Noli Me Tangere

Rizal as a Patriot, Author, and Scientist

2012-02-08T04:01:00.002+08:00

By Francis Burton Harrison, Governor-General 1915-1921

[Of all the governor-generals the Philippines have had, Mr. Harrison was the most beloved by the islanders. He seemed to have an instinctive sympathy with them and after his retirement from office testified to their worth in a remarkable book, "The Cornerstone of Philippine Independence." The comments that follow are extracts from an address he delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of Rizal Hall, University of the Philippines, December 15, 1919.]

Addressing a university audience, I have selected three points in the life and writing of Dr. Rizal for your consideration. First is his patriotism. This university must devote its best efforts to teaching the students of to-day and those of coming generations that form of pure and unselfish patriotism that we find in the writings and sayings of Dr. Rizal. We have been gratified to follow the course in debate an in action of the students of this university in devoting their attention in a purely non-partisan way to the consideration of public questions of the day, but I address myself to the faculty as well as to the students for consideration of the form which that patriotism should take. In the days of my grandfather young men in America went to Germany to study at universities. That was the golden age when the teachings and memory of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and Heine inspired the youth of the land and brought about a political movement that was crushed and ended in 1848 in the death of liberalism and the beginning of modern autocracy. Those of us that were educated in German literature can scarcely understand the Germany of the last three decades, and yet, in my opinion, their devotion to the religion of brutality and force is to be found in the teachings of their modern university professors - an example that has terrified all mankind and threatened the liberties of the world. So I say the teaching of pure patriotism must always be dedicated to the promotion of liberties, the liberty of thought, of the individual, to the care of the welfare of the common people, and for the progress and advancement in modern science of learning of the people of the Philippine Islands.

The literary aspect of Rizal's works should commend itself to each of you as an inspiration to do your own duty. I think no man can read Rizal's novels without feeling his powerful impulse of sympathy for and understanding of the people of this country. We can be moved not only by his profound reading of human nature, but we can also be inspired to emulate, if we may, the high level of talent for which his name will ever be famous in the history of literature. Here in the Philippines I would, if I could, arouse you to more earnest devotion to a literary career. You have natural advantages second to no country in the world. Your history is replete with incidents and romance and your present latter-day development is a true inspiration to the youth of the world in all countries. Last winter when I returned to New York for my first vacation home I remember one particularly dark and gloomy day when the people on the streets, which are nothing more than cañons between high buildings of stone and glass, were jostling one another without a spark of human sympathy or appreciation, conscious competitors in the struggle for the survival of the fittest; and my mind went back to those scenes of every-day life in the Philippines, to this land of lofty mountains, of clear water running to the sea, the sunsets across Mariveles Mountain, the dawn over Mount Arayat, the blue haze upon the rice-fields in the evening-all the familiar scenes and sounds of a life animate by the sun and made happy by the richness of nature. As I remembered the deep tender lights of the coconut groves and the busy industry of our daily life, I said to myself, "There is a country which could inspire any man to literary efforts with all its wealth of romance." When I recall the history of the Philippine Islands, the coming of the Christians with the sword and flaming cross, the coming of the Mohammedans, with the crescent and the crooked creese and their cry in many a hardfought battle, the enterprise of the Spaniard in spiritual teachings as well as in material investments, the shouts of Legaspi's sailors across Manila Bay, the guns of Dewey so many generations later, the efforts of our country to establish here our principles of democracy, it seems to me that any young man or woman born upon this soil and inspired by ideas has an opportunity to take a place in the very foremost ranks of literature and history and show to the world not only what has been done here in education but what the world may expect of the Filipino people when they take their rank as an independent member of the brotherhood of nations.

In the scientific aspect of his teachings Rizal ranked high in public appreciation, higher indeed in other countries than at that time he was allowed to rank here. He was recognized for his scientific work in ethnology, in zoology, and in botany in England and in the leading universities of Germany. Upon his death, the most distinguished scientist in Germany of that Professor Virchow, stated that this was a murder of the most prominent scientist that Spain possessed. In my opinion Rizal's greatest services to the cause of the human race were those scientific impulses which he gave to the world of his duty, and the martyrdom which he suffered was but another example of the determination of organized society in every age to eliminate those that by the pure processes of reason have arrived at new theories for the conduct and welfare of mankind. From the day of Socrates, who was put to death by the citizens of Athens for teaching the young men to think for themselves, down to that morning in December, 1896, when Rizal was done to death by the firing-squad at Bagumbayan, the pages of history have run red with the murder of men of science. In Europe of the Middle Ages the names of Roger Bacon, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, Agrippa, Campanella, Kepler, Lavoisier, of Priestly, and many others of less distinction in the annals of history have shown what struggles the human mind has been called upon to endure and to what stress the human body has been put in the efforts of science to liberate the human mind....

Bearing all these things in mind, it seems to me that we can justly appreciate Rizal's love of science and his final martyrdom as the greatest contribution to the freedom of thought ever given by any one man to the Filipino people. This hall which we are about to dedicate, reserved as it is to be for the study of science, is the most fitting monument to the name of Rizal that could be devised. Here he alive to-day I have no doubt he would feel an infinitely greater inspiration in the thought that his name was to be attached to this great edifice and that his memory was to be preserved by the study of young Filipinos, men and women, in the natural sciences than he would be in that splendid statue erected down there on the Bagumbayan to perpetuate the memory of his patriotic death.

Now, my friends, in dedicating this edifice to progress, I believe that it will stand for progress as long as the Filipino people themselves remain progressive and as long as you will fight the battle for liberty of thought and of reason, and, I believe, also, that Dr. Rizal, if he has any conscious knowledge in those ethereal spaces to which his soul has been summoned, will summon the youth of his beloved country to dare all, to endure all, and, if needs be, to suffered all that he himself had dared, endured, or suffered in order that science may not perish from the face of the earth.

http://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/rizal/r-scient.htm

REST NOT, RIZAL, NOT YET!

2012-02-06T19:16:00.003+08:00

Ka Pule2 hereby ventures to submit this post with a feeling of trepidation, as he could be opening up a Pandora's box of humanity's misconceptions, but does hereby feel and say to himself: "Come what may!"

This thinking of Ka Pule2 has percolated in his subconscious mind since early 1975, after having viewed the theatrical play in London -- Jesus Christ - SUPERSTAR. And from his readings of Rizal's writings, particularly Rizal's Unknown Writings and Rizal's Unread Legacy by Juan Collas, more particularly his (Rizal's) unfinished manuscript -- Los Filipinos y los Frailes (Friars and Filipinos).

Ka Pule2 feels more emboldened, after having read Ka Rudy Vera's (am I not mistaken?) -- "The image of Rizal as Hesukristo, who like the Savior, died at the age of 33 (Rizal was 35). The biblical and religious and mystical parallels are in fact hair-raising."

Ka Pule2 now offers a tantalizing topic.

Could Jose Protacio Rizal be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ? Was there a transmigration of the soul (even so through an intermediary) between the two of them?

The question that necessarily follows: Is Rizal immortal?

Ka Pule2 could not but be tantalized by such questions, after having considered the following:

1. The sufferings of Jesus Christ, during the very brief period of his ministry pale in comparison with the indignities, trials, tribulations, hardships, humiliations, and martyrdom of Jose Rizal -- not to mention the injustices inflicted to members of his family.

The family of Jesus Christ (or even the mother, Santa Maria to rabid Catholics) did not suffer, such hardships as how Doña Teodora Alonzo y Realonda, Rizal's mother, was made to walk barefoot -- a distance of about fifty (50) miles -- from Calamba town, to Sta. Cruz, the provincial capital of Laguna; while her captors / tormentors -- the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines, as instigated by the friars -- the guardia civiles, were on horseback!

2. From the book -- The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ -- by Levi H. Dowling, which revealed the "Savior's" very comfortable life (which has been mysteriously lacking in the Holy Bible) and enjoyable sojourn in India, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Assyria and the Middle East; in Greece, as well as in Egypt, Jesus Christ enjoyed life to the fullest, until we find in the biblical accounts of his very brief ministry and popularity in Judea.

And if the Lost Books of the Bible, which were reportedly unearthed from the Qumran Caves, and the Nag Hammadi Scrolls found in Upper Egypt, were to be considered, some biblical accounts were said to have been stage-managed to build up a divinity cult. In fact, Jesus Christ's sufferings were a result of his being branded by the Roman Imperialists as a revolutionary and a subversive. Even so, the death verdict pronounced by the Roman procurator -- Pontious Pilate -- Ka Pule2 ventures to say, was perhaps one of the first people's power on record.

Having unburdened his mind and conscience of the foregoing, Ka Pule2 anxiously feels the temerity that he could be branded as the modern filibuster. And having said these, it would be proper perhaps for Ka Pule2 to somehow identify himself, for the equanimity of his conscience, and the satisfaction of his readers, of whatver shades of thought and conscientious judgment.

He was born and baptized a Roman Catholic. His mother who died when he was not yet ten years old wished (if not vowed) that he would become a priest; or if unattainable, to serve in the local parish for at least one year. A promise towards its fulfillment was exacted upon his father on her deathbed.

It so happened that his mother Sinforosa Nitro Perez had Protestant relatives who, while on travel on foot from Cuenca town in central Batangas province during the 1920s (there were no roads yet) to their new settlements in the eastern provincial borders of Batangas with Quezon, passed the night of their protracted journey in the home of Ka Pule2 in Lumang Bayan, or Old Rosario.

During the worshipers' moments of prayers, with chanting of hymns to the Almighty, their house was pelted with stones by the thoughies of the place, no doubt to creep up the sleeve of the local curate, the Reverend Antonio Fanchini -- God bless him -- an Italian priest who told his parishioners that the "cult worshiphers were followers of the devil."

This was followed by summons from the curate for Ka Pule2's father Eusebio Robles Goce, to submit to confession because he gave quarters to the devil's followers. They met.

"Confess your sins," demanded the curate. To which the 'sinner' countered:

"If I made a tresspass, Your Reverence could go to court, and I shall testify, according to the Holy Book which admonishes us to "shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty..."

They never talked to each other after that!

Such was the situation when Ka Pule2 asked the cura's permission, in fulfillment of his mother's vow, or promise, for him to serve in the church for at least one year as a sexton, or sacristan. He bravely approached, and volunteered to serve the priest by himself, and he lodged with Fr. Fanchini during his Grade Four year in the Old Rosario Barrio School.

There was a funny account which Ka Pule2 heard from their neighbors later, to the effect that in order to atone for his father's "sins" his mother suffered to walk on her knees from the church door to the altar. So much for that.

And now, Ka Pule2 is a Freemason, and an inactive member of the Knights of Rizal, even a filibuster, as Rizal was branded duuring his time. Ka Pule2 enters any house of worship, provided he would not be driven out and away. He respects all religions, and believes that the Almighty One is the same Supreme Being to all of His creations.

Thanks a thousand-fold to everyone who suffered to read the above daring, if not reckless prognostications. And a happy soul-searching to one and all!

Irineo Perez Goce (aka) Ka Pule2

C/L: Lungsod ng LIPA, Pilipinas

Hispanic Philippines

2012-02-06T14:58:00.001+08:00

Vestiges

Hispanic Philippines

By José S. Arcilla S.J.

The Philippine revolution that ended Spanish rule in the Philippines was actually limited tothe elite of local society. It was different when the Americans arrived in 1899, for the entire country took up arms to stop the new colonizers.

The Filipino ilustrados clamored for reforms, but Spanish insensitivity egged on people like Bonifacioto do something and not be satisfied with mere words. Though better educated and often wealthier than most peninsular Spaniards, the latter looked down on them as mere "hijos del pais" (country folk, or, worse, "taga barrio lang"). This insult, directed notagainst any individual, but against the entire Filipino people, ignited the revolution of 1896-1899. And yet, the Filipino elite could have been the most loyal subjects of the Spanish Crown.

The deeply religious vein of local society made the Philippine situation unique, different from the SouthAmerican revolutions. There were, naturally, differences between the ruler and the ruled, but the religion was the soul of Philippine society.

To their credit, the early Spanish colonizers, conscience-stricken because of the abuses the conquest had occasioned, looked to justify theiraction. They agreed that Spain could conquer and rule the Philippines only propter evangelium (for the sake of the Gospel). Spain neither conquered, nor inherited the Philippines, and the Filipinos did not choose Spainto their ruler. Only through papal delegation could Spain govern the Philippines in order to Christianize the people. But only a stable institution, namely, aChristian government -- presumably, Spain’s -- couldassure the evangelization of the Philippines

As in every colonial program, Spain exploited the Philippines. But distance and the lack of spices limited Spanish migration, and more missionaries than colonies braved two oceans. Their primary role was topreach the Gospel, but they were forced to act as government agents where there were none. More that teaching Christianity, the apostolic task expanded tohumanize in order to Christianize the people.

It was an enrichment of indigenous society, aprogram that elevated the people to a more human existence. Nomadic tribes developed into permanent communities, slavery, cannibalism, polygamy eventually ended, and the use of the plow revolutionized local agriculture. Life within acommunity emphasized specialized roles that depended on a mutual exchange of social obligation. They no longer had to spend all their waking hours scrounging for food. For the fisherman could exchange his catch with the carpenter’s efforts tobuild his house, the fighter exchanged his defensive skills for the medical practitioner, etc. They soon had extra time in their hands, free time from ceaseless food production, leisure time for things of the spirit or their cultural growth, without which human life is impossible.

What was the key to this cultural growth? More than mere theoretical knowledge, Christianity calls for anew style of life. Correctly, it has been said Christian truth provide a plan and motives that determine one’s behavior, i. e., it integrates life. For it is fully understood only when one lives according to its tenets. And Christian teaching transformed isolatedand mutually hostile tribes into a people whoaccepted Hispanic Christian values that molded their lives accordingly.

Perhaps, Jose Rizal’s experience at the Ateneo Municipal in Manila will give an idea of the transformation Christian teaching brings about. He began schooling, he recalled, still a child, with little knowledge of Castilian, his mind hardly developed,and emotionally immature. By self-discipline and constant study, reading the classical authors like Cicero or Plato, and numberless corrections by a"benevolent" professors, he gradually changed, and there "opened before me a new path I could follow."

We know the path led, among others to his novel, "Noli Me Tangere," the book that awakened his countrymen to rise above themselves, be good citizens who would help the country with their headand their heart. One must always work with the headand the heart, and with the hands when the occasion calls. And through Fr. Florentino in his second novel, "El Filibusterismo," Rizal insisted that we must freedom by deserving it, respecting human dignity, loving justice, goodness, truth, even dying for it. For freedom is not won by the sword. Freedom, the crown of the human spirit, is a spiritual reality no material instrument can give us.

Jose Rizal continues to surprise us

2012-01-29T20:08:00.000+08:00

By Random Jottings

OPEN NOTEBOOK

JUST when we thought we knew everything there is to know about national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, we now get a glimpse of his hitherto little known light-hearted nature, impish humor and playful character.

It comes courtesy of the last known book that Rizal penned while in exile in Dapitan. Titled Sibylla Cumana, it is a “spin-the-top-and-learn-your-future” game book created primarily for youthful enjoyment. The book was written in Spanish, but English and Tagalog versions were published for the first time recently, with the net proceeds from the sales being donated by the publisher Cruz Publishing (headed by PSE Director Ismael “Toto” Cruz) to the Paciano Rizal Family Heritage, Inc. for the education of indigent youth in Laguna, the birthplace of Jose Rizal.

In providing the eloquent foreword for the book, the distinguished writer Carmen Guerrero Cruz Nakpil noted: “Most of us thought we knew everything about Rizal after more than a hundred years of hero-worship. We wallowed in his many splendors and never tired of reciting his accomplishments as poet, novelist, ophthalmologist, man of the world, radical intellectual, dragon slayer and, finally, creator of our nation.

“He was ever the glorious but distant savior in the black, winter overcoat of his monuments, who had shattered the evil empire that had held us and laid down his life so we could be free.

“Of course, newer historical research fleshed him out, to our surprise, to be a well-rounded, complete man of many other parts. Incredibly gifted as he was, we learned that he was also socially adept among all kinds of people. A compulsive traveler, he frequented parlors, cafes, bewitching pretty ladies, quarreling with rivals like M.H. del Pilar and Antonio Luna, indulging in hugely wide interests, comic tales, butterfly hunting, sunken vessels, even home decor for the family house in Calamba.”

An unexpected facet of Rizal’s persona has been revealed with this book. He was so humorous, playful and resourceful that he invented and produced the material for a whole new parlor game, using a character from the ancient Graeco-Roman culture of occult practices, the Sibylla Cumana, seeress and fortune-teller.

In 1895, the year before he died, just before he left Dapitan, for Cuba and the Spanish medical corps to which he had volunteered – an act which he probably saw as an end to his exile and his return to Manila to continue the fight with Spain- he produced, in a burst of marvelous creativity, a whole new parlor game.

It was this Spin-the-Top-and-Learn-Your- Future game, using a wooden top and a list of numbered questions and answers on popular, worldly matters like love, business and relationships. He entrusted the materials for playing Sibylla to his sister, Narcisa Rizal Lopez who was visiting him in Dapitan. Throughout the terrible events that followed — the Revolution against Spain, Rizal’s execution, the Filipino-American War, the American Occupation, World War II, the Rizal Lopez family guarded the treasure with their lives.

Says Carmen Nakpil: “It was only in 2011, the year of the National Celebration of the 150th Rizal Birth Anniversary, that the heirs of Paciano Rizal decided to reveal this family heirloom to the nation. It is an overwhelming treasure. Packed in an old recycled envelop which bares the New York City address of a machine shop and a sketch by Rizal of their family tree, are an octagonal wooden top only a few inches tall, page upon page of questions and answers in Spanish, and two hand-drawn portraits of the Sibylla. The answers purportedly given by the sorceress-fortune teller were actually written by Rizal.”

They provide a panorama of Filipino thought, customs, interests and practices at the end of 19th century Filipinas. They are also mostly irreverent, risqueì and downright funny, a revelation of Rizal’s unfailing sense of humor.

