause enough for hanging him. The Rizal trial was a remembrance of things past. In other words, he was tried retroactively and penalized a second time for the same alleged offenses, the second penalty being a firing squad in Bagumbayan. The bullets that killed him were unlawful. The Council of War The data and information about the Council of War are incomplete. Only after a lapse of a hundred years can the documents be made available relative to the council. These are kept in the General Military Archives in Segovia. The main sources are the journalists of the time, together with Retana’s biography of Rizal. From the 20th of December, Rizal, altogether with his counsel, started to prepare his defense. The counsel, although not possessing any special knowledge of the law, was inspired of good will and possessed a clear intelligence. In December 25, regardless of its being a feast day, Rizal was informed on the next day at ten o’clock in the morning that the Council of War would convene. Upon receiving the communication, Rizal wrote to Taviel asking for a conference prior to appearing before the council. On the 26th at the Cuartel de Espana, a soldier’s dormitory was converted into an improvised sala or courtroom. Behind a long table sat the president, Lieutenant Colonel of the Cavalry, Don Jose Togores accompanied by six captains of different arms. In front of the table was Rizal at ease despite being handcuffed. Beside him was Lieutenant Taviel and near him the fiscal. The hall was filled with people, the majority of whom were officials and officers in the service. The rest were mainly peninsulares, some natives. On a bench meant for the public sat Josephine with an unidentified woman. Rizal was in black suit, white shirt, vet and tie, his hair carefully combed. He was completely relaxed – the picture of serenity. The trial proceeded with the reading of the accusations by Fiscal Don Enrique de Alcocer. He pointed to Rizal – who owed to Spain all that he was, the fiscal said – as the principal figure of the insurrectional movement. Next he referred to Noli Me Tangere in which according to him, Rizal insulted the Spaniards. He noted that El Filibusterismo praises the memory of the three priests who died by the garrote during the Cavite Mutiny. The fiscal took up the significance of Masonry in the Philippines, which was true enough, but he confused the practices of Masonry with those of the Katipunan. In his description of La Liga, there were many inaccuracies in dates, names, and aims. Illegal association and rebellion were the final accusation of the fiscal, who indicated that for the first crime the penalty was imprisonment, and for rebellion the penalty was life imprisonment, but since the law stipulated that in order to commit one crime it was necessary to commit another, the maximum penalty should be applied: death. The first lieutenant of the artillery, Luis Taviel de Andrade, began the defense of Rizal by emphasizing the fact that it could not avoid being prejudiced by the prevalent opinion regarding the right course. Then he asked: “Has Rizal performed any act, public and solemn, that is separatist in concept? Did he on any occasion declare that he abominates the Church’s domination?” As a factor contributing to these prejudices, he pointed out that the presence of the boat Castilla for a month caused speculation that Rizal was a participant in the insurrection, although later it was made known that he had been authorized to go to Cuba as a military doctor. Taviel cited a law, an annex to the penal code which included a rule No. 52, regarding the application of penalties when the delinquency is proven beyond doubt by conclusive proofs. The defense affirmed that the accusations did not have a probable value since they were not in conformity with the rule. As to Liga, he admitted that the defendant had written the by-laws, but that he did so at the instance of Basa. At any rate, as they themselves stated, its aim was only to promote commerce, industry, and consumers’ cooperatives. Since his arrival in Dapitan in 1892, the defendant had refrained from all political actuation and that there was no proof to the contrary. Taviel closed his discourse requesting the court to reject the images engendered by wars, for they could only provoke ideas of vengeance, and judges should not be vengeful but just. Taviel’s position was difficult, considering the climate in and out of the sala. This is confirmed by the fact that his pleading was coldly received in the courtroom. The chairman of the council asked Rizal if he had anything to say. Rizal read his own arguments as addition to the defense. Referring to the rebellion, Rizal declared that from July 6, 1892, when he was deported to Dapitan he had removed himself from politics. Proof of this was the trip of Valenzuela. If he had been in correspondence with him, Valenzuela would not have taken an expensive trip to Dapitan for Rizal to have been informed of the uprising. Another proof is that they could not produce any letter of Rizal proving that he had previous knowledge of the uprising. Rizal went on to say that if he had wanted to escape, he could have done so since he had several boats at his disposal. As to his being the alleged head of the insurrection, he asked, “What kind of head is he who is not consulted for his projects, and when he says no they say yes?” Regarding the Liga, he stated that it became inactive shortly after it was founded and that its aims were not objectionable. The creation of another society, the Katipunan, proved that the two organizations differed in their ends, for they had identical aims there was no sense in founding more than one. Rizal ended by saying that he hoped to have demonstrated that he head neither founded a subversive society nor had he been an accomplice or organizer of the rebellion but on the contrary had opposed it. The Chairman ordered that the sala be vacated and that the Council proceed with the deliberations. The Council of War presided over by Lt. Col. Jose Togores Arjona, having met this day on the 26th of December 1896, accused Dr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso of the crimes of rebellion, sedition, and illegal association. By virtue of its powers, the Council dictated the following sentence: “Dr. Jose Rizal should be condemned to death, and in case of pardon will bear life imprisonment and subjection to vigilance for life, and shall pay the state an indemnity of P100,000 which shall be passed on to his heirs for satisfaction in accordance with the articles…” The decision was signed by Jose Togores, president of the court, and Braulio Rodriguez Nunez, Ricardo Munoz, Fermin Perez Rodriguez, Manuel Reguera, Manuel Dias Escribano, and Santiago Izquierdo. Also on the same day the judgment was endorsed to Polavieja who referred it to the Judge Advocate General. Pena adopted Alcocer’s arguments wholesale and found Rizal guilty as a principal by induction through his propaganda activities. Polavieja convened the Council of Authorities. Not a single member of the Council, not even Archbishop Nozaleda asked for commutation of the sentence. Aside from the Council of Authorities, not one of the religious hierarchy, nor his former Jesuit tutors, nor the Dominicans recommended pardon. On the 28th, Captain General Camilio Garcia Polavieja approved the sentence of the Council of War, fixing the date of the execution on the 30th of December at seven o’clock in the morning. On the same day, Dona Teodora, the mother of Rizal went to Malacanan Palace with a petition for pardon, but she was not admitted. On the 29th, Judge Dominguez went to Fort Santiago to notify Rizal officially of the sentence. Rizal read the report of the auditor and the approval of Malacanan but refused to sign it, alleging that he was innocent. From that time, Rizal went about the last acts of his life. Petition for the Pardon of Rizal It takes not only great knowledge but also great courage and equanimity of mind and spirit to compose a masterpiece of a poem in the midst of physical and mental turmoil agitated by an impending execution. In the last few days and few moments of Rizal, he allegedly wrote the 70 verses in 14 stanzas of the “Last Farewell.” But he wrote not only “Mi Ultimo Adios” before meeting the firing squad; he also wrote some letters to his family. Of all the many letters and correspondences inked by the members of the Rizal family, it was the letter of his mother pleading for the life of the hero that was considered to be the most touching and important. This letter plays a very significant role in history and contemporary life, for it proved the following: 1. The love of a mother to a son knows no limits and boundaries. A mother could do the most extreme to save the life of her son. 2. The Rizal family hopes against hope that the Spanish Government could help; after all he was perceived as a liberal representative of the crown of Spain. Here is the complete text of the letter sent by the weeping and mourning mother, asking for the pardon of her son. “Most Excellent Sir: “Teodora Alonso de Rizal, resident of Calamba and native of Sta. Cruz, Manila, to Your Excellency, with due respect and reverence, has the honor to state: “That her son Jose Rizal y Mercado having been sentenced to death by the Council of War for the crime attributed to him of rebellion against the Mother Country, a crime which in conscience and at most in justice has not been proven in a conclusive manner; whereas the absolute innocence of her unfortunate son is evident to the one who has the honor to resort to your Excellency; therefore she is constrained to entreat your kind heart and upright justice to deign to turn your glance on and consider the tribulations of an unhappy mother, who in the last years of her life and at the most poignant sorrows, which is that of witnessing the death of her unfortunate son—a victim only of fatality and unfortunate circumstances which have surround him. “Most Excellent Sir, my unfortunate son Jose Rizal, suffering with humility and resignation his banishment by order of the Superior Authority of this Archipelago, appears to me in an evident manner as innocent of the grave crime imputed to him and for which he had been sentenced to death. It is not my intention, Most Excellent Sir, either to censure or question in any way the legality of the decision of the fair court, but on account of unfortunate and fatal circumstances, it has apparently made my unhappy son responsible for the most infamous crimes, when in fact he is innocent. “In view of the above, Most Excellent Sir, I beseech Your Excellency to deign to commiserate with a poor mother, who in the supreme moment of seeing her beloved son die, addresses herself to Your Excellency in the name of our God, entreating you with tears of sorrow in her eyes and a broken heart to deign to grant he unfortunate son pardon from the death penalty imposed upon him. “This the grace that she hopes to obtain from the acknowledged kindness of the magnanimous heart of Your Excellency, which will be eternally recognized by the undersigned and her entire family, who will elevate prayers to heaven that it may preserve your precious life for the welfare and honor of our Mother Spain and the consolation of mothers. “Manila, 28 December 1896” The Last Farewell Just after Rizal became aware of his sentence to death but before his transfer to the chapel, he wrote the famous poem “My Last Farewell.” It was written on a small sheet of note paper, folded lengthwise into a narrow strip and then doubled and wedged inside the tank of a little alcohol lamp on which his cooking in his cell had been done. At the farewell to his sister Trinidad while in the chapel, he said: “I have nothing to give you as a souvenir except the cooking lamp Mrs. Tavera gave me while I was in Paris.” And then so the guard might not understand he said in a low tone in English, “There is something inside.” The lamp was taken with his other belongings from the fort and it was not until the night of the second day after his death that it was deemed safe to investigate. Then when the verses were found they were immediately copied and the copy without comment mailed to Hong Kong. There they were published. Did Rizal write “Mi Ultimo Adios” on the eve of his execution, or did he begin writing it when he felt the certainty of a death sentence for him, a certainty that might have come to his consciousness weeks or even months before that night? A popular painting shows Rizal writing at his desk , with an oil lamp providing the only light. Actually the oil lamp was an oil burner to heat or keep food warm. The food warmer could not have provided that much light without a glass cover to disperse the light in a room, but it provided space for Rizal to hide the poem in the oil burner. It is more likely that he had drafted the poem sometime before then, and wrote the finishing touches on the eve of his death. Rizal’s friend, Mariano Ponce, gave the title “Mi Ultimo Adios” as it original had none. The Retraction Whether or not Rizal retracted, he should still be held in highest esteem by the Filipinos as their greatest patriot. The total accomplishment of a man in life cannot be measured merely by his conduct during the last hour of his life. Rather, it should be evaluated on the basis of all his actuations, his virtues and defects, his loyalty to the truth to himself, as demonstrated throughout the span of his entire life. A little later at 7:30 p.m., the Jesuit Fathers Miguel Saderra and Luis Viza entered his cell. From that moment on, until seven of the next morning, when he was shot, Rizal did not have a moment’s rest. Instead, he was bombarded with matters of Christian doctrine by several persons. The Archbishop had chosen the Jesuits and not the Dominicans to persuade him to retract. With his usual good nature, Rizal received the Jesuits pleasantly asking them if there still were some of the old professors of his time. They replied that only Fathers Vilaclara and Balaguer remained. At nine o’clock, the two priests withdrew, but they were replaced by Father Rosell. While Father Rosell was in the cell, Santiago Mataix, a correspondent of Heraldo de Madrid, entered. Archbishop Nozaleda had given instruction to Father Pio Pi, superior of the Jesuit mission, that once the conversion was accomplished, they should let Rizal sign a document of retraction before administering the sacraments. Two drafts of retraction were prepared. At ten o’clock in the morning, two other Jesuits entered the cell, Fathers Vilaclara and Balaguer. Balaguer approached the subject of Religion asking Rizal his ideas on doctrinal matters. When Rizal remained unyielding after a very long debate, Balaguer resorted to warning him of eternal cremation if he did not relinquish his ideas. But Rizal knew how to control himself. He told Father Balaguer, “I promise you that the remaining hours of my life, shall employ asking God for the grace of faith.” The discussion lasted more than two hours. Rizal did not lose his serenity. He always measured his every word and thus his conduct was exemplary and for this reason he did not retract. In one of his rare free moments, after lunch, Rizal wrote to Blumentritt the following letter. “My dear brother: When you receive this letter I shall be dead. Tomorrow at 7:00 I shall be shot. But I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I shall die with a clear conscience. Goodbye my best, my most beloved friend. Fort Santiago. Dec. 29, 1896” But the Jesuits did not give up. Balaguer returned at three o’clock in the afternoon maintaining it until night came. Balaguer left the fort after picking up Father Viza at the Ateneo, proceeded to the palace to inform the Archbishop that there was some hope. Surprisingly, Balaguer did not make an official report of the retraction, although Mataix, the correspondent of Heraldo de Madrid, cabled a few minutes after midnight, quoting the only source of information, that “Rizal will retract his errors and will confess before contracting marriage.” Balaguer stated that Rizal signed the retraction and the profession of faith. He asked for confession and Father Vilaclara heard it. He then slept for a few minutes. Upon waking up, he confessed the second time and expressed his wish to marry Josephine. According to Father Balaguer, although the documents he signed were sufficient, Father Vilaclara still asked him to read some acts of faith, hope, and charity which he read from a prayer book and which Rizal repeated after him. At three o’clock in the morning, he heard mass and confessed for the fourth time. Then he heard another mass. This, on the basis of Balaguer’s account. At 5:30 a.m. Rizal took his breakfast. Soon after, he wrote the following letter: 6:00 a.m. Dec. 30, 1896 My beloved father: Please pardon me for all the pain with which I have repaid you for all your concern and efforts to give me my education. I did not want this; nor did I expect it. Goodbye, Father, goodbye. Another letter, undated was addressed to his sisters and to Paciano. Shortly after six o’clock in the morning, Josephine arrived accompanied by a sister of Rizal. According to Balaguer, he advised the Captain of the Fort to proceed with the marriage ceremony, the two standing on each side of the Spanish Officer. At first, the officer was opposed to the bride and groom’s holding hands during the ceremony but he had to accede because the marriage ritual required it. Balaguer then proceeded with the religious rites Before parting, Rizal whispered some words of advice to Josephine. Shortly after, her face bathed in tears, she withdrew. All the foregoing was related by Father Balaguer. Fifteen minutes before the execution, Father March arrived, which brings the number of priests who visited him to eight within 24 hours. “The version circulated by the ecclesiastical authorities of that time, the part referring to the retraction of Rizal and his conversion at the last hour to Catholicism, has not been considered satisfactory admitted by the Catholic opinion in the Philippines.” The Execution December 30, 1896, the day that dawned over Fort Santiago, was one of the balmiest in Philippine history. It was the day of Rizal’s execution. On this day there was restlessness. A sense of calm yet a feeling of change were in the air; there was a sense of tragedy that embraced the anticipated public execution. The execution area was surrounded by the largest crowd. Everyone was curious about witnessing the execution of the most influential Filipino, Jose Rizal. At 6:30 a.m., the squad of artillery soldiers was formed, preceded by a bugle and a drum. Rizal came out, bound from elbow to elbow, flanked by Fathers Vilaclara and March followed by Taviel, his counsel. The squad surrounded them all. They took the Paseo de Maria Cristina, now named Paseo de Bonifacio. The hero walked with a relaxed, modest stride, as though taking a walk. He chatted with his companinons about the scene around him. Pointing to the Ateneo, he said to Taviel, “There I spent seven years.” Then his gaze slowly alighted on other things in the distance – Corregidor and the hills of Cavite. On his way to what the Filipinos could consider their Golgotha, his steps became more firm, as though he was not conscious of the historic destiny he was marking with every step. Across the Luneta, they went to Bagumbayan, that tragic site where Philippine liberties were sacrificed. He hastened his steps as they approached the square. Rizal was facing execution for speaking out against Spanish political and economic domination in the Philippines. He had also committed the unpardonable sin of criticizing the Catholic Church. The Spanish believed that he had fomented revolution and was guilty of sedition. Rizal placed himself in the middle of the square, filled with 400 men with a band playing. The firing squad was composed of eight native soldiers, but as a measure of caution, another line of peninsular soldiers stood behind. At this point, a discussion arose for Rizal refused to be shot from behind, that only traitors were thus shot and that he was not a traitor to Spain. The captain replied that he was sorry but those were the orders and he had to follow them. At the last moment, Rizal requested that he be shot in the body and not in the head. That way, he must have thought, he could at the last moment, turn his head and body sidewise so he would fall face upward, facing the blue sky of which he had so often sung, and fall on the earth which he never wished see stained with blood. At this point, Ruiz y Castillo, the military physician who attended him, took his pulse and was surprise to find it normal. At the cleared grass area where the firing squad assembled, Rizal made his way to the execution spot. As the firing squad line up, many people noticed that the Spaniards and other Europeans had left the grass area. The soldiers appeared unusually nervous. They checked their guns a number of times they adjusted their uniforms and their eyes scanned the crowd. Finally the firing squad was ready to face the young Philippine nationalist. The order to fire was given. The shots rang out and the body of the patriot who had faced death so bravely, with such dignity and honor, fell with his face up, toward the sky. He did not fall as traitor. Nature had made the rectification, and Rizal, nationalist to the last minute of his life, had used his head to obtain his ends. Shouts of “Viva Espana!”, “Death to Traitors!” were heard from the Spaniards. The band of regiment struck the first Chords of the Marcha de Cadiz. The Philippines had lost its greatest patriot but Spain had lost the Philippines. Rizal was buried not in a humble place in Paang Bundok, as he wished, but in a cemetery of Paco. The body of Rizal was placed in a van and with the greatest secrecy buried in the old and unused Paco Cemetery. Teodora wanted to comply with the last wish of her so, i.e., that the family should take charge of his cadaver. After several objections on the part of some officials, Civil Governor Manuel Luengo acceded to the petition, but when the funeral coach left, they had already secretly taken the body away and Narcisa went to all the cemeteries of Manila in search of the body in vain. On the way back, she saw though the open gate of the Paco Cemetery, some guards as civiles. This gave her a clue. She entered the cemetery and after much searching found a grave with freshly-turned earth. She gave the gravedigger a tip and place a plaque with the initials of her brother in reverse, R.P.J., that is Rizal, Protacio Jose. This was intentionally done by the family so the authorities would not notice that the marble slab belonged to Rizal. After the execution of Rizal, Josephine, with Paciano and Trinidad Rizal, crossed the tightly guarded enemy lines towards Cavite. At the time of their arrival, the Magdiwang and Magdalo factions were meeting at the Casa Hacienda of Imus, according to Artemio Ricarte. However, Santiago V. Alvarez said the Rizals came at past one o’clock in the afternoon of December 30, 1896 at San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias). Andres Bonifacio, the Katipunan Supremo, received the Rizals himself at the house of Mrs. Estefania Potente where he was staying. When the Americans had taken over Manila on August 17, 1898, the family led by Narcisa had Rizal’s body exhumed, almost two years after his death. Rizal’s body was buried without a coffin, and his clothes and shoes could still be identified by the family. Whatever was hidden in Rizal’s shoes as he mentioned to his sisters in the final hours before his execution crumbled to the touch. Sixteen years after, Rizal’s bones were retrieved by his sister on December 29, 1912. On December 30. 1912, the Commission on the Rizal Monument, created by virtue of Act No. 243, transferred his remains to the base of the monument erected on the Luneta, very near to the place where he was shot. IV. ANNOTATION OF ANTONIO DE MORGA’S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS In the late 1880s, Jose Rizal spent several months in London improving his English proficiency. During those days, he regretted having been born and raised without deep recognition of what life was like in his homeland, the Philippines, before the Spanish regime. Hence, this had formed a huge curiosity in the mind of the young intellect because he believed that he had neither privilege nor power to speak of situation he did not know about. He speculated that the country had a prosperous and established way of living enriched by culture, tradition, and solidarity contrary to what the Spaniards claimed that the Philippines was living backward. In fact, Rizal pointed out that the pre-Hispanic Philippine civilization could have nurtured and developed into something great hadn’t the Spaniards and the friars obliterated it. And this burning desire brought him to going through the British Museum where he stumbled upon Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas published in 1609. Rizal engrossed himself in the British Museum. It was the most extensive library in the world in the 19th century, and “the celebrated breeding place of revolutions”. The great domed reading room of the British Museum was the same place where Karl Marx did meticulous background research for his Das Kapital and Communist Manifesto. There have been numerous published works about pre-colonial Philippine history. Rizal’s initial plan to write a factual history of the country them, shifted into a plan of annotating (to explain or to make critical notes on a book or document) Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Rizal’s choice of annotating De Morga rather than other contemporary historical accounts was due to the obvious fact that the book itself was rare. The author, Antonio De Morga, was civil in writing the book as it was written free from religious narratives full of miracle stories, reflecting Rizal’s strong anti-clerical bias. Moreover, Rizal thinks that De Morga was more sympathetic to the Indios and he was not only an eyewitness but he played a huge role in the events he narrated. And thus, with his dedication to give his fellow Filipino a view of the history of the Philippines, he laboriously copied the entire work while making annotations. Rizal felt that the annotations of De Morga should be written not from the colonizer, but this time from the colonized. There was no history of the Philippines written by an Indio at such a period. The Philippines have been neglected and what was available before was not a history of the Philippines,, but a history of Spain in the Philippines. It was ambitious at those times being given that Indios were given less importance or value and deemed to not have the ability to produce such scholarly works. Most of the available sources were written by religious order. Fortunately, Jose Rizal found there the original, Spanish version of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Rizal’s initial plan to write a factual history of the country them, shifted into a plan of annotating (to explain or to make critical notes on a book or document) Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Lesson 7 Annotation of Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. analyze Analyze Rizal’s ideas on how to rewrite Philippine history and 2. compare and contrast Rizal and Morga’s different views about Filipinos and Philippine culture. Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (From SlideShare) 1. The Book: An account of Spanish observations about the Filipinos and the Philippines. It is one of the important works on the early history of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines published in Mexico in 1609 by Antonio De Morga. Note: Annotated by Jose Rizal with a prologue by Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt. The book narrates the history of wars, intrigues, diplomacy and evangelization of the Philippines in a somewhat disjointed way. Modern historians (including Rizal) have noted that De Morga has a definite bias and would often distort facts or even rely on invention to fit his defense of the Spanish conquest. Background Information/Important Information About the book: 2. Antonio De Morga – Spanish conquistador, government official, and historical anthropologist; author of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Islands). De Morga wrote the first lay formal history of the Philippines conquest by Spain. His history is valuable in that De Morga had access to the survivors of the earliest days of the colony and he, himself, participated in many of the accounts that he rendered. 3. One of the first books ever to tackle Philippine History. Describes the events inside and outside of the country from 1493 to 1603, including the history of the Philippines. 4. Consists of 8 Chapters Chapter 1: Magellan and Legazpi’s seminal expeditions Chapters 2 – 7: Chronological report on government administration under GovernorGeneral Chapter 8: Philippine Islands, the natives there, their antiquity, custom and government 5. Discusses the political, social, and economic aspects of a colonizer and the colonized country. 6. The content of the book was based on documentary research, observation, and personal experience of De Morga. 7. Rizal is a secondary source of the book due to his Annotations. What is Las Islas Filipinas? The Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. What is Sucesos? Events, Happenings, Occurrence The Sucesos is the work of an honest observer, a versatile bureaucrat, who knew the working of the administration from the inside. Note: The “SUCESOS” as annotated by Rizal, appeared for the first time in the Philippines sixty eight years later when a publisher in Manila published the new work in 1958, to contribute his bid to the national effort to honor Rizal. The present work is the sixth volume of the Series of Writings of Jose Rizal which the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission has to publish in commemoration of his birth. De Morga’s Purpose for Writing Sucesos De Morga wrote that the purpose for writing Sucesos was so he could chronicle “the deeds achieved by our Spaniards in the discovery, conquest, and conversion of the Filipinas Islands – as well as various fortunes that they have from time to time in the great kingdoms and among the pagan peoples surrounding the islands.” Taking issue with the scopes of these claims, Rizal argued that “the conversion and conquest were not as widespread as portrayed because the missionaries were only successful in conquering a portion of the population of certain islands.” What leads Jose Rizal to Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas? Rizal was an earnest seeker of truth and this marked him as a historian. He had a burning desire to know exactly the conditions of the Philippines when the Spaniards came ashore to the Islands. His theory was that the country was economically self-sufficient and prosperous. He entertained the idea that it had a lively and vigorous community. He believed the conquest of the Spaniards contributed in part to the decline of the Philippine’s rich tradition and culture. He then decided to undertake the annotation of Antonio De Morga’s Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas. His personal friendship with Ferdinand Blumentritt provided the inspiration for doing a new edition of De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Devoting four months research and writing and almost a year to get his manuscript published in Paris in January 1890. Rizal spent his entire stay in the city of London at the British Museum’s reading room. Having found De Morga’s book, he laboriously hand-copied the whole 351 pages of the Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Rizal proceeded to annotate every chapter of the Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Rizal’s Objectives for Annotating De Morga’s Book : In Jose Rizal’s dedication, he explained among other things, the purpose of the new edition of De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.: “If the book succeeds in awakening in you the consciousness of our past which has been obliterated from memory and in rectifying what has been falsified and calumniated, ‘I shall not have labored in vain, and on such basis, little though it may be, we can all devote ourselves to studying the future” 1. To awaken the consciousness of the Filipinos regarding their glorious ways of the past 2. To correct what has been distorted about the Philippines due to Spanish conquest 3. To prove that Filipinos are civilized even before the coming of the Spaniards On Rizal’s Annotation: In his historical essay, which includes the narration of Philippine colonial history, punctuated as it was with incidences of agony, tensions, tragedies and prolonged periods of suffering that many of the people had been subjected to. He correctly observed that as a colony of Spain, “The Philippines was depopulated, impoverished and retarded, astounded by metaphors, with no confidence in her past, still without faith in her present and without faltering hope in the future.” He went to say: “… little by little, they (Filipinos) lost their old traditions, the mementoes of the past; they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems, their laws in order to learn other doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics, different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking. They declined, degrading themselves in their own eyes. They become ashamed of what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible; their spirit was damaged and it surrendered.” To the Filipinos: “In my NOLI ME TANGERE” I commenced to sketch the present conditions obtaining in our country. The effect produced by my efforts gave me to understand – before proceeding to develop before your eyes other successive scenes – that is necessary to first lay bare the past, in order the better to judge the present and to survey the road trodden during three centuries.” The First Objective The Early Filipino Pride. Rizal strove to establish that the Filipinos could be proud of their pre-conquest past. The Second Objective History as a Propaganda Weapon. Rizal aimed to use history as a propaganda weapon. 1. Early Government. Our forefathers in the pre-colonial Philippines already possessed a working judicial and legislative system. 2. High Literacy Rate. The Spanish missionaries exploited the baybayin for their own ends, learning and using it to translate their goals. 3. Early Artillery. Our ancestors were very proficient in the art of war. Aside from wielding swords and spears, they also knew how to make and fire guns and cannons. 4. Smooth Foreign Relations. The pre-colonial Filipinos had already established trading and diplomatic relations with countries as far as the Middle East. 5. Self-sufficient. In terms of food, our forefathers did not suffer from any lack thereof. Blessed with such a resource-rich country, they had enough for themselves and their families. 