RZL10-Rizals Works and the writings of other Filipino Heroes

Week 1: -- The Significance of R.A. 1425

1. Rizal Law as a mandated subject
> Begun and held in the City of Manila on Monday, Jan. 23, 1956 which compose of 6 sections
and approved June 12, 1956.
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.
2. Concept of a Hero
a. Hero
1. a prominent or central personage taking an admirable part in any remarkable action or
event (Websters New International Dictionary)
2. a person of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger, or fortitude in suffering
3. a man honored after death by public worship, because of exceptional service to
mankind
b. Why Rizal a Hero?
1. as a towering figure in the Propaganda Campaign, he took an admirable part that
covered from 1882 to 1896
2. Noli Me Tangere(Berlin, 1887) contributed tremendously to the formation of Filipino
nationality
3. No Filipino has yet been born who could equal or surpass Rizal as a person of
distinguished valor or enterprise in danger,or fortitude in suffering
4. To the bigoted Spaniards in Spain and in the Philippines,Rizal was the most intelligent,
most courageous, and most dangerous enemy of the reactionaries and the tyrants (this
was the reason why Rizal, after a brief mock trial, was sentenced to death and made to
face the firing squad to serve an example and warning to those of his kind at
Bagumbayan Field, now the Luneta in the early morning of Dec.30,1896)
5. Rizal, the greatest Filipino hero that ever livedbecause he is a man honored after death
by public worship, because of exceptional service to mankind.
c. Who made Rizal the foremost hero of the Phil.?
No single person or groups of persons were responsible for making the Greatest
Malayan the Number One Hero of his people. Rizal himself, his own people, and the
foreigners all together contributed to make him the greatest hero and martyr of his people.

Week 2 : -- The World during Rizals Time

A. The World During Rizals Time
1. International events that could have influenced Rizals Developing
Philisophies
a. The rising discontent of the Russian masses, issued a proclamation emancipating
or to free 22,500,000 serfs(slaves)
b. American civil war (1861-65) was ranging furiously in US over the issue of Negro
slavery
c. Titanic conflict which erupted on April 12,1861, compelled Pres.Lincoln to isuue
his famous Emancipation Proclamation on freeing the Negro slaves(1863)
d. The times of Rizal saw the flowering of Western imperialism. England emerged as
the worlds leading imperialist power. Britannia rules the wavesby winning the
first opium war (1840-1842) against the tottering Chinese Empire under Manchu
dynasty and acquired Hongkong (Fragrant Harbor)
e. Spain, the once upon a time the mistress of the world was stagnating as a
world power. Gone with the winds of time wasthe dalliance of the imperial glory
of her vanished (Golden Age). Former Spanish colonies had risen in arms
against Spanish tyranny and achieved their independence.
2. Local Conditions during Rizals Time
a. Instability of Colonial Administration
1. Marked the beginning of political chaos in Spain.
2. Spanish government underwent frequent changes adopting 4 constitutions,
elected 28 parliaments, and installed no less than 529 ministers.
3. A period of less than a year, there were 2 governors-generals in the Phil.
4. This frequent change of colonial officials hampered the political and
economic development of the Phil.
b. Corrupt Colonial Officials
1. Colonial officials sent by Spain to the Philippines were either highly
corrupt, incompetent, cruel, or venal.
c. Philippines Representation in Spanish Cortes
1. The Philippines experienced her first period of representation in the
cortes (Spanish parliament) from1810 to 1813.
2. Ventura de los Reyes took an active part in the framing of the
Constitution of 1812 and the abolition of the galleon
3. The representation of the overseas colonies in the Spanish Cortes was
abolished in 1837 and since then the conditions worsened because there
was no means by which the Filipinos expose the anomalies perpetrated
by the colonial officials.
i. Graciano Lopez Jaena- We want representation in the legislative
chamber so that our aspirations may be known to the mother
country and its government.
4. Until the end of Spanish rule in 1898, Phil. Representation in the Cortes
was never retored. No wonder, Jose Rizal, M.H. Del Pilar, Graciano Lopez
Jaena and other youthful patriots launched the Propaganda Movement,
which pave the way for the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
d. Human Rights Denied to Filipinos
1. The people of Spain enjoyed the freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, freedom of association and other human rights except freedom of
religion but they denied such human rights to the Filipinos in Asia.
2. Why do we fall into an anomally, such as combining our claim for liberty
for our selves, and our wish to impose our law on remote peoples? Why
do we deny to others the benefits which we desire for our fatherland
Sinilbado de Mas (Spanish economist and diplomat, 1843.
e. No Equality Before the Law
1. The Spanish missionaries, who introduced Christianity into the Philippines
as early as in the 16th century, taught that all men, irrespective of color
and race, are children of God and as such they are brothers, equal before
God and because of the Christian faith, most Filipinos became Christians.
2. But to Spaniards imperialist way of thinking, brown Filipinos and white
Spamniards may be equal before God, but not in the law and certainly
not in practice.
3. Filipinos were abused, brutalized, persecuted, and slandered by their
Spanish masters. They could not appeal to the law for justice because
the law, being dispensed by Spaniards, was only for the white Spaniards.
4. The Spanish Penal Code, which was enforced in the Philippines,
particularly imposed heavier penalties on native Filipinos or mestizos and
lighter penalties on white-complexioned Spaniards.
f. Maladministration of Justice
1. The courts of justice in the Philippines during Rizals time were
notoriously corrupt.
2. The Spanish judges, fiscals( prosecuting attorneys), and other court
officials were oftentimes ignorant of law.
3. Justice was costly, partial, and slow. Poor Filipinos had no access to the
courts because they could not afford the expensive litigaton.