“Maybe, with this final gesture, Rizal was telling us not to be afraid of the future, and was wishing us joy, a light heart and companionable group fun,” Carmen Napkil concluded.

For more information on the book, contact Cruz Publishing at 8911945 or cruzpublishing@gmail.com

rjottings@yahoo.com

Tandang Sora — Who Was She?

2012-01-14T23:47:00.002+08:00

More to the Point

Tandang Sora — Who Was She?

By DR. FLORANGEL ROSARIO BRAID

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City recently marked the beginning of the Melchora Aquino (Tandang Sora) bicentennial last January 6 by transferring her remains to her birthplace in Barrio Banlat, now known as barangay Tandang Sora. President Aquino who was guest of honor, .called on all Filipinos to “emulate her being an agent of change.”

It looks like Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte will have a challenging year ahead as there is little known about the life of Tandang Sora. No book has been written about her, and much of the information available is anecdotal. However, the scanty material that is available provides interesting “leads” that seem to indicate that our heroine has other talents besides being a courageous supporter of the Katipunan movement.

I understand that some of the activities being lined up consist of research, seminars, and conferences that would focus on her being a role model for women. These concerns on gender issues could provide the opportunity to answer questions that were raised during the celebration of the Philippine Centennial in1998.

Taking the cue from Leonard Wood, American governor-general who once remarked that the best men in the Philippines are the women, Prof. Albina P. Fernandez wrote an article entitled, “Why Are the Women Invisible in History?” She argues that in history books, women appear as mere passive onlookers while men single-handedly make history as wise lawgivers, builders of industry, generals of armies, statesmen, conquering heroes, and some such. She cites a National Historical Institute’s publication on heroes, Filipinos in History, where of the 117 subjects, only 17 were women.

The writers made it clear that women cannot make history on their own…and made it only because they were in the service of the real heroes as servers of food, nurses of wounded male soldiers, or makers of flags…Some are portrayed as armed combatants during the Revolution. But it was pointed out that intheir girlhood, these women like Teresa Magbanua had manifested tomboyishness and that they were actually men in women’s bodies.

After examining perspectives of various historians regarding “oppression of women” in social, economic, and political life, Fernandez suggests that the writer of women’s history must try to seek all possible sources. These include folk literature, women’s diaries, and life histories produced through interviews with women from all spheres of life as these can reveal women’s perceptions of themselves Such revelations, she notes, are necessary in order to be able to address the patriarchal colonization of women.

The Tandang Sora bicentennial celebration can, therefore, encourage further investigation of Tandang Sora’s life by pursuing a number of useful leads that are found in available anecdotes. One was that despite the fact that she never attended school, she was apparently literate and talented as a singer where she performed at local events and at Mass in her church. She was also often chosen as Reyna Elena during the Santacruzan. Mayor Bautista who is a former actor describes her as a “stunner” who looked like Dawn Zulueta, a beautiful actress.

Another is her being a single parent who raised her six children after her husband, Fulgencio Ramos, a cabeza de barrio (village chief) died. She continued to serve as hermana mayor and was active in the celebration during fiestas, baptisms, and weddings. This implies that she had a courageous spirit coupled with management skills and adequate financial resources. She also operated a store which became a refuge for the sick and wounded revolutionaries. She fed, gave medical attention to, and encouraged them with medical advice and prayers.

Her tenacity was tested when she was arrested for supporting the Katipuneros. She was tortured but still she refused to divulge any information. This led to her being deported to Guam. After the United States took control of the country in 1898, she and other Filipinos in exile returned to the country where she died in 1919 at the age of 107.

My e-mail is florangel.braid@gmail.com

Jose Rizal, A Universal Man

2012-01-05T01:37:00.000+08:00

Empowering the Filipino People

By FORMER PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FIDEL V. RAMOS
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines — To observe Jose Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary in 2011, we sought to teach ourselves, our daughters and our 8 grandchildren more about his life and times. This mission took much reading and two different walking tours of the Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago and Rizal Park at the Luneta these past six months. We also displayed the Philippine Flag and Rizal’s portrait at our Ramos Peace and Development Foundation to remind visitors about Rizal’s great achievements and his powerful influence among colonized peoples, and wrote several articles on what could have been his views on today’s hot issues.

The Universal Man

What sort of a man was Jose Rizal? At the International Discourse on “Rizal and the Asian Renaissance” hosted by Malaysian PM Mohamad Mahathir in Kuala Lumpur, October 1995, we reminisced:

“Rizal was truly a universal man – an achiever of many talents and interests in empowering not just Filipinos but also oppressed peoples in Asia and Africa.

“He was emblematic of his contemporaries – among them China’s Sun Yat-Sen and India’s Mahatma Gandhi. These nationalist leaders were born within a few years of each other. All were endowed with brilliant minds, and consecrated their lives to their people’s freedom.

“This was at the height of Europe’s effort to incorporate Asia, Africa, and Latin America into its colonial order. Yet, imperialism carried the seeds of its own destruction. Economic growth in colonized countries – however limited – developed an indigenous middle class whose educated youth arose to challenge foreign rule.”

Before that time, history’s tides had flowed largely westward. Europe’s superior technology and organizational capacity enabled it to subdue much of the world – and dominate non-Europeans in education and commerce.

Rizal and his times

Rizal represented modernizing Filipinos of his time: Intelligent tenants on large estates, a rising middle class that saw – in the corruption and inefficiency of colonial government and the exploitative economy imposed by Spain – hindrances to our country’s independence.

We may have forgotten how close to one another the peoples of colonial Asia felt. News of any people’s uprising evoked vicarious celebrations in Asia. The 1896 Philippine Revolution, the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in China, and Japan’s defeat of Russia in 1905 – all became beacons for liberation movements. Oppression suffered in common – and human love of freedom – brought our peoples together.

Rizal’s was a time of political unrest everywhere – of ferment strikingly like the European Renaissance of the 1600s. Western superiority itself stimulated Asia’s self-awareness.

Cultural rebirth from oppression

Among captive countries there was a sense of rebirth and renewed faith that great things were again possible.

In reexamining their traditions – the better to defend them – intellectuals became aware of the rich heritage of the great Southeast Asian cultures – Tagalog, Muslim, Buddhist, Mon, Khmer, Cham, Javanese, Thai, Burmese – which had flowered richly in art and architecture.

Just as the Europeans had created national cultures out of Greek and Roman stimuli – so had Asians created out of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and the Chinese classics brilliant national cultures of their own.

The most perceptive intellectuals realized early on that salvation lay in modernizing indigenous society – in adapting traditional culture to Western intrusions. Thus did Rizal put so much faith in liberal education.

Among the Malays of Indonesia and the Peninsular States, Rizal was known as the “First Malay” because he was the most intrepid of the revolutionary spokesmen of his time.

All young heroes

The 1872 repressions in Cavite gave the colonial regime spurious stability – but only until a new generation of Filipino patriots grew to manhood.

Of the heroes of our Revolution, their unique quality was how young they all were.

At 26, Rizal had finished his incendiary novel Noli Me Tangere, followed quickly by El Filibusterismo – but was dead at 35.

Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan at age 29. In 1896, Bonifacio’s faithful deputy Emilio Jacinto was only 21.

Emilio Aguinaldo, at 27, was the victorious general for independence; at 29, President of Asia’s first Republic.

Researching in London for a year, Rizal painstakingly annotated Spanish reports on the Philippines – to establish Filipinos’ “ancient dignity and culture.”

In Europe’s more spacious atmosphere, Rizal set to refute the colonial myth of Malay “indolence” that Spaniards propagated, and the racism he abhorred. “The law,” he wryly noted, “knows no color of skin; nor does reason differentiate between nostrils.”

This same theme pervaded his novels – through which Rizal sought to excite into action “the Filipino spirit of dignity and self-respect – by making them see their worthy past which they had foolishly renounced, in exchange for beliefs and strange customs they didn’t understand.” His people’s failings he ascribed to the enervating influences of Spain’s decrepit regime.

Rizal’s execution

Austrian Professor Harry Sichrovsky’s book, “Blumentritt And Rizal: The Austrian Friend Behind The Philippine National Hero” (first published in the 1980s and reprinted in 2011 by the National Historical Commission) is a rich resource of Rizaliana. Sichrovsky narrates:

“Early morning 30 December 1896, Rizal started on his walk from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan (now Luneta Park). Many details have been told about this final march: how the military doctor noted Rizal’s normal pulse shortly before death; how Rizal requested to be shot in the chest (which was denied); how he forgave all involved in his execution.

“Spanish authorities arranged the ceremony like a fair. Hundreds from the Castilian administration showed up. Military units and bands paraded, adding to the festive atmosphere. The firing squad consisted of Filipinos of the colonial army. Behind them stood a detachment of Spanish soldiers with muskets leveled at their ‘brown comrades’ should they refuse to shoot their countryman.”

“At the moment of his fall, Rizal turned, ending up with his face to the sun. The Spaniards applauded vigorously, while Filipinos watched in enraged silence.

“Calls of ‘Viva España!’ thundered. Long live Spain? Did not those who shouted thus surmise that the musketry just heard was the prelude of Spain’s collapse?”

The execution of Rizal stirred emotions everywhere. Foreign newspapers, which before hardly took notice, reported the execution. The international prestige of Spain suffered a heavy blow. Indeed, in the Philippines, the death of Rizal – as embodiment of uprightness, tolerance, kindness, and liberalism – had the effect of a call to arms.

Thousands who initially hesitated were inspired to join the revolutionaries whose ranks quickly swelled.

Titans of emancipation

The global significance of Rizal cannot yet be sufficiently assessed. All three titans of Asian emancipation were born within eight years: Rizal in 1861, Sun Yat-Sen in 1866, and Mahatma Gandhi in 1869.

Influenced by Western “modern ideas and institutions,” they introduced new thinking in Asia. However, at the time when Sun Yat-Sen was still a student and Gandhi a schoolkid, Rizal was already preparing concrete forms not just of nationalist revolution but was developing the concept of equal rights for colored people, of the partnership of countries not governed by whites.

According to Professor Sichrovsky, it was Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, who helped Rizal formulate and propagandize such ideas. How much of this explosive force originated from Blumentritt – his share in its development – cannot be reckoned accurately. But the handed-down documents speak for themselves.

Rizal was the architect of Asia’s awakening, its apostle of nationalism, and first prophet for freedom and independence. And, the Revolution he ignited was the proof that colonized peoples could produce capable statesmen and chief commanders just like the whites; that the derided “coolies” and “buffalo herdsmen” were capable of defeating the Europeans who were better armed and trained. This is the historical service of Rizal – and, secondarily, Blumentritt’s.

Their immediate effects were not long in coming. Nineteen months after Rizal’s death, the Spanish flag was brought down from Fort Santiago in surrender.

Blumentritt’s Litomerice

Ferdinand Blumentritt never got over the loss of his friend and “twin brother.” But after the first grief, he decided that he could honor Rizal’s memory effectively if he continued to write about and explain the events in our far-away country.

His library in Litomerice became a meeting place of Filipinos who, as Rizal’s successors, organized spiritual and material support for the Revolution, and represented the Philippine Republic as unofficial ambassadors.

Prominent among them were Juan Luna and Felipe Agoncillo. Luna ranked among the greatest of Philippine painters; his brother Antonio was a renowned General of the Revolution.

Agoncillo was Information Minister and legal adviser of President Aguinaldo. As Aguinaldo’s envoy, he attempted to make the US Senate reverse its decision in ratifying the Treaty of Paris, under which the Philippines was purchased by the US for just 20 million dollars from Spain.

Learning more

TODAY’S OFFICIALS AND YOUNG FILIPINOS SHOULD LEARN MORE FROM RIZAL AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

THIS IS OUR CIVIC DUTY.

GO ONLINE, BUT ALSO PERFORM ON THE GROUND!!!

Please send any comments to fvr@rpdev.org. Copies of articles are available at www.rpdev.org

Do we really know Rizal?

2012-01-02T12:21:00.000+08:00

Commentary

Do we really know Rizal? Rizal law ineffective

By Mona Lisa H. Quizon

In the wake of the controversy over a bill seeking tointegrate a course on the life of Andres Bonifacio in the college curriculum, a reassessment of the Rizal law and its effect on our educational system is called for.

The Rizal law has come a long way. After Republic ActNo. 1425 aimed at including a study of the life and works of Jose Rizal in the curricula of public and private schools was approved by President Ramon Magsaysay on June 12, 1956, teaching Rizal has been mandatory in our school system.

Fifty-five years have passed. Now we live in a world dominated by cyber technology and scientific breakthroughs, revolution, terrorism, environmental crisis and natural catastrophes, a world of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, the X Factor and MTVs. Do we really still know Rizal?

Do we understand what he wanted for the country? Do we still remember why he was a hero?

Rizal’s death anniversary today was declared a national holiday to give Filipinos time to recall his achievements and contributions to the nation. Commemorative rites take place at his monument in Rizal Park and other parts of the country, even abroad.

Law ineffective

The Rizal law was made so that the Filipinos, especially the youth, will not forget him. But the question remains, why should we not forget him?

The teaching of the Rizal course in the classroom isintended to awaken the sense of patriotism and nationalism in every Filipino youth and push them to apply the principles bequeathed by Rizal as solutions to present day problems.

Sadly, the years have shown that the Rizal law has not been effective.

Nowadays, when a Filipino is asked what she/he knows about Rizal, chances are she/he would say that Rizal is the image on the one-peso coin, or that he was the one shot in Luneta.

Knowledge of Rizal has been limited to knowing the streets named after him, or to the characters in his novel.

Deeper understanding of Rizal has been blocked by our interest in such things as the Internet. Some of us know Rizal only by name. And not knowing him, we have become what Rizal fought against all his life. We have become indifferent.

Scratching the surface

How have we come to this?

In school we only get the basic information about him. We get to read his novels and poems and learn of the places he visited and even the women who became part of his life. But we have ended up not knowing what he really stood for. We even wear shirts bearing his image but we do not go deeper in understanding him.

Some college students who take up technical courses, such as engineering or medicine, even question the relevance of the Rizal subject to their careers; theyinsist that the subject is just a waste of time and money.

Jose Rizal and the Rizal law are part of our history. Rizal the Filipino and Rizal the course both have a reason and purpose for us.

Rizal stood as one of the great men produced by the Malay race. His peaceful means of reform made him Asia’s first modern nonviolent proponent of political reforms. The Rizal law is an avenue for the youth to understand Rizal’s vision. The law aims to put Rizal closer to our hearts.

Why heroes exist

Strengthening not only the Rizal course but the subject of Philippine history is important. We will not only be inspired by Rizal but also by other heroes like Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Jacinto and Marcelo H. del Pilar who, like Rizal, exemplified the virtues of honesty, integrity, peace based on justice and patriotism.

Filipinos are capable of achieving great things in life and, like our heroes, we can excel in our ways.

But the most important thing is to know the reason why heroes exist, why there is a need for them. Studying Heroism 101 is to look beyond heroes’ lives, far into the social circumstances or problems that created them and which heroes are supposed to solve.

If the problems still exist today, then it is our turn to become heroes, too.

Sources:

Bantug, Asuncion Lopez. Lolo Jose An Intimate andIllustrated Portrait of Jose Rizal. Manila, Vibal Foundation and Intramuros Administration, 2008.

Guerrero, Leon. First Filipino A Biography of Jose Rizal. Manila, National Historical Institute. 2008.

Republic Act No. 1425, www.chanrobles.com

Lessons of Bagumbayan

2012-01-02T05:13:00.005+08:00

Feature

Lessons of Bagumbayan

By PABLO S. TRILLANA III

ONE HUNDRED fifteen years ago today, in the early morning of December 30, 1896, Dr. Jose Rizal, for allegedly leading the revolution against Spain, was marched to Bagumbayan to face the firing squad. By 7:03 he was dead. His body, wrote the English biographer Austin Coates, “landed on its back, the sightless eyes, staring at the sun.”

One imagines that Rizal must have been happy, as fulfilled as the moth in the story his mother read to him when he was a child. Entranced by the gas lamp, the moth flew too close to its dazzling tongue of flame and was in an instant burned to death. Recollecting the story as an adult, Rizal wrote, “... I could not blame [the moth], the light has been so beautiful.” Dwelling on that thought, another Rizal biographer, Leon Ma. Guerrero, saw in the moth story an allegory about “the daring young dissenter enamored of the light of reason, and perishing init....” That dissenter, of course, was none other than Rizal himself.

“The light of reason.” The attraction to that radiant, gleaming, magical emanation of what is right, of what is moral, and consequently, of what is spiritual, seems to be the thematic pull in Rizal’s life.

It had been apparent early on. Remember the anecdote about the slippers? When Rizal was a boy, his family often went on boat rides around Laguna Lake. On one such an outing, as he was getting out of the boat, the tide swept away one of his slippers. Seeing that there was no way he could retrieve it, he tossed the other slipper into the lake. “Why did you do that?” his mother asked him. The boy replied: “If someone picks up one slipper, it wouldn’t do him any good.” Which was why he tossed the other slipper -- two slippers would make a useful pair. It was the right thing to do.

There would be many other right-thing-to-do incidents in Rizal’s life. One of the things he did to make productive use of his time while in exile in Dapitan was to put up a small hospital and once more practice ophthalmology. In July 1896, a blind man, accompanied by a friend, came to see him. The friend turned out to be Dr. Pio Valenzuela who brought Rizal two messages from the Katipunan Supremo Andres Bonifacio: the revolution would soon break out and the Katipunan was ready to spring Rizal out of Dapitan. Rizal dismissed both messages. Escaping from Dapitan, was out of the question; it wasn’t right. Rizal had given his word to his jailers that if they allowed him a modicum of freedom he would not make any attempt to escape from his island-prison. As to the revolution, Rizal never considered it the solution to the country’s problems. To the very end, he shunned fighting for political reforms through forceful means, believing that “only love can work wonders, only virtue can redeem.”

What did he mean by this?