6. Advanced Civilization. Our ancestors possessed a complex working society and a culture replete with works of arts and literature. Three Main Propositions in Rizal’s New Edition of Filipinas. De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas 1. The people of the Philippines have a culture of their own, before the coming of the Spaniards 2. Filipinos were decimated, demoralized, exploited, and ruined by the Spanish colonization 3. The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior to its past Rizal’s Annotation of De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. His extensive annotations of De Morga’s work number “no less than 639 items or almost two annotations for every page.” Rizal also annotated De Morga’s typographical errors. He commented on every statement that could be nuanced in Filipino cultural practices. For example on page 248, De Morga describes the culinary art of the ancient Filipinos by recording: “ … they prefer to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and smell.” Rizal’s footnotes: “This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other nation in that matter of food, loathe that to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them…’’ The fish that De Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary “it is bagoong and all those who have eaten it and tasted it know it is not or ought not to be rotten.’’ Commentaries: Rizal commits the error of many historians in appraising the events of the past in the light of present standards. Rizal’s attacks on the church were unfair and unjustified because the abuses of the friars should not be construed to mean that Catholicism is bad. Blumentritt’s Influence on Rizal: Ferdinand Blumentritt has encouraged Rizal to write about Philippine pre-colonial history. He also wrote a preface emphasizing some salient points: 1. The Spaniards have to correct their erroneous conception of the Filipinos as children of limited intelligence. 2. That there existed three kinds of Spanish delusions about the Philippines: 2.1 Filipinos were an inferior race 2.2 Filipinos were ready for parliamentary representation and other reforms 2.3 Denial of equal rights can be compensated by strict dispensation of justice Blumentritt’s Prologue Writing in Spanish, instead of his native German language. Praised Rizal’s work as “scholarly and well-thought out” He noted that De Morga’s Sucesos was so rare that “the very few libraries that have it guard it with the same solicitude as if it were the treasure of the Incas’” He criticized Rizal’s annotations on two counts: - He first observed that Rizal had committed the mistake of many modern historians who judged events in the past in the context of contemporary ideas and mores. - He perceived as the overreach of Rizal’s denunciations of Catholicism that “Rizal should confine his critique to the religious orders in the Philippines who spared no effort to suppress calls for reform” Rizal’s Annotations vs. De Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. RIZAL’S Annotations 1. Philippines was NOT DESERTED and was actually HABITABLE. 2. Spaniards, like any other nation, treat food to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them with disgust. The first that De Morga mentions is bagoong (salted and fermented fish). De Morga’s Sucesos 1. Philippines was DESERTED AND INHABITABLE. 2. Beef and fish they know it best when it has started to rot and stink. Importance of Rizal’s Annotations to the Present Generation To awaken in the Filipinos the consciousness of our past To devote ourselves to studying the future To first lay bare the past, in order to better judge the present and to survey the road trodden during three centuries To prove that Filipinos had a culture of their own, prior to colonization, that the Filipinos were NOT inferior to the white man To shatter the myth of the so-called ‘’Indolence of the Filipinos’’ To reduce those Filipinos who denied their native tongue into rotten fish To seriously study Tagalog and produce a comprehensive Tagalog dictionary To embrace the generic terms “Indio”, or in today’s case, Filipino, with all its negative connotations, and turn it into one of dignity and nobility V. RIZAL’S FAMOUS NOVELS Rizal, a voracious reader, had read almost any book that he could get his hands on. One time, he came across Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, a novel about the brutalities of the white Americans to their Negro slaves. The book ignited Rizal’s nationalistic fire; it made him decide to write a book that would expose to the world the sad plight of his own countrymen in the Philippines. In a meeting of the Filipino members of the Circulo Hispano-Filipino in Madrid, Rizal proposed the project of writing a book about the Filipinos in the Philippines. The book was supposed to cover all phases of Philippine life; all of them should contribute something in writing the book. However, almost all of them wanted to write nothing but about the character and activities of the Filipino women and were scarcely interested in Rizal’s true purpose for the proposed project. Disappointed, Rizal decided to write the book by himself. Using his foremost talent, Rizal started writing one of his masterpieces, the Noli Me Tangere. Rizal began writing the novel in Madrid in 1884 and finished about one-half of it. He continued writing when he went to Paris and finished it in Germany. He made the final revisions in Berlin, Germany. The title of the novel, Noli Me Tangere, is a Latin phrase which means, “touch me not”, lifted from the Gospel of St. John (Chapter 20, verses 13-17). But the novel was also titled The Social Cancer in its English translation. With his funds running low, Rizal almost lost hope of publishing his novel. In the middle of his despondency, a good friend, by the name of Maximo Viola, a wealthy young man from Bulacan, lent Rizal the needed funds to publish his novel. He found the cheapest printer, the Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesselschaft, Setzerinnen-Schule de Lette Vereins in Berlin, Germany. Rizal paid P300 for 2,000 copies. The novel first came off the press on March 21, 1887. Rizal sent copies to his closest friends like Blumentritt, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce, and Felix R. Hidalgo. He gave the galley proofs of the novel to Maximo Viola to show his gratitude for helping him publish his first novel. In 1887, Jose Rizal published the Noli Me Tangere which talks about the abuses of the friars and Spaniards in the Philippines The novel is dedicated to the Philippines, which reads as follows: Recorded in the history of human sufferings is a cancer so malignant that the least irritates it and awakens in it the sharpest pain. Thus, how many times, when in the midst of modern civilizations, I have wished to call you before me, now to accompany me in memories, now to compare you with other countries, has your dear image presented itself showing a social cancer. Desiring your welfare which is our own and seeking the best treatment, I will do with you what the ancients did with their sick, exposing them on the steps of the temple so that everyone who came to evoke the Divinity might offer them remedy. And to this end, I will try to reproduce your condition faithfully, without discriminations; I will raise a part of the veil that covers the evil, sacrificing to truth everything, even vanity itself, since as your son, I am conscious that I also suffer from your defects and weaknesses. Four years after the publication of the Noli Me Tangere, Rizal’s mind had matured. It was what he saw in the Philippines during his four month’s visit, and what happened to his family after that visit when his father was evicted; their house taken over; their furniture dumped into the street; some members of the family were sent into exile; and one brotherin-law was denied Christian burial that Rizal had come to realize that the attitude of the authorities and the friars on the granting of reforms was irreversible. In addition, he had differences with his compatriots in Europe. It seemed that the liberation of the Philippines was not to be reached through legal means. All these and other happenings weakened his early enthusiasm but deepened his insights. It was of this deeper vision that El Filibusterismo emerged. Rizal published El Filibusterismo which discusses how grave and rampant the abuses of the friars and Spaniards were. Rizal in his letter to Blumentritt explained the title of his novel. “The word ‘Filibusterismo’ is very little known in the Philippines. The masses do not know it yet. I heard it for the first time in 1872 when the tragic execution of the three priests took place. I still remember the panic that this word caused. Our father forbade us to say it…the Manila newspaper and the Spanish uses this word to describe those whom they want to render suspect of revolutionary activities. The educated Filipino fear its scope. It does not have the meaning of ‘pirate’; It means rather a dangerous pilot who will soon be on the gallows, or else a conceited fellow.” (Locsin & Locsin, 1996). In Noli, the goal of the characters is that of assimilation without dissidence. Now, upon finding all avenues leading to reforms and political, economic, and religious liberty hopelessly closed, they are impelled to seek the way of subversion and are willing to be branded as Filibusteros, a labelled used for all natives who excelled in intelligence and education. It took Rizal three years and four months to finish El Filibusterismo. Rizal finished his second novel in Biarritz on March 28, 1891, starting it in October 1887 in Calamba. Looking for a less expensive printer, he moved from Brussels to Ghent in the first few days of July 1891. In the City of Charles VI, he met a young Filipino student who was taking up Agriculture and who agreed to share a room with him. His name was Jose Alejandrino, who later became a general of the revolution. Rizal and Alejandrino transferred to Ghent from Brussels because the cost of living and printing charges were cheaper there. They selected the cheapest boarding house on 32 Rue de Flandre, Ghent. They stayed there for three months from July to September 1891. Due to shortage of funds, they resorted to a rationing system, tightening their belts. Alejandrino, writing in his memoirs regarding the hardships he and Rizal had encountered said: In Ghent, we lived in a room paying so much in our lodging and breakfast. Rizal asked me, “How much would the room cost us without the breakfast?” I talked to the landlady and she told me that she would reduce the rent if breakfast was not included. Rizal made a calculation and concluded that if we prepared our own breakfast, we could save something. He bought tea, sugar, and a box of biscuits by 30 days, we would have so many biscuits for each breakfast. The first day, because of my personal pride, I contended myself with my ration. I did the same the following day. But on the third day, I told him that my ration was not enough for me. Then, he answered me: “You may borrow for your ration for tomorrow.” Through frequent borrowing, I ate up all my share in 15 days, while he rigorously limiting himself to his daily ration. After a long search for a printer in Ghent, which will print his book in small amountinstalment basis, Rizal found the F. Meyer Van Loo Press at 66 Vianderen Street. He had to pawn his jewels to give advance money to start the printing of El Filibusterismo. He also had to borrow money from his friends because he ran out of funds. Rodriguez Arias forwarded him two hundred pesos (P200) for the sold copies of his annotated Morga’s Sucessos de las Islas Filipinas in Manila and also some amount from Jose Ma. Basa. On August 6, 1861, the printing stopped. The reason: Rizal had not been able to pay the corresponding instalment. On the same day, he wrote his friend Basa in Hong Kong: As you will see in the enclosed clipping, printing of the second part is advanced, and I am now on page 112. Because no money is forthcoming and I owe everybody and I am broke, I will have to suspend the publication and to leave the work half-finished. In despair, he almost burned the manuscript of his novel. He wrote again to Basa. “Several times I am tempted to burn my manuscript: but then I think of you and I know there are many good people, many who truly love their country.” Valentin Ventura, upon hearing Rizal’s urgent need for money for the printing of his second novel, immediately sent him the needed amount. On September 18, 1891, El Filibusterismo came off the press. On the same day, Rizal sent copies to his friends. Two copies went to Jose Ma. Basa and Sixto Lopez in Hong Kong. He gave gratefully to Valentin Ventura the original manuscript of the novel and a printed copy with his autograph. It is now preserved in the Filipiniana Section of the National Library of the Philippines, Manila. The Philippine government bought the original manuscript from Valentin Ventura for ten thousand pesos (P10,000). It consists of 279 pages of long sheets of paper. The author’s corrections are seen throughout the manuscript. Only few pages were not revised by Rizal. Two features in the manuscript do not appear in the printed book, namely: the FOREWORD and the WARNING. These were not put into print, evidently, to save printing cost. The FOREWORD appears just before the dedicatory page in the manuscript. It runs as follows: To the Filipino People and Their Government Oftentimes, we have been so frightened by subversion that a mere false alarm of it has acquired the posture of reality and the mere mention of which would make us commit the greatest errors. Putting aside the old habit of believing in myths, in order not to meet in reality that was imagined, instead of evading it, let us face it squarely, and with a firm, if inexpert hand, we shall raise the veil to uncover, before the multitude, the components of its skeletal mechanisms. If seeing it, our country and its government could react to a reflection, we shall consider ourselves happy, no matter whether they would censure use for our audacity, no matter whether we have to pay for it like the young student of Sais who wished to penetrate into the secret chambers of frailocratic deception. On the other hand, facing reality, instead of being appeased, one’s fear is magnified, and the confused alarm of another is aggravated, then leave to the hands of time which educates the living, to the hands of fatality which weaves the destinies of people and their governments for the faults and errors they are committing day by day. A DEDICATION TO THE MARTYRED PRIESTS – DON MARIANO GOMEZ (85 YEARS), DON JOSE BURGOS (30 YEARS), AND DON ZAMORA (35 YEARS) who were strangled to death in Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park) on 28 February 1872. The church by refusing to condemn and defrock you has belied or paced in doubt the crime that has been imputed against you. The government by covering your trials with mystery and shrouds, indicated that errors were committed in condemning you to death; and the whole country by idolizing your money and calling you martyrs, by no means recognizes your guilt. As long, therefore, as your connection with the Cavite Mutiny is not clearly proven, whether or not you have cherished sentiments of patriotism, justice, and liberty. I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to fight. And while all eagerly awake the day that Spain would vindicate herself from culpability for your death, and to restore your good name, let these pages serve as the late wreath of dried leaves placed on your unknown tombs; and let all understand whoever attacks your memory without laudatory proofs, stains hands with your blood. The two novels also portray the love story of Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara — a relationship that is against all odds. When Rizal wrote his two famous novels, he had the intention of opening the eyes of the Filipinos to the abuses and cruelties done by the Spaniards by using different symbolisms and metaphors throughout his writings. Lesson 8 NOLI ME TANGERE Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. appraise important characters in the novel and what they represent; and 2. examine the present Philippine situation through the examples mentioned in the Noli. Synopsis The novel centers on the story of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra a descendant of a wealthy family of San Diego, who returned home from his seven-year education in the German section of Switzerland. The story opens with a reception given by Capitan Tiago (Santiago de los Santos) in honor of Ibarra, the fiancé of his beautiful daughter Maria Clara. Among the guests, at the reception were Padre Damaso Verdolagas, a Franciscan friar who was the parish priest of San Diego; Padre Sybila, a young Dominican parish priest of Binondo; Senor Guevarra, an elderly and kind lieutenant of the Guardia Civil; Don Tiburcio de Espadana and his wife Dona Victorina; and several others. Crisostomo Ibarra, when he returned to the Philippines, was immediately the talk of his town. His European education and the respectability of his father, Don Rafael, is publicly acknowledged, that Crisostomo produced a favorable impression to his townmates especially among the guests at the reception dinner. There was only one person at the reception who was openly and deliberately rude to him and tried to discredit and criticize him in front of the other guests – it was Padre Damaso. Padre Damaso was in such a bad mood that night because aside from Ibarra having stolen everybody’s attention and admiration, he got the bony neck and a hard wing of the chicken “tinola”. After the reception, Ibarra, on his way home to his hotel, was met by the kind Lieutenant who told him the sad story of his father, Don Rafael. During his absence, Don Rafael was imprisoned for the accidental death of a Spanish tax collector while defending a helpless boy from the cruelty of the said illiterate Spaniard. Don Rafael pushed the tax collector and he former fell with his head hitting the concrete sidewalk that led to his death. Don Rafael was a subscriber to liberal publications. When he was buried, his enemies had his body removed from the cemetery. The next morning, after a happy reunion with Maria Clara, Ibarra went out to visit his father’s grave. It was then that he discovered the disgusting fate of his father’s corpse. He learned that upon the order of the parish priest of San Diego, Don Rafael’s remains were removed from the cemetery to be buried in the Chinese cemetery. It was a dark and rainy night; the corpse was heavy, so the gravedigger just threw the corpse into the lake. The story angered Ibarra who hastily left; on his way, he met Padre Salvi, the parish priest of San Diego. Ibarra pounced on the Franciscan priest and demanded an explanation for the desecration of his father’s remains. Padre Salvi pleaded innocent to the act and added that it was Padre Damaso who was responsible for it. Ibarra also found out that the deplorable condition of his town remains unchanged since he left for Europe. Inspired by the desire to educate his people and bring progress to his hometown, Ibarra planned of establishing a school patterned after the schools he had known in Europe. The project was enthusiastically endorsed by the townspeople of San Diego except by the old scholar Tasio who had long before tried to do the same thing but failed and by the priest, Padre Salvi because he sees the school as a threat to his authority over the natives. Ibarra met several interesting characters in his town. One interesting character is Tasio the philosopher, whose ideas are too far ahead of his contemporaries that his townmates call him, “Tasio and lunatic.” Tasio belongs to a well-to-do family. Because he is intelligent, his mother decided for him to be a priest. But he gave up his studies for love; but a year later, he was widowed. To avoid idleness and depressions, he concentrated on books. He became so engrossed in his intellectual pursuits that he neglected his estate and became poor. Although pessimistic about Ibarra’s school project, he offered sensible pieces of advice to the young Ibarra. Another interesting character is Dona Victorina de los Reyes de Espadana, a native who tried to act like a superior Spaniard. She looks down on her own people as inferior beings and considers herself superior to most people because of her hallucinations of Spanish affinity. She married late, but nevertheless, it was to a Spaniard. To be more Spanish, she added another “de” to her husband’s surname and thus wanted to be called “Doctora Dona Victorina de los Reyes de De Espadana.” Dona Victorina’s husband, Don Tiburcio, is a lame and bald man who stutters and sprays saliva whenever he talks. A native of Spain, he came to the Philippines as a custom official. During the trip, he got sea sick, broke one of his legs, and to add insult to injury, found his dismissal paper upon his arrival. Jobless and broke, he married Dona Victorina whom he looked up to as someone to ease up his troubles. She turned out to be a domineering ill-tempered wife who controlled him by threatening to tear out his false teeth and leave him a horrible sight for days if he would not accede her wishes. Through his wife’s machinations, he was able to pass as a Doctor of Medicine who treats only patients “of quality” , although his only qualification was his work experience as an attendant in a hospital in Madrid, aside from being a Spaniard. There is also Sisa, formerly a rich girl who had the misfortune of marrying a good-fornothing gambler of a man. She eventually became poor but in spite of everything, she remained loyal to her husband although not out of love anymore; she devoted her affection and devotion to her two sons, Crispin and Basilio who became victims of the parish caretaker’s brutalities. Her two sons, wanting to help their mother, worked as sacristans but were accused of stealing the priest’s money which the caretaker himself took. In the course of punishing and beating the two boys, Crispin died while Basilio luckily escaped. When her two sons failed to go home, Sisa looked for them everywhere but there was not a trace of her two sons. Her sufferings drove her to insanity. Ibarra’s future father-in-law is also a character himself. Don Santiago de los Santos is a Chinese half-breed and one of the richest men in San Diego. He got his fortune and social title through his marriage to Pia Alba, a beautiful Spanish mestiza whose family was prominent in the sugar, coffee, and indigo industry in San Diego. Capitan Tiago would patronize new ideas but not without the prior approval of the friars or officials. People call him Sacristan Tiago behind his back. Capital Tiago even tries to imitate the European manners and ways of dressing. But in spite of all his shortcomings, he was a good father to Maria Clara, his supposed daughter. He and his wife had waited long for Maria Clara. Pia Alba would often visit the church to pray that God give them a child and to confess her “sins” to Padre Damaso. Eventually, Pia Alba became pregnant; the long awaited dream had come true. But Pia Alba didn’t see her daughter bloom into a beautiful woman for she died when Maria was still very young. Orphaned by her mother, Maria Clara became the object and sympathy of the town folks and the paternal affection and concern of Padre Damaso, her baptismal godfather. Ibarra also met the gobernadorcillo of the town who faithfully catered to the wishes and whims of the Spanish parish friars; Don Filipo Lino, the teniente-mayor and leader of the liberal faction of the town. Don Melchor, the captain of the cuadrillos (town police); the former gobernadorcillo of San Diego who remained prominent people of the town – Don Basilio and Don Valentin. There is also Dona Consolacion, Dona Victorina’s rival, and the vulgar mistress of the Spanish alferez. The two senoras would bicker and insult each other in unutterable language and had even came to blows at one incident if not for the intercession of Padre Salvi. On a picnic with Maria Clara and some of their friends, an incident happened. While they were on a boat, a crocodile rocked the boat and its passengers panicked. One of the boatmen, bravely jumped and wrestled with the crocodile, Seeing that the boatman’s life was in danger, Ibarra jumped into the water and killed the crocodile, thereby saving the man. Ibarra learned later that the man was an outlaw, because some civil guards came looking for him later that day. Elias, Ibarra’s mysterious friend who appears every time Ibarra is in trouble is no ordinary character. His family’s misfortunes had forced him to be an outlaw. His grandfather was a bookkeeper in the hacienda of Don Pedro Eibarramendia. One night, fire razed the district and soon Elias’ grandfather was accused of starting it. He was flogged in public and was dragged through the street by a horse. The wife, finding no means of meeting the family’s needs, became a prostitute. Because of this, the husband hanged himself. The widow, accused of causing her husband’s death, left the town with her two sons. The older son became a tulisan named Balat, while the younger one stayed with her mother. When Balat was caught, his body was quartered: his trunk was buried, his limbs exhibited in different towns, and his head was hung at the entrance of his mother’s hut. Upon seeing it, his mother died of heart attack. The younger son then went to Tayabas to start anew. He found employment with a wealthy man. He fell in love with the man’s daughter and they were about to be married when his past was discovered. He was forced to be separated from the woman. On the other hand, the woman gave birth to twins, Elias and his sister. When their mother died, they were left to the care of their grandfather who raised and sent them to good schools. The old man died. Elias and her sister were left with a large legacy. However a displeased relative exposed their past and they were forced to leave the town with an old devoted servant who turned out to be their real father. The father soon died in misery while Elias’ sister abandoned by her fiancé, disappeared and was later found left with a dagger pierced in her heart. Elias now alone and desolate searched the descendants of the family who cause his family misfortunes. And then, he met Crisostomo Ibarra, who saved his life, and in whom he found a savior of the sufferings of the masses. Elias vowed to himself to protect Ibarra in any way can. As San Diego was celebrating its fiesta in honor of San Diego de Alcala, Ibarra attended a mass officiated by Father Salvi. Padre Damaso gave the very long sermon criticizing the “evils” caused by educated men. During the mass, Ibarra was warned by Elias about the plot to destroy and kill him. In the laying of the cornerstone of Ibarra’s schoolhouse, the derricks collapse almost killing Ibarra if not for Elias’quick actions. It appeared that the man who was hired to build the derrick was hired by Ibarra’s enemies to kill him accidentally; as it happed it was the yellowish man who was crushed to death by the derrick. That night, a sumptuous dinner was served at Capitan Tiago’s house. While the celebration was going on, Padre Damaso insulted the memory of Ibarra’s father. Taking it no more, Ibarra knocked down the friar with his fist and grabbed a sharp knife. He would have killed Padre Damaso if he was not stopped by Maria Clara. Because of the incident, Ibarra’s engagement to Maria Clara was broken, and he was excommunicated. Fortunately, the liberal-minded governor-general persuaded the Archbishop of Manila to lift the ban of excommunication and Capitan Tiago was also persuaded to accept Ibarra as a future son-inlaw. After the fiesta, Maria Clara became ill and was treated by the fake Spanish physician, Don Tiburcio de Espadana. Dona Victorina introduced Don Alfonso Linares de Espadana, a cousin of Don Tiburcio and godson of Padre Damaso’s brother-in-law to Capitan Tiago. Unknown to Capitan Tiago, Linares was a penniless and jobless fortune hunter who came to the Philippines in search of a rich Filipino heiress he could marry. But Maria Clara loved only Ibarra. In the meantime, Ibarra’s enemies did not stop until they have ruined him. They plotted an attack on the barracks of the Guardia Civil, and at the same time, warning the alferez to alert his men that particular night. The attackers were deceived. They were told the mastermind of the attack was Ibarra. Naturally, they failed and Ibarra’s name was implicated. There were even manufactured evidences showing Ibarra’s signature which they forged from his letter to Maria Clara. Those letters were reluctantly given by Maria Clara to Padre Salvi in exchange for the truth about her real father. When Elias heard of Ibarra’s arrest, he burned all the papers that might incriminate his friend and set Ibarra’s house on fire. He then helped Ibarra escape. Both men jumped into a banca loaded with grass. Ibarra stopped by Maria Clara’s house to say goodbye. Maria Clara revealed that her real father is Padre Damaso and Ibarra forgave her for giving his letters to Padre Salvi. Ibarra and Elias continued to paddle up the Pasig River toward Laguna de Bay, but a police boat with guardia civil pursued them. Elias told Ibarra to hide under the zacate (grass) and he jumped into the water and swam swiftly toward the shore. This diverted the soldiers’ attention, thus giving Ibarra a chance to escape. The soldiers fired at Elias who was hit and sank. Thinking that it was Ibarra that they had killed, the guardia civil returned to Manila. Thus, Ibarra was able to escape. Elias, on the other hand, although seriously wounded reached the shore and staggered into the forest. He met a boy, Basilio, who was weeping over his mother’s dead body. He instructed the boy to make a pyre on which his and Sisa’s corpses were to be burned to ashes. As Basilio was preparing the funeral pyre, Elias looked toward the east and murmured: “I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it – and forget not those who have fallen during the night.” Epilogue of the Noli Me Tangere Maria Clara entered the nunnery of Santa Clara to remain loyal to her love for Ibarra. Padre Salvi left San Diego and became a chaplain of the Santa Clara nunnery. Padre Damaso was transferred to a remote province; the next day, he was found dead in his bedroom. Capitan Tiago became an opium addict. Linares, who didn’t succeed in winning Maria Clara’s love, later died of dysentery; while Dona Victorina still henpecked Don Tiburcio. Praisers and Defenders of the Noli The Filipinos adored Jose Rizal for the book Noli Me Tangere, which had reached the Islands before him and had found eager buyers. People said that all the characters in the book were real people, as in point of fact, they were. It was history written with fictitious names. Those who knew Rizal’s home well realized that he had seen or heard of the incidents which he had related, and that only the names were new. Crisostomo Ibarra, a youth who goes to Europe to study and to find out how to bless his country, is Rizal himself. His father has trouble with the friars, is thrown into prison, and dies. This is a composite of Rizal’s father and mother. Though they were still living when the book was written, hundreds of other martyred men made that part of the story true in every corner of the archipelago. Maria Clara is Ibarra’s sweetheart and fiancée, but because he has trouble with the friars, the girl’s father, Kapitan Tiago, breaks off the engagement and marries her to another man, which breaks her heart and results in her death. Maria Clara is Leonor Rivera. Tasyo, the philosopher, is Jose’s brother Paciano. The people of Calamba with sure finger pointed out all the rest of the characters: Fr. Damaso, the cruel Dominican friar, who claimed most of the land about Calamba; poverty-stricken Sisa, a victim of the unjust system, who does not have enough to eat and goes hungry while her boys have a little food; Civil Guards arresting Sisa for alleged theft—they had seen them all time and time again. The book was thousand times true. The picture of the Governor General, who requests the archbishop to cancel the excommunication, perfectly represents well-meaning Terrero, who was the Governor General when Rizal reached Manila. Indeed, as Rizal had said, every incident in the book had “actually happened.” His friend Regidor wrote from London one of scores of delighted comments on Noli Me Tangere: “I have today finished your most interesting story; and I confess frankly that I have never read anything truer or more gratifying in reference to this shame which curses our society. Who does not know Fr. Damaso? Ah, I have met him! And although in your brilliant impersonation of him in the novel you had him wearing the garb of a dirty Franciscan, always coarse, always tyrannical, always corrupt, I have met him and studied him in real life in the Philippines, at times in the white habit of the Augustinian, sometimes as a Franciscan, as you have presented him, and sometimes in the bare feet and tunic of a Recollect… Your Kapitan Tiago is inimitable, combining as he does the characters of two or three of our countrymen. Who does not find those who personify this disgraceful type, a worthy cousin to Ate Isabel. I have met them… The old man Tasyo brings to my memory two or three famous countrymen of ours, those who have fallen during the night among them the apostate Quaker, Francisco Rodriguez, and I remember others whom you and I know whom we cannot yet name. Fr. Salvi is the truest representative of the much-vaunted Filipino missionary. How many persons who pretend to know our country will claim that the noble and unfortunate Elias is a pure ideal? This type among us is well known to you and to me, because we have thought and felt and suffered with them… The good servant Don Primitivo and the wise Sibyia, picture perfectly the ancient Thomases, Josephs, and Laterans full of distinctions and Latin, which is useless for reason as well as for life… How many children of my infancy, infatuated with this supposed erudition still are living! These are really perfect types of the social life of the Archipelago, I do to know how to praise Ibarra enough. His life and misfortunes are so like my own humble history! I do not know whether anyone will dare to dispute the absolute truthfulness of this victim of despotism and colonial corruption, but if this should happen, I can point out to him historical facts… It is even better than a photograph. “Maria Clara is the sublime type of pure love, of paternal respect, of gratitude, and of sacrifice. There are unfortunate victims of the religious-colonial avarice, exiled martyrs who with slight variations can be called Lucia of Ymus, Anita of Binondo, Ysabel of Pangasinan, etc…. The fanaticism of Hermanas Terceras completes the coloring of this admirable description. “If we pass from persons to the politico-philosophical-social implications of this book, it is a perfect mirror of some, if not all, the great evils that afflict our land. You exhibit naked the cancer which most needs to be remedied… and by doing this in a humorous vein which you carry through so skillfully by relating history and anecdotes of daily occurrences, either employing irony or sarcasm, you hold the facts to ridicule and draw from the reader a cry of indignation.” “You are still a child and have already produced this red hot shot against that system! “Your devoted friend and admirer, “El Proscrito” Evaristo de Aguirre in his letter June 3, 1887 wrote: “I have read and been fascinated by it, so I congratulate you with all my heart. I am one of those who believe that it is the first work of that kind, in fact, the only one that has been written about that country, which best reflects and fully embraces the aspects and special conditions of the physiognomy of the life of our people…” (Locsin & Locsin, 1996) Ferdinand Blumentritt on March 27, 1887 wrote: “Your work, as we Germans say, has been written with the blood of the heart And so the heart also speaks…” “I knew already that you are a man of extraordinary talent (I had said it to Pardo de Tavera), and this can be seen from the marvelously short time in which you have acquired my difficult and rough mother tongue; but in spite of this, your work has exceeded my hopes and I consider myself happy to have been honored with your friendship. Not only I, but also your country, may feel happy for having you in a patriotic and loyal son. If you continue so, you will be to your people one of those great men who will exercise a determinative influence over the progress of their spiritual life. With greater impatience than ever, I now await the moment when I shall know you personally.” (Locsin & Locsin, 1996) As expected, Rizal’s enemies condemned Noli Me Tangere. It was evident when Rizal went home to the Philippines; the Noli Me Tangere was attacked furiously. Retana says the principal conclusions of Noli Me Tangere are: 1. The enlightened liberal Filipino cannot live in the Philippines because he and the friars are uncongenial. He is persecuted in every way, false conspiracies are invented to implicate him, and then he is imprisoned, exiled, or shot. 2. The country is not for us but the Spaniards, especially the friars. 