Republic Act No.

1425
House Bill No. 5561
Senate Bill No. 438

June 12, 1956

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1425

AN ACT TO INCLUDE IN THE CURRICULA OF ALL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES COURSES ON THE LIFE, WORKS
AND WRITINGS OF JOSE RIZAL, PARTICULARLY HIS NOVELS NOLI ME
TANGERE AND EL FILIBUSTERISMO, AUTHORIZING THE PRINTING AND
DISTRIBUTION THEREOF, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
WHEREAS, today, more than any other period of our history, there is a need for a rededication to the ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died;
WHEREAS, it is meet that in honoring them, particularly the national hero and patriot, Jose
Rizal, we remember with special fondness and devotion their lives and works that have
shaped the national character;
WHEREAS, the life, works and writing of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo, are a constant and inspiring source of patriotism with which
the minds of the youth, especially during their formative and decisive years in school, should
be suffused;
WHEREAS, all educational institutions are under the supervision of, and subject to
regulation by the State, and all schools are enjoined to develop moral character, personal
discipline, civic conscience and to teach the duties of citizenship; Now, therefore,
SECTION 1. Courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novel
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the curricula of all schools,
colleges and universities, public or private: Provided, That in the collegiate courses, the
original or unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their
English translation shall be used as basic texts.
The Board of National Education is hereby authorized and directed to adopt forthwith
measures to implement and carry out the provisions of this Section, including the writing and
printing of appropriate primers, readers and textbooks. The Board shall, within sixty (60)
days from the effectivity of this Act, promulgate rules and regulations, including those of a
disciplinary nature, to carry out and enforce the provisions of this Act. The Board shall
promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption of students for reasons of
religious belief stated in a sworn written statement, from the requirement of the provision
contained in the second part of the first paragraph of this section; but not from taking the
course provided for in the first part of said paragraph. Said rules and regulations shall take
effect thirty (30) days after their publication in the Official Gazette.

SECTION 2. It shall be obligatory on all schools, colleges and universities to keep in their
libraries an adequate number of copies of the original and unexpurgated editions of the Noli
Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as well as of Rizals other works and biography. The said
unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their translations in
English as well as other writings of Rizal shall be included in the list of approved books for
required reading in all public or private schools, colleges and universities.
The Board of National Education shall determine the adequacy of the number of books,
depending upon the enrollment of the school, college or university.
SECTION 3. The Board of National Education shall cause the translation of the Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as well as other writings of Jose Rizal into English, Tagalog
and the principal Philippine dialects; cause them to be printed in cheap, popular editions; and
cause them to be distributed, free of charge, to persons desiring to read them, through the
Purok organizations and Barrio Councils throughout the country.
SECTION 4. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as amendment or repealing section nine
hundred twenty-seven of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the discussion of religious
doctrines by public school teachers and other person engaged in any public school.
SECTION 5. The sum of three hundred thousand pesos is hereby authorized to be
appropriated out of any fund not otherwise appropriated in the National Treasury to carry out
the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Approved: June 12, 1956
Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 52, No. 6, p. 2971 in June 1956.
http://www.gov.ph/1956/06/12/republic-act-no-1425/

