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Jose Rizal's arrival in Manila on June 26, 1892 had become very sensational among the
Filipinos. His popularity feared the Spaniards, and as such, payed careful attention to his every
moves Ȃ all houses where he had been were searched and the Filipinos seen in his company were
suspected. As he had planned, on July 3, 1892 he founded the ? ?  in the house of
DoroteoOngjunco in Tondo, Manila.

Four days after the civic organization's foundation, Jose Rizal was arrested by the Spanish
authorities on four grounds:
1.p for publishing anti-Catholic and anti-friar books and articles;
2.p for having in possession a bundle of handbills, the ÿ  , in which advocacies were in
violation of the Spanish orders;
3.p for dedicating his novel, › to the three Dztraitorsdz (Gomez, Burgos and Zamora)
and for emphasizing on the novel's title page that Dzthe only salvation for the Philippines was
separation from the mother country (referring to Spain)dz; and
4.p for simply criticizing the religion and aiming for its exclusion from the Filipino culture.

h 
  

June 17, 1892
From that day until July 31, 1896, Dapitan became the bare witness to one of the most
fruitful periods in Rizal's life. His stay in the province was more than Dzhedz living in an exile Ȃ it was
the period when Rizal had been more focused on serving the people and the society through his
civic works, medical practices, land development and promotion of education.



 c   

He had had a scholarly debate with    regarding religion. This exchange
of heated arguments revealed the 
   
c . He is anti-Christian because he cannot
accept the abuses performed by friars, doing such abuses under the name of the sacred (Christian)
religion. Father Pastells tried his best to win Rizal back to the faith but fortunately or unfortunately,
in vain. These series of debate ended inconclusively in which neither of them convinced the other of
his judgments/arguments.

 

  

Rizal had maximized his stay in Dapitan by devoting much of his time in improving his
artistic and literary skills. His careers and achievements in different fields were as follows: 
p As a   
, Rizal provided free medicine to his patients, most of them were
underprivileged. However, he also had wealthy patients who paid him well enough for his
excellent surgical skill.
p As an

, Rizal applied his knowledge through the waterworks system he
constructed in Dapitan.
p As an  , Rizal established a school in Dapitan which was attended by 16 young boys
from prominent families. Instead of charging them for the matriculation, he made the
students do community projects for him like maintaining his garden and field. (He taught
them reading, writing in English and Spanish, geography, history, mathematics, industrial
work, nature study, morals and gymnastics. He encouraged his students to engage in sports
activities to strengthen their bodies as well. There was no formal room, like the typical
classroom nowadays. Classes were conducted from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. with the teacher sitting
on a hammock while the students sat on a long bamboo bench.)
p As an   , Rizal devoted time in planting important crops and fruit-bearing trees
in his 16-hectare land (later, reaching as large as 70 hectares). He planted cacao, coffee,
sugarcane, and coconuts, among many others. (From the United States, he imported
agricultural machinery and introduced to the native farmers of Dapitan the modern
agricultural methods.)
p As a 

, the adventurous Rizal, (with his partner, Ramon Carreon,) tried his luck
in the fishing, hemp and copra industries.
p As an

 . In 1887, during his medical practice in Calamba, he invented a special type
of lighter called Y  (which he sent to Blumentritt as a gift). According to Rizal, the
wooden lighter's mechanism was based on the principle of compressed air. Another of his
inventions was the þ
  can manufacture about 6,000 bricks a day.
p As an   , he had contributed his talent in the Sisters of Charity who were preparing for
the arrival of the image of the Holy Virgin. Rizal was actually the person who modeled the
image's right foot and other details. He also conceptualize its curtain, which was oil-painted
by a Sister under his instruction. He also made sketches of anything which attracted him in
Dapitan. (Among his collections were the three rare fauna species that he discovered
(dragon/lizard, frog and beetle) and the fishes he caught. He also sculptured the statuette
called DzThe Mother's Revengedz which represented his dog, Syria, avenging her puppy to a
crocodile which killed it.)
p As a 
 , Rizal was interested in the languages used in Dapitan, thus, studied and made
comparisons of the Bisayan and Malayan languages existing in the region. In fact, Rizal had
knowledge in 22 languages: (Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisayan, Subanun, Spanish, Latin, Greek,
English, French, German, Arabic, Malayan, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, Chinese,
Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish and Russian.)
p As a 
 , Rizal shared his interest with nature to his students. (With his boys, they
explored the jungles and searched for specimens which he sent to museums in Europe,
particularly in Dressed Museum. In return, scientific books and surgical instruments were
delivered to him from the European scientists.) He made a bulk of researches and studies in
the fields of ethnography, archaeology, geology, anthropology and geography. However,
Rizal's most significant contribution in the scientific world was his discovery of three
species:
up ÷    Ȃ flying dragon
up h     Ȃ small beetle
up c     Ȃ rare frog
p Rizal also partakes in   þ  in Dapitan. Upon arriving in the province, he noticed its
poor condition. He drained the marshes of Dapitan to get rid of malaria-carrying
mosquitoes. He also provided lighting system Ȃ (coconut oil lamps posted in dark streets) Ȃ
in the province out of what he earned from being a physician. He beautified Dapitan by
remodelling the town plaza (, with the aid of his Jesuit teacher, Fr. Francisco Sanchez,) and
created a relief map of Mindanao (footnote: using stones, soil and grass) right in front the
church.