3. The Civil Guard is so abusive that it makes more bandits than it captures. 4. The Spaniards in the Philippines have no high ideals, but many of them have degenerated into ruffians. 5. The Catholic religion has been employed as an instrument of domination. 6. The pure Filipinos are condemned to perpetual ignorance. 7. The woman cannot marry a Spaniard but gives herself to the friar if her parents oblige her to do so to protect themselves. 8. With the present bad government, the Filipinos cannot remain united with Spain, and with all courtesy we ask for the rights we deserve. 9. The chief cause of insurrection is desperation. When a man loses all he has, he fights. Vigilant spies carried Noli Me Tangere to the government, and the government appointed a committee from the University of Santo Tomas to examine it. The committee did a thorough job. The rector of Santo Tomas reported to the Archbishop: “In returning the copy you sent us, we have noted with a red pencil the statements against Spain, the Government, and its representatives in these Islands. With a blue or black pencil other statements, impious, heretical, scandalous, or objectionable for other reasons. All the narrative, absolutely all taken together and in its details, the important and unimportant incidents, are against doctrine, against the church, against the religious orders, and against the institutions, civil, military, social, and political, which the Government of Spain has implanted in these Islands. Noli Me Tangere of Jose Rizal, printed in Berlin, if circulated in the Philippines, would cause the gravest dangers to faith and morals, lessen or kill the love of these natives for Spain, stir up the passions of the inhabitants of the country, and cause sad days for the mother country.” A government decree followed at once, excluding the book from the Philippines, requiring a search for any copies of it that might be in the Islands, and providing that any Filipino found with Noli Me Tangere in his possession should be deported and his property confiscated and given to the person who should betray him. The decree had no effect excepting to advertise the book and to enhance the popularity of its writer. Copies were smuggled into the Islands to be read secretly. They were buried in fields at the approach of officers and dug up when the officers are gone. Even Rizal’s friends the Jesuits turned against him. When he visited the Ateneo, Padre (Federico) Faura, “knowing the change and the great wickedness which had put impiety into his soul, tried to bring him back to the right road. But in vain, for the unfortunate man with obstinate coldness, though making a great profession of being loyal to Spain, said that all discussion of religion was useless, for he had already lost the inestimable treasure of his faith. Padre Faura then said that if his beliefs were like that, he should no more set his feet within the Ateneo.” Not until some five months had passed, Rizal was called to Malacanang, the Governor’s, now Presidential palace, for an interview with Governor General Emilio Terrero, who told him that the Dominican Committee had found Noli Me Tangere very dangerous. Rizal assured Terrero that the book was innocent of the slightest slander against the government, though it did reveal some friar injustice, and asked him to read it before passing judgment. The Governor General agree to read the book and was secretly pleased at its exposure of the friars. At his next interview he was very friendly, and being solicitous for Rizal’s welfare, gave him a bodyguard, Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade, a Spaniard, who became one of Rizal’s warmest admirers and friends, and remained so to the end of his life. Partly or wholly as a result of reading Noli Me Tangere, Governor General Terrero started an investigation of the notorious inequalities in taxation which then existed. Noli Me Legere (Read me not) The Spanish were furious with Rizal’s novel. They refused to allow it to be imported into Manila. As a result only a small number of copies of Noli Me Tangere entered the Philippines. The friars, whom Rizal criticized, spoke disparagingly of the book and threatened excommunication to anyone who reads it. The government and military officials responded by beating anyone caught with the book. Aside from the small pamphlet issued by the friar Jose Rodriguez, entitled “Caingat Cayo,” warning people not to read the Noli, the censors in the Philippines, through an Augustinian priest, expressed censorship and condemnation of the Noli. The Permanent Commission on Censorship of the Philippines which read and examined very carefully the so-called Tagalog novel found the book libelous, defamatory, and full of falsehood and calumny, in which the author (Jose Rizal) reveals crass ignorance. Provided below is an excerpt from the said report of the Permanent Commission on Censorship of the Philippines. The author, nursing an ill-concealed hatred of the mother who gave him birth and steeped in the defamatory writings of envious foreigners who wish to discredit one of the greatest works of generous Spain in these Islands, and giving himself Volneyist and Voltairian airs, makes it his principal object to discredit openly and impudently all the institutions established by the Metropolis in these distant Islands. He (Rizal) attacks in a violent and wicked manner some fundamental dogmas, many truths, and pious beliefs of the state religion, the target of his fury being the religious communities and the Civil Guard, not so much for the habit the former wear and the rules they follow and the latter’s social mission, but for considering both institutions the principal impediment and insuperable of the country. According to the author, Spain has brought here nothing good, or so dearly it has cost the Islands the few rudiments of civilization that they have received that degradation and death would be a thousand times preferable to living under the despotic government of Spain. He (Rizal) considers corrupt and corrupting the courts of justice, venal the governors general, inept the administration, null the education in a country where more than seventy percent of the citizens know how to read and write, the Archipelago abandoned to its own resources, and slaves the Filipinos, whom he pretends to awaken with the cries of war and revenge evoking the memories of Cavite, in order to shake off the oppressive rule. A synthesis of the result of the analytical censure summarizes its findings into three articles whose respective titles are: 1. Attacks on the integrity of Spain (State and Religion) a. The most important part of Noli Me Tangere is that which refers to the separatist liberty and independence of the country, the point towards which all the thoughts and poisoned reflections of the author converge. b. The author takes as the chief character in his work a young man of great heart and high patriotic sentiments who was educated abroad. The father of his youth, who is named Ibarra, died wretchedly, persecuted by the Spanish authorities according to the story. c. From here on Rizal represents the Philippines as a slave tied hand and foot. The Archipelago is the victim of the Civil Guard’s violence as well as suffers from the fanaticism and despotic arbitrariness of the missionaries; it is delivered over to the greed and immorality of the courts of justice, plundered by the constituted authorities, and forgotten and abandoned by the Government of Spain. d. “The government! The government you say!” said the philosopher, raising his eyes to the ceiling. “Howsoever desirous it may be of advancing the country for its own benefit and for that of the Mother Country; howsoever one or more officials may remember the generous spirit of the Catholic kings in their hearts the government itself will not see, hear, or judge more than what the priest or the provincial makes them see, hear, or judge. Compare, if you dare, our governmental system with that of other countries you have visited…” e. “The people do not complain because they have no voice; they do not move because they are under a spell of lethargy, and still you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen how their hearts bleed. But some day you will see and hear! Unhappy those who allow themselves to be deceived and work in the night thinking that everyone sleeps! When the light of the day shines upon the deeds of the night then shall the terrible reaction follow! Such forces repressed during centuries; such poison distilled drop by drop and such stifled sighs appear in the light and explode!” f. Hatred of Spain and the frenzied desire for liberty, for independence and for revenge reach their climax in these lines. “And now I see the horrible cancer which is gnawing at this social structure, which is acquiring a firmer grip on its flesh and demands violent extirpation. They have opened my eyes, have shown me the sore and have impelled me to be a criminal! And since they wish it, I will be a filibuster, but a real filibuster; I will call all the unfortunate ones, all who feel a bleeding heart beating in their breast, those who sent you to me.” g. “I die without seeing the Day dawning on my country… You who will see it, greet it… and forget not those who fell in the Night!” 2. Attacks on the administration, the Spanish employees of the government, and the courts of justice. The author of Noli Me Tangere thinks and affirms every tie an opportunity offers that in the Philippines bribery is the rule and that every official, absolutely without exception, from the Governor General to the lowest 5th class employee, is venal and corrupt, and that equally venal and corrupt are all from the Minister of Ultramar to the lowest court functionary. All peninsular Spaniard are included in this general condemnation. In chapter 4 where the hero of the novel is talking to a Spaniard long resident in the country, the author puts in the latter’s mouth these words: a. ”We Spaniards who come to the Philippines are unfortunately not what we should be. (I say this with reference to one of your grandparents as well as to the enemies of your father.) The continuous changes, the corruption in the high positions, favoritism, the cheapness and the shortness of the voyage are to blame for everything. Here come the worst people of the Peninsula, and if a good man comes, the country soon corrupts him.” b. Talking of Kapitan Tiago, a mestizo contractor who does business with all government offices. c. He tells of a gobernadorcillo and refers to the supposed general immorality in the appointments of municipal and other officials of the state thus: “The person was an unhappy man who did not command but rather (the gobernadorcillo) obeyed. He did not scold anyone but was scolded; did not control anybody but was controlled. Rather was he responsible to the alcalde mayor for what he had been ordered, directed, and instructed to do as if everything had originated in his brain although it should be stated to his credit that he had not stolen or usurped this office. It actually cost him five thousand pesos and much humiliation, and, considering what he gets out of it, he considers the price cheap enough.’’ d. Telling of the ease with which in the Ministry and at Rome a miter can be obtained (Note by Austin Craig: that is, a Friar can get promotion to be a Bishop, then a government position as well as a Church dignitary), he says: “They give it for nothing nowadays. I know one who got it doing less than that. He wrote a little work in chabacano, a Philippine dialect of Spanish— showing that the natives have no capacity for anything except craftsmanship… Pshaw… Common old stuff!” e. The author makes the most serious charge possible against the honesty and integrity of the Governor General, supposing him to be bribed by a P1,000 ring presented to him by a Trozo mestizo in order that her family shall not be implicated in an alleged conspiracy against the sovereignty of Spain. f. There follows an animated discussion in which it is sought to prove that the administrative officials and the Government are venal and corruptible by any gift of value and for it will sell reason and justice. 3. Attacks on the Civil Guard a. According to Rizal, the meritorious Civil Guard is worse than a gang of ruffians. Its men are cruel, heartless, and without mercy, a greater calamity for the Islands than the tulisanes (robbers) themselves, those wild beasts of the forest who bring desolation and mourning to the families and pillage and burn the towns of the archipelago. The tulisan, according to the author, would be quite humane, sympathetic, and a law-abiding citizen if it were not for the Civil Guard, the foremost factor in bandolerismo (banditry) and filibusterismo (agitation for a better government). b. A mother whose two sons were being sought by the Civil Guard made excuses that she did not know where they were: “The civil guards are not people, they are just civil guards. They do not listen to prayers and are used to seeing tears shed.” c. Speaking of a festival in which they were going to be gambling, the Civil Guard is presented as back of the ruinous and prohibited games. “’The alferez has fifty pesos every night!’ whispers a small fat man in the ears of the new arrivals. ‘Kapitan Tiago will come and they will start a monte game; Kapitan Joaquin is bringing eighteen thousand pesos; there will be a game of liampo in which the Chino Carlos will be the banker with ten thousand pesos; and there are big gamblers coming from Tanauan, Lipa, and Batangas and also Santa Cruz. There’s going to be a gay time, I can tell you!” d. “’That is all they are good for!’ shouted a woman, rolling up her sleeves and shaking her arms threateningly. ‘To disturb the peace of the town! They only persecute the honest men!’’’ e. “Among the multitude there are civil guards who are not wearing the uniform of their reputed corps nor are they dressed as civilians. They are wearing a disguise which is in harmony with their conduct, consisting of guingon trousers with a red stripe, a shirt spotted with faded blue, and the regulation cap. They are betting and watching, disturbing, and speaking of preserving order.” After the analytical examination, the Commission on Censorship through Augustinian Fr. Salvador Font, concludes with the following words: “Most Excellent Sir, the undersigned, based on the text, literally copied, that he has just presented to the strict and patriotic consideration of Your Excellency, is of the opinion that the importation, reproduction, and circulation of this pernicious book should be prohibited absolutely by your authority.” “Besides attacking so directly, as Your Excellency has seen, the religion of the state, institutions, and persons respectable for their official character, the book is vitiated with foreign teachings and doctrines, and its general synthesis is to instill deep and cruel hatred of the mother country (Spain) in the minds of the submissive and loyal sons of Spain in these distant Islands, placing her behind foreign countries, especially Germany for which the author of the Noli Me Tangere seems to have pre-eminent predilection. His only objective is the absolute independence of the country, desiring to break with impious and bold hand the sacred integrity of the mother, Spain.” The Philippine monasticism cannot bear Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere despite the favorable reception it has received in the literary and political world of Spain and other countries in Europe. In the Philippines the censors wished the Noli Me Tangere (Touch me not) to be Noli Me Legere (Read me not). Despite this strong objection and condemnation, the Noli Me Tangere became a very significant book because of the impact it had upon the developing nationalistic feeling. It was an important reflection on the illustrado political mentality. The Noli Me Tangere is rich enough to build a modern nationalism. When the hero dies in Noli Me Tangere, Rizal made a serious nationalistic point. It was a literary device designed to call attention to the free thinking political attitudes that Crisostomo Ibarra possesses and how he influences the rising state of Philippine nationalism. The Noli Me Tangere is called the bridge between the Propaganda movement and the Revolution of 1896. The world had known through Rizal’s novels the conditions that the Filipino face at home. The novel inspired the indios to become more critical of the Spanish domination in the Philippines and to create a strong sense of a new democratic feeling. The Predecessors of the Noli Have you imagined a mysterious widow riding in the middle of the night to exact her revenge? This is far from reality considering the fact that the setting is Spanish era, were women are submissive and conservative in general. This is the main plot of the novel La Noba Negra written by Padre Jose Burgos, a predecessor of the Noli. Another predecessor of the Noli is the novel written by Pedro Paterno entitled Ninay. Guerrero gives this summary: The love of Loleng, an Antipolo girl, and Berto is frustrated by Don Juan Silverio. Don Juan Silverio, the rich landlord of Loleng’s parents, wants the girl for himself. Loleng and Berto run away, but Loleng dies in a cave. Exhausted by her vicissitudes, by her grave Berto made friends with a rich young man, Carlos Mabagsic. Carlos is in love with Antonina Milo, the Ninay of the title, herself an heiress. She catches the eye of Federico, Don Juan’s son, who takes advantage of a minor uprising to divorce Ninay’s father. Don Evaristo is accused of involvement in the revolt. To save her father, Ninay writes a letter compromising herself with Federico, but he is killed by Berto, who is unable to keep his promise to save Ninay’s father from execution. Berto also warns Carlos of his impending arrest, so the latter escapes on a ship that got lost in the storm. Believing Carlos and her father are dead, Ninay enters the convent. But Carlos survives and is saved by Tik, the queen of a savage bandit. Carlos remains faithful to Ninay and when Tik dies, she leaves a treasure to Carlos. Was there a parallelism between the two novels, the Noli and Ninay? Take a look. Main characters: Noli Ninay Elias Crisostomo Ibarra Kapitan Tiago Berto Carlos Don Evaristo Noli NInay Plots Ibarra is in love with Maria Clara. The father of Maria Clara is the rich Kapitan Tiago. There is a revolt. Ibarra is implicated. As a result of the revolution, Maria Clara has to execute a letter with his father, thus appearing infidel to Ibarra. Ibarra escaptes from the Spanish authority through the help of Elias riding a banca. Believing Ibarra is dead, Maria Clara enters the convent and becomes a nun. Carlos is in love with Ninay. The father of Ninay is the rich Don Evaristo. There is a revolt. Carlos is arrested. Ninay executes a letter to save her father and seemingly abandons Carlos. Carlos escapes on a shipl. Believing that Carlos is dead, Ninay enters the convent and becomes a nun. Lesson 9 EL FILIBUSTERISMO Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. appraise important characters in the novel and what they represent and 2. examine the present Philippine situation through the examples mentioned in the Noli. Synopsis El Filibusterismo is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere. In this novel, Rizal is most bitter. He no longer laughs at the situation of the Filipinos under a decadent colonial system. Instead, he shows intense bitterness and a deep hatred of the Spanish officials and of some friars who had made the plight of the Filipino people most miserable and hopeless. The hero of the novel is Simoun, a rich jeweler whose real name is Don Crisostomo Ibarra. Ibarra was able to escape while going up the Pasig River in a grass-loaded banca with Elias. Ibarra dug up his treasure and escaped in Cuba, where he became very rich and powerful. He became a friend of the highest Spanish officials. When he returned to the Philippines, he was no longer Ibarra but Simoun, and he was now the friend and adviser of the Governor General. Simoun’s supreme desire was the destruction of the Spanish reign over the Philippines. He also wished to rescue Maria Clara who was in the Santa Clara nunnery. The opening scene of El Filibusterismo is on board the steamship Tabo (the boat is going up the Pasig River). On the upper deck are the priests, Padre Sibyla, Padre Camorra, Padre Salvi, and Padre Irene. Talking with them is Dona Victorina, who is the very impersonation of aftificiality, and who is going to Laguna to look for her henpecked husband Don Tiburcio de E.spadana (he abandoned her). Padre Florentino, a Filipino retired priest, his nephew Isagani, a poet, and Basilio, son of Sisa who is now a medical student, a protégé of Capitan Tiago was also there. On the lower deck are the Chinese and the Filipinos – some of them students – and the poor passengers returning to their homes from Manila, seated on benches amidst valises, boxes, and baskets. Simoun smuggles arms into the country with the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga. He uses his wealth to corrupt the government which is already in a very precarious state to promote the oppression of the masses, to hasten the moral degradation of revolution. Simoun can move freely among the public officials and priests. Simoun explains his manner of procedure and the objectives that he pursues to young Basilio whom he meets purely by chance in the woods. Basilio remembers that it was there that Sisa’s body was buried and where the body of Elias was burned to ashes. Simoun’s attempt for an armed revolt is not carried out just before its scheduled start, for news come to Simoun that Maria Clara had died in the nunnery. Simoun feels totally frustrated and at the critical moment does not give the signal for the start of the revolt. A sub-plot of the story is about Isagani, the poet who is in love with Paulita who marries Juanito Pelaez and not him. There is Placido Penitente, a student at the University of Sto. Tomas. He is a boy from Tanauan, Batangas. In his native town, he is considered a brilliant student and a competent Latinist. But as soon as he reaches Manila, he finds out tht he is not learning as much as he would. He is unfavorably impressed by the methods of instruction. Simoun goes through a long period illness but following his days of sickness, he immediately perfects his plot to destroy the Spanish government. At the wedding banquet of Paulita Gomez and Juanito Pelaez, Simoun sends a wedding gift, a beautiful lamp which contains an explosive. It is the plan to blow up the whole house together with all the government and ecclesiastical officials gathered at the wedding banquet. Only Basilio and Simoun know about his plan. The explosion at the wedding banquet would be the signal for the simultaneous blowing up of all government buildings in Manila by the followers of Simoun. Outside, Isagani, the rejected lover, stands, sorrowfully, listening and watching his heart overflowing with grief because inside the house there is merriment and outside he is alone. At this point, Basilio tells him to leave the place in a hurry because the lighted lamp will soon explode. Isagani, completely horrified by this piece of information thinks only of the possible death of his beloved Paulita. He rushes into the house and seizes the lighted lamp and hurls it into the river where it explodes harmlessly. In this manner, Simoun’s plot to plunge the country in revolt is discovered and the officials immediately go after Simoun. The civil guards learn about his presence in the house of Padre Florentino. Simoun has taken poison. At his death bed, he confesses to Padre Florentino, revealing his true identity and his diabolical plan to use his wealth to sow the seeds of corruption and immorality throughout the country so that he might be avenged. Padre Florentino consoles the dying Simoun and tells him that God in His infinite wisdom will forgive him. Padre Florentino sees Simoun die peacefully. He takes up the chest of treasure that Simoun left and hurls it inot the depths of the sea. He said, “May nature guard you in her deep abysses among the pearls and corals of her eternal seas. When for some holy sublime purpose iceman may need you; God will, in His wisdom, draw you from the bosom of the waves. Meanwhile, there you will not work more, you will not distort justice; you will foment avarice!” There are other sub-plots in the story of El Filibusterismo. There is the case of Cabesang Tales whose daughter Juli is Basilio’s sweetheart. Cabesang Tales is an industrious and diligent farmer. The land rent that he pays to the friar-administrator has been raised several times until he feels that he is no longer able to pay. So he is dispossessed of his land in PIani. In desperation, he joins the “Tulisanes” and became known as “Matanglawin.” There is the case of Senor Pasta, the old Filipino lawyer who refuses to help his countrymen in their petition for educational reorms. There are other characters of importance like Sandoval, a Spanish student who supports the cause of the Filipino student to propagate the teaching of Spanish; Pecson, one of the Filipino students who moves for the teaching of Spanish.” The Fili, Subversive? Before Rizal left Europe, he had to edit and publish El Filibusterismo, the last chapters of which he had finished in Biarritz while still courting Nellie Bousted. Paris, being expensive, was out of the question for the printing of his second novel; and so Rizal hurried back to Brussels, and later to Ghent, in search of cheap printers. Rizal sailed from Marseilles on October 18, 1891 by a ticket courtesy of Basa. With him were 600 copies of El Filibusterismo. In his next novel, El Filibusterismo, published in 1891, Rizal continued to argue for reform. Rizal argued that the young are aware of the need to take political action and pursue social justice. Young people, Rizal maintained, create a strong sense of reform. El Filibusterismo is a book about revolution, positing it clearly as an alternative to reform efforts that lead nowhere. But in making Simoun, its principal character, fail and die, Rizal also pointed out the dangers of taking an alternative based on hate and vengeance. The age of filibustering took place after the terror of 1872, and for twenty years there was a demand for reform. Then the revolutionary society, the Katipunan, was founded to further Philippine independence. The influence of the Age of Filibustering is obvious in Rizal’s two novels. The sons of the Filipino upper class became political leaders, thereby reflecting Rizal’s beliefs that national revolution was on the horizon. These argument were aided by the fact that Jose Rizal could write with the skill of a novelist. He single-handedly created a revolutionary form of Asian fiction that was so close to the truth that it drove the Spanish to persecute Rizal and other young political visionaries. From this vantage point, Rizal argued that the Spanish needed to rethink their political, religious, and economic direction. In his novel Rizal was able to extend this criticism into new directions. In the preface to his original 1891 edition, Rizal wrote from Europe: “The specter of subversion has been used so often to frighten us that, from being a mere nursery tale, it has acquired a real and positive existence, whose mere mention makes us commit the greatest mistakes.” Rizal urged the people not to accept Spanish myths and look to themselves for an inner freedom and a national direction. El Filibusterismo was dedicated to the three friars, Don Mariano Gomez, Don Jose Burgos, and Don Jacinto Zamora who were executed on the scaffold at Bagumbayan on February 28, 1872. This massacre was an extension of the Cavite rebellion and it was a major turning point in Rizal’s life. Once he thought about the trials and execution of the friars, Rizal became a major figure in the drive for Philippine freedom. In his introduction to Rizal’s first novel Noli Me Tangere, Leon Ma. Guerrero suggests that Rizal was the first Asian nationalist to emerge from the Philippines. What sets Rizal’s novels apart from other Philippine fiction is his commitment to a sense of independent nationalism. A sense of pride and a celebration of Filipino values permeate his work. Also there was a worldwide audience for his books as they were published in Europe, read in the United States, and debated throughout Southeast Asia. In Madrid, Spain and Ghent, Belgium, Rizal’s novels had strong local sales. The Fili’s Theme Jose Rizal’s main contribution as a novelist was to expose the malevolent white colonial attitudes that permeated the world in the late 19 th century. These self-serving policies, the innate prejudices and the condescending racial attitudes of Spanish governmental and church officials enraged local Filipinos. Rizal articulated Filipino discontent and wove it into a pervasive nationalism. In El Filibusterismo, one of the subthemes is Rizal’s dissection of colonialism. He talks at length about the “civilizing mission” of Spanish officials and then he demonstrates how colonial government over three centuries degraded Philippine life. The pretentions and often arrogant attitude of local Spanish leaders is a major theme in El Filibusterismo. The characters in Rizal’s fiction ask penetrating questions and suggest that there is a strong local historical tradition that the Spanish and visiting foreigners do not understand. The Philippine society of Rizal’s time is sketched skillfully and provides insight into the local nationalistic mentality. When Rizal discusses Philippine history in his fiction, Rizal’s theme is often one of local division and fighting. The divisions among his people, Rizal argues, is what prevents them from attaining total freedom. The educated Filipino is split from the working class people. Simoun, the main character in El Filibusterismo, is an important symbol because he argues that by accepting the Spanish way of life, Philippine nationalism is in danger of being lost. There is no real sense of Philippine history, Rizal argues, and the colonial conquerors have brainwashed Filipinos into accepting European ways. Hispanization is considered detrimental to the Philippines and Rizal makes a strong case for resistance to all Spanish influences. His main argument is that the Spanish do not accept Filipinos in religious, economic or political matters and “the prejudices of the local rulers” make independence an impossible task. Rizal urges Filipinos to take matters into their own hands and create a strong nationalism. The main theme of the Fili suggests that colonialism has a divisive influence upon the Philippines. The Spaniards who continually search for self-fulfillment, prestige, and a special status bear out all the evils of the colonial mentality. The Fili demonstrates that conflicting nationalism cannot exist side by side and revolution is inevitable. Simoun’s Advocacy The arguments for a separate nationalism are put forth by Simoun when he questions the Spanish way of life and the destruction of his own national identity. “A people without a soul, a nation without freedom, everything in you will be borrowed even your own defects,” Simoun remarks. He then suggests that by resigning themselves to Spanish rule Filipinos do themselves a disservice. For the Spanish, one of the frightening aspects of El Filibusterismo was the revolutionary rhetoric and formal planning for native rule. “You ask the parity of rights, the Spanish ways of life and you do not realize that what you are asking is death, the destruction of your national identity, the disappearance of your homeland,” Simoun remarks. But in the conclusion of the Fili, Simoun is visited on his deathbed by a native priest who informs him that the revolution will fail because Filipinos are not ready for independence. Although his plans for revolution are failed ones, this dying patriot gives hope for the future. His message is that revolution and subsequent independence provide the future political direction. The Fili, Dedicated to the Three Martyrs El Filibusterismo was dedicated to the GomBurZa, who had been martyred in Rizal’s childhood. The Fili’s page reads: “Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old), executed in Bagumbayan Field, February 28, 1872… I have a right to dedicate my book to you as victims of the evil that I undertake to combat. And while we wait expectantly for Spain some day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your unknown tombs, and let it be understood that every one that without clear proof attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood.” El Filibusterismo is the passionately bitter cry of a soul in torture and baffles as to what to do. The book has little humor such as we find reliving the pages of Noli Me Tangere. The writer was in no mood to write jokes, unless they were bitter satire. Noli