RIZAL ORATION PIECE

When I was young, I used to dream of wonderful things for the Philippines. I wanted to

see tall skyscrapers reach as high as the clouds. I wanted to hear people sing songs, holding

each other’s hands and laughing out loud as if there were no tomorrow. I dreamed to see the

Philippine flag hoisted in each and every household shouting, Viva las islas Filipinas! and at the

same time singing the Lupang Hinirang in a blaring voice.

Ten years later, these dreams were shattered to the ground. I don’t see tall buildings

but

I see unfinished construction sites because of poor planning and development. I don’t hear

songs and laughter but I hear gunshots, cries and remorse, witnessing how people kill each

other on television screens because of self-centeredness and inequality. I don’t see flags in

people’s households but I see households broken, its members venturing to other parts of the

globe because of scarcity of jobs and opportunities. This was not the Philippines I was dreaming

of.

Our society needs an immediate reorientation and reinventing of values. We need a

real

president who can bring about real and tangible transformation. According to Rizal, as Filipinos

we should not exude the smell politicians, but should advocate the endeavors of ever-loyal

nationalists. “Politics when it blazes between tyrants and oppressed people, has no heart, no
brains but fangs, poison and vengeance.”

As Filipinos we need not sensationalize our achievements and charity works. Rizal

didnot show off his achievements because people already know him as someone great. He
neednot dance and sing in commercials because his works spoke for themselves. I Rizal were

mypresident, I would gladly repeat that words of Padre Florentino.

I donot mean to say that our freedom must be won at the point of the sword. No!

Absolutely not! The sword now counts very little in the destinies of our time. But I do say that 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, even to the point of dying for it.

Rizal is exuding passion. He is generous in all his endeavors in various fields –

science,

mathematics, literature and the arts, giving it his all, therefore always emerging in excellence.

The very person who should lead our country must be someone who has a heart for excellence.

Rizal asserts: “I want to awaken my countrymen from their profound lethargy, and one who

wished to do that does not use soft and gentle sounds but detonations, blows and deafening

bombs.”
Rizal has great dreams for the Filipinos, and he never, not even once underestimated
them. I quote from his letter to the women of Malolos: “Ignorant is he who subjects another to
his own will and dominates all. True piety is obedience to what is right.”
With unwavering trust and conviction, Rizal believes in the abilities of the Filipino people
and banks on them for the progress of the Philippines.

My fellow young men and women, if we want to establish a better Philippines, we need

areal president who embodies the characteristics of Dr. Jose Rizal, the very person who died

forhis country. We should try our best to epitomize the same selflessness and sacrifice that

Rizalhas embodied all his life. Let us always remember that authority without love and sacrifice

isdefinitely self serving . That one should surrender himself to the power of love and not to

thelove of power.
 Today, I still continue to dream of a better Philippines. I still want to see skyscrapers

and

hear people sing and laugh. I will still sing the Lupang Hinirang with so much passion, just like

during that beautiful morning in Bagumbayan, 113 years ago, in 1896 when he was there,

standing alone, his eyes were closed but his heart was open, that the fires of Mt. Tabor were

burning in his breast, the cup of sacrifice came and was heard all over the world in the form of a

gunshot, and there it was: Ang mamatay ng dahil sa ‘yo. To die for the sake of the Philippines, a

trait every Filipino should strive for, yes, ladies and gentlemen, Rizal I my president.