c
  þ  
 

Rizal had always been missing his family and their happy moments together in Calamba and
his despair doubled upon the announcement of Leonor Rivera's death. Not soon, to his surprise, an
Irish girl enlightened his rather gloomy heart. This girl was the 18-year old  
 

(who to WenceslaoRetana's words, was Dzslender, a chestnut blond, with blue eyes, dressed with
elegant simplicity, with an atmosphere of lightdz)
From Hongkong, she arrived in Dapitan in February, 1895 with his blind foster father,
!   " , and a Filipina named 
 # . Rizal's fame as an opthalmic surgeon
reached overseas, and one of Rizal's friends, Julio Llorente referred the group to Rizal. Rizal and
Bracken instantly fell in love with each and in just one month, they agreed to marry which appalled
and disturbed Taufer. However, the parish priest of Dapitan,    #, refused to do so
unless they be permitted by the  .
On the other hand, Taufer returned to Hongkong uncured. Because no priest was willing to
marry the two, the couple exchanged their vows before God in their own way, which scandalized Fr.
Obach. In 1896, their love bears its fruit Ȃ Josephine was pregnant. Unfortunately, Bracken gave
birth to a one-month premature baby boy who lived only for three hours. The child was buried in
Dapitan, bearing the name  
 , after Rizal's father.

$ 

 c   
Prior to the outbreak of the revolution, the $ 

leader, h
  
 , seek the
advice of Jose Rizal. In a secret meeting on May 2, 1896 at r 
 river in Pasig, the group
agreed to send  %
  as a representative to Dapitan who will inform Rizal of their plan
to launch a revolution against the Spaniards. Rizal and Valenzuela had a talk in the former's garden.
There, Valenzuela told him of the Katipunan's plan. Regarding this, Rizal outspokenly objected
Bonifacio's Dzprematuredz idea for two reasons:
1.p the Filipinos were still unready for such bloody revolution; and
2.p theKatipunan lacked machinery Ȃ before plotting a revolution, there must be sufficient arms
and funds collected.
Valenzuela also told Rizal of their plan to rescue him in Dapitan. Again, the exiled hero disagreed
because he had no plan of breaking his word of honor to the Spanish authorities.

h
 

During the peak of the Cuban revolution, Rizal offered his services as a military doctor to
compromise with the shortage of physicians in the said country. It was his friend  



  who informed him of the situation in Cuba and suggested that he volunteer himself as
army doctor. On December 17, 1895, Rizal sent a letter to !
 !
c
 

rendering his service for Cuba. But for months Rizal awaited in vain for the governor's reply, and
loss hope that his request will be granted. It was only on July 30, 1896 when Rizal received a letter
from Governor Blanco, dated July 2, 1896, accepting his offer. The letter also stated that Rizal will
be given a pass so that he can go to Manila, then to Spain where its Minister of War will assign shim
to the Army of Operations in Cuba.

 þ   

At midnight of July 31, 1896, Jose Rizal left Dapitan on board the steamer › , (together
with Narcisa, Josephine, Angelica (Narcisa's daughter), three nephews and six of his students. Many
were saddened as the adopted son of Dapitan left). 
After almost a week, on August 6, 1896, › arrived in Manila. Rizal was supposedly to
board the   ?  for Spain, but unfortunately, left ahead of time. Instead, he was transferred
to the Spanish cruiser   to stay and wait for the next mail boat that would sail for Spain next
month. He was prohibited from leaving the vicinity but was allowed to accept visitors so long as
they were his immediate family. Of course, all these delays were part of the drama Ȃ Rizal has now
fallen to the critical/deadly Spanish trap.

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