4. Wealth, social prestige, and color of skin were factors in winning a case in
court.
5. Rizal and his family were also victims of injustice.
i. Doa Teodora was arrested and jailed on flimsy ground.
ii. Rizal was deported in Dapitan without benefit of a trial (July,1892)
iii. Ponciano and several brothers-in-law were exciled without due
process of law
iv. Rizal was executeda noble victim of Spanish injustice
g. Racial Discrimination
1. They regarded the converted Filipinos ot as a brother Christians, but as
inferior beings who were infinitely underserving of the rights and
privileges that the white Spaniards enjoyed.
2. They called the brown-skinned and flat-nosed Filipinos Indios
3. Racial prejudice was prevalent everywhere-h. Frailocracy
1. Frailocracy (frailocracia) means a government of friars
2. The friars (Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans) controlled the
religious and educational life of the Philippines and later in the 19th
century they came to acquire political power, influence, and riches.
3. They could send a patriotic Filipinos to jail or denounce him as a
Filibustero (traitor) to be exiled to distant place or to be executed as an
enemy of God and Spain.
4. These bad friars who were pertrayed by Rizal in his Novels as Padre
Damaso and Padre Salvi and hilariously caricatured by Jaena as Fray
Botod
i. Forced Labor
1. Known as the POLO, it was the compulsory labor imposed by the
Spaniards on adult Filipino males I the contruction of churches, schools,
hospitals, building and repair roods and bridges: building of ships in the
shipyards; and other public works.
2. Originally, Filipino males from 16-60 yrs.old were obliged to render forced
labor for 40 days a year
3. Royal Decree of July 12, 1883, implemented by the new regulations by
the Council of State on Feb.3, 1885, increased the minimum age from
18-18 and reduced the days of labor from 40-50.
4. Same royal decree imposed also to all male residents from 18-60 but it
was never implemented in the Phil. Because the well-to-do were able to
escape this manual labor by paying th falia, which was a sum of money
paid to the government to be exempted from the polo.
j. Haciendas Owned by the Friars
1. During Rizals time the Spanish friars were the richest landlords, they
owned the best haciendas (agricultural lands) in the Phil.
2. Those who had been living in these haciendas and cultivating them
generation after generation became tenants.
3. The friars were recognized as legal owners of said lands because they
obtained royal titles of ownership from the Spanish crown.
4. This became the hotbeds of agrarian revolts and one of these bloody
agrarian revolts was the agrarian upheaval in 1745-1746.
5. Rizals family and relatives wre tenants of the Dominican Estate in
Calamba tried ti initiate agrarian reforms in 1887 but in vain they raised
the rentals of the land leases by his family and other Calamba tenants.
6. According to Rizal, the friars ownershipcontributed to the economic
stagnation of the Philippines.He wrote it in his famous essay Sobre la
indolencia de los Filipios (Indolence of the Filipinos)
k. The Guardia Civil (Constabulary)
1. The last hated symbol of Spanish tyranny which was created by thye
Royal Decree of Feb. 12, 1852, as amended by the Royal Decree of March
24, 1888, for the purpose of maintaining internal peace and order in the
Phil. It was patterned after the famous and well-disciplined Guardia Civil
in Spain.
2. But later they became infamous for their rampant abuses, maltreating
innocent people, looting their carabaos, chickens, and valuable
belongings and raping helpless women.
3. Rizal and his mother had been victims of the brutalities of the lietenat of
the guardua civil.
4. Through Elias in Noli, he exposed the guardia civil as a bunch of ruthless
ruffians good only for disturbing peace and persecuting honest men.