Me Tangere had been friendly to the government, and had denounce only certain types of friars and others. El Filibusterismo has lost faith in Spain. The two books were four years apart, and what a terrible four years they had been, and what they had done to disillusion Jose Rizal. In Praise of the Fili El Filibusterismo was read with enthusiasm by most of the Filipinos. From Barcelona came this glowing tribute signed by twelve of Rizal’s countrymen: “Distinguished Patriot: With unprecedented enthusiasm this Filipino colony of Barcelona has read your new production, the original style of which is comparable only to the sublime Alexander Dumas and may well be offered as a model and precious jewel in the decadent days of Spanish literature. “Like a new Moses, with your immortal books you have given to the Philippines the Decalogue of her political redemption and her honor before mankind. If she knew how to obey the commands, precepts, and counsels so beautifully written in your novel, then, instead of a country in abject slavery, she would soon become great, free, prosperous, and master of her destiny.” Ponce thought it “really marvelous, as are all the brilliant productions of your pen… I conceive of your book as a mighty whip which will wound the enemy in the most sensitive fiber of his heart, where he has already been rudely beaten by the Noli.” Like the Noli this new book drew every character from real life. Manuel Camus wrote from Singapore, “I want to thank you for the exactness of the type of Captain Tino of the steamship. He was my uncle!” Perhaps the best appraisal of the book among scores of flattering letters is that of loyal Graciano Lopez Jaena: “El Filibusterismo is a better novel than Noli Me Tangere in its profound ideals and sublime thoughts. I am enchanted with the whole work, which surpasses my expectations. “But you commence the novel very alluringly like Dumas and you close it harshly like Sue. “Your opening, like that of Dumas, is like a light, much light, magnificent, hopeful— joy, a smiling future, glory, immortality; but your conclusion, like Sue, kills the heart, by plunging the spirit into the nebulous abyss of desperation. “In my opinion since you had presented to the eyes of the Filipino people a sympathetic, great generous Simoun… you ought to have had him killed at the end of the novel, transformed into a hero, who prays dying in some combat, prays perishing in the flames of a great fire or struck by a thunderbolt, overwhelmed by cataclysms of a mighty earthquake; thus you would have succeeded in giving a magnificent crown to the work. “You have stopped without solving the problem. “As a political novel, your end is not a worthy climax to a work so beautiful. “As I understand you, you desired to leave with the Filipino people the responsibility for solving the problems, political and social, which have been raised in your book. But in your magnificent work you have closed the doors, the way out. I fear that our countrymen will never reach any certainty, nor guess the answer to the riddle, but will lie helpless in desperation. “It would be fitting, if, as I believe you will, you were to write a book quickly solving the problem, and so hasten the coming of the fair day of our redemption.” Such was the almost universal feeling among the friends of Rizal, that he had written a magnificent book and spoiled it with his last chapter. Today, however, in the light of the glorious way in which Rizal died, men are able to realize that in that last chapter are the noblest words he ever wrote. Indeed it is that infinitely sad closing that is most often quoted. The book was a tremendous, if painful, sermon to those of Rizal’s own countrymen, lived double-faced lives, and still expected that good would come. “Love alone realizes wonderful achievements, virtue alone can save! Pure and spotless must the victim be…” The writer of those words not turned his face across the seas towards his Calvary. His own life was to be the “magnificent crown to the work” which Jaena had said the book needed. And one life is worth a million books. Saving the Best for Last There was one other thing besides money that detained Rizal in Europe. This was the publication of his next book El Filibusterismo, the sequel to Noli Me Tangere, upon which he had been toiling for three years. “My book,” he told Basa, “is ready to go to the press. The first twenty chapters are already corrected and can be printed, and I am copying the remaining chapters. If I get money, you will surely receive it in July. I have written it with more zeal than I wrote the Noli, and though it is not as optimistic, it is at least more profound and more perfect.” Loyal Basa sent the passage order at once. He cabled to his friend: “Passage sent, bring the Noli.” Rizal’s reply to the telegram revealed how large a peso had come to seem to him: “Do not send any more telegrams on my account, for it pains me to think of spending so much money; I appreciate your kindness, but this is too much kindness, and I know how to wait patiently. “I am now bargaining with a printing shop and I do not yet know whether I will print here or in Spain, so I cannot yet bring the book there to you. In case I publish it here, I will bring it to you by the first mail boat. Not more than three chapters remain to be corrected. It is larger than the Noli. It will be finished on the 16th of this month. If anything should happen to me, I am leaving the responsibility for its publication with Antonio Luna, and also the proofreading.” At last Rizal did find a publisher in Ghent who was willing to begin the book on small partial payments. By the next boat, he wrote Basa: “I am not sailing at once, because I am now printing the second part of the Noli here, as you may see from the enclosed pages. I preferred to publish it in some way before leaving Europe, for it seemed to me a pity not to do so. For the past three months, I have not received a single centavo, so I have pawned all that I have in order to publish this book. I will continue publishing it as long as I can; and when there is nothing to pawn, I will stop and return to be at your side. ” VI. THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE Events in the Philippines somehow determined the tone, if not the theme, of some of Rizal’s essays. Calamities such as the earthquake, fire, plague, and typhoon moved Rizal to appeal to the Spanish people for assistance. For example, in 1883, he wrote, “Unfortunate Philippines” which was a plea for “charity through national subscription.” The same compassion for his people inspired him with the urgings of Marcelo H. del Pilar to write “Sa Mga Kababayang Dalaga sa Malolos” (To the Young Women of Malolos). It appears that a group of young women in Malolos had been denied permission by the parish priest to receive lessons in Spanish from a tutor whom they would pay themselves. Undaunted, the women raised petition to Governor Valeriano Weyler who gave them his permission. Sobre La Indolencia de los Filipinos, more popularly known in its English version, "On the Indolence of the Filipinos," is an exploratory essay written by Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, to explain the alleged idleness of his people during the Spanish colonization. This is the longest of Rizal’s essays. It was first published in five installments in La Solidaridad from July 15 to September 15, 1890. The articles were a thoughtful and stimulating analysis of a current topic. Rizal noted that whenever something went wrong in the archipelago, it was always blamed on the “indolence” of the Filipinos. He then proceeded to analyze the social and political conditions of the time, showing that the “indolence,” which he took to mean, “little love for work, lack of activity,” was not the cause but rather the effect of disorder and backwardness in the country. In a series of articles for "La Solidaridad," running through the issues from September, 1889, to January, 1890, Rizal wrote a four-part socio-political essay "Filipinas dentro de cien años" (Philippines, A Century Hence). The essay was written to forecast the future of the country within a hundred years. Rizal felt that it was time to remind Spain that the circumstances that ushered in the French Revolution could have a telling effect for her in the Philippines. Lesson 10 ESSAYS Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. assess Rizal’s writings; 2. appraise the value of understanding the past; and 3. frame arguments based on evidence. To the Young Women of Malolos by José Rizal When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was a common thing in the young women of our people. I brought back to my recollection and reviewed those I had known since my infancy, but there were only few who seem to come up to my ideal. There was, it is true, an abundance of girls with agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor, but there was in all an admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-called "spiritual fathers" (as if the spirit or soul had any father other than God), due to excessive kindness, modesty, or perhaps ignorance. They seemed faced plants sown and reared in darkness, having flowers without perfume and fruits without sap. However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error, and great was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I did not know Malolos nor its young women, except one called Emila [Emilia Tiongson, whom Rizal met in 1887], and her I knew by name only. Now that you have responded to our first appeal in the interest of the welfare of the people; now that you have set an example to those who, like you, long to have their eyes opened and be delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened in us and we now even dare to face adversity, because we have you for our allies and are confident of victory. No longer does the Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer will the science of all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in extreme complacency, nor will a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable panacea for all tribulations. You know that the will of God is different from that of the priest; that religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big rosarios, and grimy scapularies [religious garment showing devotion], but in a spotless conduct, firm intention and upright judgment. You also know that prudence does not consist in blindly obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of those whims, and those guilty of it are really to be blamed. The official or friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for their unjust orders, because God gave each individual reason and a will of his or her own to distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free, and nobody has a right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another your thoughts. And, why should you submit to another your thoughts, seeing that thought is noble and free? It is cowardice and erroneous to believe that saintliness consists in blind obedience and that prudence and the habit of thinking are presumptuous. Ignorance has ever been ignorance, and never prudence and honor. God, the primal source of all wisdom, does not demand that man, created in his image and likeness, allow himself to be deceived and hoodwinked, but wants us to use and let shine the light of reason with which He has so mercifully endowed us. He may be compared to the father who gave each of his sons a torch to light their way in the darkness bidding them keep its light bright and take care of it, and not put it out and trust to the light of the others, but to help and advise each other to find the right path. They would be madman were they to follow the light of another, only to come to a fall, and the father could upbraid them and say to them: "Did I not give each of you his own torch," but he cold not say so if the fall were due to the light of the torch of him who fell, as the light might have been dim and the road very bad. The deceiver is fond of using the saying that "It is presumptuous to rely on one's own judgment," but, in my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to put his judgment above that of the others and try to make it prevail over theirs. It is more presumptuous for a man to constitute himself into an idol and pretend to be in communication of thought with God; and it is more than presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his lips to God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his own enemy as an enemy of God. Of course, we should not consult our own judgment alone, but hear the opinion of others before doing what may seem most reasonable to us. The wild man from the hills, if clad in a priest's robe, remains a hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant. And, to make my argument more conclusive, just buy a priest's robe as the Franciscans wear it and put it on a carabao [domestic water buffalo], and you will be lucky if the carabao does not become lazy on account of the robe. But I will leave this subject to speak of something else. Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. What offspring will be that of a woman whose kindness of character is expressed by mumbled prayers; who knows nothing by heart but awits [hymns], novenas, and the alleged miracles; whose amusement consists in playing panguingue [a card game] or in the frequent confession of the same sins? What sons will she have but acolytes, priest's servants, or cockfighters? It is the mothers who are responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the unlimited trustfulness of their loving hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their sons Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. The mother who can only teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with blood other than that of vile slaves. A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. If her son should have a bold mind, his boldness will be deceitful and will be like the bat that cannot show itself until the ringing of vespers. They say that prudence is sanctity. But, what sanctity have they shown us? To pray and kneel a lot, kiss the hand of the priests, throw money away on churches, and believe all the friar sees fit to tell us; gossip, callous rubbing of noses. . . . As to the mites and gifts of God, is there anything in the world that does not belong to God? What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a cloth borrowed from that very master? Who is so vain, so insane that he will give alms to God and believe that the miserable thing he has given will serve to clothe the Creator of all things? Blessed be they who succor their fellow men, aid the poor and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who turn a dead ear to supplications of the poor, who only give to him who has plenty and spend their money lavishly on silver altar hangings for the thanksgiving, or in serenades and fireworks. The money ground out of the poor is bequeathed to the master so that he can provide for chains to subjugate, and hire thugs and executioners. Oh, what blindness, what lack of understanding. Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the dictates of reason, happen what may. "It is acts and not words that I want of you," said Christ. "Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven." Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is the successor of Christ to be recognized by the fact that he gives his hand to be kissed. Christ did not give the kiss of peace to the Pharisees and never gave his hand to be kissed. He did not cater to the rich and vain; He did not mention scapularies, nor did He make rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the Mass or exact payments for His prayers. Saint John did not demand a fee on the River Jordan, nor did Christ teach for gain. Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell scapularies, rosaries, bits, and other things which are nothing but schemes for making money and a detriment to the soul; because even if all the rags on earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forest into rosaries, and if the skins of all the beasts were made into belts, and if all the priests of the earth mumbled prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue or condone sin where there is no repentance. Thus, also, through cupidity and love of money, they will, for a price, revoke the numerous prohibitions such as those against eating meat, marrying close relatives, etc. You can do almost anything if you but grease their palms. Why that? Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money, nothing more nor less than a friar? The brigand who has obtained a bull of compromise can live calmly on the proceeds of his robbery, because he will be forgiven. God, then, will sit at a table where theft provides the viands? Has the Omnipotent become a pauper that He must assume the role of the excise man or gendarme? If that is the God whom the friar adores, then I turn my back upon that God. Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to influence the consciousness of man. Remember that a good mother does not resemble the mother that the friar has created; she must bring up her child to be the image of the true God, not of a blackmailing, a grasping God, but of a God who is the father of us all, who is just; who does not suck the life-blood of the poor like a vampire, nor scoffs at the agony of the sorely beset, nor makes a crooked path of the path of justice. Awaken and prepare the will of our children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clear procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must teach your children. And, seeing that life is full of thorns and thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and accustom them to danger. The people cannot expect honor nor prosperity so long as they will educate their children in a wrong way, so long as the woman who guides the child in his steps is slavish and ignorant. No good water comes from a turbid, bitter spring; no savory fruit comes from acrid seed. The duties that woman has to perform in order to deliver the people from suffering are of no little importance, but be they as they may, they will not be beyond the strength and stamina of the Filipino people. The power and good judgment of the women of the Philippines are well known, and it is because of this that she has been hoodwinked, and tied, and rendered pusillanimous, and now her enslavers rest at ease, because so long as they can keep the Filipina mother a slave, so long will they be able to make slaves of her children. The cause of the backwardness of Asia lies in the fact that there the women are ignorant, are slaves; while Europe and America are powerful because there the women are free and well-educated and endowed with lucid intellect and a strong will. We know that you lack instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your intellect, day by day, save that which is intended to dim its natural brightness; all this we know, hence our desire to bring you the light that illuminates your equals here in Europe. If that which I tell you does not provoke your anger, and if you will pay a little attention to it then, however dense the mist may be that befogs our people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it dissipated by the bright rays of the sun, which will give light, thought they be dimmed. We shall not feel any fatigue if you help us: God, too, will help to scatter the mist, because He is the God of truth: He will restore to its pristine condition the fame of the Filipina in whom we now miss only a criterion of her own, because good qualities she has enough and to spare. This is our dream; this is the desire we cherish in our hearts; to restore the honor of woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in the joys and tribulations of life. If she is a maiden, the young man should love her not only because of her beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind and loftiness of purpose, which quicken and elevate the feeble and timid and ward off all vain thoughts. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and command respect, because it is a common practice on the part of Spaniards and friars here who have returned from the Islands to speak of the Filipina as complaisant and ignorant, as if all should be thrown into the same class because of the missteps of a few, and as if women of weak character did not exist in other lands. As to purity what could the Filipina not hold up to others! Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars, talkative and fond of gossip, can hardly find time enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and insulting remarks, that a certain woman was thus; that she behaved thus at the convent and conducted herself thus with the Spaniards who on the occasion was her guest, and other things that set your teeth on edge when you think of them which, in the majority of cases, were faults due to candor, excessive kindness, meekness, or perhaps ignorance and were all the work of the defamer himself. There is a Spaniard now in high office, who has set at our table and enjoyed our hospitality in his wanderings through the Philippines and who, upon his return to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and related that on one occasion in Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, and slept at a house and the lady of the house conducted herself in such and such a manner with him; this is how he repaid the lady for her supreme hospitality! Similar insinuations are made by the friars to the chance visitor from Spain concerning their very obedient confesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by smiles and very significant winkings of the eye. In a book published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and in other friar sketches sins are related of which women accused themselves in the confessional and of which the friars made no secret in talking to their Spanish visitors seasoning them, at the best, with idiotic and shameless tales not worthy of credence. I cannot repeat here the shameless stories that a friar told Mas and to which Mas attributed no value whatever. Every time we hear or read anything of this kind, we ask each other: Are the Spanish women all cut after the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Filipinas all reprobates? I believe that if we are to balance accounts in this delicate question, perhaps, . . . But I must drop the subject because I am neither a confessor nor a Spanish traveler and have no business to take away anybody's good name. I shall let this go and speak of the duties of women instead. A people that respect women, like the Filipino people, must know the truth of the situation in order to be able to do what is expected of it. It seems an established fact that when a young student falls in love, he throws everything to the dogs -- knowledge, honor, and money, as if a girl could not do anything but sow misfortune. The bravest youth becomes a coward when he married, and the born coward becomes shameless, as if he had been waiting to get married in order to show his cowardice. The son, in order to hide his pusillanimity, remembers his mother, swallows his wrath, suffers his ears to be boxed, obeys the most foolish order, and and becomes an accomplice to his own dishonor. It should be remembered that where nobody flees there is no pursuer; when there is no little fish, there can not be a big one. Why does the girl not require of her lover a noble and honored name, a manly heart offering protection to her weakness, and a high spirit incapable of being satisfied with engendering slaves? Let her discard all fear, let her behave nobly and not deliver her youth to the weak and faint-hearted. When she is married, she must aid her husband, inspire him with courage, share his perils, refrain from causing him worry and sweeten his moments of affection, always remembering that there is no grief that a brave heart can not bear and there is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery. Open your children's eyes so that they may jealously guard their honor, love their fellowmen and their native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them they must prefer dying with honor to living in dishonor. The women of Sparta should serve you as an example should serve you as an example in this; I shall give some of their characteristics. When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she said nothing to him but this: "Return with it, or on it," which mean, come back victorious or dead, because it was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was carried home on his shield. A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and the army routed. She did not say a word, but expressed her thankfulness that her son had been saved from disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother put on mourning. One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from battle was told by one that her three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that, said the mother, but whether we have been victorious or not. We have been victorious -- answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us thank God, and she went to the temple. Once upon a time a king of theirs, who had been defeated, hid in the temple, because he feared their popular wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there and starve him to death. When they were blocking the door, the mother was the first to bring stones. These things were in accordance with the custom there, and all Greece admired the Spartan woman. Of all women -- a woman said jestingly -- only your Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural -- they replied -of all women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born to life for himself alone but for his native land. So long as this way of thinking prevailed and they had that kind of women in Sparta, no enemy was able to put his foot upon her soil, nor was there a woman in Sparta who ever saw a hostile army. I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; there are many people who do not listen to reason, but will listen only to those who wear the cassock or have gray hair or no teeth; but while it is true that the aged should be venerated, because of their travails and experience, yet the life I have lived, consecrated to the happiness of the people, adds some years, though not many of my age. I do not pretend to be looked upon as an idol or fetish and to be believed and listened to with the eyes closed, the head bowed, and the arms crossed over the breast; what I ask of all is to reflect on what I tell him, think it over and shift it carefully through the sieve of reasons. First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the part of others. Second. What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and abject fear of him who holds one in contempt. Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter. Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellowman, because he who refuses protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib in the buri is easily broken, but not so the broom made of the ribs of the palm bound together. Fifth. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her merely give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray husband, child, native land, and all. Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him deceived by others. It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one's equal, to cultivate one's intellect, and to make use of reason in all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him, who makes brutes of others, and who strives to submit to his whims all that is reasonable and just. Seventh. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider what they preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the masses, novenas, rosaries, scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc. etc; which they daily keep before your minds; ears and eyes; jostling, shouting, and coaxing; investigate whence they came and whiter they go and then compare that religion with the pure religion of Christ and see whether the pretended observance of the life of Christ does not remind you of the fat milch cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat nor through love of the animal, but for grossly mercenary motives. Let us, therefore, reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated. "May your profit be greater than the capital invested;" and I shall gladly accept the usual reward of all who dare tell your people the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with success; may you in the garden of learning gather not bitter, but choice fruit, looking well before you eat because on the surface of the globe all is deceit, and the enemy sows weeds in your seedling plot. All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot. JOSÉ RIZAL https://kwentongebabuhayrizal.blogspot.com/2013/07/to-young-women-of-malolos-full-copy.html GIRL POWER: THE WOMEN OF MALOLOS By: Quennie Ann J. Palafox When the Spaniards came into the Philippines, they brought with them their patriarchal values about women which eventually diffused into Philippine culture. The women during the Spanish period were tied to the house and their roles were confined exclusively to housekeeping and child rearing. On the other hand, there was the chivalrous idea that men should be the provider of the family and protector of the women. Women were also taught to be compliant to elders and always submissive to males. They were oriented to remain incorruptible until marriage and to focus on building skills that would make them good daughters, housewives, mothers and servants of God. Women were even barred from participating in political undertakings because it was considered a man’s work. Filipinos were familiarized to a religious and patriarchal system of education which emphasized the domestic value that women were the property of men. This infiltration of Spanish culture into Philippine norms and behavior is an evidence of feudal social relations. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a group of young women in Malolos, Bulacan participated in a peaceful movement for educational reforms. This remarkable event showed the aptitude of these women for political and social reforms. The authorities came up with educational policies that were discriminatory against women who wanted to pursue higher education. The women of Malolos struggled to disprove the principle that women are destined to be homemakers and demonstrate that women are at par with men in other fields of endeavors. The effort of the Women of Malolos is recognized as one of the most important events that contributed to the development of feminist movement in the country. This group of young women personally handed their letter of petition addressed to Governor-General Valeriano Weyler to allow them to put up a night school where they can study the Spanish language under Teodoro Sandiko. Their action received diverse reactions from the pro-friar sectors and the reformists because it was viewed as protest against the political power of the friars. The twenty young women, majority of whom were related to each other by blood or affinity, were members of the four major-Sangley clans of Malolos: the Tiongsons, the Tantocos, the Reyeses, and the Santoses. Although these women were raised by well-todo families and enjoyed a life of luxury, they opted to be educated rather than to be contented with what society expected from them. Prior to the education reform of 1863, education was left entirely in the hands of priests or curates of the parish. Since the responsibility of educating the natives belonged to the friars, its thrust was more of religious education. Students were taught to read the alphabet and syllables; and study sacred songs and music, and basic arithmetic. Education for females was not the same with males. Education was more of a privilege than a right, daughters of well-to-do families were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, religion and needlecraft, a benefit not enjoyed by daughters of Indios. Formal training beyond the primary grades was generally a male privilege. For the most part of the Spanish period, the majority of secondary and vocational schools as well as colleges were exclusively for males. The Royal Decree of 1863 made primary instruction compulsory to all native and Chinese children between the ages of seven and twelve. It ordered that opening of a primary school for boys and another for girls for each town. One important aim of the decree was to teach Spanish to the populace. Although this move was to improve the poor state of education in the country, it failed due to the meddling of the friars in the state affairs. Lack of school buildings and teachers were also pointed as major hindrances for this program to be successful. There were only few teachers who knew Spanish but they received only modest salaries. The Women of Malolos desired to learn the Spanish language because it was the language of politics and society. They found an ally in the person of Teodoro Sandiko who arrived in Malolos in 1888. Sandiko supported the aspirations of the women and offered to teach them the language but it would be done secretly. For the friars prohibited the teaching of Spanish to the natives and to the mestizos as it would lessen their influence. The government communicated directly with the friars who knew both the Spanish and the native language. To the friars, it would be better off the leave the natives and mestizos ignorant of the Spanish language so that their minds will not be penetrated by the liberal ideas since most books were written in Spanish. Gaining knowledge would make them crave for freedom and demand to human rights which were deemed a threat to Spanish rule and the power of the Church. Sandiko by that time was secretly teaching Spanish language to adults but he wanted to make it legal. He requested to the provincial governor of Bulacan sometime to grant the opening of night schools without the expense of the government. However, it was disapproved because Felipe Garcia, the friar curate of Malolos prepared a report that Sandiko’s proposal would pose a threat to the government. Although their proposal was rejected, Sandiko and the Women of Malolos remained positive that their desire to put up a night school would be approved anytime soon. After learning that the highest official of the land would visit Malolos on December 12, 1888, Sandico prepared a letter in Spanish, and requested the women to sign and present the letter to Weyler. Twenty of these women affixed their signatures to the letter. The women went to the church and presented the letter to the governor-general. The request of the women did not get the approval of the governor-general because the parish priest Fray Garcia went up against it. Although disheartened, the women did not give up. With the support of the reformist Doroteo Cortes and the Maestra Guadalupe Reyes, the women continued to lobby for the school, traveling between Malolos and Manila to convince the governor-general to allow their request. Luckily, these young women triumphed in the end in February 1889 on the conditions that the women would finance their schooling, the teacher would be Guadalupe Reyes, and, the classes held in the daytime, not at night. Although they did not get everything they asked for, the women proceeded to open their school at the house of one of their group, Rufina T. Reyes, first cousin of Elisea and Juana. The schooling however, was cut short when Sandico, was accused in late April 1889 by the Church authorities of spreading teachings against morality and of eating meat on days of abstinence during the Holy Week of 1889. On May 13, 1889, the Gobernadorcillo Castro and the Alferez Carlos Peñuelos closed down Sandico’s school of primary and secondary instruction. When Sandico left for Spain, the school where the Women of Malolos were attending had to close because of the pressure from the authorities. The school operated for only three months. The establishment of a school out of the enduring efforts of the women to be educated in Spanish was commended by several newspapers. Graciano Lopez Jaena in the column Ecos de Ultramar, praised the women because of their courage to present themselves to the governor-general, an action considered bold that time. Right after the article of Lopez Jaena was published in La Solidaridad, Marcelo H. del Pilar wrote from Barcelona to Jose Rizal in Madrid, on February 17, 1889, requesting Rizal to write them a letter in Tagalog commending the bravery of the women and with hopes that this valiant struggle against friar hegemony in the affairs of the Filipinos will enthuse all compatriots. Hence, Rizal sent del Pilar on February 22, 1889 the letter written in Tagalog for transmittal to the 20 young women of Malolos. [Note: “Sa Mga Kababayang Dalaga sa Malolos” (To The Young Women of Malolos)] The message conveyed to the young women of Malolos centered on salient points such as the denunciation of the abuse of the friars in exercising their spiritual authority bestowed upon them by the church, traits Filipino mothers must have; duties and obligations of Filipino mothers to their children, functions and errands of a wife to her husband, and guidance to young women on their choice of a lifetime partner. Rizal also expressed his philosophy of freedom and independence that he believed was the key to the emancipation of humankind from slavery, and the necessity for education as the fundamental source of liberation. In the letter, Rizal enunciated his great desire for Filipino women to enjoy the privileges in education along with men. Moreover, he appealed to women to be heedful of their rights and not to be docile towards many injustices forced upon them. Men and women are born equal. God did not create men and women to be slaves, nor did he embellish them with reason only to be blinded by others. Perhaps having experienced first hand the warmth of his mother’s love, he defined in his letter the obligations and roles of the Filipino mothers to their children. For Rizal, the youth is a flower-bed that is to bear fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. The mother must raise her children according to the image of God and orient the mind towards pleasant ideas. A mother must teach her children to prefer death with honor to life with dishonor. Mothers should inculcate the following values to their children: love of honor; sincere and firm character; clear mind; clear conduct; noble action; love for one’s fellowmen; and respect for God. Ever patriotic in his views, he warned that the country will never be free and flourishing as long as the children and the women remain ignorant. With this, the education of the children should not be limited to religious activities. He stressed obedience and reason as the highest virtues that one must possess. The school of the Women of Malolos was closed down in May 1889 but their aspirations did not end. These women served their countrymen by supporting the cause of the Revolution against Spain. Some of them became members of the National Red Cross, while others became founding members of the Malolos Committee of the Asociacion Feminista de Filipinas in 1906, a national women’s organization aimed improving the welfare of women in all classes. It can be said that the women of Malolos were the forerunners of the feminist movement in the country for championing the cause of women’s right to education and equal rights regardless of gender. References: Tiongson, Nicanor. The Women of Malolos. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Unibersity Press, 2004 Women’s Role in Philippine History: Selected Essays Second Edition. Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies University of the Philippines, 2001 https://nhcp.gov.ph/girl-power-the-women-of-malolos/ ON THE INDOLENCE OF THE FILIPINOS by Jose Rizal SUMMARY The Indolence of the Filipinos is a study of the causes why the people did not, as was said, work hard during the Spanish regime. Rizal pointed out that long before the coming of the Spaniards, the Filipinos were industrious and hardworking. The Spanish reign brought about a decline in economic activities because of certain causes: First, the establishment of the Galleon Trade cut off all previous associations of the Philippines with other countries in Asia and the Middle East. As a result, business was only conducted with Spain through Mexico. Because of this, the small businesses and handicraft industries that flourished during the pre-Spanish period gradually disappeared. Second, Spain also extinguished the natives’ love of work because of the implementation of forced labor. Because of the wars between Spain and other countries in Europe as well as the Muslims in Mindanao, the Filipinos were compelled to work in shipyards, roads, and other public works, abandoning agriculture, industry, and commerce. Third, Spain did not protect the people against foreign invaders and pirates. With no arms to defend themselves, the natives were killed, their houses burned, and their lands destroyed. As a result of this, the Filipinos were forced to become nomads, lost interest in cultivating their lands or in rebuilding the industries that were shut down, and simply became submissive to the mercy of God. Fourth, there was a crooked system of education, if it was to be considered an education. What was being taught in the schools were repetitive prayers and other things that could not be used by the students to lead the country to progress. There were no courses in Agriculture, Industry, etc., which were badly needed by the Philippines during those times. Fifth, the Spanish rulers were a bad example to despise manual labor. The officials reported to work at noon and left early, all the while doing nothing in line with their duties. The women were seen constantly followed by servants who dressed them and fanned them – personal things which they ought to have done for themselves. Sixth, gambling was established and widely propagated during those times. Almost everyday there were cockfights, and during feast days, the government officials and friars were the first to engange in all sorts of bets and gambles. Seventh, there was a crooked system of religion. The friars taught the naïve Filipinos that it was easier for a poor man to enter heaven, and so they preferred not to work and remain poor so that they could easily enter heaven after they died. Lastly, the taxes were extremely high, so much so that a huge portion of what they earned went to the government or to the friars. When the object of their labor was removed and they were exploited, they were reduced to inaction. Rizal admitted that the Filipinos did not work so hard because they were wise enough to adjust themselves to the warm, tropical climate. “An hour’s work under that burning sun, in the midst of pernicious influences springing from nature in activity, is equal to a day’s labor in a temperate climate.” ANALYSIS It is important to note that indolence in the Philippines is a chronic malady, but not a hereditary one. Truth is, before the Spaniards arrived on these lands, the natives were industriously conducting business with China, Japan, Arabia, Malaysia, and other countries in the Middle East. The reasons for this said indolence were clearly stated in the essay, and were not based only on presumptions, but were grounded on fact taken from history. Another thing that we might add that had caused this indolence, is the lack of unity among the Filipino people. In the absence of unity and oneness, the people did not have the power to fight the hostile attacks of the government and of the other forces of society. There would also be no voice, no leader, to sow progress and to cultivate it, so that it may be reaped in due time. In such a condition, the Philippines remained a country that was lifeless, dead, simply existing and not living. As Rizal stated in conclusion, “a man in the Philippines is an individual; he is not merely a citizen of a country.” It can clearly be deduced from the writing that the cause of the indolence attributed to our race is Spain: When the Filipinos wanted to study and learn, there were no schools, and if there were any, they lacked sufficient resources and did not present more useful knowledge; when the Filipinos wanted to establish their businesses, there wasn’t enough capital nor protection from the government; when the Filipinos tried to cultivate their lands and establish various industries, they were made to pay enormous taxes and were exploited by the foreign rulers. It is not only the Philippines, but also other countries, that may be called indolent, depending on the criteria upon which such a label is based. Man cannot work without resting, and if in doing so he is considered lazy, they we could say that all men are indolent. One cannot blame a country that was deprived of its dignity, to have lost its will to continue building its foundation upon the backs of its people, especially when the fruits of their labor do not so much as reach their lips. When we spend our entire lives worshipping such a cruel and inhumane society, forced upon us by aliens who do not even know our motherland, we are destined to tire after a while. We are not fools, we are not puppets who simply do as we are commanded – we are human beings, who are motivated by our will towards the accomplishment of our objectives, and who strive for the preservation of our race. When this fundamental aspect of our existence is denied of us, who can blame us if we turn idle? http://thelifeandworksofrizal.blogspot.com/2011/08/indolence-of-filipinos-summaryand.html The Philippines a Century Hence by Jose Rizal I. Following our usual custom of facing squarely the most difficult and delicate questions relating to the Philippines, without weighing the consequences that our frankness may bring upon us, we shall in the present article treat of their future. In order to read the destiny of a people, it is necessary to open the book of its past, and this, for the Philippines, may be reduced in general terms to what follows. Scarcely had they been attached to the Spanish crown than they had to sustain with their blood and the efforts of their sons the wars and ambitions of conquest of the Spanish people, and in these struggles, in that terrible crisis when a people changes its form of government, its laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs the Philippines were depopulated, impoverished and retarded—caught in their metamorphosis, without confidence in their past, without faith in their present and with no fond hope for the years to come. The former rulers who had merely endeavored to secure the fear and submission of their subjects, habituated by them to servitude, fell like leaves from a dead tree, and the people, who had no love for them nor knew what liberty was, easily changed masters, perhaps hoping to gain something by the innovation. Then began a new era for the Filipinos. They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections—they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws, in order to learn by heart other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from those inspired in their race by their]climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling-off, they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed of what was distinctively their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible: their spirit was broken and they acquiesced. Thus years and centuries rolled on. Religious shows, rites that caught the eye, songs, lights, images arrayed with gold, worship in a strange language, legends, miracles and sermons, hypnotized the already naturally superstitious spirit of the country, but did not succeed in destroying it altogether, in spite of the whole system afterwards developed and operated with unyielding tenacity. When the ethical abasement of the inhabitants had reached this stage, when they had become disheartened and disgusted with themselves, an effort was made to add the final stroke for reducing so many dormant wills and intellects to nothingness, in order to make of the individual a sort of toiler, a brute, a beast of burden, and to develop a race without mind or heart. Then the end sought was revealed, it was taken for granted, the race was insulted, an effort was made to deny it every virtue, every human characteristic, and there were even writers and priests who pushed the movement still further by trying to deny to the natives of the country not only capacity for virtue but also even the tendency to vice. Then this which they had thought would be death was sure salvation. Some dying persons are restored to health by a heroic remedy. So great endurance reached its climax with the insults, and the lethargic spirit woke to life. His sensitiveness, the chief trait of the native, was touched, and while he had had the forbearance to suffer and die under a foreign flag, he had it not when they whom he served repaid his sacrifices with insults and jests. Then he began to study himself and to realize his misfortune. Those who had not expected this result, like all despotic masters, regarded as a wrong every complaint, every protest, and punished it with death, endeavoring thus to stifle every cry of sorrow with blood, and they made mistake after mistake. The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had been awakened in only a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely and consumingly propagated, thanks to abuses and the stupid endeavors of certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments. Thus when a flame catches a garment, fear and confusion propagate it more and more, and each shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to fan it into life. Undoubtedly during all this time there were not lacking generous and noble spirits among the dominant race that tried to struggle for the rights of humanity and justice, or sordid and cowardly ones among the dominated that aided the debasement of their own country. But both were exceptions and we are speaking in general terms. Such is an outline of their past. We know their present. Now, what will their future be? Will the Philippine Islands continue to be a Spanish colony, and if so, what kind of colony? Will they become a province of Spain, with or without autonomy? And to reach this stage, what kind of sacrifices will have to be made? Will they be separated from the mother country to live independently, to fall into the hands of other nations, or to ally themselves with neighboring powers? It is impossible to reply to these questions, for to all of them both yes and no may be answered, according to the time desired to be covered. When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement! So it is that in order to deal with these questions, it is necessary to presume an unlimited period of time, and in accordance therewith try to forecast future events. II. What will become of the Philippines within a century? Will they continue to be a Spanish colony? Had this question been asked three centuries ago, when at Legazpi’s death the Malayan Filipinos began to be gradually undeceived and, finding the yoke heavy, tried in vain to shake it off, without any doubt whatsoever the reply would have been easy. To a spirit enthusiastic over the liberty of the country, to those unconquerable Kagayanes who nourished within themselves the spirit of the Magalats, to the descendants of the heroic Gat Pulintang and Gat Salakab of the Province of Batangas, independence was assured, it was merely a question of getting together and making a determined effort. But for him who, disillusioned by sad experience, saw everywhere discord and disorder, apathy and brutalization in the lower classes, discouragement and disunion in the upper, only one answer presented itself, and it was: extend his hands to the chains, bow his neck beneath the yoke and accept the future with the resignation of an invalid who watches the leaves fall and foresees a long winter amid whose snows he discerns the outlines of his grave. At that time discord justified pessimism—but three centuries passed, the neck had become accustomed to the yoke, and each new generation, begotten in chains, was constantly better adapted to the new order of things. Now, then, are the Philippines in the same condition they were three centuries ago? For the liberal Spaniards the ethical condition of the people remains the same, that is, the native Filipinos have not advanced; for the friars and their followers the people have been redeemed from savagery, that is, they have progressed; for many Filipinos ethics, spirit and customs have decayed, as decay all the good qualities of a people that falls into slavery that is, they have retrograded. Laying aside these considerations, so as not to get away from our subject, let us draw a brief parallel between the political situation then and the situation at present, in order to see if what was not possible at that time can be so now, or vice versa. Let us pass over the loyalty the Filipinos may feel for Spain; let us suppose for a moment, along with Spanish writers, that there exist only motives for hatred and jealousy between the two races; let us admit the assertions flaunted by many that three centuries of domination have not awakened in the sensitive heart of the native a single spark of affection or gratitude; and we may see whether or not the Spanish cause has gained ground in the Islands. Formerly the Spanish authority was upheld among the natives by a handful of soldiers, three to five hundred at most, many of whom were engaged in trade and were scattered about not only in the Islands but also among the neighboring nations, occupied in long wars against the Mohammedans in the south, against the British and Dutch, and ceaselessly harassed by Japanese, Chinese, or some tribe in the interior. Then communication with Mexico and Spain was slow, rare and difficult; frequent and violent the disturbances among the ruling powers in the Islands, the treasury nearly always empty, and the life of the colonists dependent upon one frail ship that handled the Chinese trade. Then the seas in those regions were infested with pirates, all enemies of the Spanish name, which was defended by an improvised fleet, generally manned by rude adventurers, when not by foreigners and enemies, as happened in the expedition of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, which was checked and frustrated by the mutiny of the Chinese rowers, who killed him and thwarted all his plans and schemes. Yet in spite of so many adverse circumstances the Spanish authority has been upheld for more than three centuries and, though it has been curtailed, still continues to rule the destinies of the Philippine group. On the other hand, the present situation seems to be gilded and rosy—as we might say, a beautiful morning compared to the vexed and stormy night of the past. The material forces at the disposal of the Spanish sovereign have now been trebled; the fleet relatively improved; there is more organization in both civil and military affairs; communication with the sovereign country is swifter and surer; she has no enemies abroad; her possession is assured; and the country dominated seems to have less spirit, less aspiration for independence, a word that is to it almost incomprehensible. Everything then at first glance presages another three centuries, at least, of peaceful domination and tranquil suzerainty. But above the material considerations are arising others, invisible, of an ethical nature, far more powerful and transcendental. Orientals, and the Malays in particular, are a sensitive people: delicacy of sentiment is predominant with them. Even now, in spite of contact with the occidental nations, who have ideals different from his, we see the Malayan Filipino sacrifice everything—liberty, ease, welfare, name, for the sake of an aspiration or a conceit, sometimes scientific, or of some other nature, but at the least word which wounds his self-love he forgets all his sacrifices, the labor expended, to treasure in his memory and never forget the slight he thinks he has received. So the Philippine peoples have remained faithful during three centuries, giving up their liberty and their independence, sometimes dazzled by the hope of the Paradise promised, sometimes cajoled by the friendship offered them by a noble and generous people like the Spanish, sometimes also compelled by superiority of arms of which they were ignorant and which timid spirits invested with a mysterious character, or sometimes because the invading foreigner took advantage of intestine feuds to step in as the peacemaker in discord and thus later to dominate both parties and subject them to his authority. Spanish domination once established, it was firmly maintained, thanks to the attachment of the people, to their mutual dissensions, and to the fact that the sensitive self-love of the native had not yet been wounded. Then the people saw their own countrymen in the higher ranks of the army, their general officers fighting beside the heroes of Spain and sharing their laurels, begrudged neither character, reputation nor consideration; then fidelity and attachment to Spain, love of the fatherland, made of the native, encomendero1 and even general, as during the English invasion; then there had not yet been invented the insulting and ridiculous epithets with which recently the most laborious and painful achievements of the native leaders have been stigmatized; not then had it become the fashion to insult and slander in stereotyped phrase, in newspapers and books published with governmental and superior ecclesiastical approval, the people that paid, fought and poured out its blood for the Spanish name, nor was it considered either noble or witty to offend a whole race, which was forbidden to reply or defend itself; and if there were religious hypochondriacs who in the leisure of their cloisters dared to write against it, as did the Augustinian Gaspar de San Agustin and the Jesuit Velarde, their loathsome abortions never saw the light, and still less were they themselves rewarded with miters and raised to high offices. True it is that neither were the natives of that time such as we are now: three centuries of brutalization and obscurantism have necessarily had some influence upon us, the most beautiful work of divinity in the hands of certain artisans may finally be converted into a caricature. The priests of that epoch, wishing to establish their domination over the people, got in touch with it and made common cause with it against the oppressive encomenderos. Naturally, the people saw in them greater learning and some prestige and placed its confidence in them, followed their advice, and listened to them even in the darkest hours. If they wrote, they did so in defense of the rights of the native and made his cry reach even to the distant steps of the Throne. And not a few priests, both secular and regular, undertook dangerous journeys, as representatives of the country, and this, along with the strict and public residencia then required of the governing powers, from the captaingeneral to the most insignificant official, rather consoled and pacified the wounded spirits, satisfying, even though it were only in form, all the malcontents. All this has passed away. The derisive laughter penetrates like mortal poison into the heart of the native who pays and suffers and it becomes more offensive the more immunity it enjoys. A common sore, the general affront offered to a whole race, has wiped away the old feuds among different provinces. The people no longer has confidence in its former protectors, now its exploiters and executioners. The masks have fallen. It has seen that the love and piety of the past have come to resemble the devotion of a nurse who, unable to live elsewhere, desires eternal infancy, eternal weakness, for the child in order to go on drawing her wages and existing at its expense; it has seen not only that she does not nourish it to make it grow but that she poisons it to stunt its growth, and at the slightest protest she flies into a rage! The ancient show of justice, the holy residencia, has disappeared; confusion of ideas begins to prevail; the regard shown for a governor-general, like La Torre, becomes a crime in the government of his successor, sufficient to cause the citizen to lose his liberty and his home; if he obey the order of one official, as in the recent matter of admitting corpses into the church, it is enough to have the obedient subject later harassed and persecuted in every possible way; obligations and taxes increase without thereby increasing rights, privileges and liberties or assuring the few in existence; a régime of continual terror and uncertainty disturbs the minds, a régime worse than a period of disorder, for the fears that the imagination conjures up are generally greater than the reality; the country is poor; the financial crisis through which it is passing is acute, and every one points out with the finger the persons who are causing the trouble, yet no one dares lay hands upon them! True it is that the Penal Code has come like a drop of balm to such bitterness.3 But of what use are all the codes in the world, if by means of confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished without a hearing, without a trial? Of what use is that Penal Code, of what use is life, if there is no security in the home, no faith in justice and confidence in tranquility of conscience? Of what use is all that array of terms, all that collection of articles, when the cowardly accusation of a traitor has more influence in the timorous ears of the supreme autocrat than all the cries for justice? If this state of affairs should continue, what will become of the Philippines within a century? The batteries are gradually becoming charged and if the prudence of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, some day the spark will be generated. This is not the place to speak of what outcome such a deplorable conflict might have, for it depends upon chance, upon the weapons and upon a thousand circumstances which man can not foresee. But even though all the advantage should be on the government’s side and therefore the probability of success, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, and no government ought to desire such. If those who guide the destinies of the Philippines remain obstinate, and instead of introducing reforms try to make the condition of the country retrograde, to push their severity and repression to extremes against the classes that suffer and think, they are going to force the latter to venture and put into play the wretchedness of an unquiet life, filled with privation and bitterness, against the hope of securing something indefinite. What would be lost in the struggle? Almost nothing: the life of the numerous discontented classes has no such great attraction that it should be preferred to a glorious death. It may indeed be a suicidal attempt—but then, what? Would not a bloody chasm yawn between victors and vanquished, and might not the latter with time and experience become equal in strength, since they are superior in numbers, to their dominators? Who disputes this? All the petty insurrections that have occurred in the Philippines were the work of a few fanatics or discontented soldiers, who had to deceive and humbug the people or avail themselves of their power over their subordinates to gain their ends. So they all failed. No insurrection had a popular character or was based on a need of the whole race or fought for human rights or justice, so it left no ineffaceable impressions, but rather when they saw that they had been duped the people bound up their wounds and applauded the overthrow of the disturbers of their peace! But what if the movement springs from the people themselves and bases its cause upon their woes? So then, if the prudence and wise reforms of our ministers do not find capable and determined interpreters among the colonial governors and faithful perpetuators among those whom the frequent political changes send to fill such a delicate post; if met with the eternal it is out of order, proffered by the elements who see their livelihood in the backwardness of their subjects; if just claims are to go unheeded, as being of a subversive tendency; if the country is denied representation in the Cortes and an authorized voice to cry out against all kinds of abuses, which escape through the complexity of the laws; if, in short, the system, prolific in results of alienating the good will of the natives, is to continue, pricking his apathetic mind with insults and charges of ingratitude, we can assert that in a few years the present state of affairs will have been modified completely—and inevitably. There now exists a factor which was formerly lacking—the spirit of the nation has been aroused, and a common misfortune, a common debasement, has united all the inhabitants of the Islands. A numerous enlightened class now exists within and without the Islands, a class created and continually augmented by the stupidity of certain governing powers, which forces the inhabitants to leave the country, to secure education abroad, and it is maintained and struggles thanks to the provocations and the system of espionage in vogue. This class, whose number is cumulatively increasing, is in constant communication with the rest of the Islands, and if today it constitutes only the brain of the country in a few years it will form the whole nervous system and manifest its existence in all its acts. Now, statecraft has various means at its disposal for checking a people on the road to progress: the brutalization of the masses through a caste addicted to the government, aristocratic, as in the Dutch colonies, or theocratic, as in the Philippines; the impoverishment of the country; the gradual extermination of the inhabitants; and the fostering of feuds among the races. Brutalization of the Malayan Filipino has been demonstrated to be impossible. In spite of the dark horde of friars, in whose hands rests the instruction of youth, which miserably wastes years and years in the colleges, issuing therefrom tired, weary and disgusted with books; in spite of the censorship, which tries to close every avenue to progress; in spite of all the pulpits, confessionals, books and missals that inculcate hatred toward not only all scientific knowledge but even toward the Spanish language itself; in spite of this whole elaborate system perfected and tenaciously operated by those who wish to keep the Islands in holy ignorance, there exist writers, freethinkers, historians, philosophers, chemists, physicians, artists and jurists. Enlightenment is spreading and the persecution it suffers quickens it. No, the divine flame of thought is inextinguishable in the Filipino people and somehow or other it will shine forth and compel recognition. It is impossible to brutalize the inhabitants of the Philippines! May poverty arrest their development? Perhaps, but it is a very dangerous means. Experience has everywhere shown us and especially in the Philippines, that the classes which are better off have always been addicted to peace and order, because they live comparatively better and may be the losers in civil disturbances. Wealth brings with it refinement, the spirit of conservation, while poverty inspires adventurous ideas, the desire to change things, and has little care for life. Machiavelli himself held this means of subjecting a people to be perilous, observing that loss of welfare stirs up more obdurate enemies than loss of life. Moreover, when there are wealth and abundance, there is less discontent, less complaint, and the government, itself wealthier, has more means for sustaining itself. On the other hand, there occurs in a poor country what happens in a house where bread is wanting. And further, of what use to the mother country would a poor and lean colony be? Neither is it possible gradually to exterminate the inhabitants. The Philippine races, like all the Malays, do not succumb before the foreigner, like the Australians, the Polynesians and the Indians of the New World. In spite of the numerous wars the Filipinos have had to carry on, in spite of the epidemics that have periodically visited them, their number has trebled, as has that of the Malays of Java and the Moluccas. The Filipino embraces civilization and lives and thrives in every clime, in contact with every people. Rum, that poison which exterminated the natives of the Pacific islands, has no power in the Philippines, but, rather, comparison of their present condition with that described by the early historians, makes it appear that the Filipinos have grown soberer. The petty wars with the inhabitants of the South consume only the soldiers, people who by their fidelity to the Spanish flag, far from being a menace, are surely one of its solidest supports. There remains the fostering of intestine feuds among the provinces. This was formerly possible, when communication from one island to another was rare and difficult, when there were no steamers or telegraph-lines, when the regiments were formed according to the various provinces, when some provinces were cajoled by awards of privileges and honors and others were protected from the strongest. But now that the privileges have disappeared, that through a spirit of distrust the regiments have been reorganized, that the inhabitants move from one island to another, communication and exchange of impressions naturally increase, and as all see themselves threatened by the same peril and wounded in the same feelings, they clasp hands and make common cause. It is true that the union is not yet wholly perfected, but to this end tend the measures of good government, the vexations to which the townspeople are subjected, the frequent changes of officials, the