If Rizal were living in our time, he would be aligned with modern philosophers who believe that although much of history is a record of human folly, it is also a record of the triumph of the human spirit. That chaos and change lead to a new order of wholeness and integration, of understanding and love, and eventually of sacred existence. “The whole history of the Jews, write the social thinkers Corin McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, “seems to be a continuous re-enactment of the Exodus: bondage, liberation by God’s grace, service to God as a result.”

Similarly, Philippine history seems to revolve around suffering and redemption. As far as race memory remembers, says the Filipino anthropologist Edilberto Alegre, our life as a people has always been “intertwined with the spirit world.” Everything about the early Filipinos -- their relationship with their personal world and the world outside, especially nature -- took into “conscious and direct consideration the presence of ancestral spirits and gods at birth, life and death -- the full cycle of man’s life... Life material and life spiritual were a seamless unity, a one.”

Colonial rule changed all that.

Christianity was imposed on the populace. The colonial government’s policy of divide and rule pitted neighbors against one another. The people were driven out of their farms and forced to work in huge parcels of land owned by Spanish officials and clerics called encomiendas, which nurtured nature solely for economic exploitation.

Violation of the beliefs that sustained a highly spiritual way of life, along with friar abuses, sparked a series of revolts all over the archipelago, many with religious underpinnings, and eventually led to the Reform Movement, which in turn led to the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and then the First Philippine Republic of 1899.

The era of protest saw the rise of leaders who sought not only a nation politically independent from foreign rule but also a nation of moral worth. Foremost among them was Rizal. After his studies, Rizal dedicated himself in the service of his country. He made it his mission to restore to his enslaved people the self-respect that Spain had taken away from them; free them from the shackles of oppression, poverty and ignorance; and then prepare them for the great task of building for themselves a bright future without Spain.

To reacquaint Filipinos with their proud past, he annotated Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,” underscoring the Philippines’ rich precolonial heritage. To force them to confront their tragic present, he wrote “Noli Me Tangere”; this first novel was followed by the incendiary “El Filibusterismo,” which called for political change. To prime them up for the future, he wrote “Las Filipinas Dentro de Sien Años.” In this prescient essay Rizal let on several predictions, including this: “With the new men that will spring from [the Mother Country’s] bosom... she will perhaps enter openly the wide road of progress....”

Getting on that “wide road of progress” was not easy, but it could be done. This Rizal demonstrated in Dapitan. There, without a political organization or official position, he established a small school and a hospital, drained the marshes to eradicate malaria, litup the streets, installed a water supply system, taught fishermen to catch fish scientifically and put up a cooperative to break the Chinese trade monopoly. When Rizal left Dapitan in 1896, the whole town walked him to the beach as a band played Chopin’s “Funeral Dirge.” All told, he showed, in microcosm, what a government that cared for the people could do; and in turn, how people responded to a government that cared for them. Here we see the symbiotic cycle of material progress and spiritual transformation at work.

To Rizal, the greater issue was spiritual transformation. But how would Filipinos right the many wrongs brought on by colonization that had festered for centuries? He addressed this question in the last chapter of “El Filibusterismo,” in the dialogue between Father Florentino and Simoun. “... (W)hat is to be done?” asked Simoun the impatient revolutionary, now in the throes of death. “Endure and work,” replied the gentle priest, adding “... we must win our freedom by deserving it, by improving the mind and enhancing the dignity of the individual, loving what is just, what is good, what is great, to the point of dying for it....”

After Simoun drew his last breath, Father Florentino took the steel chest which contained the fabulous treasure which the filibuster used to sow hatred for and discontent in the colonial government and thus rouse Filipinos into action. He hurled it into the sea, sending it off with a benediction: “When men should need you for a purpose holy and sublime, God will know how to raise you from the bottom of the seas. Until then you will do no evil here, you will not thwart justice or incite greed!”

In Bagumbayan, Rizal became the nation’s moral artificer, inspiring his countrymen to love “what is just, what is good,” to do what is right and even to die in defense of it. Perhaps we should give the lessons of Bagumbayan a closer look.

(Dr. Pablo S. Trillana III, is Supreme Commander (on leave) of the Order of the Knights of Rizal. He used to be the chairman and executive director of the National Historical Institute now known as the National Historical Commission.)

RIZAL AND THE CONSTITUTION

2012-01-02T00:29:00.002+08:00

ON THE FIRST DAY of June, this year, three hundred twenty men and women, coming from all parts of the country, will meet in historic Manila in a momentous rendezvous with history.

Who are these three hundred twenty men and women?

The are all Filipinos. They range in age from the young to the not-so-young. They hold diverse political, economic, religious and social beliefs. They mirror the diverse intellectual disciplines of an enlightened 20th-century. They represent thirty-eight million Filipinos. They are the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, chosen by our people in a free and democratic election, and charged with the delicate task of conceiving and writing a new Covenant, a new Charter, a new Constitution, for this dear land we call the Philippines.

I say theirs is a delicate and paramount and urgent task because it comes precisely at a juncture in our national life when we are confronted with a crisis of so serious and gigantic proportions that they very fabric of our society is threatened--and with it, our long-cherished political, economic, and social institutions.

Fundamentally, the national crisis that besets us has something to do with the fact that our society has so far failed to produce those conditions which a democratic regime, with its vaunted pretensions to equality, promises.

There are two sides to this fundamental failure.

On the political side, we have a well-entrenched system that is a negation, if not an outright mockery, of the basic democratic principle that all government authority emanates from the people.

The people, in fact, are not really free to choose their leaders through free and democratic elections. In the first place, the range of choices is effectively limited to what the Nacionalista and the Liberal Party are able to put up as candidates--and these not necessarily the best.

In the second place, elections are now characterized by the use of guns, goons, and gold to such an overwhelming exetne as to actually deny free choice within even such a limited range.

There is rampant overspending by both political parties and candidates, using both government and private resources.

There is rampant use of armed goons--both in and out of uniform.

There is rampant terrorism of voters.

There is rampant vote-buying.

And there is rampat fraud.

On the economic side, we have poverty on a frightening scale. About ninety per cent of our people are suffering in grinding poverty, with only about 2.6 per cent relatively well off with annual per-family incomes of from P10,000 and up.

With population exploding at the annual rate of about 3.5%, and the economic growing at the rate of only about 5 percent a year, the future which the majority of our people faces is indeed bleak.

Given our political and economic conditions, many of our people find themselves in that dangerous position where they are beginning to feel, perhaps rightly, that the old system must be discarded, having failed to serve their in terests, if it can no longer be reformed; and that therefore they have nothing to lose but everything to gain by installing a new politico-economic system.

With the basic politico-economic system thus judged to be a failure, in relation to its vaunted promises, all corollary political, economic and social institutions within the system are, logically by extension, also judged as failure.

In fact these institutions are perceived as nothing more than instruments designed to perpetuate the status quo.

Taken in this light, politicians, economic oligarchs, the military establishment, and even the Church, are seen together as locked together--whether wittingly or unwittingly--in what is considered to be an evil conspiracy to exploit our people.

In a democratic-capitalistic regime, so the theory goes, where various classes and interests seem to be in continual conflict and class, the government is supposed to intervene and decide issues in accordance with the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number. In the discharge of this harmonizing function, the government is seen to have failed miserably.

The tragedy is that many of our people see their government as nothing more than a co-conspirator in the conspiracy to perpetuate the status quo. The reasoning behind this harsh judgment is that our government is effectively in the grip of the oligarchs in the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches of government.

It was President Quezon who once said, "I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans." This is exactly what we have had these last 25 years: a government run like hell by Filipinos.

Consequently, our people are beginning to lose confidence in their own government. Our own government, therefore, suffers from a terrible credibility gap

Ladies and gentlemen: I have described in agonizing detail as well as the dimensions of the challenge that clearly faces the Constitutional Convention which meets in June.

I more explicit terms, a sobering and awesome challenge--sobering and awesome because we all know that the survival of our society, as we know it, may depend on whether or not the Constitutional Convention meets this challenge adequately and satisfactorily.

What are the prospects of the Constitutional Convention meeting this challenge adequately and satisfactorily, and submitting to the Filipino people a new Constitution which will be equal to their fondest hopes and dreams, and aspirations? I say that the prospects are good. I say that there are good and solid grounds for hope.

What are these good and solid grounds?

Firstly, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention represent the intellectual cream of our nation. They are intelligent. They have the expertise. They are good, able and capable men and women. And finally realizing the nature and the dimensions of the national crisis that we face, they can be counted upon to discharge their duties with creative vision, with courage, with dedicatioin, and with unflinching will.

Secondly, it can safely be assumed that the delegates are endowed with a keen sense of history. A keen sense of history will compel them to draw on the limitless reservoir of knowledge and experience of societies and civilizations past and present, including our own rich experience in human affairs, and apply those lessons which are relevant to our own conitions. They will commune with the great philosophers, the great statesmen, and the great thinkers, living and dead, alien and Filipino---and take to heart their words of wisdom, rejecting those teachings which are not useful, but applying those teachings which their own intelligence and critical judgment consider to be useful, timely, and relevant.

HERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, lies the relevance of Jose Rizal to the new Constitution.

But before I proceed, I do not think it amiss to ask the question, "Who is Jose Rizal?"

Many of us know him to be our national hero. Many of us know him to be a many-splendoured genius. Many of us know that he died for his country and his people.

But if this is all that we know of Rizal, then, certainly, indeed, we know only very little of him.

How great a man was Rizal? Marguerite Fisher, a noted American political scientist, gives us her answer, and I quote:

"Jose Rizal is a great Filipino patriot. But I should like to look at him from a broader point of view. It is only from this view that his greatness is placed in the proper perspective. An outsider, perhaps better than a Filipino, can appreciate Rizal's relationship to the great ideas of modern civilization.

"I want to stress the fact that he was the first person in all of Asia to advocate and introduce ideas which can be called modern democracy and western liberalism."

Now that we have this authoritative and impartial measure of Rizal's greatness, I now proceed to the task of establishing the connection between Rizal and the new Constitution.

The fundamental connection is given by the very fact that a Constitutional Convention is a peaceful, free and democratic instrument through which governments are established, modified, or abolished. A Constitutional Convention, therefore, stands in sharp contrast to a violent and bloody revolution!

Rizal, the humanist, and Rizal, the democrat, rejected outright the idea of a violent and bloody revolution as an instrument for effecting needed social, economic and political reforms.

In his time, the Filipino people suffered the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune hurled by a despotic, corrupt and tyrannical Spanish regime. Rizal himself and his familky were not spared this suffering. But Rizal never allowed his passions to rule his reason. In all that he did, in all that he said, and in all that he wrote, Rizal consistently maintained that the way to a good and just society is through peaceful reforms and through the education of the people--and never through armed revolution.

The final test of conviction came in 1896 when, on orders of Andres Bonifacio, Dr. Pio Valenzuela visited Rizal in Dapitan, for the purpose of sounding out his views on the impending revolution. But Rizal was not to be shaken out of his conviction. He told Valenzuela in no uncertain terms that he was against the planned revolution. Rizal, the humanist, and Rizal, the democrat, stood his ground--and to the very end, his deeds matched his words.

Beyond this fundamental connection, this fundamental point of relevance, Rizal's relevance to the new Constitution lies in his central beliefs concerning man, society, and the human condition--beliefs which are timeless and ageless, beliefs which assume the quality of universal postulates, and believes which would serve to inspire and guide us in this our time of crisis.

Rizal believed that all men are born equal, whatever the color of their skin, and that whatever differencies there are in material, social and intellectual well-being among men, are in fact differences in the social environment which man-made and therefore subject to deliberate change.

Rizal believed that there cannot be tyrants where there are no slaves. By logical inference, Rizal rejected imperialism, feudalism and fascism.

Rizal believed in the power of education and science to enlighten and to liberate the human being, and to positively advance the common welfare and banish injustice.

Rizal believed in nationalism--but nationalism of the kind that is constructive and positive, as against nationalism of the type that is negative, chauvinistic and injurious to other peoples.

Rizal believed in individual liberty and freedom, to the extent that this allows a man to seek and find self-fulfillment without injury to the rights of others. He believed in the fundamental right of men to speak and write freely, to worship freely, to associate freely, and to petition the government freely.

But Rizal also believed that active and eternal vigilance is the price men must pay gladly for liberty.

Rizal believed in good government as an instrument to advance the common welfare. He believed that government authority arises from the consent of the governed, who are sovereign.

Rizal attacked official graft and corruption as malignant cancers which sap a society of its vitality and impede progress.

Rizal believed in impartial and speedy and equal justice for all.

Rizal belived in a civil service based on merit and on competitive examinations; by implication, he rejected the evils of nepotism, cronyism, the "tayo-tayo system, and the "pakikisama" system.

Rizal believed in the dignity of labor; he had only contempt for those who lived idle and useless and purposeless lives, and for those who spend their time foolishly.

Rizal believed that given the proper climate and the right incentives and rewards, the people will work hard to improve their condition in life. On the other hand, if the people are exploited and brutalized, they will become indolent and indifferent.

Rizal believed that a man should love his country and his people and serve them to the best of his ability and with complete dedication. In this he provided the supreme example--for Rizal not only loved his country and his people and served them well all his life, but Rizal went to the extent of sacrificing his life willingly so that his people may see the dawn of a new and better day!

Yes, Rizal believed in all of these things--and believed in them with all his heart.

Yes, Rizal was a many-splendoured genius, a man who thought of great and noble things, a man who performed great and noble deeds.

Yes, Rizal was a man who had the vision of a true prophet, a man who was far in advance of his own time and cirumstances, a man "for all seasons."

AT THIS PERILOUS JUNCTURE in our life as a nation, when we are best by problems of great magnitude, when we are faced with nothing less than the crucial challenge of survival, and when we are placing so much hope in a new Constitution which will serve as the foundation and the framework for a just society, we are fortunate in having a Jose Rizal to serve as a mentor and guide to the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

=======================

Footnote:

MarPatalinjug ghost-wrote this Oration on the request of a friend for the latter's close friend. This oration won First Prize in a national intercollegiate oratorical contest.

In the subject Constitutional Convention, Mar Patalinjug had the privilege of serving as a Technical Consultant to Napoleon G. Rama who was elected a Vice President of the Constitutional Convention.

Order of the Knights of Rizal celebrates its 100 years

2012-01-01T12:23:00.000+08:00

Editorial

MANILA, Philippines — It was on December 30, 1911, that then Manila Police Chief Col. Antonio C. Torres organized the Order of the Knights of Rizal to commemorate the Martyrdom of our National Hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal. On November 16, 1916, the group organized a private non-stock corporation and named it the “Orden de Caballeros de Rizal,” with Torres as the first Supreme Commander.

In 1951, the Supreme Council of the Order filed a bill in the Congress which became Republic Act 646 signed into law by President Elpidio R. Quirino on June 14, 1951. It established the Knights of Rizal as “an instrumentality by which the teachings of our national hero… may be propagated among the Filipino people and others who may believe in his teachings to the end that they may emulate and follow his examples.”

On December 19, 1986, Presidential Proclamation No. 54 declared December 23-30 as Rizal Week. On November 26, 2001, Presidential Proclamation No. 126 declared December of every year as Rizal Month. The Order has since gone beyond Philippine shores with chapters organized in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

Over the years, the Order has established the National Rizal Youth Leadership Institute, recognized the best Filipino youth through its Jose Rizal Model Students project, launched annual nationwide literary contests for high school and college students, and organized forums on the teachings of Dr. Jose P. Rizal in various schools in conjunction with the Department of Education.

In its 100 years of existence, the Knights of Rizal has maintained its contribution to nation-building through the initiatives of its members from various disciplines and fields in Philippine society and overseas. We greet the Order of the Knights of Rizal, headed by Knight Grand Cross of Rizal Supreme Commander Emeritus Sir Justice Justo P. Torres Jr. Supreme Commanders Sir Pablo S. Trillana III, Sir Reghis M. Romero II, and other Officers and Members, on the occasion of its 100th Anniversary. We wish them all the best and success in all their endeavors. MABUHAY!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes

2011-12-31T23:31:00.000+08:00

May the New Year brings new hopes,
new promises,
and new reasons to celebrate
your presence in your life.
Have a Joyous New Year

On the onset of New Year,
I am sending you warm wishes.
This note comes
especially to a dear friend of mine,
to wish you…
a marvelous start as the year begins.
And hope that all your dreams come true,
making it truly a Wonderful Year for you

A Relaxed Mind,
A peaceful Soul,
A joyful Spirit,
A Healthy Body,
And A Heart Full of Love..,
A Blessing from the Lord through 2012
All are my prayers for You,
Wish a Happy New Year 2012

Hope You’ll have a New Year
that starts right
and ends Happy

What if Rizal had lived?

2011-12-31T01:01:00.001+08:00

By Luis H. Francia

INQUIRER.net

New York—Two world figures died recently, who were as different as night and day. Vaclav Havel, playwright, Czech dissident, and key figure in the bloodless transition from Communist state to a democratic nation, and Kim Jong-Il, dictator of North Korea, shuffled off their mortal coils recently, but in conditions vastly different from each other. The 69-year-old Kim passed away due to heart failure, while on his luxuriously appointed private train, still very much in control of arguably the most repressive state on the planet. The 75-year-old Havel, in contrast, died at his countryside home, after a long battle with cancer—an esteemed and beloved private citizen.

TV news showed grieving citizens of both countries, though in terms of sheer theatricality, it was hard to beat the spectacle of the North Korean masses weeping convulsively, wringing their hands, and beating themselves—a kind of Biblical lamentation one would associate with Job. It’s a comparison I make half-facetiously, as from all accounts, to be an ordinary North Korean you’d have to have the patience and fortitude of Job. Undoubtedly, rivers of crocodile tears flowed for the benefit of the ever-watchful guardians of the police state. (I imagine individuals being berated, or worse, for shedding less copiously than expected: “You there! Only a bucket of tears? You call that grieving? Five years of hard labor!”) Undoubtedly, some of the grief was genuine. Undoubtedly, some of the weeping was out of joy, a sense of good riddance that the man, known as Dear Leader—indeed, his leadership, if it can be called that, cost his people dearly— had died, a leader who fed his million-plus strong army even as he let his people starve. North Korea is a country where Stalinist paranoia and murderousness has fused successfully with Orwellian surveillance.