B. The Advent of a Hero

a. Rizals Ancestry
DOMINGO LAMCO
-the intelligent and industrious Chinese merchant great-great grand father of rizal
wo married Ines dela Rosa, a Chinese meztiza from Parian
The family adopted Mercado to free the
younger generation from the prejudice that
followed those with Chinese name

Francisco Mercado
Witty and liberal young man and appointed as municipal capt. In
Bian(1783) married to Berbnarda Monicha was a Chinese mestiza, they had 2
children Clemente and Juan. Rizals grandfather.

Juan married Cirila Alejandra, also a Chinese mestiza, they had 14 children
including Francisco, Rizals Father
Francisco and his two sisters moved to
Dominican estate of Calamba and became
pioneer farmers

Francisco married Teodora Alonso who was better off than the family of Francisco.
Her parent Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo and Brigida Ochoa belonged to a professionally
famous family from Baliuag, Bulacan. They had 11 children.

1. Saturnina (1850-1913) oldest of Rizal children, nickenamed Neneng;

married to Manuel Hidalgo of Tanuan, Batangas.
2. Paciano (1851-1930) older brother of Rizal, after rizals execution he join
and became a combat general of Philippine Revolution; later he retired to
his farm in Los Baos, he never gopt married but has 2 children with
Severina Decena.
3. Narcisa (1852-1939) Sisa, She married Antonio Lopez, a school teacher
of Morong.
4. Olimpia (1855-1887) Ympia, She married Silvestre Ubaldo, a telegrapg
operator from maila
5. Lucida (1857-1919) She married Mariano Herbosa, Batangueo farmer
6. Maria (2859-1945) Biang, She married Daniel Cruz of Bian, Laguna
7. Jose (1861-1896) Pepe, Greatest Filipino hero and peerless
genius. He lived with Josephine Bracken in Dapitan during his
exile, an Irish girl from Hongkong; he had son with her but died a
few hours after birth; Rizal named him Francisco after his father
and buried him in Dapitan.
8. Concepcion (1862-1865)-concha, she died at the age of 3, her death was
Rizals first sorrow in life
9. Josefa (1865-1945)-panggoy, she died unmarried at the age oge 80
10.Trinidad (1868-1951) Trining, she also died unmarried at the age of 83
11.Soledad (1870-1919)-choleng, She married Panteleon Quintero of
Calamba

CHAPTER 4-Ateneo de Manila (1872-1877)

A. Rizal Enters the Ateneo
1. He was first refused to admit by Fr. Magin Ferrando, college registrar that time for
the ff. reasons
i. He was late for registration
ii. He was sickly and undersized for his age (11 yrs.old)
2. But because of Manuel Xerez Burgos, nephew of Father Burgos he was admitted at
the Ateneo
3. He use the Rizal because their family name Mercado has come under the
suspicion of the Spanish authorities
B. Jesuit system of Education
1. The Jesuit system of education in the Ateneo was more advance than any colleges in
that period
2. Students were trained rigid discipline and religious instruction
3. Promote physical culture, humanities, and scientific studies
4. Aside from Bachelor of arts it offered vocational courses in agriculture, commerce,
mechanics and surveying
5. Students heard Mass in the morning before the beginning of the daily class and
classes start and ends with a prayer.
6. Students were divided into two groups, each of these groups had its ranks. They
challenge each other in their everyday classes and anyone who committed 3
mistakes could lose his position. These 2 groups were in constant competition for
supremacy in the class. They had their distinctive banner
a. emperor-best students
b. tribune second
c. Decurion- third
d. Centurion- fourth
e. Standard-bearer fifth
ii. Roman Empire-consisting of the internos (boraders)-red banner
iii. Carthaginian Empire-composed of the externos(non-boarders)-blue banner
7. Ateneo students during Rizals time wore uniform which consisted of hemp-fabric
trousers and stripe cotton coat called rayadillo
C. Rizals First Year in Ateneo (1872-73)
1. June, 1872, Rizal first heard Mass at the college chapel and prayed fervently to God
for guidance and success.
2. Fr. Jose Bech-first professor whom he described as a tall, thin man with a body
slightly bent forward, harried walk, ascetic face, severe and inspired, small deepsunken eyes, sharp nose ends fell toward the chin
3. Rizal was placed at the bottom of the class, he was an externo, and he was assigned
to the Carhaginians, occupying the end of the line
4. At the end of the month Rizal became emperor, he was the brightest pupil in the
whole class and awarded a prize
5. He took private spanish lessons in Santa Isabel College and he pay P3 for that.
6.