June 19 seems to have come and gone unnoticed with nary a peep in the media on the occasion of Dr. Jose Rizal’s natal day – 162 years to date. What was something big and celebrated way back when has been relegated to just a mere spot in the calendar for our national hero whose martyrdom inspired the 1896 revolt that broke the back of the Spanish rule in the Philippines.
What still remains of Rizal’s imprint in the collective memory is his death by firing squad in Bagumbayan, which is enshrined in our Rizal Day holiday observance every December 31. That our national hero has fallen a notch down in popular imagination can be attributed to the tumultuous times we are in; plus the hangover of a pandemic that has led the nation to more than two years of stupor. But it shouldn’t be the case. Perhaps by way of recall, then Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal issued Proclamation No. 118, s. 1963, declaring June 19 as a special public holiday, which fittingly honors Rizal’s life rather than just his death. And it is in this sense that perhaps, Rizal the living persona would now be more relevant today than Rizal the iconoclastic statue that graces every municipal plaza in the country.
How would Rizal square up to what has become his Philippines in the 21st century? What would be his response to the situation where more than 3 million of his compatriots work and reside abroad as he did for quite a spell hounded not by poverty as today’s OFWs are, but by a vengeful Spanish regime? How would he, an “ilustrado” by birth, succored by his family’s wealth and head above the ordinary peasant, see the plight of his countrymen whose lives are mired in inequity and injustice? How would he see the world with its evolving geopolitics and mixed up alliances transform and influence the lives of not only of this generation of Filipinos but of the next generations yet to come? There are a number of questions that Rizal would find challenging to answer and whose resolution involves not only judgement but also of fortitude, courage and firm determination. It would in a sense involve more than just dying for one’s country; but more of living to realize a future that will benefit one and all.
Rizal in his prescient essay, The Philippines A Century Hence, asked the penultimate choice between a reforming society or a society in revolt and conflagration: “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.” It is a question that has perplexed him through his two great novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo; and which he tried through the last decade of his life to prove that the country could transition without the inevitability of chaos. The Spanish authorities put an end to his lifelong search. Yet the struggle that Rizal waged against oppression, against poverty and ignorance that beset his homeland remains as a startling lesson for today’s generation of leaders to bear in mind and to act. How would Rizal himself, thinking aloud, have felt and taken action in today’s Philippines?
He would invariable cast his lot with those he sees as the oppressed and the needy, the marginalized and the outcast, the suffering and those who have less in life. For in Rizal, hope is the beacon that can guide our people out of the darkness. Hope that can improve lives because people with hope will strive forward no matter what their circumstance. That is why he saw the education of the masses, particularly of the young and those willing to learn, as the means of breaking up the chains of ignorance and indifference that have kept majority of Filipinos in penury and economic need. He would have lauded his countrymen who have gone to work and earn their family’s income abroad so that their children at home would have the opportunity to study and educate themselves and through them, uplift their siblings and family members as well. It was Rizal’s obsessions with new learning —with science and technology that goaded him to seek out the founts of knowledge in various capitals of the world. Knowledge for him is what would liberate us from the bounds of poverty and enable our forebears to make out better lives for themselves more than we have ever had in our lifetimes.
For Rizal would have been optimistic about the future no matter how challenging the present circumstances may be in our lives. He sees boundless opportunities in how the new generation would be able to harness the tools of science and technology if only given the opportunity to do so by a government authority that is “people-oriented” and socially conscious, instead of being driven solely by personal ambition and greed. As Rizal sees it, government reforms are the basic framework to set the country in the right direction to be a proud member in the family of nations, or in the language of present day functionaries, “a First World or advanced economy” by 2050. It is in this context that Rizal’s vision of a Philippine society parallels that of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The latter concern for sustainable and environment friendly actions can be seen actively pursued by Rizal in what he described as a “pleasant life” in Dapitan, where he was exiled by the Spanish government and true to character showed his jailers and compatriots that even the smallest of us, the humblest of us, could do good work by devoting his skills doing agricultural and civic projects and engaging in business activities that benefit the community where he lived.
But Rizal was not only concerned with his present environment; he had also cast a wide net in which to view the affairs beyond our country’s shores. If there is one thing that can be said about him, one can say that he was truly our first “internationalist” – one whose wide-ranging experiences through his travels and learning abroad has come to view the global scene with a discerning eye on what the Philippines could find itself in as the world goes through its political, social, and economic revolution of sorts. What is important, as Rizal sees it, is for the Philippines to stand free and independent no matter how the winds of geopolitical change buffeted our homeland. According to him, “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.”
As events in Southeast Asia have placed the country in the nexus of contending powers and political and economic interests, it is crucial that we remain steadfast on our goal of protecting the national weal, especially the country’s freedom that millions of our countrymen, like Rizal, have worked and died for.
The writer is a retired professor of the UP College of Mass Communication. E-mail the author at reynaldo.guioguio8@gmail.com
Image credits: Earl Hurna | Dreamstime.com