scarcity of centers of learning, which forces the youth of all the Islands to come together and begin to get acquainted. The journeys to Europe contribute not a little to tighten the bonds, for abroad the inhabitants of the most widely separated provinces are impressed by their patriotic feelings, from sailors even to the wealthiest merchants, and at the sight of modern liberty and the memory of the misfortunes of their country, they embrace and call one another brothers. In short, then, the advancement and ethical progress of the Philippines are inevitable, are decreed by fate. The Islands cannot remain in the condition they are without requiring from the sovereign country more liberty Mutatis mutandis. For new men, a new social order. To wish that the alleged child remain in its swaddling-clothes is to risk that it may turn against its nurse and flee, tearing away the old rags that bind it. The Philippines, then, will remain under Spanish domination, but with more law and greater liberty, or they will declare themselves independent, after steeping themselves and the mother country in blood. As no one should desire or hope for such an unfortunate rupture, which would be an evil for all and only the final argument in the most desperate predicament, let us see by what forms of peaceful evolution the Islands may remain subjected to the Spanish authority with the very least detriment to the rights, interests and dignity of both parties. III. If the Philippines must remain under the control of Spain, they will necessarily have to be transformed in a political sense, for the course of their history and the needs of their inhabitants so require. This we demonstrated in the preceding article. We also said that this transformation will be violent and fatal if it proceeds from the ranks of the people, but peaceful and fruitful if it emanate from the upper classes. Some governors have realized this truth, and, impelled by their patriotism, have been trying to introduce needed reforms in order to forestall events. But notwithstanding all that have been ordered up to the present time, they have produced scanty results, for the government as well as for the country. Even those that promised only a happy issue have at times caused injury, for the simple reason that they have been based upon unstable grounds. We said, and once more we repeat, and will ever assert, that reforms which have a palliative character are not only ineffectual but even prejudicial, when the government is confronted with evils that must be cured radically. And were we not convinced of the honesty and rectitude of some governors, we would be tempted to say that all the partial reforms are only plasters and salves of a physician who, not knowing how to cure the cancer, and not daring to root it out, tries in this way to alleviate the patient’s sufferings or to temporize with the cowardice of the timid and ignorant. All the reforms of our liberal ministers were, have been, are, and will be good—when carried out. When we think of them, we are reminded of the dieting of Sancho Panza in his Barataria Island. He took his seat at a sumptuous and well-appointed table “covered with fruit and many varieties of food differently prepared,” but between the wretch’s mouth and each dish the physician Pedro Rezio interposed his wand, saying, “Take it away!” The dish removed, Sancho was as hungry as ever. True it is that the despotic Pedro Rezio gave reasons, which seem to have been written by Cervantes especially for the colonial administrations: “You must not eat, Mr. Governor, except according to the usage and custom of other islands where there are governors.” Something was found to be wrong with each dish: one was too hot, another too moist, and so on, just like our Pedro Rezios on both sides of the sea. Great good did his cook’s skill do Sancho! In the case of our country, the reforms take the place of the dishes, the Philippines are Sancho, while the part of the quack physician is played by many persons, interested in not having the dishes touched, perhaps that they may themselves get the benefit of them. The result is that the long-suffering Sancho, or the Philippines, misses his liberty, rejects all government and ends up by rebelling against his quack physician. In like manner, so long as the Philippines have no liberty of the press, have no voice in the Cortes to make known to the government and to the nation whether or not their decrees have been duly obeyed, whether or not these benefit the country, all the able efforts of the colonial ministers will meet the fate of the dishes in Barataria island. The minister, then, who wants his reforms to be reforms, must begin by declaring the press in the Philippines free and by instituting Filipino delegates. The press is free in the Philippines, because their complaints rarely ever reach the Peninsula, very rarely, and if they do they are so secret, so mysterious, that no newspaper dares to publish them, or if it does reproduce them, it does so tardily and badly. A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that has the most need for a free press, more so even than the government of the home country, if it wishes to rule rightly and fitly. The government that governs in a country may even dispense with the press (if it can), because it is on the ground, because it has eyes and ears, and because it directly observes what it rules and administers. But the government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh and estimate them better, and this need increases when a country like the Philippines is concerned, where the inhabitants speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities. To govern in any other way may also be called governing, but it is to govern badly. It amounts to pronouncing judgment after hearing only one of the parties; it is steering a ship without reckoning its conditions, the state of the sea, the reefs and shoals, the direction of the winds and currents. It is managing a house by endeavoring merely to give it polish and a fine appearance without watching the money-chest, without looking after the servants and the members of the family. But routine is a declivity down which many governments slide, and routine says that freedom of the press is dangerous. Let us see what History says: uprisings and revolutions have always occurred in countries tyrannized over, in countries where human thought and the human heart have been forced to remain silent. If the great Napoleon had not tyrannized over the press, perhaps it would have warned him of the peril into which he was hurled and have made him understand that the people were weary and the earth wanted peace. Perhaps his genius, instead of being dissipated in foreign aggrandizement, would have become intensive in laboring to strengthen his position and thus have assured it. Spain herself records in her history more revolutions when the press was gagged. What colonies have become independent while they have had a free press and enjoyed liberty? Is it preferable to govern blindly or to govern with ample knowledge? Some one will answer that in colonies with a free press, the prestige of the rulers, that prop of false governments, will be greatly imperiled. We answer that the prestige of the nation is preferable to that of a few individuals. A nation acquires respect, not by abetting and concealing abuses, but by rebuking and punishing them. Moreover, to this prestige is applicable what Napoleon said about great men and their valets. We, who endure and know all the false pretensions and petty persecutions of those sham gods, do not need a free press in order to recognize them; they have long ago lost their prestige. The free press is needed by the government, the government which still dreams of the prestige which it builds upon mined ground. We say the same about the Filipino representatives. What risks does the government see in them? One of three things: either that they will prove unruly, become political trimmers, or act properly. Supposing that we should yield to the most absurd pessimism and admit the insult, great for the Philippines, but still greater for Spain, that all the representatives would be separatists and that in all their contentions they would advocate separatist ideas: does not a patriotic Spanish majority exist there, is there not present there the vigilance of the governing powers to combat and oppose such intentions? And would not this be better than the discontent that ferments and expands in the secrecy of the home, in the huts and in the fields? Certainly the Spanish people does not spare its blood where patriotism is concerned, but would not a struggle of principles in parliament be preferable to the exchange of shot in swampy lands, three thousand leagues from home, in impenetrable forests, under a burning sun or amid torrential rains? These pacific struggles of ideas, besides being a thermometer for the government, have the advantage of being cheap and glorious, because the Spanish parliament especially abounds in oratorical paladins, invincible in debate. Moreover, it is said that the Filipinos are indolent and peaceful—then what need the government fear? Hasn’t it any influence in the elections? Frankly, it is a great compliment to the separatists to fear them in the midst of the Cortes of the nation. If they become political trimmers, as is to be expected and as they probably will be, so much the better for the government and so much the worse for their constituents. They would be a few more favorable votes, and the government could laugh openly at the separatists, if any there be. If they become what they should be, worthy, honest and faithful to their trust, they will undoubtedly annoy an ignorant or incapable minister with their questions, but they will help him to govern and will be some more honorable figures among the representatives of the nation. Now then, if the real objection to the Filipino delegates is that they smell like Igorots, which so disturbed in open Senate the doughty General Salamanca, then Don Sinibaldo de Mas, who saw the Igorots in person and wanted to live with them, can affirm that they will smell at worst like powder, and Señor Salamanca undoubtedly has no fear of that odor. And if this were all, the Filipinos, who there in their own country are accustomed to bathe every day, when they become representatives may give up such a dirty custom, at least during the legislative session, so as not to offend the delicate nostrils of the Salamancas with the odor of the bath. It is useless to answer certain objections of some fine writers regarding the rather brown skins and faces with somewhat wide nostrils. Questions of taste are peculiar to each race. China, for example, which has four hundred million inhabitants and a very ancient civilization, considers all Europeans ugly and calls them “fan-kwai,” or red devils. Its taste has a hundred million more adherents than the European. Moreover, if this is the question, we would have to admit the inferiority of the Latins, especially the Spaniards, to the Saxons, who are much whiter. And so long as it is not asserted that the Spanish parliament is an assemblage of Adonises, Antinouses, pretty boys, and other like paragons; so long as the purpose of resorting thither is to legislate and not to philosophize or to wander through imaginary spheres, we maintain that the government ought not to pause at these objections. Law has no skin, nor reason nostrils. So we see no serious reason why the Philippines may not have representatives. By their institution many malcontents would be silenced, and instead of blaming its troubles upon the government, as now happens, the country would bear them better, for it could at least complain and with its sons among its legislators would in a way become responsible for their actions. We are not sure that we serve the true interests of our country by asking for representatives. We know that the lack of enlightenment, the indolence, the egotism of our fellow countrymen, and the boldness, the cunning and the powerful methods of those who wish their obscurantism, may convert reform into a harmful instrument. But we wish to be loyal to the government and we are pointing out to it the road that appears best to us so that its efforts may not come to grief, so that discontent may disappear. If after so just, as well as necessary, a measure has been introduced, the Filipino people are so stupid and weak that they are treacherous to their own interests, then let the responsibility fall upon them, let them suffer all the consequences. Every country gets the fate it deserves, and the government can say that it has done its duty. These are the two fundamental reforms, which, properly interpreted and applied, will dissipate all clouds, assure affection toward Spain, and make all succeeding reforms fruitful. These are the reforms sine quibus non. It is puerile to fear that independence may come through them. The free press will keep the government in touch with public opinion, and the representatives, if they are, as they ought to be, the best from among the sons of the Philippines, will be their hostages. With no cause for discontent, how then attempt to stir up the masses of the people? Likewise inadmissible is the objection offered by some regarding the imperfect culture of the majority of the inhabitants. Aside from the fact that it is not so imperfect as is averred, there is no plausible reason why the ignorant and the defective (whether through their own or another’s fault) should be denied representation to look after them and see that they are not abused. They are the very ones who most need it. No one ceases to be a man, no one forfeits his rights to civilization merely by being more or less uncultured, and since the Filipino is regarded as a fit citizen when he is asked to pay taxes or shed his blood to defend the fatherland, why must this fitness be denied him when the question arises of granting him some right? Moreover, how is he to be held responsible for his ignorance, when it is acknowledged by all, friends and enemies, that his zeal for learning is so great that even before the coming of the Spaniards every one could read and write, and that we now see the humblest families make enormous sacrifices in order that their children may become a little enlightened, even to the extent of working as servants in order to learn Spanish? How can the country be expected to become enlightened under present conditions when we see all the decrees issued by the government in favor of education meet with Pedro Rezios who prevent execution thereof, because they have in their hands what they call education? If the Filipino, then, is sufficiently intelligent to pay taxes, he must also be able to choose and retain the one who looks after him and his interests, with the product whereof he serves the government of his nation. To reason otherwise is to reason stupidly. When the laws and the acts of officials are kept under surveillance, the word justice may cease to be a colonial jest. The thing that makes the English most respected in their possessions is their strict and speedy justice, so that the inhabitants repose entire confidence in the judges. Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest. Offices and trusts should be awarded by competition, publishing the work and the judgment thereon, so that there may be stimulus and that discontent may not be bred. Then, if the native does not shake off his indolence he can not complain when he sees all the offices filled by Castilas. We presume that it will not be the Spaniard who fears to enter into this contest, for thus will he be able to prove his superiority by the superiority of intelligence. Although this is not the custom in the sovereign country, it should be practiced in the colonies, for the reason that genuine prestige should be sought by means of moral qualities, because the colonizers ought to be, or at least to seem, upright, honest and intelligent, just as a man simulates virtues when he deals with strangers. The offices and trusts so earned will do away with arbitrary dismissal and develop employees and officials capable and cognizant of their duties. The offices held by natives, instead of endangering the Spanish domination, will merely serve to assure it, for what interest would they have in converting the sure and stable into the uncertain and problematical? The native is, moreover, very fond of peace and prefers an humble present to a brilliant future. Let the various Filipinos still holding office speak in this matter; they are the most unshaken conservatives. We could add other minor reforms touching commerce, agriculture, security of the individual and of property, education, and so on, but these are points with which we shall deal in other articles. For the present we are satisfied with the outlines, and no one can say that we ask too much. There will not be lacking critics to accuse us of Utopianism: but what is Utopia? Utopia was a country imagined by Thomas Moore, wherein existed universal suffrage, religious toleration, almost complete abolition of the death penalty, and so on. When the book was published these things were looked upon as dreams, impossibilities, that is, Utopianism. Yet civilization has left the country of Utopia far behind, the human will and conscience have worked greater miracles, have abolished slavery and the death penalty for adultery—things impossible for even Utopia itself! The French colonies have their representatives. The question has also been raised in the English parliament of giving representation to the Crown colonies, for the others already enjoy some autonomy. The press there also is free. Only Spain, which in the sixteenth century was the model nation in civilization, lags far behind. Cuba and Porto Rico, whose inhabitants do not number a third of those of the Philippines, and who have not made such sacrifices for Spain, have numerous representatives. The Philippines in the early days had theirs, who conferred with the King and the Pope on the needs of the country. They had them in Spain’s critical moments, when she groaned under the Napoleonic yoke, and they did not take advantage of the sovereign country’s misfortune like other colonies, but tightened more firmly the bonds that united them to the nation, giving proofs of their loyalty; and they continued until many years later. What crime have the Islands committed that they are deprived of their rights? To recapitulate: the Philippines will remain Spanish, if they enter upon the life of law and civilization, if the rights of their inhabitants are respected, if the other rights due them are granted, if the liberal policy of the government is carried out without trickery or meanness, without subterfuges or false interpretations. Otherwise, if an attempt is made to see in the Islands a lode to be exploited, a resource to satisfy ambitions, thus to relieve the sovereign country of taxes, killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and shutting its ears to all cries of reason, then, however great may be the loyalty of the Filipinos, it will be impossible to hinder the operations of the inexorable laws of history. Colonies established to subserve the policy and the commerce of the sovereign country, all eventually become independent, said Bachelet, and before Bachelet all the Phœnecian, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, English, Portuguese and Spanish colonies had said it. Close indeed are the bonds that unite us to Spain. Two peoples do not live for three centuries in continual contact, sharing the same lot, shedding their blood on the same fields, holding the same beliefs, worshipping the same God, interchanging the same ideas, but that ties are formed between them stronger than those fashioned by arms or fear. Mutual sacrifices and benefits have engendered affection. Machiavelli, the great reader of the human heart, said: la natura degli huomini, é cosi obligarsi per li beneficii che essi fanno, come per quelli che essi ricevono (it is human nature to be bound as much by benefits conferred as by those received). All this, and more, is true, but it is pure sentimentality, and in the arena of politics stern necessity and interests prevail. Howsoever much the Filipinos owe Spain, they can not be required to forego their redemption, to have their liberal and enlightened sons wander about in exile from their native land, the rudest aspirations stifled in its atmosphere, the peaceful inhabitant living in constant alarm, with the fortune of the two peoples dependent upon the whim of one man. Spain can not claim, not even in the name of God himself, that six millions of people should be brutalized, exploited and oppressed, denied light and the rights inherent to a human being, and then heap upon them slights and insults. There is no claim of gratitude that can excuse, there is not enough powder in the world to justify, the offenses against the liberty of the individual, against the sanctity of the home, against the laws, against peace and honor, offenses that are committed there daily. There is no divinity that can proclaim the sacrifice of our dearest affections, the sacrifice of the family, the sacrileges and wrongs that are committed by persons who have the name of God on their lips. No one can require an impossibility of the Filipino people. The noble Spanish people, so jealous of its rights and liberties, can not bid the Filipinos renounce theirs. A people that prides itself on the glories of its past can not ask another, trained by it, to accept abjection and dishonor its own name! We who today are struggling by the legal and peaceful means of debate so understand it, and with our gaze fixed upon our ideals, shall not cease to plead our cause, without going beyond the pale of the law, but if violence first silences us or we have the misfortune to fall (which is possible, for we are mortal), then we do not know what course will be taken by the numerous tendencies that will rush in to occupy the places that we leave vacant. If what we desire is not realized.... In contemplating such an unfortunate eventuality, we must not turn away in horror, and so instead of closing our eyes we will face what the future may bring. For this purpose, after throwing the handful of dust due to Cerberus, let us frankly descend into the abyss and sound its terrible mysteries. IV. History does not record in its annals any lasting domination exercised by one people over another, of different race, of diverse usages and customs, of opposite and divergent ideals. One of the two had to yield and succumb. Either the foreigner was driven out, as happened in the case of the Carthaginians, the Moors and the French in Spain, or else these autochthons had to give way and perish, as was the case with the inhabitants of the New World, Australia and New Zealand. One of the longest dominations was that of the Moors in Spain, which lasted seven centuries. But, even though the conquerors lived in the country conquered, even though the Peninsula was broken up into small states, which gradually emerged like little islands in the midst of the great Saracen inundation, and in spite of the chivalrous spirit, the gallantry and the religious toleration of the califs, they were finally driven out after bloody and stubborn conflicts, which formed the Spanish nation and created the Spain of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The existence of a foreign body within another endowed with strength and activity is contrary to all natural and ethical laws. Science teaches us that it is either assimilated, destroys the organism, is eliminated or becomes encysted. Encystment of a conquering people is impossible, for it signifies complete isolation, absolute inertia, debility in the conquering element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign invader. Now, applying these considerations to the Philippines, we must conclude, as a deduction from all we have said, that if their population be not assimilated to the Spanish nation, if the dominators do not enter into the spirit of their inhabitants, if equable laws and free and liberal reforms do not make each forget that they belong to different races, or if both peoples be not amalgamated to constitute one mass, socially and politically homogeneous, that is, not harassed by opposing tendencies and antagonistic ideas and interests, some day the Philippines will fatally and infallibly declare themselves independent. To this law of destiny can be opposed neither Spanish patriotism, nor the love of all the Filipinos for Spain, nor the doubtful future of dismemberment and intestine strife in the Islands themselves. Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows, and necessity is the resultant of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces. We have said and statistics prove that it is impossible to exterminate the Filipino people. And even were it possible, what interest would Spain have in the destruction of the inhabitants of a country she can not populate or cultivate, whose climate is to a certain extent disastrous to her? What good would the Philippines be without the Filipinos? Quite otherwise, under her colonial system and the transitory character of the Spaniards who go to the colonies, a colony is so much the more useful and productive to her as it possesses inhabitants and wealth. Moreover, in order to destroy the six million Malays, even supposing them to be in their infancy and that they have never learned to fight and defend themselves, Spain would have to sacrifice at least a fourth of her population. This we commend to the notice of the partizans of colonial exploitation. But nothing of this kind can happen. The menace is that when the education and liberty necessary to human existence are denied by Spain to the Filipinos, then they will seek enlightenment abroad, behind the mother country’s back, or they will secure by hook or by crook some advantages in their own country, with the result that the opposition of purblind and paretic politicians will not only be futile but even prejudicial, because it will convert motives for love and gratitude into resentment and hatred. Hatred and resentment on one side, mistrust and anger on the other, will finally result in a violent and terrible collision, especially when there exist elements interested in having disturbances, so that they may get something in the excitement, demonstrate their mighty power, foster lamentations and recriminations, or employ violent measures. It is to be expected that the government will triumph and be generally (as is the custom) severe in punishment, either to teach a stern lesson in order to vaunt its strength or even to revenge upon the vanquished the spells of excitement and terror that the danger caused it. An unavoidable concomitant of those catastrophes is the accumulation of acts of injustice committed against the innocent and peaceful inhabitants. Private reprisals, denunciations, despicable accusations, resentments, covetousness, the opportune moment for calumny, the haste and hurried procedure of the courts martial, the pretext of the integrity of the fatherland and the safety of the state, which cloaks and justifies everything, even for scrupulous minds, which unfortunately are still rare, and above all the panic-stricken timidity, the cowardice that battens upon the conquered—all these things augment the severe measures and the number of the victims. The result is that a chasm of blood is then opened between the two peoples, that the wounded and the afflicted, instead of becoming fewer, are increased, for to the families and friends of the guilty, who always think the punishment excessive and the judge unjust, must be added the families and friends of the innocent, who see no advantage in living and working submissively and peacefully. Note, too, that if severe measures are dangerous in a nation made up of a homogeneous population, the peril is increased a hundred-fold when the government is formed of a race different from the governed. In the former an injustice may still be ascribed to one man alone, to a governor actuated by personal malice, and with the death of the tyrant the victim is reconciled to the government of his nation. But in a country dominated by a foreign race, even the justest act of severity is construed as injustice and oppression, because it is ordered by a foreigner, who is unsympathetic or is an enemy of the country, and the offense hurts not only the victim but his entire race, because it is not usually regarded as personal, and so the resentment naturally spreads to the whole governing race and does not die out with the offender. Hence the great prudence and fine tact that should be exercised by colonizing countries, and the fact that government regards the colonies in general, and our colonial office in particular, as training schools, contributes notably to the fulfilment of the great law that the colonies sooner or later declare themselves independent. Such is the descent down which the peoples are precipitated. In proportion as they are bathed in blood and drenched in tears and gall, the colony, if it has any vitality, learns how to struggle and perfect itself in fighting, while the mother country, whose colonial life depends upon peace and the submission of the subjects, is constantly weakened, and, even though she make heroic efforts, as her number is less and she has only a fictitious existence, she finally perishes. She is like the rich voluptuary accustomed to be waited upon by a crowd of servants toiling and planting for him, and who, on the day his slaves refuse him obedience, as he does not live by his own efforts, must die. Reprisals, wrongs and suspicions on one part and on the other the sentiment of patriotism and liberty, which is aroused in these incessant conflicts, insurrections and uprisings, operate to generalize the movement and one of the two peoples must succumb. The struggle will be brief, for it will amount to a slavery much more cruel than death for the people and to a dishonorable loss of prestige for the dominator. One of the peoples must succumb. Spain, from the number of her inhabitants, from the condition of her army and navy, from the distance she is situated from the Islands, from her scanty knowledge of them, and from struggling against a people whose love and good will she has alienated, will necessarily have to give way, if she does not wish to risk not only her other possessions and her future in Africa, but also her very independence in Europe. All this at the cost of bloodshed and crime, after mortal conflicts, murders, conflagrations, military executions, famine and misery. The Spaniard is gallant and patriotic, and sacrifices everything, in favorable moments, for his country’s good. He has the intrepidity of his bull. The Filipino loves his country no less, and although he is quieter, more peaceful, and with difficulty stirred up, when he is once aroused he does not hesitate and for him the struggle means death to one or the other combatant. He has all the meekness and all the tenacity and ferocity of his carabao. Climate affects bipeds in the same way that it does quadrupeds. The terrible lessons and the hard teachings that these conflicts will have afforded the Filipinos will operate to improve and strengthen their ethical nature. The Spain of the fifteenth century was not the Spain of the eighth. With their bitter experience, instead of intestine conflicts of some islands against others, as is generally feared, they will extend mutual support, like shipwrecked persons when they reach an island after a fearful night of storm. Nor may it be said that we shall partake of the fate of the small American republics. They achieved their independence easily, and their inhabitants are animated by a different spirit from what the Filipinos are. Besides, the danger of falling again into other hands, English or German, for example, will force the Filipinos to be sensible and prudent. Absence of any great preponderance of one race over the others will free their imagination from all mad ambitions of domination, and as the tendency of countries that have been tyrannized over, when they once shake off the yoke, is to adopt the freest government, like a boy leaving school, like the beat of the pendulum, by a law of reaction the Islands will probably declare themselves a federal republic. If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts, they can rest assured that neither England, nor Germany, nor France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what Spain has been unable to hold. Within a few years Africa will completely absorb the attention of the Europeans, and there is no sensible nation which, in order to secure a group of poor and hostile islands, will neglect the immense territory offered by the Dark Continent, untouched, undeveloped and almost undefended. England has enough colonies in the Orient and is not going to risk losing her balance. She is not going to sacrifice her Indian Empire for the poor Philippine Islands—if she had entertained such an intention she would not have restored Manila in 1763, but would have kept some point in the Philippines, whence she might gradually expand. Moreover, what need has John Bull the trader to exhaust himself for the Philippines, when he is already lord of the Orient, when he has there Singapore, Hongkong and Shanghai? It is probable that England will look favorably upon the independence of the Philippines, for it will open their ports to her and afford greater freedom to her commerce. Furthermore, there exist in the United Kingdom tendencies and opinions to the effect that she already has too many colonies, that they are harmful, that they greatly weaken the sovereign country. For the same reasons Germany will not care to run any risk, and because a scattering of her forces and a war in distant countries will endanger her existence on the continent. Thus we see her attitude, as much in the Pacific as in Africa, is confined to conquering easy territory that belongs to nobody. Germany avoids any foreign complications. France has enough to do and sees more of a future in Tongking and China, besides the fact that the French spirit does not shine in zeal for colonization. France loves glory, but the glory and laurels that grow on the battlefields of Europe. The echo from battlefields in the Far East hardly satisfies her craving for renown, for it reaches her quite faintly. She has also other obligations, both internally and on the continent. Holland is sensible and will be content to keep the Moluccas and Java. Sumatra offers her a greater future than the Philippines, whose seas and coasts have a sinister omen for Dutch expeditions. Holland proceeds with great caution in Sumatra and Borneo, from fear of losing everything. China will consider herself fortunate if she succeeds in keeping herself intact and is not dismembered or partitioned among the European powers that are colonizing the continent of Asia. The same is true of Japan. On the north she has Russia, who envies and watches her; on the south England, with whom she is in accord even to her official language. She is, moreover, under such diplomatic pressure from Europe that she can not think of outside affairs until she is freed from it, which will not be an easy matter. True it is that she has an excess of population, but Korea attracts her more than the Philippines and is, also, easier to seize. Perhaps the great American Republic, whose interests lie in the Pacific and who has no hand in the spoliation of Africa, may some day dream of foreign possession. This is not impossible, for the example is contagious, covetousness and ambition are among the strongest vices, and Harrison manifested something of this sort in the Samoan question. But the Panama Canal is not opened nor the territory of the States congested with inhabitants, and in case she should openly attempt it the European powers would not allow her to proceed, for they know very well that the appetite is sharpened by the first bites. North America would be quite a troublesome rival, if she should once get into the business. Furthermore, this is contrary to her traditions. Very likely the Philippines will defend with inexpressible valor the liberty secured at the price of so much blood and sacrifice. With the new men that will spring from their soil and with the recollection of their past, they will perhaps strive to enter freely upon the wide road of progress, and all will labor together to strengthen their fatherland, both internally and externally, with the same enthusiasm with which a youth falls again to tilling the land of his ancestors, so long wasted and abandoned through the neglect of those who have withheld it from him. Then the mines will be made to give up their gold for relieving distress, iron for weapons, copper, lead and coal. Perhaps the country will revive the maritime and mercantile life for which the islanders are fitted by their nature, ability and instincts, and once more free, like the bird that leaves its cage, like the flower that unfolds to the air, will recover the pristine virtues that are gradually dying out and will again become addicted to peace—cheerful, happy, joyous, hospitable and daring. These and many other things may come to pass within something like a hundred years. But the most logical prognostication, the prophecy based on the best probabilities, may err through remote and insignificant causes. An octopus that seized Mark Antony’s ship altered the face of the world; a cross on Cavalry and a just man nailed thereon changed the ethics of half the human race, and yet before Christ, how many just men wrongfully perished and how many crosses were raised on that hill! The death of the just sanctified his work and made his teaching unanswerable. A sunken road at the battle of Waterloo buried all the glories of two brilliant decades, the whole Napoleonic world, and freed Europe. Upon what chance accidents will the destiny of the Philippines depend? Nevertheless, it is not well to trust to accident, for there is sometimes an imperceptible and incomprehensible logic in the workings of history. Fortunately, peoples as well as governments are subject to it. Therefore, we repeat, and we will ever repeat, while there is time, that it is better to keep pace with the desires of a people than to give way before them: the former begets sympathy and love, the latter contempt and anger. Since it is necessary to grant six million Filipinos their rights, so that they may be in fact Spaniards, let the government grant these rights freely and spontaneously, without damaging reservations, without irritating mistrust. We shall never tire of repeating this while a ray of hope is left us, for we prefer this unpleasant task to the need of some day saying to the mother country: “Spain, we have spent our youth in serving thy interests in the interests of our country; we have looked to thee, we have expended the whole light of our intellects, all the fervor and enthusiasm of our hearts in working for the good of what was thine, to draw from thee a glance of love, a liberal policy that would assure us the peace of our native land and thy sway over loyal but unfortunate islands! Spain, thou hast remained deaf, and, wrapped up in thy pride, hast pursued thy fatal course and accused us of being traitors, merely because we love our country, because we tell thee the truth and hate all kinds of injustice. What dost thou wish us to tell our wretched country, when it asks about the result of our efforts? Must we say to it that, since for it we have lost everything—youth, future, hope, peace, family; since in its service we have exhausted all the resources of hope, all the disillusions of desire, it also takes the residue which we can not use, the blood from our veins and the strength left in our arms? Spain, must we some day tell Filipinas that thou hast no ear for her woes and that if she wishes to be saved she must redeem herself?” 