With his bad hair, elevator shoes, and oversized glasses, Kim Jong-Il seemed nothing more than a pudgy cartoonish figure. Yet, he almost always outfoxed the paladins of Western democracies by playing brinksmanship masterfully, to gain much-needed aid and other concessions, all the while building a nuclear state even as his government professed to want to engage in de-nuclearization.

Where Kim Jong-Il took over from his father as the head of a Communist regime, Havel was thrust into the public limelight through his writing and his activism against the Soviet-backed Communist state. A founder of Charter 77, the longest-surviving human-rights organization behind the Iron Curtain, Havel had the moral authority and intellectual gravitas that endeared him to his compatriots, even if at times they criticized his behavior. He was independent Czechoslovakia’s, and the subsequent Czech Republic’s, first president. The playwright who preferred blue jeans to suits and who symbolized the Velvet Revolution resisted what must have been the powerful urge to hold on to power. The man had a genuine commitment to democracy, the complete opposite of Kim Jong-Il.

With the 115^th anniversary of Rizal’s martyrdom upon us, I wondered what sort of head of state the Masonic author of two incendiary novels would have made, had he eluded the implacable hatred of the Manila friars and the executioner’s bullet, and had he been allowed in 1896 to proceed to Cuba via Barcelona, where he would have been a physician behind Spanish lines, in the conflict with the Cuban freedom fighters. (It is intriguing to think of what José Marti, the Cuban revolutionary and poet, would have made of Rizal had the former not died in 1895.) He might have been led a relatively idyllic life in Dapitan with Josephine Bracken, but possessed of a healthy ego, Rizal wanted to be back at center stage, to make history rather than be a passive witness to it.

He would have been repatriated to the Philippines, sometime in late 1898, just before the war with the United States had gotten underway. Rizal, because of his cult-like status, would have been unquestionably thrust onto the national stage. How would he have fared? Would he have sided with Aguinaldo and the Malolos government, or would he have sought to play the role of mediator between the nationalists and the American occupiers? With the capture of Aguinaldo and the surrender of many of the field commanders, would the good doctor have, like Apolinario Mabini and Artemio Ricarte, refused to pledge allegiance to the United States? (Ricarte was an enthusiastic admirer of Rizal and once proposed renaming the Philippines after his hero.) Or would Rizal have tried to balance realpolitik with the aspirations for an independent state? As president or prime minister, what policies would Rizal have adopted? Would he have been the fire-breathing Elías or the reform-minded Ibarra of the Noli, or even the now older, disillusioned, bitter but fabulously wealthy Ibarra of theFili, willing to kill innocents in order to exact his pound of flesh?

His view of the emerging colossus that was the United States would not have been as complicated as his relationship to Mother Spain, and thus more realistic. In his essay The Philippines a Century Hence, he had intuited that the U.S. might cast its eyes across the Pacific and consider possessing Las Islas Filipinas. Seeing the machinations of the U.S. representatives first-hand, he would have had no illusions that the American Eagle harbored only benign motives.

We will never know of course how Rizal would have acted, what enacted, had he been in a position of power. He may have believed the Yankee promises of eventual independence but he surely would have, if not openly then secretly, lamented the passing of an age that had made him what he was.

Rizal and the life of the good

2011-12-29T19:16:00.002+08:00

BERNARD KARGANILLA

‘The principal thing that should be demanded from a Filipino of our generation is not to be a literary man but to be a good man, a good citizen…’

Héroe inmortal, coloso legendario,

emerge del abismo del osario

en que duermes el sueño de la gloria!

-- Cecilio Apostol, "A Rizal" (En El Segundo Aniversario De Su Fusilamiento)

Is this for the ghoul who does nothing but rant about Manila’s rutted roads, dirty streets, dirty drivers, gas stoves, and crab mentality?

José Rizal said, "There are those who believe it to be the country of the cockpit, of the theatre, and mangoes; of eternal music and bright lights; of melodious songs and delightful dances; in short, everyone imagines a heaven according to his tastes and aspirations." ["The Religiosity of the Filipino People"]

Is this for the ingrate who abandoned her work-mates, partner and nieces?

José Rizal warned mothers, spouses and Filipinas: "Awaken and prepare the will of your children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clean procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must teach your children…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." [Letter to the brave women of Malolos, London, February 22, 1889]

Is this for the generation who countenances the crimes or the present immoralities?

José Rizal shunned the dark side. "Light is the most beautiful thing there is in creation and that it is worthy for a man to sacrifice his life for it." [Chapter 8: "My First Reminiscence," Memoirs of a Student in Manila]

And recommended self-assessment as the path to inner strength: "By force of study, of analyzing myself, of aspiring higher, of a thousand corrections, I was little by little transformed…" [Chapter 5: "Two Years in College," Memoirs of a Student in Manila, Manila, 1 December 1879]

This is for the hero’s dear compatriots who were admonished thusly, "A great deal of integrity and much good will…Thrift, thrift, thrift. Seriousness and equal justice for all." [Jose Rizal, writing as Honorary President of La Solidaridad, London, 28 January 1889]

This is for the children of the one true God and all good people. Learn and obey:

What to do in the wake of Typhoon Sendong and other man-made calamities. "Now our duty is to help one another while the day of vengeance has not yet arrived." [Mariano Ponce to Rizal, Madrid, 11 May 1892]

How to pass the time. "Here we are all well. (Jose) Alejandrino and (Edilberto) Evangelista are working and studying. On Sunday afternoons we gather and eat in the Filipino style and we spend the evenings talking and discussing Philippine problems, mathematics, and political principles." [Rizal to Plaridel, Ghent, 12 August 1891]

It is good for you to hope. "It is true that times are bad, the land is infertile, there are many locusts, frequent typhoons, and the wind blows away the seeds, but with devoted care there will be found there some fish." [Jose Rizal, writing as Laong Laan, Europe, October 1891]

Maturity, weapons-handling and moral strength. "It is good for the youth to devote themselves to something more serious and noble than the game of cards; and as Marco Espada says very well, the handling of a weapon gives moral strength to the individual, making him prudent and moderate." [Jose Rizal to Antonio Luna, Brussels, 3 July 1890]

Be industrious and studious. "Without virtue there is no liberty…Only virtue can redeem the slave. It is the only way to make the tyrants respect us and for foreigners to make common cause with us." [Jose Rizal to Baldomero Roxas, 45 Rue de Maubeuge, Paris, 28 December 1889]

Knowledge is power. "I suggest that you try to buy, read, but critically, the books about the Philippines…It is necessary that you study the questions that concern our country…We are the only ones who can acquire a perfect knowledge of our country." [Jose Rizal, writing as Laong Laan, to the Filipinos at Barcelona, London, 1899]

Shatter apathy, energize the Good. "Time alone, and with time the patience and constant work of those called upon to carry out the regeneration of that people, beginning with ideas, enlightening their minds, showing them new horizons, awakening in their hearts and minds the true ideals, can demolish the secular work, change and improve gradually their way of living." [Evaristo Aguirre to Rizal, Madrid, 26 June 1888]

It is not easy to separate the chaff from the grain, as Antonio Luna admitted to Rizal: "My discovery of the patriotism of false patriots has made me appreciate the just merit of persons...Out with the masks and let us see what people we can depend on." [Madrid, 19 October 1888]

Calling all units, calling all units! "The principal thing that should be demanded from a Filipino of our generation is not to be a literary man but to be a good man, a good citizen, who would help his country to progress with his head, his heart, and if need be, with his arms." [Rizal to Ponce, London, 27 June 1888]

In order to be happy, the Philippines must have "justice, good government, and good administration." [Pablo Ortiga y Rey to Rizal, Madrid, 30 July 1887]

Happy Rizal Day and Happy New Year.

Analysis Rizal's Retraction

2011-12-29T11:34:00.001+08:00

At least four texts of Rizal’s retraction have surfaced. The fourth text appeared in El Imparcial on the day after Rizal’s execution; it is the short formula of the retraction.

The first text was published in La Voz Española and Diaro de Manila on the very day of Rizal’s execution, Dec. 30, 1896. The second text appeared in Barcelona, Spain, on February 14, 1897, in the fortnightly magazine in La Juventud; it came from an anonymous writer who revealed himself fourteen years later as Fr. Balaguer. The "original" text was discovered in the archdiocesan archives on May 18, 1935, after it disappeared for thirty-nine years from the afternoon of the day when Rizal was shot.

We know not that reproductions of the lost original had been made by a copyist who could imitate Rizal’s handwriting. This fact is revealed by Fr. Balaguer himself who, in his letter to his former superior Fr. Pio Pi in 1910, said that he had received "an exact copy of the retraction written and signed by Rizal. The handwriting of this copy I don’t know nor do I remember whose it is. . ." He proceeded: "I even suspect that it might have been written by Rizal himself. I am sending it to you that you may . . . verify whether it might be of Rizal himself . . . ." Fr. Pi was not able to verify it in his sworn statement.

This "exact" copy had been received by Fr. Balaguer in the evening immediately preceding Rizal’s execution, Rizal y su Obra, and was followed by Sr. W. Retana in his biography of Rizal, Vida y Escritos del Jose Rizal with the addition of the names of the witnesses taken from the texts of the retraction in the Manila newspapers. Fr. Pi’s copy of Rizal’s retraction has the same text as that of Fr. Balaguer’s "exact" copy but follows the paragraphing of the texts of Rizal’s retraction in the Manila newspapers.

Regarding the "original" text, no one claimed to have seen it, except the publishers of La Voz Espanola. That newspaper reported: "Still more; we have seen and read his (Rizal’s) own hand-written retraction which he sent to our dear and venerable Archbishop…" On the other hand, Manila pharmacist F. Stahl wrote in a letter: "besides, nobody has seen this written declaration, in spite of the fact that quite a number of people would want to see it. "For example, not only Rizal’s family but also the correspondents in Manila of the newspapers in Madrid, Don Manuel Alhama of El Imparcial and Sr. Santiago Mataix of El Heraldo, were not able to see the hand-written retraction.

Neither Fr. Pi nor His Grace the Archbishop ascertained whether Rizal himself was the one who wrote and signed the retraction. (Ascertaining the document was necessary because it was possible for one who could imitate Rizal’s handwriting aforesaid holograph; and keeping a copy of the same for our archives, I myself delivered it personally that the same morning to His Grace Archbishop… His Grace testified: At once the undersigned entrusted this holograph to Rev. Thomas Gonzales Feijoo, secretary of the Chancery." After that, the documents could not be seen by those who wanted to examine it and was finally considered lost after efforts to look for it proved futile.

On May 18, 1935, the lost "original" document of Rizal’s retraction was discovered by the archdeocean archivist Fr. Manuel Garcia, C.M. The discovery, instead of ending doubts about Rizal’s retraction, has in fact encouraged it because the newly discovered text retraction differs significantly from the text found in the Jesuits’ and the Archbishop’s copies. And, the fact that the texts of the retraction which appeared in the Manila newspapers could be shown to be the exact copies of the "original" but only imitations of it. This means that the friars who controlled the press in Manila (for example, La Voz Española) had the "original" while the Jesuits had only the imitations.

We now proceed to show the significant differences between the "original" and the Manila newspapers texts of the retraction on the one hand and the text s of the copies of Fr. Balaguer and F5r. Pio Pi on the other hand.

First, instead of the words "mi cualidad" (with "u") which appear in the original and the newspaper texts, the Jesuits’ copies have "mi calidad" (with "u").

Second, the Jesuits’ copies of the retraction omit the word "Catolica" after the first "Iglesias" which are found in the original and the newspaper texts.

Third, the Jesuits’ copies of the retraction add before the third "Iglesias" the word "misma" which is not found in the original and the newspaper texts of the retraction.

Fourth, with regards to paragraphing which immediately strikes the eye of the critical reader, Fr. Balaguer’s text does not begin the second paragraph until the fifth sentences while the original and the newspaper copies start the second paragraph immediately with the second sentences.

Fifth, whereas the texts of the retraction in the original and in the manila newspapers have only four commas, the text of Fr. Balaguer’s copy has eleven commas.

Sixth, the most important of all, Fr. Balaguer’s copy did not have the names of the witnesses from the texts of the newspapers in Manila.

In his notarized testimony twenty years later, Fr. Balaguer finally named the witnesses. He said "This . . .retraction was signed together with Dr. Rizal by Señor Fresno, Chief of the Picket, and Señor Moure, Adjutant of the Plaza." However, the proceeding quotation only proves itself to be an addition to the original. Moreover, in his letter to Fr. Pi in 1910, Fr. Balaguer said that he had the "exact" copy of the retraction, which was signed by Rizal, but her made no mention of the witnesses. In his accounts too, no witnesses signed the retraction.

How did Fr. Balaguer obtain his copy of Rizal’s retraction? Fr. Balaguer never alluded to having himself made a copy of the retraction although he claimed that the Archbishop prepared a long formula of the retraction and Fr. Pi a short formula. In Fr. Balaguer’s earliest account, it is not yet clear whether Fr. Balaguer was using the long formula of nor no formula in dictating to Rizal what to write. According to Fr. Pi, in his own account of Rizal’s conversion in 1909, Fr. Balaguer dictated from Fr. Pi’s short formula previously approved by the Archbishop. In his letter to Fr. Pi in 1910, Fr. Balaguer admitted that he dictated to Rizal the short formula prepared by Fr. Pi; however; he contradicts himself when he revealed that the "exact" copy came from the Archbishop. The only copy, which Fr. Balaguer wrote, is the one that appeared ion his earliest account of Rizal’s retraction.

Where did Fr. Balaguer’s "exact" copy come from? We do not need long arguments to answer this question, because Fr. Balaguer himself has unwittingly answered this question. He said in his letter to Fr. Pi in 1910:

"…I preserved in my keeping and am sending to you the original texts of the two formulas of retraction, which they (You) gave me; that from you and that of the Archbishop, and the first with the changes which they (that is, you) made; and the other the exact copy of the retraction written and signed by Rizal. The handwriting of this copy I don’t know nor do I remember whose it is, and I even suspect that it might have been written by Rizal himself."

In his own word quoted above, Fr. Balaguer said that he received two original texts of the retraction. The first, which came from Fr. Pi, contained "the changes which You (Fr. Pi) made"; the other, which is "that of the Archbishop" was "the exact copy of the retraction written and signed by Rizal" (underscoring supplied). Fr. Balaguer said that the "exact copy" was "written and signed by Rizal" but he did not say "written and signed by Rizal and himself" (the absence of the reflexive pronoun "himself" could mean that another person-the copyist-did not). He only "suspected" that "Rizal himself" much as Fr. Balaguer did "not know nor ... remember" whose handwriting it was.

Thus, according to Fr. Balaguer, the "exact copy" came from the Archbishop! He called it "exact" because, not having seen the original himself, he was made to believe that it was the one that faithfully reproduced the original in comparison to that of Fr. Pi in which "changes" (that is, where deviated from the "exact" copy) had been made. Actually, the difference between that of the Archbishop (the "exact" copy) and that of Fr. Pi (with "changes") is that the latter was "shorter" be cause it omitted certain phrases found in the former so that, as Fr. Pi had fervently hoped, Rizal would sign it.

According to Fr. Pi, Rizal rejected the long formula so that Fr. Balaguer had to dictate from the short formula of Fr. Pi. Allegedly, Rizal wrote down what was dictated to him but he insisted on adding the phrases "in which I was born and educated" and "[Masonary]" as the enemy that is of the Church" – the first of which Rizal would have regarded as unnecessary and the second as downright contrary to his spirit. However, what actually would have happened, if we are to believe the fictitious account, was that Rizal’s addition of the phrases was the retoration of the phrases found in the original which had been omitted in Fr. Pi’s short formula.

The "exact" copy was shown to the military men guarding in Fort Santiago to convince them that Rizal had retracted. Someone read it aloud in the hearing of Capt. Dominguez, who claimed in his "Notes’ that Rizal read aloud his retraction. However, his copy of the retraction proved him wrong because its text (with "u") and omits the word "Catolica" as in Fr. Balaguer’s copy but which are not the case in the original. Capt. Dominguez never claimed to have seen the retraction: he only "heard".

The truth is that, almost two years before his execution, Rizal had written a retraction in Dapitan. Very early in 1895, Josephine Bracken came to Dapitan with her adopted father who wanted to be cured of his blindness by Dr. Rizal; their guide was Manuela Orlac, who was agent and a mistress of a friar. Rizal fell in love with Josephine and wanted to marry her canonically but he was required to sign a profession of faith and to write retraction, which had to be approved by the Bishop of Cebu. "Spanish law had established civil marriage in the Philippines," Prof. Craig wrote, but the local government had not provided any way for people to avail themselves of the right..."

In order to marry Josephine, Rizal wrote with the help of a priest a form of retraction to be approved by the Bishop of Cebu. This incident was revealed by Fr. Antonio Obach to his friend Prof. Austin Craig who wrote down in 1912 what the priest had told him; "The document (the retraction), inclosed with the priest’s letter, was ready for the mail when Rizal came hurrying I to reclaim it." Rizal realized (perhaps, rather late) that he had written and given to a priest what the friars had been trying by all means to get from him.

Neither the Archbishop nor Fr. Pi saw the original document of retraction. What they saw was a copy done by one who could imitate Rizal’s handwriting while the original (almost eaten by termites) was kept by some friars. Both the Archbishop and Fr. Pi acted innocently because they did not distinguish between the genuine and the imitation of Rizal’s handwriting.

Life and Studies at Ateneo

2011-12-27T13:16:00.001+08:00

The Jesuits were considered the best educators of Spain, and perhaps of Europe, and so, when they were permitted to return to the Philippines, although their power to administer parishes was restricted except in the remote regions of Mindanao, the privilege of founding colleges, they had to apply to the City of Manila for subsidies. That is why the college which began to function in the year 1865, was called the Ateneo Municipal.