History

Jos Rizal

Senator Claro M. Recto was the main proponent of the Rizal Bill. He sought to sponsor the bill at
Congress. However, this was met with stiff opposition from the Catholic Church. During the 1955
Senate election, the church charged Recto with being a communist and an anti-Catholic. After
Recto's election, the Church continued to oppose the bill mandating the reading of Rizal's
novels Noli Me Tngere and El Filibusterismo, claiming it would violatefreedom of
conscience and religion.[1]
In the campaign to oppose the Rizal bill, the Catholic Church urged its adherents to write to their
congressmen and senators showing their opposition to the bill; later, it organized symposiums. In
one of these symposiums, Fr. Jesus Cavanna argued that the novels belonged to the past and that
teaching them would misrepresent current conditions. Radio commentator Jesus Paredes also said
that Catholics had the right to refuse to read them as it would "endanger their salvation".[1]
Groups such as Catholic Action of the Philippines, the Congregation of the Mission, the Knights of
Columbus, and the Catholic Teachers Guild organized opposition to the bill; they were countered by
Veteranos de la Revolucion (Spirit of 1896), Alagad in Rizal, the Freemasons, and the Knights of
Rizal. The Senate Committee on Education sponsored a bill co-written by both Jos P. Laurel and
Recto, with the only opposition coming from Francisco Soc Rodrigo, Mariano Jess Cuenco,
and Decoroso Rosales.[2][3]
The Archbishop of Manila, Rufino Santos, protested in a pastoral letter that Catholic students would
be affected if compulsory reading of the unexpurgated version were pushed through.[4] Arsenio
Lacson, Manila's mayor, who supported the bill, walked out of Mass when the priest read a circular
from the archbishop denouncing the bill.[5]

Rizal, according to Cuenco, "attack[ed] dogmas, beliefs and practices of the Church. The assertion
that Rizal limited himself to castigating undeserving priests and refrained from criticizing, ridiculing or
putting in doubt dogmas of the Catholic Church, is absolutely gratuitous and misleading." Cuenco
touched on Rizal's denial of the existence of purgatory, as it was not found in the Bible, and that
Moses and Jesus Christ did not mention its existence; Cuenco concluded that a "majority of the
Members of this Chamber, if not all [including] our good friend, the gentleman from Sulu" believed in
purgatory.[3] The senator from Sulu, Domocao Alonto, attacked Filipinos who proclaimed Rizal as
"their national hero but seemed to despise what he had written", saying that the Indonesians used
Rizal's books as their Bible on their independence movement; Pedro Lpez, who hails from Cebu,
Cuenco's province, in his support for the bill, reasoned out that it was in their province the
independence movement started, when Lapu-Lapu fought Ferdinand Magellan.[4]
Outside the Senate, the Catholic schools threatened to close down if the bill was passed; Recto
countered that if that happened, the schools would be nationalized. Recto did not believe the threat,
stating that the schools were too profitable to be closed.[1] The schools gave up the threat, but
threatened to "punish" legislators in favor of the law in future elections. A compromise was
suggested, to use the expurgated version; Recto, who had supported the required reading of the
unexpurgated version, declared: "The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the
schools would blot out from our minds the memory of the national hero. This is not a fight against
Recto but a fight against Rizal", adding that since Rizal is dead, they are attempting to suppress his
memory.[6]
On May 12, 1956, a compromise inserted by Committee on Education chairman Laurel that
accommodated the objections of the Catholic Church was approved unanimously. The bill specified
that only college (university) students would have the option of reading unexpurgated versions of
clerically-contested reading material, such as Noli Me Tngere and El Filibusterismo.[1][4][6] The bill
was enacted on June 12, 1956,[4] Flag Day.

Content

The Noli and Fili were required readings for college students.

Section 2 mandated that the students were to read the novels as they were written in Spanish,
although a provision ordered that the Board of National Education create rules on how these should
be applied.[3] The last two sections were focused on making Rizal's works accessible to the general
public: the second section mandated the schools to have "an adequate number" of copies in their
libraries, while the third ordered the board to publish the works in major Philippine languages.[3]

Aftermath
After the bill was enacted into law, there were no recorded instances of students applying for
exemption from reading the novels, and there is no known procedure for such exemptions.[6] In 1994,
President Fidel V. Ramos ordered the Department of Education, Culture and Sports to fully
implement the law as there had been reports that it has still not been fully implemented.[7]
The debate during the enactment of the Rizal Law has been compared to the Responsible
Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012(RH Law) debate in
2011.[8] Akbayan representative Kaka Bag-ao, one of the proponents of the RH bill, said, quoting the
Catholic hierarchy, that "More than 50 years ago, they said the Rizal Law violates the Catholic's right
to conscience and religion, interestingly, the same line of reasoning they use to oppose the RH
bill."[9]