1 An encomendero was a Spanish soldier who as a reward for faithful service was set over a district with power to collect tribute and the duty of providing the people with legal protection and religious instruction. This arrangement is memorable in early Philippine annals chiefly for the flagrant abuses that appear to have characterized it. 2 No official was allowed to leave the Islands at the expiration of his term of office until his successor or a council appointed by the sovereign inquired into all the acts of his administration and approved them. (This residencia was a fertile source of recrimination and retaliation, so the author quite aptly refers to it a little further on as “the ancient show of justice.” 3 The penal code was promulgated in the Islands by Royal Order of September 4, 1884. 4 Cervantes’ “Don Quijote,” Part II, Chapter 47. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35899/35899-h/35899-h.htm RIZAL THE FUTURIST by Dr. Pablo S. Trillana II on the 103rd Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal (1999) Posted on September 18, 2012 “Protean is the word that comes to mind when we speak of the Filipino national hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Novelist, poet, teacher, linguist, ophthalmologist, sportsman, sculptor, essayist,thinker. He was all of the above. But there is one aspect of Rizal’s brilliance that is seldom discussed — Rizal as a futurist. Rizal was always years ahead of his time.” Now that we are closing the door on one millennium and opening the door to the next, there could not be a more propitious time to dwell on this great man’s prophetic insights. Even before holism was adopted as a paradigm for the modern world, Rizal had already applied the theory to his school in Dapitan, where he strove to teach the “whole man”. In addition to offering formal academic subjects, he taught his pupils boxing, swimming, fencing, agriculture, and the need for community services. As an important part of their education, he took them on venturesome excursions to test their mettle in real situations. For he believed it was in the unpredictable world where intelligence was needed most. As a statesman without portfolio, his vision of the Filipino nation and his precepts for its guidance are as fresh today as they were a hundred years ago. In Noli Me Tangere, his first novel, Rizal warned Spanish authorities of the blood bath their colonial policy, or lack of policy, would lead to. In Noll’s sequel, El Filibusterismo, he predicted the coming of a revolution while hinting, in the same breath, that the revolution would fail because the Filipinos lacked the arms and organization to see it through. In his most prescient essay, Filipinas Dentro de Gen Anos, written in 1889, he foretold that Spain and the Philippines would eventually become equal independent partners in the world of geopolitics, that the United States, after appropriating the Philippines for herself, would emerge as a new colonial power in Asia. One might say that the predictions found in Noli and Fill were merely insights of an alert observer since they were based on the apparent worsening conditions of Spanish colonial rule in the country. But the predictions in Filipinas Dentro de Gen Anos is proof of a complex intellect. We must remember that at the time Rizal wrote the essay, the Revolution of 1896, which would lead to the creation of a Philippine Republic, independent of and equal to Spain, was more than six years away. And America’s presence in Asia would not happen until the turn of the nineteenth century, long after he was dead. Rizal foresaw the strengths and weaknesses of the Philippine nation today as it stands on the brink of a new and exciting world. Like a chastising father, he warned us, through the words of Padre Florentino in El Filibusterismo, that we will never have a successful state or bayan, until we also have a successful nation or bansa. There is a world of difference between the two. While statehood provides the infrastructure of government, it is nationhood that creates the temper of governance. What Rizal saw as an ideal nation-state was embodied in La Liga Filipina, yet another one of the hero’s scenarios for the future. Organized on the basis of regional and district councils, La Liga Filipina was envisioned to unite the archipelago into one compact, vigorous, and homogenous body. Members were pledged to mutual assistance in the face of every want and necessity, to provide defense against injustice, to encourage education, agriculture, and commerce, and to study and apply reforms. In short, La Liga was a vision of a moral community in which all of the people worked together for the common good, for a better future. That vision, upon which La Liga was founded, is as vital today as it was 100 years ago. Rizal, through his writings and his deeds, has given us a blueprint for our future. But what we do with it is up to us. To this day, we are trying to attain Rizal’s ideal of a mutual-aid society. The question is, are we trying hard enough? It is true that we have made great strides in many aspects of national life. But it is also true that all too often we lack the collective spirit to act as one in order to serve the good of all. I’m not saying we are unconcerned as a people. Far from it. We can look back to two revolutions – the Revolution of 1896 and the EDSA Revolution of 1986 – to remind ourselves of what we can do and be, when we unite as a people with a common purpose. Should we ever forget, we need only to summon Rizal who wrote, “Very probably the Philippines will defend with indescribable ardor the liberty she has bought at the cost of so much blood and sacrifice. With the new men that will spring from her bosom and the remembrance of the past, she will perhaps enter openly the wide road of progress.” If, as Rizal suggests, the past holds the contours of the future, this nation has indeed a lot of solid ground on which to build the just, caring, and progressive society of the future. Just as Rizal knew then, we must know now that we can move forward only if we work together, combining our energies toward a common goal and finding direction from the lessons of the past. Let the compass of history guide us into the next one thousand years. https://nhcp.gov.ph/rizal-the-futurist/ VII. JOSE RIZAL AND PHILIPPINE NATIONALISM – Nationalism is a belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with, or becoming attached to, one's nation. It involves national identity. Nationalism is the feeling of oneness among the people of a certain country. In the Philippines, nationalism has had a long history. the birth of nationalism went rather slowly due to topography, language problems and colonial policy. Nationalism is not a product of a sudden outburst of sentiment. It is brought about by certain factors that gradually develop. It is like a seed nourished by common ideals and aspiration for national unity. In our struggle for freedom, there have been periods when strong nationalist feelings fired our people to action and other periods when nationalism seemed to be forgotten. Not only did nationalism as a sentiment have its peak and valleys, nationalism as a political concept has been espoused at one time or another by different sectors of society which projected particular nationalist goals as their own interests and historical circumstances demanded. The illustrados who led the Propaganda Movement, Rizal being the most notable among them, were expressing the nationalist goals of the Filipino elite when they demanded reforms which would give them participation in political rule and a greater share in economic benefits. Though Rizal “never advocated independence, nor did he advocate armed resistance to the government, he urged reform from within by publicity, by public education, and appeal to the public conscience” according to Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes. The country was not granted the reforms demanded by the illustrados, nevertheless Rizal became the symbol of “safe” patriotism. Jose Rizal is commonly known as the “Father of Filipino Nationalism” and the First Filipino”, not because he helped establish an independent Philippine state (in fact, he specifically and explicitly denounced the 1896 Revolution against Spain), but because he was instrumental in the creation of the conceptualization of “Filipino” as an ethnopolitical collective – as “a people”, or, in the language of nationalism “the people”. In other words, Rizal is acclaimed the father “Philippine Nationalism” for his intellectual and idealistic support for Philippine Independence. Lesson 11 BAYANI AND KABAYANIHAN Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. interpret views and opinions about bayani and kabayanihan in the context of Philippine history and society; 2. assess the concepts of bayani and kabayanihan; and 3. articulate the significance of Rizal’s contributions to Filipino nationalism. What is Bayani at Kabayanihan? According to Dr. Zeus Salazar (1997) “The idea of “bayani” as translated into the English word hero, however, is not as neat as it appears to be, the local concept of bayani has a different value and is a richer concept than its supposed western counterpart. He used the Spanish translation of hero, “héroe,” as a heuristic to differentiate it with the local term “bayani”. The “héroe” could be likened to a martyr who may or may not think of compatriots when making actions. For him, a “héroe” commonly acts as an individual and is viewed to be exceptional. On the other hand, “bayani” is a counterdiscourse to the western concept of “héroe”.” In addition to this, Dr. Salazar (2000) added that “ … bayani acts with the collective and with their common concern in mind. In line with this, “bayanihan” can be considered as a form of active heroism (kabayanihan) of an individual or a group of people by helping others without expecting anything in return. In “bayanihan”, one who volunteers and codevelops a community spirit could emerge as a hero in his/her own simple ways and take pride of the achievement of the group of people in common. As illustrated in the opening story, mining together and extending support as a collective could somehow bring a community member out of danger, both physically and financially. Knowing that someone from their neighborhood is not in good shape affects miners and their community. When they would be in the same situation as the community member who is in need, the latter might do the same thing for them as a form of solidarity with the rest the group “pakikisama”, “pagdamay” and “pakikipagkapwa” Working together can make any action effective and any task easier to accomplish. The achievement of one is also an achievement of the many, and vice versa.” Webster dictionary described the word “nationalism” and “patriotism” are one and the same or synonymous to one another. Like the word patriot is to be a nationalist. It is for this intention that we cannot believe in “nationalism” with such restricting definitions as “optimistic and “balanced.” To water down nationalism thus would be like weakening “patriotism.” Rizal was aware and experienced the injustices and persecutions of the abusive Spaniards and officers to the Filipinos and his family was not exempted to the oppressive and cruelty of Spanish regime, they sequestered Rizal own lands, animals, and the sting of injustice of law to his mother and relatives and fellow Filipinos. He sacrificed his youth, energy and his life to cultivate, foster and harness his skills and all of his talents through the help of formal and informal education here and abroad, not for the personal gain nor to protect and gain for personal and familial wealth, but he offered all of these even his last breath for the love of the motherland and all Filipinos. He opened the eyes of Andress Bonifacio, Dr. Pio Valenzuela, other reformist and propaganda movement and united the Filipino spirits for patriotism, freedom, and liberation to colonizers and at the same time to free us from slavery of ignorance and false piety. Through his peaceful and liberal manner. His famous saying “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And through his literatures, he uncovered the exploitation and unlawful activity of Spanish government officials and some abusive Spanish friars. Let us try to understand the meaning of the word "bayani"? according to the “Diksyunario ng Wikang Pilipino” printed in 1989 through the initiatives of “Linangan ng mga Wika sa Pilipinas” (LWP), previously known as the ‘Surian ng Wikang Pambansa’. 1. “Bayani” (ba-ya-ni) png. (noun) “Taong matapos mamatay ay ipinagbubunyi ng bayan dahil sa kanyang hindi pangkaraniwang paglilingkod sa bayan” (b) “taong may di pangkaraniwang tapang at tigas ng loob sa harap ng panganib o kaya ay katatagan ng kalooban sa paghihirap at pasakit.” 2. “ba-ya-ni”, “pandiwa”. (verb) “Nauukol sa paggawang hindi binabayaran anggumagawa.” singkahulugan (Synanymous): “pakisuyo, tulong, bataris, suyuan”."Bayani" as “concept and word can have any of these three applications: "bayani as a person; "kabayanihan" as a heroic act; and "bayani" as a heroic group, community or nation. The fundamental significance of being "bayani" is appreciation of and reverence to the common good, communal, as nation, as a whole and not as individual and personal gain Jose Rizal: The Filipinos’ Bayani When we hear the name, Dr. Jose Rizal, what do think of? The Philippine National Hero? A man who died for his country? The man who wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo? But these answers are just bits of who Jose Rizal really is. Ever since elementary and highschool, Rizal for was a only a person in our History book. A person known as someone who sacrificed his life for the Philippines, through his novels: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. This course in Rizal is a realization that knowledge about him was only a small page of his life. Some of the things not known was his journey and his other writings aside from the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Back then, Rizal was viewed only as an object, which have a literary meaning. This was also the same for his novels, they were just books required to be read in History subjects. Rizal was less appreciated in those times. The Past Rizal: His Journey. Rizal’s life was able to be summarized in 5 distinct events. According to Floro Quibuyen, Rizal’s life can be divided in 5 major events: 1. Formative Years This is the growing up Rizal. He was still not opened to what the Philippines was really in. He was serious in his studies because of his first teacher – Teodora Alonzo. 2. First European Sojourn In this part, Rizal was able to study in various country and write his first well known novel, Noli Me Tangere, for the Filipinos. 3. Turning Point This part was related to the Calamba Hacienda Case, where Rizal’s family was exiled from their house. The Noli Me Tangere at this time was already well known and was already banned by the friars. 4. Second European Sojourn This was the start of Rizal’s radicalization. This was a transition from Ibarra to Simoun; a reformist Rizal to a revolutionist Rizal. He wrote his second well known novel, the El Filibusterismo. 5. The Moment of Truth This is where the spark of revolution started in Rizal. He returned to the Philippines and established the La Liga Filipina. He was also exiled to Dapitan, where he was able apply everything he learned; from being an engineer, doctor, and teacher. Then comes Rizal’s arrest and martyrdom. From there, we can see that Rizal’s journey was not for his own benefit, but rather for the benefit of his “kababayan” (coutrymen), and his country – Philippines. As written in a verse of his last poem, Mi Ultimo Adios, : “Farewell, beloved Country, treasured region of the sun, Pearl of the sea of the Orient, our lost Eden! To you eagerly I surrender this sad and gloomy life; And were it brighter, fresher, more florid, Even then I’d give it to you, for your sake alone.” - Jose Rizal Rizal showed how much he loved his country and dreamed of its freedom. The Making of the National Hero Who Made Rizal Our National Hero? This question is appropriately asked every time a study of Rizal’s heroic deeds and his being our national hero is at stake. This question is not being raised for the sake of creating a controversy at the expense of a long-dead person. Rizal has been proclaimed our national hero and is already an institution. Discussion of this topic is not intended to subject Rizal to humiliation and embarrassment but to place him in the proper podium and ultimately put him in his proper place in Philippine history. One of those responsible for making Rizal our national hero was no other than the American colonial government as proven by Renato Constantino. “It cannot be denied that his pre-eminence among our heroes was partly the result of American sponsorship. It was Governor General William Howard Taft who in 1901 suggested in the Philippine Commission that the Filipinos be given a national hero.” In 1901, through his intervention, Rizal was voted as a national hero, prominent among all our heroes, higher in rank than Andres Bonifacio, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Aguinaldo, and others. This was done by the Americans by virtue of the Treaty of Paris signed on Decembr 10, 1898. By this Treaty Spain gave the Philippines to the United States. In return the United States would give Spain the sum of 20 million US dollars. Rizal was proclaimed as our national hero through the lawmaking body in the Philippines, the Philippine Commission. Their justification, according to Constantino, was that they favoured a hero who would not run against the grain of American colonial policy. A hero who did not advocate and encourage clamor for independence. Actually they were not after Rizal per se , but they were after those to whom they could entrust the safety of their interest in the country. This meant that “whoever was willing to take the cause of the Americans in the country could become a prospective candidate as our national hero based on the perception of the Americans…No embarrassing anti-American quotations could even be attributed to Rizal.” The Americans choose Rizal because they did not find in him anything which could destroy the good image they wanted to build for themselves. Jose Rizal could not anymore write nor speak against the Americans in the colony because according to Constantino: “In the first place, he was safely dead by the time the Americans began their aggressions.” So how could a dead man oppose anybody nor any belief or idea? There must be some rationale in deciding first to protect their vested interest, as we view it, but for them, noble one, Zaide writes, “In his message to congress in 1899, President William Howard Taft said: ‘The Philippines is ours not to exploit but to develop, to civilize, to educate, to train in the science of self-government.’” What Makes a National Hero? There is really no satisfactory answer. In the Philippines there are three national heroes: Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Jose Rizal. The debate is over which one is the true national hero took a turn towards Rizal in 1996 when the international conference on the revolution of 1896 celebrated the triumph of Philippine nationalism by focusing on Rizal’s contribution. A hero has the ability to stand up to historical scrutiny while maintaining a place in the pantheon of national history. For more than a century, Filipinos have looked to Rizal’s writings to find a national consciousness. So for many historians and political scientists, Rizal is the foremost hero. A recent study of Andres Bonifacio by Glenn Anthony May suggests that he has been posthumously re-created. In a brilliant revisionist interpretation, May argues that Bonifacio’s childhood, his writings, and key parts of his life have been rewritten. Bonifacio’s letters and poetry were forged, May alleges, and a group of Filipino historians have recast Bonifacio’s historical importance in myth and legend. Yet, to a large number of Filipinos, Bonifacio remains a national hero. To these people Rizal is the fabricated hero who was forced upon Filipinos by American government officials. While Rizal was an aristocrat, with fine family background, Bonifacio was branded a poor, blue-collar revolutionary. For the historian or political scientist, Bonifacio’s story is a dramatic one. He is the symbol of the people’s desire for freedom. Since the Philippine revolution of 1896 was led by Andres Bonifacio’s military organization, the Katipunan, many consider him the key revolutionary. Despite Bonifacio’s successes, his place in the archipelago’s history has been obscured by Rizal’s words, deeds, and life. Emilio Aguinaldo was another recognized military leader who continued to exert influence upon Philippine history until the mid-twentieth century. By analyzing the role of the three political figures responsible for the forging of Philippine nationalism, it is possible to suggest what makes a national hero. Why Andres Bonifacio is a National Hero Andres Bonifacio was the leader of the Philippine Revolution of 1896. He was not only the guiding force behind the revolutionary organization, the Katipunan, but he became a martyr when he was executed by fellow patriot Emilio Aguinaldo. By 1998 there was a considerable public pressure upon the former President Fidel V. Ramos to rehabilitate Bonifacio’s historical image. This prompted an outcry from parts of the Philippine press. Adrian E. Cristobal, writing in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, commented: “Like it or not Emilio Aguinaldo was an important figure in the Revolution and the central figure in the Philippine-American war, and on that account could be very well acclaimed a national hero.” Cristobal was reacting to rumors that Fidel V. Ramos was about to elevate Bonifacio to a new hero level. Cristobal argued that Bonifacio found it difficult to cooperate with other revolutionaries. When Bonifacio was fighting the Spanish in Cavite, he was in constant disagreement with Emilio Aguinaldo. In a series of letters to Emilio Jacinto, who was fighting against Spain in the north, Bonifacio was critical of the lack of weapons and ammunition. Then he complained about Aguinaldo’s lack of leadership. When Aguinaldo was selected to lead the revolutionaries, he began to assert his leadership. He also began doubting Bonifacio’s loyalty. In 1897, the relationship between Bonifacio and Aguinaldo deteriorated because of the Spanish military superiority. The Philippine Revolution of 1896 was not marching towards victory and the main reason was internal dissension. When Aguinaldo approached Bonifacio for troop reinforcements on three separate occasions in early 1897, he was rebuffed. It was this argument over troops which led Aguinaldo to conclude that Bonifacio was a traitor. In the heat of the conflict against the Spanish Aguinaldo made an unfortunate decision. He decided to execute his military-political partner. As Aguinaldo recalled: “When I realized what the Supremo had done, I sighed and said to myself: He wishes to destroy our revolution.” While Aguinaldo and Bonifacio were blaming each other for the failure of the Philippine Revolution of 1896, a patriotic assembly convened to bring some order to the chaotic situation. On March 22, 1887 the Tejeros assembly convened and selected Aguinaldo as the leader of the Philippine revolution. Since Rizal was in exile, they believed that Bonifacio lacked leadership selection to the presidency of the Philippine Government. These events enraged Bonifacio and when he sent his series of letters to Emilio Jacinto, he stated his obvious displeasure with Aguinaldo’s leadership. When Bonifacio became one of the Katipunan’s founding members, revolutionary activity intensified. The Katipunan was organized to unite Filipinos into one nation. Although Bonifacio was a prime mover behind the organization, Emilio Jacinto was its revolutionary theoretician. It was Jacinto who wrote the documents stating the Katipunan’s goals. This affected Bonifacio’s historical reputation because he often appeared too blue collar and lacked formal education. To counter this image, one of the Philippines leading historians, Gregorio Zaide produced a series of monographs and a study of the Katipunan which lionized Bonifacio’s contributions to Philippine nationalism. The impetus behind Zaide’s work was the Katipunan. To many Filipino historians and political scientists, it was viewed as the primary instrument of revolution. The main purpose of the Katipunan was to foment a revolution to secure Philippine Independence. Eventually Bonifacio ascended to a key leadership role and began publishing the revolutionary newspaper, the Kalayaan. The difference between the two Philippine nationalists intensified through a series of political decisions. When Boifacio was elected as Supremo or commander of the Katipunan, bad blood developed between the two leaders. Since Rizal’s exile at Dapitan, his leadership qualities did not work to settle these petty differences. The progress of Philippine nationalism was also hindered by ideological differences. In Cavite there were two rival Katipunan councils. Bonifacio was executed by Aguinaldo on May 10, 1897, due to a petty political rift which he identified as sedition. Unwittingly, Aguinaldo’s own historical demise began with this act. Renato Constantino wrote a well-received popular history of the Philippines, which described Bonifacio as a humble man of high principles who was overthrown by elitist Filipinos led by Aguinaldo. Constantino’s ideological history bears an element of truth. There is no doubt that Bonifacio was the people’s hero. The problem was that he lacked leadership greatness, there is a feeling that Bonifacio was an “invented hero.” May charges Bonifacio’s personal history depended on forged documents, impressive but suspect, contemporary memoirs, and a tendency towards hagiography. (Teodoro) Agoncillo’s critics charged that he created two different Bonifacios. One was the honorific revolutionary who worked tirelessly in the Manila underground and used his humble povery-stricken background to rally his folllowers. The other Bonifacio was a boisterous leader who lacked common sense, good judgment, and the ability to work with other revolutionaries. Were Agoncillo’s arguments flawed? Probably not. May suggests that Agoncillo’s reconstruction of Bonifacio’s personality, which relied on questionable data derived from his interviews with the Supremo’s contemporary is seriously flawed. His conclusions run counter to Agoncillo’s personal reputation for fairness and his penchant for integrity, ‘There is a harsh, mean-spirited tone to May’s monograph. It also lacks the depth of sources consistent with Agoncillo’s books. What has bothered the critics about Agoncillo is that he accepted the interviews from Bonifacio’s contemporaries without analysis. This is an excessive, and probably incorrect judgment. Like most historians, Agoncillo was limited by his sources. But a check of the Revolt of the Masses indicates that there is an excess of 50 source interviews which formed the basis for judging Bonifacio’s contribution to the revolution of 1896. What seems incredible is that these sources could have biased, distorted, or judgmental problem. The truth is that these interviews contained all that historians know about Bonifacio’s personality and leadership. While they may be flawed, they also provide insights. A more plausible explanation for Bonifacio’s historical problems is that he did not shine as bright as Rizal or as long as Aguinaldo. He did not possess the education, level of literacy, or personal charisma to assume the mantle of a historical hero. Yet, to this day, he remains one of the Philippines primary national heroes. For that he cannot thank Aguinaldo. Bonifacio’s execution and Aguinaldo’s subsequent behavior made both men heroes, even if second level ones. The Spanish also helped to ensure Bonifacio’s legend. Governor General Camilo de Polavieja was the prime mover in the movement to eliminate Bonifacio’s influence. However, the result was just the opposite as the Spanish commander unwittingly paid tribute to Bonifacio’s leadership. In one statement after another, followed by military action, Polavieja demonstrated that it was difficult to defeat Bonifacio’s troops. Why Emilio Aguinaldo is a National Hero The triumph of Philippine independence is the accomplishment that Emilio Aguinaldo’s supporters list as his greates feat. During May and June 1898, Aguinaldo’s military forces defeated the Spanish in Manila and other parts of Luzon and the Visayas. On June 12, 1898, he declared an Indpendent Republic of the Philippines. As the President of the First Philippine Republic, Aguinaldo was for a moment a national hero. In Aguinaldo’s career, he had a solid vision of Philippine nationalism. He urged Filipinos to govern themselves, but the upplerclass supported American rule. E. Spencer Pratt, the American Consul in Singapore, described Aguinaldo as “a man of intelligence, ability, and courage…” In Aguinaldo’s career there is love for his country and a sense of leadershi8p that was demonstrated early in his life. Despite humble origins, Aguinaldo was a man of considerable intellect and a fine political thinker. He was described by a local Philippine aristocrat, Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera, as a person who “struck me as being modest and conviced that he had a providential mission.” The recognition of Aguinaldo’s leadership was obvious in December 1895 when he was brought into the midst of the Katipunan’s political activity. This took place at the time that the Katipunan announced that it had secured a printing press. The result was that Aguinaldo was influenced by the Katipunan newspaper, the Kalayaan. Aguinaldo loved to tell his followers that the newspaper’s name meant liberty or independence. After Aguinaldo became a member of the Katipunan, he became increasingly critical of Bonifacio. The historical record, unfortunatlely, incomplete about their