To enter the Ateneo a candidate was subjected to an entrance examination on Christian doctrine, reading, writing, grammar, and elementary arithmetic. Jose did not take his entrance examinations Jose did not remain in Manila but returned first to his town to celebrate the fiesta of its patron saint; it was then that his father changed his mind and decided to send him to the Ateneo instead.

Since Mercado, the first surname of the family, had come under suspicion of the authorities because it was the name used by Paciano when he was studying and working with Father Burgos, in whose house he lived, Jose adopted the second surname, Rizal.

Paciano who accompanied Jose, found him a house in Walled City, but Intramuros looked gloomy to Jose, and he later found lodging outside, in the house of a spinster situated on Calle Carballo, district of Santa Cruz. As if chance would furnish him data for his future campaigns, he became acquainted in that house with various mestizos, begotten by friars.

The Jesuitical system of instruction was considered more advanced than that of other colleges in that epoch. Its discipline was rigid and its methods less mechanical. It introduced physical culture as part of its program as well as the cultivation of the arts, such as music, drawing, and painting. It also establishes vocational courses in agriculture, commerce, and mechanics as a religious institute, its principal purpose was to mold the character and the will of the boys to comply more easily with the percepts of the Church. The students heard mass before the beginning of the class, which was opened and closed with prayers.

In the first two terms the classes were divided into groups of interns and externs: the first constituted the Roman Empire and the second, the Carthaginian Empire. In each empire there were five dignitaries: Emperor, Tribune, Decurion, Centurion, and Standard-Bearer. These dignities were won by means of individual competitions in which it was necessary to catch one’s adversary in error three times. The empires considered themselves in perpetual warfare, and when an individual of one empire was caught in error by one belonging to the enemy empire, a point was counted in favor of the latter. At the end of each week or two, the points in favor of each were added and the empire, which obtained more point, was declared winner.

There was a fraternity of Mary and Saint Louis Gonzaga, to which only those who distinguished themselves in the class for their piety and diligence could belong. This fraternity met on Sundays and after mass held public programs in which poems were recited or debates were held. With all these inducements it was only natural that should be a spirit of emulation, a striving to surpass ones colleagues found in the Ateneo.

The first professor Jose had was Fr. Jose Bech, whom he describes as a man of high stature; lean body, bent forward; quick gait; ascetic physiognomy, severe and inspired; small, sunken eyes; sharp Grecian nose; thin lips forming an arch with its sides directed toward the chin." He was somewhat of a lunatic and of an uneven humor; sometimes he was hard and little tolerant and at other times he was gay and playful as a child. Among Jose’s classmates were Peninsulares and sons of Peninsulares; Francisco G. Oliva, very talented but not very studious; Joaquin Garrido, endowed with a poor memory but with much talent and industry; and Gonzalo Marzano, who occupied the throne of Emperor.

From the first days Jose learned to systematize his work; he fixed a program of what he had to do in the twenty-four hours of the day and did not in the least deviate from it. Thus he disciplined his will and subjected it to the commands of his reason.

As a newcomer, Jose was at first put at the tail of the class, but he was soon promoted and kept on being promoted so that at the end of one month he had attained to the rank of Emperor. At the end of the term he obtained marks of excellent in all the subjects and in the examinations. He had reason to feel proud of his advancement; and so when he went home on vacation that year, he ran alone to see his mother in the prison and tell her the happy news.

He must have uttered this exclamation on learning from his mother that they had played her a mean trick. The judge, who was a blind partisan of the friars having been a domestic of theirs, told her that if she confessed her culpability he would release her at once. With the desire to see her children again, she pleaded guilty; but the judge, instead of releasing her, convicted her. In a few months the judge asked her forgiveness for what he had done because according to him his conscience hurt him, but the case had no remedy because it was already on appeal.

The second year, Jose had the same professor as in the previous year; but instead of lodging outside the City, he resided at No. 6 Calle Magallanes. At the end of the term he obtained a medal, and upon returning to his town, he again visited his mother in jail alone. This was three months before her release.

The rejoicing that her release produced in his spirit had much influence on the result of his studies in the third year, for he began to win prizes in the quarterly examinations.

About that time he devoted himself to reading novels, and one of those he enjoyed most was Dumas’ (father) The Count of Monte Cristo. The sufferings of the hero of the twelve years. He also asked his father to buy him a copy of The Universal History by Cesar Cantanu, and according to himself he profited much from its perusal.

The family, who saw in Jose great aptitude for study, decided to place him as intern or boarding student in the college the following year. In the corner of the dormitory facing the sea and the pier Jose passed his two years of internship.

In the fourth year of his course he had Fr. Francisco Sanchez as professor. Jose describes him as a model of rectitude, a solicitude, and love for the student, and his studied mathematics, rhetoric, and Greek, and he must have progressed much, for at the end of the year he-obtained five medals, which pleased him immensely because with them I could repay my father somewhat for his sacrifices.

His aptitude for poetry revealed itself early, and from that time on he did not cease to cultivate it.

An incident which demonstrates Jose’s independence of character took place at this time. Fr. Leoncio Lopez, parish priest of the town, who was a great friend of his father, also liked Jose as a little friend. He was cultured but at the same time timid and tender. One day Jose’s mother showed Father Lopez a poem of his young friend and that the latter must have copied it from a book. Jose, who heard this, answered the priest violently, for which his mother reprehended him. Afterward Father Lopez came to know from the Jesuits themselves that Jose was a pupil who excelled in poetry; and, in spite of his age, made a trip to Manila expressly to apologize to Jose. That gesture of Father Lopez’ won him Jose’s esteem and they became good friends again, lending each other the books they had.

In the fifth years Jose had other professors: Frs. Vilaclara and Mineves. He studied philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural history, but his devotion to poetry was such that his professor in philosophy advised him once to leave it, which made him cry. But in his rest hours he continued cultivating the Muses under the direction of his old professor, Father Sanchez. Jose had then written a short story (leyenda), which was only slightly corrected by his professor, and a dialogue, which was enacted at the end of the course, alluding to the collegians’ farewell. However, philosophy, just and serve, inquiring into the wherefores of things, interested him as much as poetry; physics, drawing back the veil that divine drama of nature was enacted, natural history seemed to him somewhat uninteresting although he much liked the shells and sometimes imagined seeing a goddess in each shell he was on the shelf.

Jose was considered small of stature and he tried to correct this defect by applying himself regularly to gymnastics in the college. He also engaged in other physical exercises, such as fencing. After his baccalaureate, he surprised his family with his skill in handling the sword when he gave an exhibition bout with the best swordsman of the town.

He also devoted time to painting and sculpture. In drawing and painting he was under the guidance and direction of the Ateneo professor, the Peninsula Don Augustin Saez, who honored him with his affection and consideration because of his progress. In sculpture his instructor was a Filipino, Romualdo de Jesus, who felt proud in the last years of his life of having had such an excellent pupil.

Canto Del Viajero - Awit ng Manlalakbay - The Song of the Traveller

2011-12-26T15:11:00.002+08:00

Spanish (Original)

Canto Del Viajero by Jose Rizal

Hoja seca que cuela indecisa
Y arrebata violente turbion,
Asi vive en la tierra el viajero,
Sin norte, sin alma, sin patria ni amor.

Busca ansioso doquiera la dicha
Y la dicha se aleja fugaz:
Vana sombra que burla su anhelo! …
Por ella el viajero se lanza a la mar!

Impelido por mano invisible
Vagara confin en confin;
Los recuedos le haran compania
De seres queridos, de un dia feliz.

Una tumba quiza en el desiero
Hallara, dulce asilo de paz,
De su patria y del mundo olvidado …
Descanse tranquilo, tras tanto penar !

Y le envidian al triste viajero
Cuando cruza la tierra veloz …
Ay! no saben que dentro del alma
Existe un vacio de falta el amor!

Volvera el peregrino a su patria
Y a sus lares tal vez volvera,
Y hallara por doquier nieve y ruina
Amores perdidos, sepulcros, no mas.

Ve, Viajero, prosigue tu senda,
Extrangero en tu propio pais;
Deja a otros que canten amores,
Los otros que gocen; tu vuelve a partir.

Ve, viajero, no vuelvas el rostro,
Que no hay llanto que siga al adios;
Ve, viajero, y ahoga tu penas;
Que el mundo se burla de ajeno dolor

http://www.rizalpark.org/trivia/awit-ng-manlalakbay-song-of-the-traveler-by-jose-p-rizal/

Tagalog translation:

Awit ng Manlalakbay

Kagaya ng dahong nalanta, nalagas,

Sinisiklut-siklot ng hanging marahas;

Abang manlalakbay ay wala nang liyag,

Layuin, kalulwa’t bayang matatawag.

Hinahabul-habol yaong kapalarang

Mailap at hindi masunggab-sunggaban;

Magandang pag-asa’y kung nanlalabo man,

Siya’y patuloy ring patungo kung saan!

Sa udyok ng hindi nakikitang lakas,

Silanga’t Kanlura’y kanyang nililipad,

Mga minamahal ay napapangarap,

Gayon din ang araw ng pamamanatag.

Sa pusod ng isang disyertong mapanglaw,

Siya’y maaaring doon na mamatay,

Limot ng daigdig at sariling bayan,

Kamtan nawa niya ang kapayapaan!

Dami ng sa kanya ay nangaiinggit,

Ibong naglalakaby sa buong daigdig,

Hindi nila tanto ang laki ng hapis

Na sa kanyang puso ay lumiligalig.

Kung sa mga tanging minahal sa buhay

Siya’y magbalik pa pagdating ng araw,

Makikita niya’y mga guho lamang

At puntod ng kanyang mga kaibigan.

Abang manlalakbay! Huwag nang magbalik,

Sa sariling baya’y wala kang katalik;

Bayaang ang puso ng iba’y umawit,

Lumaboy kang muli sa buong daigdig.

Abang manlalakbay! Bakit babalik pa?

Ang luhang inyukol sa iyo’y tuyo na;

Abang manlalakbay! Limutin ang dusa,

Sa hapis ng tao, mundo’y nagtatawa.

The Song of the Traveller

by Jose Rizal

Like to a leaf that is fallen and withered,

Tossed by the tempest from pole unto pole;

thus roams the pilgrim abroad without purpose,

Roams without love, without country or soul.

Following anxiously treacherous fortune,

Fortune which e 'en as he grasps at it flees;

Vain though the hopes that his yearning is seeking,

Yet does the pilgrim embark on the seas !

Ever impelled by the invisible power,

Destined to roam from the East to the West;

Oft he remembers the faces of loved ones,

Dreams of the day when he, too, was at rest.

Chance may assign him a tomb on the desert,

Grant him a final asylum of peace;

Soon by the world and his country forgotten,

God rest his soul when his wanderings cease!

Often the sorrowing pilgrim is envied,

Circling the globe like a sea-gull above;

Little, ah, little they know what a void

Saddens his soul by the absence of love.

Home may the pilgrim return in the future,

Back to his loved ones his footsteps he bends;

Naught wìll he find but the snow and the ruins,

Ashes of love and the tomb of his friends,

Pilgrim, begone ! Nor return more hereafter,

Stranger thou art in the land of thy birth;

Others may sing of their love while rejoicing,

Thou once again must roam o'er the earth.

Pilgrim, begone ! Nor return more hereafter,

Dry are the tears that a while for thee ran;

Pilgrim, begone ! And forget thine affliction,

Loud laughs the world at the sorrows of man.

Translated by Arthur P. Ferguson

Early Education in Calamba and Biñan

2011-12-26T13:19:00.000+08:00

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was a typical schooling that a son of an ilustrado family received during his time, characterized by the four R’s- reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the tedious memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the defects of the Spanish system of elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction preparatory for college work in Manila. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a physical weakling, rose to become an intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, the outmoded and backward system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last decades of Spanish regime.

The Hero’s First Teacher

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers. "My mother," wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, "taught me how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God."

As tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she who first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s imagination, she related many stories.

As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home. The first was Maestro Celestino and the second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the boy’s tutor. This old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he did not lived long. He died five months later.

After a Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents decided to send their gifted son to a private school in Biñan.

Jose Goes to Biñan

One Sunday afternoon in June , 1869, Jose, after kissing the hands of his parents and a tearful parting from his sister, left Calamba for Biñan. He was accompanied by Paciano , who acted as his second father. The two brothers rode in a carromata, reaching their destination after one and one-half hours’ drive. They proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was to lodge. It was almost night when they arrived, and the moon was about to rise.

That same night, Jose, with his cousin named Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead of enjoying the sights, Jose became depressed because of homesickness. "In the moonlight," he recounted, "I remembered my home town, my idolized mother, and my solicitous sisters. Ah, how sweet to me was Calamba, my own town, in spite of the fact that was not as wealthy as Biñan."

First Day in Biñan School

The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters from the home of Jose’s aunt.

Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return to Calamba.

Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the class. The teacher asked him:

"Do you know Spanish?"

"A little, sir," replied the Calamba lad.

"Do you know Latin?"

"A little, sir."

The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher’s son laughed at Jose’s answers.

The teacher sharply stopped all noises and begun the lessons of the day.

Jose described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by the heart the grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this severity that in my judgement was exaggerated and you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but I remember only this."

First School BrawlIn the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was having his siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of him during his conversation with the teacher in the morning.

Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could easily beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and younger.

The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates. Jose, having learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger boy. For this feat, he became popular among his classmates.

After the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged him to an arm-wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms. Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on the sidewalk.

In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by nature, but he never ran away from a fight.

Best Student in School

In academic studies, Jose beat all Biñan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects.

Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and even told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes. Consequently the teacher had to punish Jose.

Early Schooling in Biñan

Jose had a very vivid imagination and a very keen sense of observation. At the age of seven he traveled with his father for the first time to Manila and thence to Antipolo to fulfill the promise of a pilgrimage made by his mother at the time of his birth. They embarked in a casco, a very ponderous vessel commonly used in the Philippines. It was the first trip on the lake that Jose could recollect. As darkness fell he spent the hours by the katig, admiring the grandeur of the water and the stillness of the night, although he was seized with a superstitious fear when he saw a water snake entwine itself around the bamboo beams of the katig. With what joy did he see the sun at the daybreak as its luminous rays shone upon the glistening surface of the wide lake, producing a brilliant effect! With what joy did he talk to his father, for he had not uttered a word during the night!

When they proceeded to Antipolo, he experienced the sweetest emotions upon seeing the gay banks of the Pasig and the towns of Cainta and Taytay. In Antipolo he prayed, kneeling before the image of the Virgin of Peace and Good Voyage, of whom he would later sing in elegant verses. Then he saw Manila, the great metropolis , with its Chinese sores and European bazaars. And visited his elder sister, Saturnina, in Santa Ana, who was a boarding student in the Concordia College.

When he was nine years old, his father sent him to Biñan to continue studying Latin, because his first teacher had died. His brother Paciano took him to Biñan one Sunday, and Jose bade his parents and sisters good-bye with tears in his eyes. Oh, how it saddened him to leave for the first time and live far from his home and his family! But he felt ashamed to cry and had to conceal his tears and sentiments. "O Shame," he explained, "how many beautiful and pathetic scenes the world would witness without thee!"

They arrived at Biñan in the evening. His brother took him to the house of his aunt where he was to stay, and left him after introducing him to the teacher. At night, in company with his aunt’s grandson named Leandro, Jose took a walk around the town in the light of the moon. To him the town looked extensive and rich but sad and ugly.

His teacher in Biñan was a severe disciplinarian. His name was Justiniano Aquino Cruz. "He was a tall man, lean and long-necked, with a sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward. He used to wear a sinamay shirt woven by the deft hands of Batangas women. He knew by memory the grammars of Nebrija and Gainza. To this add a severity which, in my judgement I have made of him, which is all I remember."

The boy Jose distinguished himself in class, and succeeded in surpassing many of his older classmates. Some of these were so wicked that, even without reason, they accused him before the teacher, for which, in spite of his progress, he received many whippings and strokes from the ferule. Rare was the day when he was not stretched on the bench for a whipping or punished with five or six blows on the open palm. Jose’s reaction to all these punishments was one of intense resentment in order to learn and thus carry out his father’s will.

Jose spent his leisure hours with Justiniano’s father-in-law, a master painter. From him he took his first two sons, two nephews, and a grandson. His way life was methodical and well regulated. He heard mass at four if there was one that early, or studied his lesson at that hour and went to mass afterwards. Returning home, he might look in the orchard for a mambolo fruit to eat, then he took his breakfast, consisting generally of a plate of rice and two dried sardines.

After that he would go to class, from which he was dismissed at ten, then home again. He ate with his aunt and then began at ten, then home again. He ate with his aunt and then began to study. At half past two he returned to class and left at five. He might play for a short time with some cousins before returning home. He studied his lessons, drew for a while, and then prayed and if there was a moon, his friends would invite him to play in the street in company with other boys.

Whenever he remembered his town, he thought with tears in his eyes of his beloved father, his idolized mother, and his solicitous sisters. Ah, how sweet was his town even though not so opulent as Biñan! He grew sad and thoughtful.

While he was studying in Biñan, he returned to his hometown now and then. How long the road seemed to him in going and how short in coming! When from afar he descried the roof of his house, secret joy filled his breast. How he looked for pretexts to remain longer at home! A day more seemed to him a day spent in heaven, and how he wept, though silently and secretly, when he saw the calesa that was flower that him Biñan! Then everything looked sad; a flower that he touched, a stone that attracted his attention he gathered, fearful that he might not see it again upon his return. It was a sad but delicate and quite pain that possessed him.

The Death of Jose Rizal: Ambeth Ocampo’s version

2011-12-24T12:49:00.001+08:00

Editor’s note: The following is the article written by today’s most famous Filipino historian Ambeth R. Ocampo on Jose Rizal’s death. Simply entitled, “The Death of Jose Rizal,” this historical piece by the current head of the National Historical Institute (of the Philippines) could be deemed refreshing and controversial, as it offers several unpopular and unorthodox accounts of what (presumably) transpired on the day of Rizal’s execution. For one thing, it virtually proclaims that Rizal refused to kiss the crucifix before he was executed, thereby negating the claim of other historians (like Zaide) that the national hero even asked for this Catholic sacramental. Happy reading!

