Today is the 159th birth anniversary of the greatest Filipino—Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Rizal did not bear arms and engage in arm struggle against the foreign tyrant. By the power of his pen, he opened the eyes of his countrymen to the abuses of the Spaniards and inspired them to aspire for freedom.
Rizal’s family was a wealthy landowner in Laguna, which enabled him to attend the best schools in Manila. He even went abroad for further study where he completed his medical degree at the Universidad de Madrid. While abroad, he became involved in the Propaganda Movement, together with other Filipino nationalists like Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Jose Ma. Panganiban. The group advocated social and political reforms in the Philippines, although Rizal did not seek independence from Spain. He demanded equal treatment for the Filipinos, representation in the Spanish Cortes, Filipinization of the clergy and curtailment of the abusive power of the local Spanish authorities. He wrote several articles in La Solidaridad, which the group published in Barcelona, denouncing Spain’s tyrannical rule in our country. His novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, exposed the despotic regime of Spanish government and the religious authority in our country. He was acknowledged as the leader of the Filipino reformists in Spain and his countrymen recognized him as the inspiration of the reform movement. He helped prepare the ground for revolution. Upon his return he founded a non-violent organization of Filipinos, the La Liga Filipina, to pursue the peaceful reforms he envisioned. The Spanish government became suspicious of his activities and it decided to exile Rizal to Dapitan. When the Spanish-American War broke out in Cuba, he volunteered his medical services but he was arrested on his way to Cuba and deported back to the Philippines. By then, the Katipunan founded by Andres Bonifacio had started its uprising against Spain. He was arrested and tried for sedition by the Spanish authorities although he was against staging a revolution against Spain. He was found guilty and executed by firing squad on December 30, 1896. His death further galvanized the Filipinos and widespread revolt erupted resulting in the Philippine Declaration of Independence in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.
Rizal had produced volumes of works—novels, essays, fables and poems—and even wrote a masterpiece of a poem on the eve of his execution but one work which had drawn less attention was a short letter that he addressed to the 20 young women of Malolos. During Rizal’s time, women’s education was limited to basic primary instruction where the 3 Rs, religion and needlecraft were taught. Secondary and tertiary levels were the exclusive domain of the male students. The traditional role reserved for women was to raise children and become homemakers, but the young women of Malolos dreamed of getting higher education. The women personally delivered a written petition to the Spanish Governor General on his visit to Malolos seeking the governor general’s approval to open up a night school at their expense where they could learn Spanish under Teodoro Sandiko. Sandiko had been teaching the language secretly but only to very few people as it was outlawed. Sandiko wanted to serve more students by making it legal. Upon being informed of their brave efforts, Rizal wrote a letter to the women and supported their position that women were not just destined for motherhood and confined at home. He upheld their view that women were at par with men in all other endeavors. Understandably, the women wanted to learn the language since Spanish was a powerful medium in government, business and society. However, the friars were afraid that acquiring the language would open their minds to the world of liberal ideas since most books were written in Spanish. Women would demand greater rights, which would pose a threat to their power and authority. So the local friars opposed this. Eventually, through constant lobbying, the petition was granted in February 1889. This was Rizal’s legacy to womanhood. Rizal was among the first to recognize the rights of Filipino women to education. The women of Malolos ignited the women’s movement in our country and they championed the women’s rights for education and equal treatment in society.
Rizal was a man of thought and ideas. Unlike Andres Bonifacio, the founder of Katipunan, who advocated revolution against the foreign oppressor, he merely wanted peaceful change. However, we cannot ignore Rizal’s valuable contributions to the cause of our freedom. His writings enkindled our people’s yearning for liberty and independence, which the more radical forces led by Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo boldly and relentlessly pursued. In a sense, he “midwifed” our independence. And his dramatic death at the hands of the colonizers, capped by his writing of a masterful verse in Spanish, “Mi Ultimo Adios,” on the eve of his execution, elevated him to the pantheon of our heroes. His birth, gift of intellect and language, education, literary achievements, fervent nationalism and background, including his rich love life, had romanticized his life. He was revered in life and idealized in death by his beloved countrymen who regarded him as their preeminent hero and the First Filipino.