differences. Of the two, Aguinaldo was more literate and left a detailed record of his revolutionary activity. The tragedy in Aguinaldo’s memoir is that he blamed Bonifacio for the lack of revolutionary success. The truth was that the Spanish had superior military forces and Philippine forces were inferior and ideologically divided. In his memoirs Aguinaldo suggested that he approached Bonifacio three times about changing military strategy in the fight against Spanish troops. Bonifacio refused, Aguinaldo remembered, and this led to military problems. This forced Aguinaldo into an alliance with other military generals, thereby intensifying hatred between the two leaders. There were also a series of unexpected historical circumstances which cast Aguinaldo into the nationalist spotlight before he was ready to assume the mantle of leadership. It was a lengthy process which began on November 1 and 2, 1897 when 50 revolutionaries met in Biak-na-Bato. This assembly, presided over by Aguinaldo, proclaimed that it was an assembly of representatives. From this meeting came the Biak-na-Bato Constitution. It was popular with the people because it was written in Tagalog, not Spanish, the national language. Then a series of military events accentuated the road to independence. These events began when Aguinaldo became part of a plan to reinforce Philippine military power in the ongoing struggle against the Spanish. Aguinaldo and Bonifacio met to discuss the setbacks against Spanish troops in Magdiwang and Magdalo. With Aguinaldo using guerilla warfare, it was impossible for Spain to control the revolutionaries. Aguinaldo proved to be an experienced leader, and the revolution began turning towards the Filipino forces. This prompted Spain to offer a “peace by money” agreement. Aguinaldo decided to accept the truce and leave for Hong Kong. The revolutionary leaders agreed to a temporary cessation in military activity, so that they could reorganize and plan for the future. What Aguinaldo and his followers did not realize was that Spain’s military position was a precarious one. He had no idea that Spanish troops were vulnerable when he accepted a series of truce agreements with the Spanish commanders. The features of the truce included the surrender of rebel arms, Aguinaldo’s exile and the payment of 400,000 pesos. Aguinaldo insisted that 200,000 pesos be invested to educate Filipino students abroad. On Christmas day 1897, a large group of friends watched Aguinaldo and other members of the revolutionary committee at Biak-na-Bato as they prepared to sail for Hong Kong. Aguinaldo did not realize that his behavior would compromise his status as a national hero. On February 14, 1898, Aguinaldo denounced the agreement with Spain and prepared to return to the Philippines. The result was that Aguinaldo continued his fight against Spain in the shadow of American military might. Soon Aguinaldo led an army of between 25,000 and 35,000 and he began his march towards Manila Bay. On May 27, 1898, Aguinaldo received 2,000 Mauser rifles and 20,000 cartridges from the Americans. He proceeded to take much of the Luzon Valley and secured control of Manila. It was Aguinaldo’s military successes which prompted some historicans to question his collaboration with the Americans. To many Filipinos he was the national leader who established the initial government. To others he was an American collaborator. On June 12, 1898 when the First Philippine Republic was established, it was believed that Admiral George Dewey who occupied Manila Bay would approve of Philippine Independence. Whe the United States refused to recognize Aguinaldo’s First Philippine Republic, he took up arms against the Americans and vanished in the archipelago’s countryside. In March 1901 Aguinaldo was captured by American troops and the First Philippine Republic came to an ignominious end. These events suggest that Aguinaldo’s place in history has been clouded by a series of controversial career moves. Long before Aguinaldo proclaimed the First Philippine Republic, he was a prime mover for local independence. To the insurgent-minded Filipino, Aguinaldo is a true national hero. Why Jose Rizal is the National Hero Jose Rizal’s role in the pantheon of Philippine heroes is a complex one. As the intellectual father of the Philippine Revolution, he became the sysmbol of protest against Spanish rule. Since the Philippines was an American protectorate after the SpanishAmerican war, Rizal was the American-approved hero. From the perspective of local Filipinos, Rizal’s opposition to the radical Katipunan was the primary reason for his hero status. It was Rizal who urged Filipinos to go slowly in their quest for a national identity. When the Katipunan went to war against Spain it angered many educated Filipinos. The blue-collar origins of Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo bothered aristocratic Filipinos and they argued that national identiy needed an educated, articulate hero. The United States also legitimized Rizal’s hero label by changing the name of the Morong province to Rizal. President Theodore Roosevelt was fond of quoting Rizal’s works in speeches praising the Philippines. For a brief time in the progressive era, Americans knew more about Jose Rizal than they did about the Philippines. The real test of Rizal’s hero status is demonstrated in the wide variety of biographies, political studies, and general monographs. There is a general consensus that in the minds of the Philippine public, Rizal is the First Filipino. There is purity and consistencey in his patriotism. The other part of Rizal’s national hero status was his love for things Filipino. In his writings, public life, and studies in Europe, Rizal was an ambassador who educated the world. As Rizal subtly criticized the Spanish use of term indio to describe the locals, he suggested that there was an implied racism within the conquering civilization. In 1879 Rizal’s famous poem “To the Filipino Youth” began the modern link to Philippine nationalism. As a student at Ateneo, Rizal was not only curious about the impact but also critical of the Spanish heritage. He watched hundreds of Filipinos arrested and tried by the Spanish for independent thoughts. Soon Rizal became the voice of these protesters through his two novels, the Noli and Fili. In the Noli Rizal wrote of reforms needed in the Philippines. In sharp contrast in the Fili, Rizal suggested the path towards revolution. These books promoted a sense of national direction and popularized Rizal’s ideas. He also annotated the first serious history book on the Philippines, Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. He turned this classic study into a new book. Another reason for Rizal’s hero status was his constant moralizing. When he arrived to study in Madrid, he found a loose coalition of Filipinos who spent more time eating, drinking, and gambling than concentrating on their European studies. Rizal was critical of the frivolity of his fellow students, a fact which caused many to oppose him. It was Rizal who inspired his people to identify with the Philippines. He talked of national identity and the archipelago followed his lead. When Rizal was executed by the Spanish on December 30, 1896 his status as a martyr and national hero was confirmed. By studying Rizal’s life, it is obvious that he retained a special status in Philippine history. The National Hero: Some Conclusions on an Inconclusive Argument Few Filipinos agree on who is the dominant national hero. Yet, for all practical purposes, Jose Rizal remains the major national hero. There are a variety of reasons for Rizal’s long-lasting appeal to the Filipino consciousness. However, there are four reasons for the primacy of Rizal’s status as national hero. First, his nationalistic primacy is due to a folk belifed that Rizal was the “king of the Indios,” or a “Christ-like figure.” This is not a myth which Rizal fostered consciously, but his life helped to create it. The cult feeling behind Rizal has never abated. In the rural areas, there are feelings that he was so special that he could do anything politically and economically. Second, folk history suggests the importance of Rizal’s leadership. One of the strangest stories about Rizal is that he fathered an illegitimate child while in Austria and that young man was Adolf Hitler. Where there is no evidence to support this absurd conclusion, the tale remains an important part of Philippine political folklore. Third, Rizal’s fiction is an important source of his nationalist contribution. It is Rizal’s novels that another key element of his nationalistic fame is evident. In the Fili, Rizal created a character. Bernardo del Carpio, who follows lightning to the gates of heaven, but once he gets there he is forbidden to enter heaven because he is impure. He is then put to sleep by the angels. Thus started the myth of Bernardo del Carpio who is viewed by Filipinos as the King of the Indios, a leader who will return to liberate the Philippines. A minor character in the Fili vows to follow Bernardo del Carpio until he frees Filipinos from the tyranny of friar rule. The Bernardo del Carpio tale was among Bonifacio’s favorites and indicates the depths of Rizal’s influence upon Philippine nationalism. Fourth, Rizal had a sense of the future for the Philippines. In 1996 when the centennial of his death was celebrated there was a belief that he continued to serve the Filipino people. If this is true, he certainly is the conclusive national hero. In each society there is a myth and reality to the national hero and the Philippines is no exception. The myth behind Jose Rizal’s career is that he was a God-like figure with a futuristic vision. The reality is that he was the moving spirit of the Philippines. Dr. Salvador H. Laurel, the former vice president of the Philippines, remarked that Rizal was “one of the most remarkable men ever produced by the Malay race.” While Andres Bonifacio’s bluecollar origin has caused him historical problems and Emilio Aguinaldo’s peripatetic behavior has prompted many to judge his credibility adversely, Rizal remains a largely unblemished national hero. If Rizal is the predominant national hero, it is due not only to his life and deeds but to a sense of the Philippine future. Many Filipino heroes wrote poetry, brief, analytical political essays and delivered fiery speeches. Of these early heroes, Rizal stands out, as the one with the strongest impact on Philippine nationalism. Bonifacio and Aguinaldo also have their detractors. The most damning indictment against Bonifacio comes from Glenn Anthony May: “…the Bonifacio we have before us is mostly an illusion, the product of undocumented statements, unreliable, doctored, or otherwise spurious sources, and the collective imagination of several historians and a memoirist. But May also sees a similar problem with Aguinaldo: ”…The Magdalo Aguinaldo’s organization, was less responsible than Bonifacio. It would be presumptuous to base the most-enduring hero upon the writings of May, but he has hit a responsive chord in characterizing the national hero. The public needs an aristocratic figure with impeccable intellectual credentials and a mystical political career. Only Jose Rizal fits that characterization and this is one reason that he is the most-enduring national hero. Who Made Rizal a Hero, Americans or Filipinos? The notion that Jose Rizal was an American-created Filipino hero is an insulting one. To the Filipinos who attended his funeral, those who have read his books, and the many who have viewed him as the father of Philippine nationalism, he remains the symbol of Philippine nationalism. They are outraged with the notion that he was “an American hero.” This view of Rizal suggests, from the American perspectivel, that Filipinos were unable to create their own heroes. There are many Filipinos who use this argument to denigrage Rizal’s memory. There is a need to study this issue. The American Governor General William Howard Taft was one of the strongest supporters of the movermnet to make the national hero. Taft, who would eventually become the President of the United States, believed that Filipino priests were dangerous to continued US control. So he supported Rizal’s nationalistic canonization as a means of reducing the friars’ prestige. Taft also argued that Rizal was an intelligent reformer with an educated view of the Philippine future. However what Taft was interested in was perpetuating US sovereignty. So he constructed a number of myths about Rizal being a perfect nationalist. Ambeth R. Ocampo argues that Rizal planned every detail of his life, even his death. Whether or not Rizal manipulated history is uncertain, but what is significant is that he grabbed the moment. Whether the Philippines, Spain, England, France, or Germany, he inspired people to think politically. If Rizal was a political scientist, then he was to create a political dialogue that led to democracy. Unfortunately not everyone sees Rizal in this light. Many of the answers to doubts about his nationalism were explained in an essay he wrote for La Solidaridad entitled, “The Philippines, A Century Hence.” Rizal suggested that the future of the Philippines was dictated by the past. He then condemned the Spanish for robbing the Filipinos of their culture. “They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections,” Rizal wrote. Throughout this lengthy article, Rizal argued that the six million Filipinos needed their rights, so that they could become good Spaniards. This statement had caused his detractors and defenders to engage in a debate about Rizal, which is still going strong after a century. Furthermore Rizal argued that the Philippines had lost its history. Yet he maintained that the friars were not able to destroy the Philippines. “Religious shows, rites that caught the eye, songs, lights, and images arrayed with gold, worship in a strange language, legends, miracles, and sermons, hypnotized the already naturally superstitious spirits of the country but did not succeed in destroying it altogether.” Then Rizal asked the question: “What will become of the Philippine within a century?” The answer for Rizal was a simple one. “The batteries are gradually becoming charged and if the prudence of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, some day the spark will be generated.” Rizal spoke clearly and plainly about the future of the Philippines. It was one of self-determination and revolution. Because he was so blunt, Rizal had both defenders and detractors. Governor General William Howard Taft, in 1901, suggested to the Philippine Commission that the Filipinos be given a national hero. Joseph Smith in his book “The Portrait of a Cold Warrior” described the real intention of Taft: “Taft quickly decided that it would be extremely useful for the Filipinos to have a national hero of their revolution against the Spanish in order to channel their feelings and focus their resentment backward on Spain. But Taft told his advisers that he wanted it to be someone who really was not much a revolutionary that, if his life were examined too closely or his works read too carefully, this would cause us trouble, he chose Rizal as the man who fits his model.” Rizal never advocated independence. In Rizal’s manifesto (December 15, 1896), he wrote: “I am one most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties.” Rizal intentionally avoided the use of the term independence in its true and real sense because in reality, this shall not be granted until we were educated enough to appreciate its importance and its blessings, and until we were economically self-sufficient. Defenders and Detractors In the Philippines there are many who view Rizal as a second-rate hero who has been deified by the Amercan government for the purpose of controlling Filipino public opinion. The most significant expression of his viewpoint is in the writings of Renato Costantino. He blames Filipinos for succumbing to American rule and allowing Jose Rizal to be manipulated into a national hero. In many respects Constantino sees the American colonial system as the fulfillment of Rizal nationalistic fervor. What Constantino suggests is that Rizal was much like the dictatorial Ferdinand E. Marcos. This is stretching historical analogy beyond the bounds of the evidence. What Constantino misses is that Filipinos are not “little Rizals,” as he suggests, but a people who selected a national hero a century ago and stuck with him, because he expressed the essence of Philippine nationalism. Rizal’s writings, speeches, public life, and spectacular death are reminders of his nationalistic fervor. Rizal’s manifesto condemning the Revolution of 1896 has been used to soil his memory. At the time Rizal wrote this document, he was in jail and threatened with a court martial. Rizal supported revolution, but not the revolution of Andres Bonifacio or the Katipunan’s version. Rizal’s ideas won out and a slow but steady progression to total independene took place in the next half century. Yet the arguents about Rizal being an “American-created” hero persisted. The best article on the problems of American deification of Rizal appeared in the popular press. Ambeth Ocampo’s essay “Was Jose Rizal an American-Sponsored Hero?” argues that Rizal’s “Manifesto to the Filipino People” addressed the issue of US influence. While early American governors overemphasized Rizal’s contributions to Philippine nationalism, the historical result of the controversy has been to denigrate the level of Rizal’s nationalism, and, as a result, his contribution to Philippine history. Ocampo places the issue in perspective when he concludes that “Rizal inspired the revolution and for this alone, his detractors should think of a new argument, rather than riding on the prevailing antiAmerican sentiment to denigrate Jose Rizal.” Still others point to the American tendency to encourage Rizal’s position as the foremost Philippine nationalist. Ocampo puts the controversy to rest by pointing out the obvious; Jose Rizal was the chief architect of the Philippine nationalism and independence long before the Americans arrived. He was recognized as the first Malay son. He was not the leader of the revolutionary Katipunan. He did not believe that the 1896 revolution could succeed because of lack of planning. He did not feel tht all Filipinos were ready for full citizenship. Yet, despite all these misgivings, Filipinos recognize Rizal as their foremost native son. Although Rizal was uprooted by Spanish rule, he realized that he needed to pursue his nationalistic goals. His family was a catalyst to this belief and his life was dedicated to a defined Philippine nationalism. This enraged the Spanish who then harassed his family. After his mother was imprisoned, his brother exiled, and his father charged with unfair land practices, Rizal intensified his demands for independence. No matter how Spain attempted to intimidate him, Rizal remained first and foremost a Philippine nationalist. There were subtle reasons for Rizal’s deification. Rizal did not have the blue collar following that Andres Bonifacio possessed. He had a subtle nationalism that Emilio Aguinaldo lacked. He was able to interact socially, economically, and politically with Europeans. He had an education that few could match. Basically Rizal was a special person. Even the Spanish officers who were empowered to render final judgment on Rizal became his friends. But the question persists: “Why was he the chief Filipino Patriot?” John Schumacher writes: “What is different about Rizal… were the national vision and the ideal that he articulated.” In order to build upon Schumacher’s quote, it is necessary to examine Rizal as “the chief Filipino patriot.” Those who defend Rizal use Rizal’s repudiation of the Philippine revolution as an argument against those elements in our society who seek radical change. They believe that Rizal’s abandonment of his people when they decided to rise can be used to dissuade others from making common cause with the masses today. This is the same intention the Americans had in favoring Rizal as our national hero. Lesson 12 NATIONAL SYMBOL Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: 1. examine the values highlighted by the various representations of Rizal as a national symbol; and 2. advocate the values Rizal’s life encapsulates. Symbols represent a wide variety of things. When people see a particular symbol, they associate it with something meaningful or standard. With this, each country has its own national symbols to identify themselves from others and to unite its citizens through nationalism. According to National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), official national symbols of the Philippines represent the country’s traditions and ideals and convey the principles of Philippine sovereignty and national solidarity. The Present Rizal: A Symbolic Rizal Today, Rizal is more than just a hero of the past, but rather a symbol to the people of the present. People may look at Rizal in different ways, in different symbols; because symbols don’t contain a constant meaning, but rather they differ in each person’s perception or beliefs. Everyone of us have their own inner Rizal within. So, what’s your inner Rizal? What does Rizal symbolize? A hero symbolizes goodness. Rizal gave us freedom by using goodness. Jose Rizal became the Philippine national hero because he fought for freedom in a silent but powerful way. He expressed his love for the Philippines through his novels, essays and articles rather than through the use of force or aggression. He was a very amazing person at his time. He was humble, fighting for reforms through his writings instead of through a revolution. He used his intelligence, talents and skills in a more peaceful way rather than the aggressive way. Rizal is an American-sponsored hero: he opted for a non violence reform in the government. Instead he used his writings to open the eyes of the Filipinos. He dedicated his life for his countrymen without hesitation. He was known for his meekness and coolness, but he never fought on a war. Most of the world Heroes was elevated as such because of their war exploits. Rizal never did it. He was using his pen for criticism about the handling of the Spanish government in the Philippines. He fought to have the Philippines a permanent representation in the Spanish Cortes. That's why when the US accepted the Philippines as a vassal country, Gen. Taft who was the Governor general here, appointed Jose Rizal as the National Hero for the Philippines, to douse the fighting fervor of the Filipinos who are fighting for freedom at that time. The Americans decided for him being a national hero at their time in the country. It is said that the Americans, Civil Governor William Howard Taft, chose Jose Rizal to be the national hero as a strategy. Rizal didn't want bloody revolution in his time. So they wanted him to be a "good example" to the Filipinos so that the people will not revolt against the Americans. Rizal became a National Hero because he passed the criteria by being a National Hero during the American period. Adding that, Rizal passed the Criteria for National Heroes 1. Heroes are those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom. In reality, however, a revolution has no end. Revolutions are only the beginning. One cannot aspire to be free only to sink back into bondage. 2. Heroes are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a nation. Freedom without order will only lead to anarchy. Therefore, heroes are those who make the nation’s constitution and laws. To the latter, constitutions are only the beginning, for it is the people living under the constitution that truly constitute a nation. 3. Heroes are those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation. (As defined by Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz) Additional Criteria for Heroes 1. A hero is part of the people’s expression. But the process of a people’s internalization of a hero’s life and works takes time, with the youth forming a part of the internalization. 2. A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generations. 3. The choice of a hero involves not only the recounting of an episode or events in history, but of the entire process that made this particular person a hero. (https://unveilingrizal.weebly.com/why-rizal.html) While the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) has come up with a list of the country’s official national symbols, there is also a list of unofficial national symbols. One of these unofficial national symbols is Jose Rizal. The Philippine Primer (2017) reported that long recognized in the history books as the country’s National Hero, Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda’s status as national hero has not been the subject of debate for the common Juan. Scholars, however, still argue about who should be given the title: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang were listed down by former President Fidel V. Ramos as those worthy of being given the title of National Hero. This list has not been acted on since being submitted by the National Heroes Committee on November 22, 1995. (https://primer.com.ph/tips-guides/2017/04/15/learn-about-the-philippines-nationalsymbols/) According to Ninah Villa (2014) in her A Question of Heroes in The Official National Symbols of the Philippines, among those not included in the list of national symbols is Jose Rizal, who, nonetheless is called by many Filipinos as the national hero. The title goes back to the time of the Americans where it is said our colonizers preferred Rizal for national hero. Apparently, there is no official Philippine law that has officially conferred the title to him. In an interview by the GMA News TV’s Investigative Documentaries (ID), the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) historian Ian Christopher Alfonso clarified that there can’t be a national hero simply because all our heroes did what they could for the Philippines. The implication is that, it would be unfair to pick one to elevate to the position of national hero over all the others. (https://www.pinoywit.com/official-national-symbolsof-the-philippines/) Reinerio A. Alba (2009) in his In Focus: Official National Symbols of the Philippines stated that there is also no Filipino historical figure officially declared as national hero through law or executive order. Although, there were laws and proclamations honoring Filipino heroes. On November 15, 1995, the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee, created through Executive Order No. 5 by former President Fidel V. Ramos, recommended nine Filipino historical figures to be National Heroes: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang. There has not been any action taken for these recommended National Heroes. (https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-andarts/in-focus/official-national-symbols-of-the-philippines/) Limitations of Rizal We are living in an age of anti-colonial revolutions different in content from those of Rizal’s period. Rizal could not have anticipated the problems of today. He was not conversant with economic tools of analysis that would unravel the techniques that today are being used by outside forces to consign us to a state of continued poverty. The revolution of today would be beyond the understanding of Rizal whose Castilian orientation necessarily limited his horizon even for that period. He was capable of unraveling the myths that were woven by the oppressors of his time, but he would have been at a loss to see through the more sophisticated myths and to recognize the subtle techniques of present-day colonialists, given the state of his knowledge and experience at that time. This is not to say that were he alive today and subject to modern experiences, he would not understand the means of our times. But is is useless speculation to try to divine what he would now advocate. Unless we have an ulterior motive, there is really no need to extend Rizal’s meaning so that he may have contemporary value. Many of his social criticisms are still valid today because certain aspects of our life are still carry-overs of the feudal and colonial society of his time. A true appreciation of Rizal would require that we study these social cristicisms and take steps to eradicate the evils he decried. We have magnified Rizal’s significance for too long. It is time to examine his limitations and profit from his weaknesses just as we have learned from the strength of his character and his virtues. His weaknesses were the weakness of his society. His wavering and his repudiation of mass action should be studied as a product of the society that nurtured him. Rediscovery of Other Heroes Today we need new heroes who can help us solve our pressing problems. We cannot rely on Rizal alone. We must discard the belief that we are incapable of producing the heroes of our epoch, that heroes are exceptional beings, accidents of history who stand above the masses and apart from them. The true hero is one with the masses: he does not exist above them. In fact a whole people can be heroes given the proper motivation and articulation of their dreams. Rizal is a hero of our race. But he should not be the only hero nor one who towers above all others. He is not the zenith of our greatness; neither does he have a monopoly of patriotism. Not all his teachings have universal and timeless application. Just as each social system gives way to higher forms, so must individual heroes give way to higher forms of heroism. Our admiration to Rizal should not hinder the rediscovery of heroes of the past who were overshadowed by him and who may have more relevance to our times than he does. Moreover the Rizal cult should not prevent us from discovering heroes of the present, an epoch very different from Rizal’s. We have somehow imibed that to be a hero one has to die as dramatically as Rizal did. We have overlooked the fact that heroism does not lie primarily in the circumstance of one’s death but in the acceptability of one’s life and ideas by the people. In an individual’s identification with the people, and in the articulation of their desires. Rizal articulated some of his people’s basic aspirations; this is a service we must acknowledge with gratitude. But he was inadequate for the new consciousness, the new level of struggle, the goals of a people who are marching alongside other peoples of the underdeveloped areas of the world in their search for a destiny long denied them by colonial domination. Rizal is still valid today insofar as his social criticism of Filipino colonial society is concerned. We must continue to draw inspiration from him to change those aspects of our social life that he decried and which have not yet changed, such as the neglect of our language, our habit of looking down on our own products, and our penchant for aping foreigners. Let us escape from the limitations we have imposed upon ourselves. Let us study our other heroes. Let us convince our people that they, too, can be heroes, that heroes need not be exceptions. All we need is to liberate ourselves from all the vestiges of colonialism; we, too, will easily recognize the heroes among us; we, too, can become a hero. QUOTES OF RIZAL Through Dr. Jose Rizal's literary works, he opened the minds of the Filipino people to fight for their rights in their own country. His two most famous novels with highly nationalistic and revolutionary ideas are Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, two novels exposing the arrogance and despotism of the Spanish clergy. These two novels provoked the animosity of those in power and these literary works led himself into trouble with the Spanish officials. He was imprisoned at Fort Santiago from July 6-15, 1892 then exiled to Dapitan until 1896. During his exile, the rebellion by the militant secret society Katipunan had become a full blown revolution and his enemies lost no time in pressing him down. They were able to enlist witnesses that linked him with these revolts and he was again locked up in Fort Santiago on November 3, 1896. He was convicted of rebellion, sedition and of forming illegal associations. In his prison cell he wrote a poem now known as Mi Ultimo Adios, a masterpiece, expressing not only his love for his country but also that of countrymen. Here is a collection of some of Jose Rizal quotations taken from the letters, novel, articles and poems. To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the book that tells of her past. – (Jose Rizal, quote inscribed in Fort Santiago) Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils. - (The Philippines: A Century Hence) To wish that the alleged child remain in its swaddling clothes tis to risk that it may turn against its nurse and flee, tearing away the old rags that bind it. - (The Philippines: A Century Hence) The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others. - (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos - translated by Gregorio Zaide) A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that has the most need for a free press more so even than the government of the home country. (The Philippines: A Century Hence) Encystment of a conquering people is possible, for it signifies complete isolation, absolute inertia, debility in the conquering element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign invader. - (The Philippines: A Century Hence) There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves. While a people preserves its language: it preserves the marks of liberty. It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great deal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice. I wish to show those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our country and convictions. - (inscribed at Fort Santiago Walls) Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter. - (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) Filipinos don’t realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is the product of sacrifice.- “Como se gobiernan las Filipinas” (How one governs in the Philippines), published in La Solidaridad (15 December 1890) No good water comes from muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed. (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. - (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. - (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction. (Indolence of the Filipino - La Solidaridad - 1890) One only die once and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again. - (Letter to Mariano Ponce - 1890) The world laughs at another man’s pain.- (“Song of the Wanderer”, st.8 – translated by Nick Joaquin) All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him decieved by others. - (Letter to the Young Women of Malolos) Without education and liberty, which are the soil and the sun of man, no reform is possible no measure can give the result desired. - (Indolence of the Filipinos - La Solidaridad) SOURCE: http://mmdelrosario.hubpages.com/hub/jose-rizal-quotes