"THE OBSERVANT WILL NOTICE metal footprints on the pavement running from Fort Santiago to the Luneta in seafront Manila. They resemble dancing patterns, but actually trace the last steps of Jose Rizal as he walked from his prison cell to the site of his execution on December 30, 1896. The Rizal Centennial Commission claims that the footprints are based on Rizal’s actual shoe size. When people ask why the steps are so small, the quick reply is: “If you are walking to your death, would you hurry?”

The slow walk to Bagumbayan field (as Rizal Park or the Luneta was once called) began at 6:30 a.m. on a cool, clear morning. Rizal was dressed in a black coat and trousers and a white shirt and waistcoat. He was tied elbow to elbow, but held up his head in a chistera or bowler hat. A bugler signaled his passage, while the roll of drums muffled in black cloth gave cadence to his gait.

From Fort Santiago he took a right turn, and walked along the Paseo Maria Cristina (now Bonifacio Drive), which gave him a view lifting the darkness over Manila Bay on the right, and a last glimpse of Intramuros, shadowed by the missing sun, on his left. He walked between two Jesuits, Father Estanislao March and Father Jose Villaclara. They too were in black – the trademark black hats, tunics, and heavy coats that made the young Rizal and his Ateneo schoolmates refer to them aspaniki (bats, or colloquially perhaps, batmen). Behind Rizal walked the brother of his former bodyguard, Lieutenant Luis Taviel de Andrade, who had vainly defended him in a farce masquerading as a trial.

The streets were lined with people who wanted to see the condemned man, since Rizal was many things to different people: “leader of the revolution,” physician, novelist, poet, sculptor, heretic, subversive. Rizal was a person one could not be neutral about. Like him or hate him, he was a celebrity.

Although he was walking to his death, eyewitnesses describe Rizal as serene – a bit pale, not because of fear of his fate, but because he had not had any breakfast. All he had been given were three hard-boiled eggs, which he took to a corner of his prison cell, saying, “This is for the rats; let them have a fiesta, too.” Then he left his cell.

Rizal is said to have nodded left and right to acknowledge familiar faces in crowd. From time to time he smiled, and is said to have made a few jokes, and laughed at these himself because the Jesuits flanking him remained somber. Others noticed his eyes dart quickly from left to right, and some believed that members of his family or the Katipuneros would make a last-ditch effort to save him from death. Was Rizal waiting for help that never came? And perhaps for an opportunity to spurn that help? Had he expected to see his family by the roadside? We will never know more than the fact that he was walking to his destiny.

In the clear morning Rizal could probably see as far as Susong Dalaga, and appreciate the silhouette of a naked woman on the mountain range across from Manila Bay. “What a beautiful morning!” he said, “On mornings like this I used to take walks here with my sweetheart.” Before reaching Bagumbayan, he glanced at Intramuros, sighed, and seeing the spires of the church of San Ignacio, said: “Is that the Ateneo? I spent many happy years there.” The Jesuits’ response is not recorded.

Someone had the foresight to take a photograph of the execution. The scene looked like a box, lined, three or four people deep, on three sides. The empty fourth side faced the bay, and the executioners’ line of fire. Eight Filipino soldiers armed with Remingtons formed the firing squad. Behind them stood the drummers and another line of Spanish soldiers with Mausers, ready to shoot the Filipinos if they refused to shoot, or purposely missed their target.

When everyone was in place, there was a slight delay because Rizal refused the customary blindfold, and asked to face the firing squad. The Spanish captain who had guided Rizal to the site insisted that he be shot in the back as ordered, because he was a traitor to Spain. Rizal declared that he had never been a traitor to the country of his birth or to Spain. After some coaxing, Rizal finally turned his back, but again refused the blindfold, and furthermore refused to kneel.

After all this haggling he made one last request: that the executioners spare his head, and shoot him in the back towards the heart. When the captain agreed, Rizal clasped the hand of Lieutenant Taviel de Andrade and thanked him once more for the vain effort of defending him before the military court that sentenced him to death.

Meanwhile, a curious Spanish military doctor felt Rizal’s pulse, and was surprised to find it regular and normal. The Jesuits were the last to leave the condemned man. They raised the crucifix to his face and lips, but he turned his head away and silently prepared to meet death.

The captain raised his saber in the air, ordered his men to get ready, and barked the order: “Preparen!” This was followed by the order to aim the rifles: “Apunten!” In the split second before the saber was brought down with the order to fir – “Fuego!” – Rizal shouted the last two words of the crucified Christ: “Consummatum est!” (It is done).

The shots rang out, the bullets hit their mark, and Rizal executed that carefully choreographed twist that he had practiced years before, which made him fall faced up on the ground. People held their breath as soldiers came up to the corpse and gave Rizal the tiro de gracia, one last merciful shot in the head at close range to make sure he was really dead.

A small dog, the military mascot, ran around the corpse whining, and the crowd moved in for a closer look, but were kept at bay by the soldiers who stood in the first row of spectators.

After a short silence, someone shouted: “Long live Spain! Death to the traitor!” The crowd did not respond. An officer approached the person who had shouted, and berated him. To fill in the gap, the military band played theMarcha de Cadiz.

It was 7:03 a.m. The show was over."

Awit ni Maria Clara

2011-12-24T00:44:00.003+08:00

JUANA CHANGE - CHRISTMAS IS GIFT GIVING

2011-12-23T20:28:00.001+08:00

Season's greetings and best wishes!

2011-12-23T11:34:00.001+08:00

JUANA CHANGE BAYANI

2011-12-23T04:15:00.002+08:00

150 YEARS AGO THE JESUITS HAD THEIR "PROJECT RETRACTION" BY DR. JOSE RIZAL, WHICH WAS LATER FOUND OUT TO BE A HOAX. LET US ASK RCC TO APOLOGIZE.

2011-12-20T16:02:00.002+08:00

Pinagpipitaganang Mga Kalahi:

Nalalapit na naman ang ika-115ng taon ng pagkabitay kay Dr. Jose Rizal -- nung Disyembre 30, 1896.

Sumasamo si Ka Pule2 sa lahat na mga kalahi na suportahan ang kanyang ipinaglalaban, sa kasunod nito.

Subject: REKINDLING THE APPEAL, RE: RCC's RETRACTION FORGERY HOAX SEEKING CHURCH'S APOLOGY, RE: RIZAL"RETRACTION" HOAX

HEREWITH Is a special request for support by all concerned to this appeal to the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines to make amends regarding the Rizal's forgery hoax, in the manner that the Vatican also recognized, after the lapse of centuries, the Galileo thesis that the earth is round, thus vindicating the vital role of science in the life of mankind.

In saying that Dr. Jose Rizal retracted, it was supposed that he disowned, or as if he admitted he was in error in all that he had written and published against the Roman Catholic church, particularly in his two novels, the Noli Me Tangere, and the El Filibusterismo, and many other writings, courageously directed against the Spanish friars in this country during his time.

The Spanish friars' "project retraction" started from the first day of Rizal's exile in Dapitan in early July 1892, and which was entrusted particularly by the Jesuit order headed by Fr. Pablo Pastells -- chief of the Jesuits in the Philippines in the 1890s -- to Father Sanchez, head of the Jesuit mission house in Dapitan, who was specifically assigned to convince Rizal to retract in exchange for his stay in the Jesuit mission house and, much later, as a condition prior to his marriage to Josephine Bracken in a formal religious ceremony.

Rizal, however, chose to stay with his military guard, Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade. Much later, he and Josephine lived as husband and wife, without benefit of a church wedding.

At the time, there were already brewing discontent among Filipinos, as a result of Spanish abuses which became more glaring from the people's readings of Rizal's novels. There was also a war in Cuba against Spain, and to distance himself from complicity in the brewing turmoil in the homeland, Rizal volunteered to serve as a war physician in Cuba, which was approved by the Spanish authorities.

Immediately following Rizal's exile, with the scuttling of the La Liga Filipina which he had previously organized -- to establish a national cooperative which would work for reforms before authorities in Spain -- Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan to fight for liberty against Spain by force of arms. He secretly sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan, to convince Rizal to lead the national revolution. The latter however, owing to his extensive knowledge about other nations' fight for freedom from foreign rule, advised against the suicidal inclination of his compatriots -- due to lack of armaments and knowledge of modern warfare.

Could it be possible that -- in realizing the futility of the Katipunan venture -- he firmly reacted and planned secretly with his decision to volunteer for service in the Cuban war, and that he had secret plans to direct the Philippine campaign for liberation from there? After having joined forces with Marti, and consolidate efforts against the Spanish rule? It is too late in the day to discuss the pros and cons of this assumption.

In late 1896, on his way to the Cuban war, Rizal was re-arrested in Barcelona, and shipped back to the Philippines as a prisoner; jailed at Fort Santiago, summarily tried on a charge of treason, for complicity with the sporadic uprisings against Spanish authorities, pronounced guilty and sentenced to be executed at Bagumbayan field, now the Luneta. And in the early morning of 30 December 1896, during Rizal's last precious moments "the indefatigable Jesuits hoped to finally wear down his resistance and, working with the precision of a mental third degree their expert exorcisors took turns to work on and 'convert' him.

"Striving all those years from Dapitan to Rizal's Cell in Fort Santiago, the entire Jesuit Order here labored, like the proverbial mountain, and brought forth not a mouse, but a demon! The demon was that perfidious 'retraction letter' with which the Roman Catholic Church had hoodwinked the Filipino people" and all the world for the last 115 years!

When the retraction story was first published in Madrid on the day following Rizal's execution, there was no document of retraction shown. It was announced nonchalantly that the document of "retraction" was entrusted to Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda of Manila for his keeping.

There came about, however, serious complications. It turned out that there were separately published three retractions with minor variations in texts. The first was by Fr. Pio Pi, SJ in his La Muerte Cristiana del Dr. Rizal -- 1907, in Spain. Another was by Fr. Manuel Garcia, CM in his "Cultura Social" on July 18, 1935; still another was by Fr. Francisco A. Ortiz, SJ.

Moreover, there were also discrepancies in dates. In his published work, RIZAL in 1950, Dr. Jose M. Fernandez had the retraction date as 29 de Diciembre 1890; not 1896.

The same thing happened with the Selected Readings from Rizal, in 1959, by Ricardo C. Bassig; also 1890, not 1896.

A pamphlet, "I abjure masonry" (attributed to Rizal) was published in 1950 by San Beda College, wherein the "0" in 1890 appeared as a capital letter C, as in a half-moon.

In 1956 Dr. Jesus M. Cavanna's RIZAL'S UNFADING GLORY had the number 6 in the year 1896 well written. However, in the 1961 HISTORY FOR HIGH SCHOOLS by Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide, the number "6" in 1896 had a different shape, or form.

When Dr. Ricardo Pascual wrote RIZAL BEYOND THE GRAVE in 1950, and with the discrepancies already discovered, the forger was not yet known. The full story came to light with the publication in 1962 of The FORGERY of the RIZAL 'RETRACTION' and JOSEPHINE'S 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY' by Prof. Ildefonso T. Runes and a Thirty-Third Degree Mason, Engr. Mamerto M. Buenafe.

* * * *

Following the publication in Madrid in early 1897 of the retraction by Dr. Rizal, the church authorities, principally the Jesuits announced that the original retraction document was entrusted to Manila Archbishop Norberto Nozaleda. But it was never shown.

Ordinary readers need first to understand the term "retraction" or "to retract," meaning, that our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, was portrayed as to have taken back, or disowned, as if he was in error in all that he had said, written and published, particularly his novels -- the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo,and all other else he had said and published contrary to religious teachings by the Spanish friars.

In late 1896, on his way to the Cuban war, Rizal was re-arrested in Barcelona, and shipped back to the Philippines as a prisoner; jailed at Fort Santiago, summarily tried for complicity with the sporadic uprisings against Spanish authorities, pronounced guilty of treason and sentenced to be executed at Bagumbayan field, now the Luneta. And in the early morning of 30 December 1896, during Rizal's last precious moments "the indefatigable Jesuits hoped to finally wear down his resistance and, working with the precision of a mental third degree their expert exorcisors took turns to work on and 'convert' him.

"Striving all those years from Dapitan to Rizal's Cell in Fort Santiago, the entire Jesuit Order here labored, like the proverbial mountain, and brought forth not a mouse, but a demon! The demon was that perfidious 'retraction' with which the Roman Catholic Church had hoodwinked the Filipino people and all the world for the last 115 years!"

When the retraction story was first published in Madrid on the day following Rizal's execution, there was no document of retraction shown. Nonchalantly, it was announced that the letter of "retraction" was given to Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda of Manila for his keeping.

There came about, however, serious complications. As it turned out, there were separately published three retractions with minor variations in texts. The first was by Fr. Pio Pi, SJ in his La Muerte Cristiana del Dr. Rizal -- 1907, in Spain. Another was by Fr. Manuel Garcia, CM in his "Cultura Social" on July 18, 1935; still another was by Fr. Francisco A. Ortiz, SJ.

Moreover, there were also discrepancies in dates. In his published work, RIZAL in 1950, Dr. Jose M. Fernandez had the retraction date as 29 de Diciembre 1890; not 1896.

The same thing happened with the Selected Readings from Rizal, in 1959, by Ricardo C. Bassig; also 1890, not 1896.

A pamphlet, "I abjure masonry" (attributed to Rizal) was published in 1950 by San Beda College, wherein the "0" in 1890 appeared as a capital letter C, as in a half-moon.

In 1956 Dr. Jesus M. Cavanna's RIZAL'S UNFADING GLORY had the number 6 in the year 1896 well written. However, in the 1961 HISTORY FOR HIGH SCHOOLS by Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide, the number "6" in 1896 had a different shape, or form.

When Dr. Ricardo Pascual wrote in 1950 RIZAL BEYOND THE GRAVE, and with the discrepancies already discovered, the forger was not yet known. The full story came to light with the publication in 1962 of The FORGERY of the RIZAL 'RETRACTION' and JOSEPHINE'S 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY' by Ildefonso T. Runes and Engr. Mamerto M. Buenafe, a Thirty-Third Degree Mason.

Following the publication in Madrid in early 1897 of the retraction by Dr.. Rizal, the church authorities, principally the Jesuits announced that the original retraction document was entrusted to Manila Archbishop Norberto Nozaleda. But the original retraction document was never shown.

Who was the forger and how was he discovered? A former Guardia Civil named Lazaro Segovia under the Spanish colonial government was among those taken captive and held prisoner by the forces of General Urbano Lacuna in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija during the war against Spain. Segovia's story of having been kind to Dr. Rizal as the guard assigned to serve as escort when the hero was rearrested in Barcelona and shipped back to Manila to stand trial for complicity in the Katipunan uprisings endeared the former civil guard to Lacuna and became one of his trusted aides.

However, when Lacuna's forces were routed by the conqueror Frederick Funston of the US Army who overran the former revolutionary capital in San Isidro, Segovia became one of Funston's prisoners who, as a former Spanish civil guard, easily earned the confidence of Funston. Segovia served as an interpreter and secret agent. Upon capture by Funston, and discovery of Gen. Lacuna's correspondences, it was ascertained that General Aguinaldo was holed in Palanan, Isabela and was also asking for reinforcements from Lacuna. Funston was then in dire need of a man with the golden arm. And Segovia was the valuable link!

The wily Segovia was again highly instrumental in introducing to
Funston an expert penman, by the name of Roman Roque, a former Katipunan soldier captive, who was also taken in as clerk-interpreter at Funston's headquarters. Roque was utilized by Funston to imitate the signature of General Lacuna, and after painstaking practice, was able to sign on the Lacuna stationery with the general's printed name on the letterhead.

The forged letter of Lacuna was used by Funston with the help of another Katipunero renegade, Hilario Tal Placido, in a dramatic ruse at President Aguinaldo's Revolutionary capital in Palanan, from where the President of the First Philippine Republic was captured on March 23, 1901.

News of the Aguinaldo capture became a sensation in Manila, and perhaps all over the world! And the forged letter of General Lacuna was the vital instrument which led to the capture of Aguinaldo.

Who was the forger?

The long awaited moment for the architects of Rizal's retraction grasped the opportunity. The forger's recruiter, Lazaro Segovia, was sought. He was by then the manager of a sugar central in Mindoro, and which was owned by the clergy. Again, Lazaro Segovia was commissioned to get Roman Roque.

* * * *

Several months later, during conversations with prominent residents in the home of Antonio Abad when the young man celebrated his 15th birthday on August 13, 1901 in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Roman Roque who was a close neighbor of the Abads were among the celebrant's well-wishers. During conversations with the community elders, Roque disclosed that he was fetched by Lazaro Segovia from San Isidro not long after the news of Aguinaldo's capture. He was taken to Manila, and made to stay at Hotel Quatro Naciones in Intramuros, where he worked on the forging of Rizal's penmasnhip.

He made about five copies of the forgery letter as prepared by the priests, he said.. He thought of keeping one for himself; but when searched upon departure, his copy was taken from him, as the priests would need an additional copy, he was told.

Roque worked on the forging task for about ten days, he recalled. When asked how much he was paid for the job, he revealed that he was given the equivalent of his salary for two months in the government service. San Isidro residents remembered that Roque was away from their town for about two weeks.

That ends the saga of the Rizal "retraction" forgery, for the benefit of our national hero's "fair hope of the motherland."

The time has also come for the Roman Catholic hierarchy to make a clean breast of the forgery lie, and seek forgiveness from the Filipino people -- in the same manner that the Vatican made amends for the sordid fate of Galileo, etc. so as to put to rest the "forgery controversy" in line with the RCC's teachings of seeking forgiveness by making amends to the aggrieved -- the whole Philippine nation and this country's posterity. Only in that manner may the Rizal's retraction controversy be put to rest.

At upang ang mariing sumpa ng Langit sa ating Inang Bayan at susunod pang mga saling-lahi ay maparam!

'KUNG SAAN TAYO NADAPA AY DUON DIN TAYO BABANGON!"

Irineo Perez Goce (aka) Ka Pule2
Laong Laan :: 185, Quezon City -- Mother (LML)
Lodge Perla del Oriente No. 1034, SC, Manila -- Affiliate
Quezon City Bodies, A&ASR -- (LML)
Hon Mbr ::s -- Rafael Palma :: 147, QC
Capitol City :: 174, QC
Mabini-Kalaw :: 195, Lipa City
Andres Bonifacio :: 199, (for) Caloocan City (ChM)
Dr. Jose P. Laurel :: 325. Tanauan City (Founder-ChM)
C/L: Lungsod ng LIPA (Batangas), Pilipinas

Ang Tunay na Pag-ibig ni Lolo Jose

2011-12-19T18:29:00.003+08:00

The man Plaridel

2011-12-19T18:24:00.001+08:00

Vestiges
The man Plaridel
By José S. Arcilla S.J.

Marcelo H. del Pilar, we tend to overlook his human side. Ten years older than Rizal, a law graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, he was forced to leave his country in 1889 to evade the stern measures of Valeriano Weyler, just named governor-general of the Philippines.

There were already Filipinos in Madrid and Barcelona, and apparently Rizal did not yet know del Pilar personally. But he read and praised the latter’s La Soberania monacal, and exclaimed in Job’s words from the Old Testament, “Now I can die in peace. I am certain the work I dreamed of will be finished. Why should we not have a hundred Plaridels?”

Asked to contribute an article for a new bilingual paper, Diarong tagalog, the national hero wrote the well known essay, “Amor patrio” (Patriotism). Rizal was new in Spain, and he must have been quite nostalgic and homesick for his home country. Not much later, again at del Pilar’s request, he wrote a “letter” to the women of Malolos on the value of education. When Rizal expressed the hope that other young Filipinos would rise and eclipse him, del Pilar answered that he had “no right to die.”

Though of different personalities, Rizal and del Pilar were two ideologues behind the formation of the Philippines. Expressed in the Noli Me Tangere and in his other essays, Rizal wanted the Filipinos to educate themselves and win the right to rule themselves. Del Pilar was different.

Acknowledging Blumentritt’s congratulations for the maiden issue of the Filipino propaganda fortnightly, La Solidaridad, del Pilar wrote that actually, their desires were not much. They wanted merely, he wrote, “to think and feel” like the Spaniards, and be assimilated to the Peninsula. Unfortunately, “the monastic interest, which feeds on constant racial hostility,” stood athwart and blocked it. Unlike Rizal, del Pilar’s program was simple: expel the friars.

His public life in the Philippines was a series of anti-friar activities. We cannot say exactly why. Perhaps the exile to Guam of his brother Fr. Toribio, one of the priest suspected of complicity in the Cavite mutiny had something to do with it. The story is also told that he obtained his law degree later because of a spat with a friar.

These are external incidents. But who was del Pilar? The Mexican Nobel laureate in literature, Octavio Paz, observed that there is an intimate link between an author’s writings and his life, but it is never simple. Life cannot be fully explained by external activities. Between the human heart and its decisions, there is always a deep abyss, which we call human artistry and literary creativity. We can say the same thing of del Pilar.

From Spain he wrote his wife to make sure their little daughters grew up respectful and obedient to their elders. He kept dreaming of them, that he would be embracing and kissing them, only to wake up soaked in sweat as he embraced himself.

By 1895, lack of funds and stricter censorship forced them to stop publishing Filipino propaganda paper in Spain. Del Pilar wanted to return to the Philippines, but he had no money to pay for the ticket home. At least once, he wrote begging for transportation money, rather then spend his free time around the streets of Barcelona “looking for cigarette butts to kill my hunger.”

Who among the Filipinos today be willing to suffer as much? Patriotism is always painful and demands total self-oblation.

THE WORST KIND OF CORRUPTION

2011-12-16T23:53:00.002+08:00

Something to Contemplate / Think About

THE WORST KIND OF CORRUPTION

by: poch suzara

It is still being taught today in our schools that God created the world in 6 days some 6,000 years ago. It is also a great part of our formative years in school to believe that as long as we have deep faith in God, it does not matter even if we Filipinos are getting more famous as the Sick Man of Asia.

Foreigners do not find employment in the Philippines, but many Filipinos feel so blessed by God when they find employment in other foreign countries. In the meantime, ignorance in our country is like a ubiquitous plant. It grows in every soil. Ignorance even grows in our schools, colleges, and universities. Especially when our teachers and professors have neither the sensibility nor the responsibility to learn the latest findings on the subject they teach.

We have yet to acknowledge the fact that the worst kind of corruption is the corruption of the mind and heart. Indeed, we are all born innocent, not corrupt. We are made corrupt by a corrupt system of education in our country.

Today as it was yesterday, corruption is like God in the Philippines. Corruption is existing here, existing there, and is existing everywhere not only in our God-forsaken, but also in this devil taken sick country of ours.

I said it before, I say it again. Many of us who love our country down here much more than we love a silly divinity up there - poor and powerless as we are - the most we can do is to expose the lies and deceptions that keep us Filipinos spiritually poor as a people, and morally bankrupt as a nation.

In this already 21st century, let us learn to accept the power of science and technology. It is time to reject stupid prayers under a stupid theology. It is time to love, respect, admire, and to learn from our own great hero Jose Rizal. To hell with that Jewish savior born in a foreign non-Christian land some 2,011 years ago.

Cheers!

Poch Suzara

Irineo Perez Goce (aka) Ka Pule2
pseudonym: leonidasagbayani
Laong Laan :: 185, Quezon City
Lodge Perla del Oriente No. 1034, SC
Quezon City Bodies, A&ASR
CL: Lungsod ng LIPA, Pilipinas

The Rizal that I never knew.

2011-12-15T05:09:00.001+08:00

Over a glass of red wine or vino tinto....

To what Dr. Viola says (in his essay "My Travels with Dr. Jose Rizal") about their visit to Professor Blumentritt we can add what this illustrious Austrian wrote on 20 May 1911 to a friend of his at Manila. This letter was published in La Vanguardia on 1 July 1911 and among other things he said:

Rizal had that novel (Noli me tángere) printed at the Lette Press, Lette being the name of a society or association whose purpose was to give bread to women, so that its compositors were not men but women. After the last copy had been printed, Rizal left Berlin to embark at Marseille to return to his country, accompanied by his intimate friend Dr. Máximo Viola y Sison. In the course of that trip he stopped at Dresden, Leitmeritz, Prague, Munich, and various cities of Switzerland. About the visit of Rizal to Leitmeritz I can furnish you with the following data:

Mr. José Rizal and Mr. Máximo Viola arrived at Leitmeritz at 1:30 in the afternoon of 13 May 1887. I met them at the station and we went together to Hotel Krebs (or Crabs). After having been installed in their room, number 12, Rizal, Viola, and I went to my residence. We had a very pleasant time until 10:30 p.m. My wife felt the most pleasant satisfaction upon seeing that Austro-Bohemian dishes were enjoyed by our Filipino friends. The conversation was very animated and the impression was most pleasant. My children later became friends of our friends.

The 14th May was a very cold day but it did not bother Rizal, who withstood the cold better than ourselves, children of the country. Rizal found out that on the afternoon of that day the board of directors of the Tourists’ Club (whose secretary I was) would hold a meeting, and he asked me permission to attend it, for he was very much interested in everything that was being done in Europe to attract tourists and to open the public roads that made picturesque spots of the country accessible. Rizal and Viola received the desired invitation. The president of the club, José Krombholz, cordially greeted the Filipinos and at the same time begged them to pardon us for boasting so much of our landscape, poor and rachitic in comparison to the beautiful and exuberant vegetation of the Philippines with her majestic volcanoes and lands. Rizal replied in perfect German in the following tenor, the text of his speech, not having been preserved verbatim:

“The vegetation of my native land is certainly richer and all its landscape variegated with brilliant colors; but this country of Bohemia is also beautiful for its simplicity and idyllic scenery. But what I admire among you is the love you have for your native land, the appreciation of her beauty, the intimate contact between man and nature. To the tourists here nature is the object of admiration and of a very special cult that serves to exalt the soul. When we are afflicted, our nerves are agitated, we cannot bear either the echo of the best music in the world or the consolation of friends or the distractions of social life. But as it happens in European countries, inhabited by Germanic peoples, accustomed to read the expression of nature, we find the best solace in the solitude of the forest, in gazing at the clouds that cross the space above, in admiring the beauty of the flowers, and in listening to the innocent song of the little birds. We forget our afflictions and troubles, the hand of the Creator caresses us, and on our return home, we feel refreshed, for nature has gladdened the formerly saddened soul. For this reason, I admire the activity of the members of the Tourists’ Club, because, instead of taking the traveler to the noisy life, to the bars and bright spots of the cities, they invite the man with a heart and soul to acquire new strength for the struggle of life to the bosom of nature, pure, sublime, and enchanting.”

This speech aroused the greatest enthusiasm of the audience and was rewarded with an applause very rare among my very cold countrymen.

On 15 May our Filipino friends visited the churches, the bishop’s residence and other important buildings of this city. We visited also my special friend, Dr. Carlos Czepelack, who, though immobilized by a partial paralysis, has wished to see Rizal and pay him his homage, because I had spoken to him much about Rizal and I had translated to him some salient chapters of the Noli. My friends were very much satisfied with the very affectionate reception they were given by the old parents of Czepelack. Rizal told me that friendly hospitality reminded him of Filipino customs. Naturally they dined with us. We visited the Island of Shooters whose gigantic trees greatly pleased Rizal.

On 16 May Professor Robert Klutschack, a venerable naturalist, invited Rizal, Viola, and me to eat at his house. The dinner was held at the Hotel Krebs, for my friends Rizal and Viola had invited us to dine there with them.

On the 16th, at 9:45 a.m. Rizal and Viola left by train for Prague. They were accompanied to the station by my whole family and Professor Klutschack. When the train started, my little daughter Loleng ran (like a butterfly, wrote Rizal) beside the coach greeting with her tiny hands the dear Filipino friends. The parting deeply moved us and tears moistened our eyes.<<<

That was of course the first and last time he met personally with Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt. From his cell in Fort Santiago Rizal wrote a final note:

My dear Brother,

When you receive this letter, I shall be dead by then.
Tomorrow at seven, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion.

I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.

Adieu, my best, my dearest friend, and never think ill of me!

Fort Santiago, 29 December 1896

José Rizal

Regards to the whole family, to Sra. Rosa, Lolena, Conradito, and Federico.

I leave a book for you as my remembrance.

Note: Rizal probably wrote it in German as was usual in his correspondence with Dr. Blumentritt.

RIZAL’S SPIRITUAL IDEAS*

2011-12-10T22:38:00.002+08:00

By Edwin D. Bael**

Sir Knights and Ladies, Distinguished Guests:

We find ourselves celebrating the 148^th birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal and the 58^th Charter Day of the Knights of Rizal in an atmosphere of global economic and financial crisis; a crisis that, to some serious observers, springs from man’s abandonment of moral moorings.

It is on this point of true north guidance or lack thereof that I’d like to focus tonight’s celebration to honor and uphold the ideals of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. I’d like to review with you his ideas about being spiritually attuned, in the hope that we can re-appreciate the importance of being at-one-ment with the One Source of All, as a means of helping bring back moral compass.

So what are Rizal’s spiritual ideas?

There are so many from his extensive writings. Let me just state some of them.

Religion Important to Man

First, he thought that Religion was important to man. In his essay entitled “Doubts” he wrote: “A man needs to believe and to love, he needs a goal towards which to steer his actions, to formulate for himself a purpose, to see something more beyond matter and noise; he needs in short an objective worthy of his being and his faculties!”

God Created Us with Power to Choose

And a Soul Directed to Good

He had a poem entitled “Fragmento de una poesia” which was essentially a song of thanksgiving to the creator. In English, It reads:

FRAGMENT OF A POEM

To my Creator I sing;

To my Lord, to the All-Powerful

Who calmed my affliction;

To the Merciful

Who gave me repose in tribulation.

You, with your power

Said: live! And I, I came forth with life;

And you gave me the power to choose,

And soul to the good impelled

Like a compass to the North directed.

God is of Inconceivable Majesty.

In a letter to Father Pablo Pastells he said: “I believe firmly in the existence of a Creator more than by faith, by reasoning and by necessity. Who is He? What human sounds, what syllables of language can enshrine the name of that Being whose works overwhelm the mind that thinks of them? Who can give Him an adequate name, when a little creature hereabouts with an ephemeral power, has two or three names, three or four surnames and numerous titles and epithets? x x x x x x x I dare to believe Him infinitely wise, powerful, good. My idea of the infinite is imperfect and confused on seeing His wonderful works, the order that prevails among them, their magnificence and overwhelming extent, and the goodness that shines in every thing. The lucubrations of a poor worm, the last creature on the little ball of earth, however crazy they may be, can never offend His inconceivable majesty. x x x x x x.”

In a letter to Blumentritt, Rizal described his exchanges with Father Pastells: "We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt his when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? x x x x x x Before theologians' and philosophers' definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable Being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the Supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: 'It could be; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!...I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. x x x x x x x . . . . . let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side; in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the Being from whom it proceeds; in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. x x x x x x x “

God Created All Men Equal.

In his Message to the Women of Malolos, 1889, he wrote: “Men are born equal, naked, and without chains. They were not created by God to be enslaved, neither were they endowed with intelligence in order to be misled, nor adorned with reason to be fooled by others. It is not pride to refuse to worship a fellow man, to enlighten the mind, and to reason out every thing. The arrogant one is he who wants to be worshipped, who misleads others, and who wants his will to prevail over reason and justice.” Then he clarified piety to them: “Piety does not consist in prolonged kneeling, long prayers, large rosaries, and soiled scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience and upright thinking. xxxxxxx True piety is obedience to what is right, happen what may.”

In another part of that same Message to the Women of Malolos, he further explained: “God gave each one his own mind and his own conscience so that he can distinguish between right and wrong. All are born without chains, free, and no one can subject the will and spirit of another. Why would you submit to another your noble and free thought? x x x x x God, fountain of wisdom, does not expect man, created in his image, to allow himself to be fooled and blinded. The gift of reason with which we are endowed must be brightened and utilized.”

The Need for Education to Make Men Worthy

Because of this belief in brightening reason he espoused education as the primary way for redemption of his nation. In a letter to Blumentritt March 1890, he mentioned: “… education of the people… is my supreme aspiration.”

Why did he believe in education so much? He had a poem that gives an answer. Entitled “Por La Educacion Recibe Lustre La Patria” it reads, in English:

THROUGH EDUCATION

THE COUNTRY RECEIVES LUSTRE

Vital breath, wise education

inspires a charming virtue.

She elevates the nation to the high seat

of dazzling, immortal glory.

And as the soft blow of fresh breeze

makes green again the hues of sweet flowers,

so does education benevolently exalt

the human being with lavish hands.

But education for what? To make men worthy.

In another letter to Blumentritt, February 1890, he narrated: “Fr. [Francisco de Paula] Sanchez, my professor of rhetoric, dared to defend me in public and praise my book (Noli Me Tangere), but secretly he told me that I would have done better writing an ideal book in which I could describe an ideal picture of ideal priests and in this way show the contrast. I replied that I did not write for thinking readers but for the public that did not think; that there were so many books where ideal priests were described and they were utilized by bad priests to conceal their wolfish bodies with the skin of sheep. I told him that I wanted to awaken my countrymen from their profound lethargy and one who wished to awaken did not use soft and gentle sounds but detonations, blows, etc. “Are you not afraid of the consequences of your audacity?” asked Fr. Sanchez. x x x “Father,” I replied, “you are a missionary. If you go on your mission, are you not afraid of the consequences of its fulfillment?” “Oh, that is entirely different!” he replied. “Not at all,” I replied, “your mission is to baptize the heathen, but mine is to make men worthy.”

Worthy of What? Freedom, Justice, Rights, Liberty, Happiness.

In a letter to Blumentritt, 31 Jan 1889, Rizal pointed out: “We want the happiness of the Philippines but we want to obtain it thorough noble and just means, for right is on our side and therefore we ought not to do any thing bad.”

In a paper entitled “Science, Virtue and Labor” read in 1883 at the La Solidaridad Lodge in Madrid, Rizal stated: “The duty of modern man to my way of thinking is to work for the redemption of humanity, because once man is dignified there would be less unfortunate and more happy men that is possible in this life.”

In his letter to Marcelo del Pilar, Paris, 22 June 1889, Rizal reminded his friend: “We fight so that there may be more justice and more liberty, and for the sacred rights of man.”

In his book “El Filibusterismo” written in Ghent, 1891, Rizal explained his concept of redemption of the Philippines: “I do not mean to say that we should win our freedom with the sword; the sword now counts for very little in the destinies of modern peoples; but indeed let us win it by deserving it, exalting individual reason and dignity, loving the just, the good, the great, even dying for it. And when a people reaches that height, God will provide the arms, and the idols will fall, the tyrants will fall like a house of cards, and liberty will shine with the first dawn. Our ills are due to ourselves; let us not throw the blame on anybody.”

He wanted our people to assume responsibility for where they were and thus take hold of their being worthy of their own future by action and perseverance. In an article entitled “A Hope” published in La Solidaridad, 15 July 1890, Rizal said: “God has made man free and has promised victory to one who perseveres, to one who struggles, to one who acts justly.”

Against Hypocrisy

Making men worthy was a great cause for Rizal because he saw his own people subjugated and confounded by the hypocrisy and deceit of the rulers at that time. In his essay “The Creator Gazes on the Philippines”, Rizal had the Lord Jesus talking to Himself: “When one dies for love or for the conviction that his death will do some good, death is a pleasure. But when, after death, after the sufferings, comes disillusion. . .Oh! Could I not convert myself into nothing, annihilate myself completely, destroy my conscience in order not to see the disastrous effect of my work . . . I have come to the earth as light and men have used me to envelope it in darkness; I have come to console the poor and my religion gives favors and pleasures to the rich; I have come to destroy superstition and in my name superstition flourishes and lords it over perfectly; I have come to redeem peoples and in my name have been subjugated provinces, kingdoms, continents, entire races having been reduced to slavery and disappeared entirely. I have come to preach love and in my name, for trivial distinctions, for the craftiness of the idle, men have hurled themselves on one another and have spread over the earth death and devastation, sanctifying crime with the prestige of the divine. Horrible absurdity, monstrous error, stupendous blasphemy!”

Decrying Misuse of What is Good

In a letter to Blumentritt, Paris, Jan 20, 1890, Rizal clarified why he had to hit not only the abusive friars but also their religion: “I wished to hit the friars but as the Friars utilize religion not only as a shield but also as a weapon, a protection, castle, fortress, cuirass, etc., I was forced to attack their false and superstitious religion, to fight the enemy that hid behind it! x x x x x God ought not to be utilized as a shield and protector of abuses, and less to use religion for such purpose. x x x x x What is happening in the Philippines is horrible. They abuse the name of religion for a few pesos. They hawk religion to enrich their treasures. Religion to seduce the innocent young woman! Religion to get rid of an enemy! Religion to perturb the peace of marriage and the family, if not to dishonor the wife! Why should I not combat this religion with all my strength when it is the primary cause of all our sufferings and tears? The responsibility falls on those who abuse the name of religion! Christ did the same to the religion of his country, to the Pharisees who had abused so much!”

Jesus Christ was a Liberator.

Dr. Rizal wrote an essay in French entitled “Dimanche de Rameaux”, which talked of the significance of Palm Sunday, in this vein: “This entry [of Jesus into Jerusalem] decided the fate of the jealous priests, the Pharisees, of all those who believed themselves the only ones who had the right to speak in the name of God, of those who would not admit the truths said by others because they have not been said by them. That triumph, those hosannas, all those flowers, those olive branches, were not for Jesus alone; they were the songs of the victory of the new law, they were the canticles celebrating the dignification of man, the liberty of man, the first mortal blow directed against despotism and slavery ….”

Religion and Education Can Work Together.

In his poem “Intimate Alliance of Religion and Education”, Rizal explained the use of blending religion with education, in this way (translated into English):

INTIMATE ALLIANCE BETWEEN

RELIGION AND EDUCATION

as the climbing ivy

tortuously walking

up the lofty elm

makes both enchantment of the green meadow,

and they jointly increase in beauty

while together they grow;

and were the kind elm to fail,

deprived of its solace, the ivy

would wither sadly;

so does education’s intimate alliance

with religion’s soul united and true:

through her, education reaches renown;

and o, how blind is one rejecting

holy religion’s wise doctrines and

from its pure stream flees abominably.

True Faith in God.

In a letter to Fr. Pastells from Dapitan, 1 Sept 1892, Rizal said: “I too pray now and then, but really when I do so, it never occurred to me to ask for any thing. I believe I have every thing and as all that happens to me is His Will, I am contented and resigned.” Shades of Saint Paul having learned to be content in whatever situation?

In his diary written on the ship from Barcelona to Manila, 1896, after he was ordered imprisoned for suspicion of complicity in the revolution, Rizal wrote: “I believe that what is happening is the best that can happen to me. Always let God’s will be done! I feel more calm with regard to my future. This afternoon I have meditated because I had nothing else to do nor could I read. I feel that peace has descended upon me, Thank God! Oh God! Thou art my hope and my consolation! Let your Will be done; I am ready to obey it. Either I will be condemned or absolved. I’m happy and ready.” This faith in God’s will helps explain why the Spanish medical officer found his pulse to be normal right before he was shot by the firing squad on December 30 of that year.

Back to here and now.

Sir Knights, we live in an era of manipulation of thoughts and consciousness. We are what we think we are. Governments and big corporations know that. So they spend monstrous amounts to shape the thoughts and ideas of people, using all means of mass communications, the internet, subliminals and other ways, all designed to advance their own interests, to get people to buy into what they offer, either with votes or dollars. It is marketing on steroids. We are not really conscious of it, precisely because that is how they want it to be. In the Philippines, next year’s presidential elections are now beginning a new cycle of heating up in expenditures, every camp wanting to replicate the mass-organization, high-tech, high-expense Obama campaign strategy, and our voters will once again be subjected to all kinds of mind games, resulting in perhaps an unfortunate consolidation of what might be called a “demented multitude syndrome”.

Let me conclude in relation to that point.

Rizal’s Baton

In the poem “Cervantes en Argamasilla de Alba”, Rizal tells of Miguel de Cervantes in the mountains of La Mancha, distraught and desperate, pondering his sad present as bitterer than his past, when an angel appears. The apparition chides Miguel with the questions: why does your courage surrender to the blows of fate? why do you despair when you were made an invincible genius? The angel then tells him to do something worthy. Here are the words of Rizal in the original Spanish text:

Ve pues, Miguel, y que tu clara mente,

foco de luz, que alumbrara tu suelo,

Redima a esa multitude demente

Rasgando el hosco encapotado velo.

Y, cual nube prenada, rayo ardiente

airoso lanza en tu encumbrado vuelo

que derribe al dios de la locura

brotar haciendo celestial ventura

Brother Knights, I feel that Dr. Rizal might be talking to each of us in this verse. So I translated this passage to English, replacing Miguel with Sir Knight, and the translation reads as follows:

Go then, Sir Knight***, and that your clear mind,

focus of light, which will restore sight to your soil,

redeem such a demented multitude

tearing down the sullen cloaked veil.

And, like pregnant cloud, bolt of lightning

hurl successfully in your exalted flying

that demolish the god of madness

making sprout celestial goodness.

Sir Knights and Ladies, Distinguished Guests, I’d like to submit: this is our invitation to take up Dr. Rizal’s baton for education with moral moorings to make men worthy.

The power to choose is ours.

Maraming Salamat Po.

____________________________

* Edited text of paper presented on June 19, 2009 before the Arizona Knights of Rizal at the Filipino Community Center, 2225 West Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, Arizona, on the occasion of their commemoration of the 148^th birth anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal and the 58^th Charter Day of the Knights Of Rizal.

**Edwin D. Bael, a Knight Commander of Rizal, was Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles, California (2000-2002). He now serves as a Consultant on International Law and Management for the Vie Group of Companies in Phoenix, Arizona. He can be reached at ambachrist@gmail.com.

***Could as well be “Filipino”, as in “Go then, Filipino, and that your clear mind …”

Filipino Culture More Critical Than Ever

2011-12-08T15:33:00.000+08:00

By SEN. EDGARDO J. ANGARA

MANILA, Philippines — This past Saturday, we held the 150th Anniversary Conference on Nation and Culture on the Initiative of National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose. I chaired this conference as I did our earlier collaboration, the Solidarity Conference on “A Filipino Agenda for the 21st Century” back in 1987.

I would like to talk about the proceedings and recommendations of the conference, but in my next column. I would, first, like to touch on the context in which it is taking place.

This conference brought together about 150 artists, cultural workers, philanthropists, government leaders, and NGO’s involved in cultural development. Our goal is to build consensus on how strengthening Philippine culture is integral in nation-building.

Perhaps it is not merely coincidental that the conferences, 24 years apart, happen when an Aquino holds the presidency. These are times marked by renewed hope and public trust in national leadership – and a great time for instropection.

The 1987 conference focused on the advent of the 21st century and our desire to help draft an agenda that will help the country meet that future better prepared. We tackled and made recommendations on 10 critical areas: agrarian reform, culture and values, the military’s role in development, government structure, the problems in Mindanao, bureacracy, foreign relations, environment and ecology, economic recovery and social progress, and the administration of justice.

One generation has come and passed, yet we are still beleaguered by many of these same problems. Underlying all these is our troubling lack of a sense of identity and nationalism.

Filipino-Americans account for the second largest group of Asian-Americans in the United States, yet scholars characterize them as the “invisible minority.” In North America, they cite the findings that Filipinos tend to hide their identity – they are not as proud of their ethnicity as the Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, and Indians are. Some are even embarrased and apologetic for being Filipino.

In 1987, the award-winning writer James Fallows wrote about “A Damaged Culture” describing ours. Many Filipinos at that time were appalled, disgusted, and offended by this article. Perhaps, there are those who feel the same to this day. But there is truth to it, whether we acknowledge it or not. Fallows called it the war of every man against every man – every Filipino against every Filipino. “And because of this fragmentation – this lack of nationalism – people treat each other worse in the Philippines than in any other Asian country I have seen,” wrote Fallows, an upsetting observation we ought to disprove if we can.

Our own national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, whose 150th birth anniversary we are observing this year, was also incensed over Filipinos’ apathy. When he was studying in Madrid, he was very critical of Filipino students who were easygoing, negligent of their studies, and indifferent to the interests of Filipinos. He wrote, “The studious were told that it was impossible to pass a course, the patriot that it was useless to attempt anything. The number of buttons on a coat were discussed, but not the rights of the Filipinos.”

Rizal was truly the pride of our race. He was the ultimate non-violent reformer. He pushed for enlightenment through education and freedom through peaceful means. Above all, Rizal was a genuine patriot – he transcended individualism and parochialism to become a Filipino.

Progress is anchored on one’s strong belief in his own capacity, and this, in turn, rests on a strong sense of identity. If we cannot take pride in our own rich heritage and cultural diversity, then how can we muster the faith and strength of conviction needed to move as one forward? Our social, economic, political, and moral ills are equally cultural. It is about time we recognize that and do something about it.

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon!

2011-12-07T15:41:00.002+08:00

Forget Damaso, Remember Sister Christine

2011-12-07T12:37:00.000+08:00

By Benjamin Pimentel
INQUIRER.netFirst Posted 10:58:00 10/10/2010

CALIFORNIA, United States—She was the nun the Catholic church threatened to excommunicate.

Too bad Sister Christine Tan is no longer around to join the latest fight against the Catholic hierarchy. She would have been a valuable ally in P-Noy’s bold decision to push a key social policy, even if it meant taking on the Catholic powers-that-be.

For she herself once faced the risk of being subjected to perhaps the most painful punishment a nun or priest could imagine. The reason: She dared oppose the brutal regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

“Once during martial law, when we major superiors dared oppose the dictatorship, I was summoned to Rome,” Sister Christine recalled in an essay she wrote before her death in 2003. “I remember the 14 doors that I passed through, only to be told by a cardinal that if I did not cooperate with our regime, I would be excommunicated.”

She was unfazed by the threat.

“I sighed," she wrote, "not because of the senseless threat, but because of the thousands of pesos spent on fare, when this could easily have been done with a single stamp."

Now that's one gutsy religious leader worthy of respect.

As I noted in my last column, the recent Catholic hierarchy tantrum over birth control would make any Filipino lose faith in the church.

But Sister Christine’s story highlights an important point: The Catholic church is not monolithic.

There are, in fact, two churches. Sister Christine represented, as one Facebook friend put it, “the living progressive church.”

And she had more than her share of battles with the other church. The institution that is so adamantly opposed to contraceptives, believes women should stay home and be subservient to their husbands, hates gays and lesbians, tells poor people to bear suffering, and tells everyone to not challenge authority with whom it is aligned—even if it’s a greedy bully like Marcos.

“As to the institutional church, that monolithic fort of mitered men, how I suffered from their arrogance,” Sister Christine wrote.

“How healthy it was to be misunderstood, especially by those who mattered,” she also said. “How faith-filled it was to be the enemy of the dictator, the target of rightists. How liberating it was not to be swept by the tide.”

A powerful insight from someone who spent most of her life swimming against the tide.

Remembering people like Sister Christine is partly why I had mixed thoughts about Carlos Celdran's famous Damaso protest.

The creative disruption of a Catholic ceremony certainly gave the Catholic establishment a much-needed jolt—but it was also the equivalent of a shotgun blast. It may have alienated too many people--including some members of the clergy who are probably shaking their heads in private over their superiors’ Medieval cluelessness, priests and nuns who may also be inspired by Sister Christine’s life of commitment to social justice.

For hers was an amazing story of commitment and spiritual enlightenment.

It’s about a woman from a relatively affluent family who decided to become a nun, but later found the cloistered life limiting. She then discovered her calling: to be a warrior for the poor with whom she lived and struggled against the forces of injustice and greed in Philippine society.

Her battles covered a broad range of issues, from human rights and workers rights, to Philippine democracy and sovereignty.

And she never stopped fighting.

When I interviewed her in 1996 in her home in Leveriza, the urban poor community in Manila, Sister Christine was critical of how, despite the fall of the dictator, there was still so much inequality in the country under Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos.

“There are more Marcoses today—before, there was only one,” she told me. “That's what's wrecking our country—the politicians. There is a new elite far richer than 10 years ago and far more powerful.”

As the showdown with the Catholic hierarchy continues, it’s important to remember that, yes, Padre Damaso is still out there. (I bet there are even a few Padre Salvis around, preying not just on the meek Maria Claras, but also on the helpless Crispins and Basilios.)

But there are also other church figures that could inspire and move us.

And they’re not fictional characters from a classic novel. They’re real people whose remarkable life stories are an important part of the Filipino epic.

In her essay, Sister Christine also said, “As for adulation, positions, praises poured on me—they are just bubbles that disappear with a sneeze.”

It’s the one thing she says in that beautiful essay that I truly hope proves to be wrong.

For these days, we should recall and celebrate all that adulation and praise for a nun who personified the compassionate and socially relevant church that every Filipino would be proud to embrace.

Sibylla Rizaliana

2011-12-06T08:22:00.000+08:00

Public Lives
Sibylla Rizaliana
By Randy David

When Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao from 1892 to 1896, he busied himself in community development, a vocation vastly different from the role of political ideologue usually associated with him. He built a hospital, opened a school, organized a farmers’ cooperative, introduced the European style of brick-making, built the town’s first dam and irrigation system, and developed the community park. In all these, he harnessed the energy and resources of the local residents, demonstrating a model of community life founded on the people’s own initiative. On the side, his restless mind found time to invent a parlor game for young people.

Ironically, both his detractors and admirers thought thathe was busy doing secret political work while on exile. Itis not farfetched to think that if the manuscript “Haec est Sibylla Cumana” (“This is Sibylla Cumana”) had fallen into Spanish hands, his enemies would have tried to decipher it for hidden messages.

“Sybil” is the Greek word for priestess or prophetess who foretells the future. Sibylline books were books of oracles that were consulted during the early Greek and Roman period to determine the messages behind natural calamities and to learn how to appease the gods. The political leaders of the classical age also turned to these books for guidance when they needed to make crucial decisions. There were many such books that served the purpose, but the most famous were those that were reputed to have come from the Sybil of Cumae. Cumae was a Greek colony near Naples. Only someone steeped in classical literature, like Rizal, standing in the doorway of modern reason, could have thought of resurrecting the spirit of Sybilla Cumana for a parlor game.

The mechanics of Rizal’s game are easy to follow. Players take turns choosing from a list of 52 questions dealing with the usual personal issues that preoccupy young people. Examples: “Will I be lucky in business?” or “Will my husband be good to me?” Some are cryptic and generic: “Must I stay here?” “Are my conjectures wrong?” “Will my mother know?”

Once a question is chosen, the player is asked to remember its number. The wooden top with eight sides is then spun. When it stumbles, the Roman numeral thatappears face up indicates the number of the answer. With these two numbers, the player consults the table containing 52 rows and 8 columns. The number in the box where the first and second numbers intersect gives the page number in the book where the answer will be found. The answers lend themselves to all kinds of meanings. But one can imagine how a vague and silly answer to a general question can become the object of wild speculation, a source of anxiety, or the start of endless teasing by the rest of the group.

For instance, to the loaded question #51 – “Do I have to put up with a mother-in-law in my house?” – Rizal’s Sibylla offers a broad range of answers, always witty and unexpected: (I) “Love your spouse more and you will have less of a mother-in-law.” (II) “Yes, and she will be so good you will adore her afterwards.” (III) “Fortunately, because without her you will end up in hospital.” (IV) “No, because not even she will be able to stand you.” (V) “Yes, because you will choose the lesser evil.” (VI) “You will not meet her.” (VII) “If you want your spouse to respect your mother, you need to start adoring your mother-in-law.” (VIII) “A mother-in-law is not just a mother-in-law, she is also a mother: are you an enemy of mothers?”

Rizal must have had a great time composing the questions and answers, and embedding these in an elaborate table that preserves the element of chance. He himself pasted together sheets of onion-skin paper onwhich he wrote the questions and answers in Spanish, bound the pages into a beautifully handcrafted book using a sturdy recycled envelope as cover, and hand-carved the eight-sided top that came with the book. The exquisite craftsmanship is evident in the material qualities of the manuscript itself.

No wonder the descendants of Rizal’s sister Narcisa, to whom he gave the book when he closed down the house in Dapitan, took care of this heirloom as if it was the most important treasure in the world. Narcisa bequeathed it to her son Antonio Rizal Lopez who married Emiliana Rizal, the daughter of Paciano. Emiliana in turn entrusted it to her eldest son Francisco. It is one of the few Rizal mementos that survived the burning of Manila in World War II.

This Thursday, December 8, at 6 in the evening, atAuditorium 1 of the Ateneo Professional Schools in Rockwell Center, the Paciano Rizal Family Heritage, Inc. and Cruz Publishing are launching a beautiful replica of this unique parlor game. It shows a different facet in the personality of this genius of our race, Jose Rizal. The “Sibylla Rizaliana,” if I may call it that, comes in a finely crafted box that contains a replica of the original manuscript in Spanish, an English translation by Rizal’s relative, Gemma Cruz Araneta, and a Filipino translationby National Artist for Literature, Virgilio S. Almario. A German long-time resident, Konrad Woelhaf, created a faithful reproduction of the original top carved by Rizal. It is included in the box.

I salute the members of Rizal’s family for sharing this wonderful heirloom with today’s young Filipinos. The humor of Lolo Jose will not fail to come alive each time they consult his book of oracles and spin the top. I only hope the publishers have made enough copies to meet the demand from those who will be looking for a distinctive, stylish and meaningful gift this Christmas.

public.lives@gmail.com