Arienne Mae A.

Ferenal
BSN 3B

Bayaning 3rd World Reaction Paper

I. Synopsis

The film Bayaning 3rd world is about the questions about our Filipino hero Jose Rizal.
The film attempts to answer the questions about the life of Rizal that are vaguely being explained
in books about Philippine history while simultaneously informing the viewers about the great
contributions he is famous for. The film emphasizes on the fact that people of the Philippines
only learns or studies about Jose Rizal being the national hero and not facts and questions that
lies in his writings and actions when he was still alive.

The directors emphasizes on the controversies in his life including his family and his love
affair with Josephine Bracken regarding the retraction that Jose Rizal signed during his later days
while attempting to be wed with her. The directors tried to portray Jose Rizal as a coward that
doesn’t really want to be a hero, but an average Filipino person.

They tried to convince themselves that he was willing to denounce all his teachings and
all his hard work just to free the Filipinos just to be able to be wed with Josephine Bracken. But,
because of lack of evidence, the filmmakers accepted the fact that the ultimate truth behind the
legend shall be kept a legend.

The film makers also tried to add some facts that are just their mere subjective
perceptions about Jose Rizal. They also assumed a lot of things about Jose Rizal, like the
camaraderie between Jose Rizal and his brother, the being “Masungit” of Jose Rizal’s mother to
them and a lot more.

Basically it’s the life of Jose Rizal with a twist by modern filmmakers.
Arienne Mae A. Ferenal
BSN 3B

II. Historical Content

 Provide evidence that religion has used by the Spanish Crown to instill authority to all Indios
.
o It is a fact that the Spanish church forced most natives to convert their religion
from being Islamic to Catholicism. It was very advantageous for them since they took
advantage of the ignorance of most Filipinos. They used their teachings to manipulate
Filipinos into doing what is according to them. Dr. Jose Rizal even stated in one of
his letters to his family that he wasn’t completely convinced with the teachings in the
Catholic church.

Although they were able to build schools, it was limited only to those who are
not in poverty during that time. Even if most Filipinos were educated by the friars,
their teaching were only limited to the point that the Filipinos are still ignorant
enough to follow the dictatorship of the Spanish church. Faith to god wasn’t much
emphasized by them, but faith in them is accentuated to the Filipinos.

Jose Rizal himself didn’t want to be under the teachings of the Spanish friars back
then, that he even fled the country to get better education and not have biased
teachings by the Spanish friars. He even stated that the Spanish friars used
Catholicism to kill people, to earn money and so on and so forth. He also included in
his writings about the abuses of the powers of the Spanish friars. It was very vague at
first to the Filipinos but after his teachings, some of the Filipinos were able to see
through the façade the spanich friars are trying to portray.

o The Catholic church even prohibited students to read Doctor Jose Rizal’s
writings, Noli Me Tangere to be specific because it contains the stories that depicted
the maltreatment of the Spaniards towards the Filipino.
Arienne Mae A. Ferenal
BSN 3B

 Compare the context of Europe with the Philippines as described by Rizal in his letters to his
mother.

o “The streets were filled with dirty and thick mud, the ground was slippery and
between the holes in the old and worn-out pavement were pools of water and little
marshes like the lubluban ng mga carabao. (2) Afterwards a cold that penetrates
through the marrow of the bones ensues, which is the limit. How ugly was Madrid!
The sidewalks and the streets are full of umbrellas whose merciful points left many
one-eyed. When least expected a wind would blow turning the unfortunate umbrella
inside out, placing the owner of such a flexible gadget in a ridiculous and serious
embarrassment. At least over there (Philippines), when it rains, it rains heavily
enough to wash the streets, and the houses have eaves under which one can take
shelter, but here the rain is very fine like matang Europa. Then the newspapers speak
of storm; but my God, what storm?” this is an excerpt of Doctor Jose Rizal’s letter to
his family. He described Madrid as dirty compared to the Philippines. In this letter we
can tell that he was very faithful to his country. That compared to Madrid, the
Philippines is cleaner and have less muddy streets.

o “We are going through a most delightful season: a cloudless and blue sky, almost like
the Philippine sky, a bright moon, less cold, a weather so pleasant that I have gone
out without an overcoat, a cuerpo, as they say here. I’m in good health, they say I’m
stout; I’ve only a slight cold. I don’t know if I’m growing, but my face must have
changed a little” here is another excerpt of Rizal’s letter to his family. He now
compares the weather of Madrid and the Philippines. He wrote about a positive
observation on the weather of the Philippines.

o “Here in Spain they have very false notions about the Philippines and there are

many people who are so ignorant of that country that it is not strange that they should
take us for Chinese, Americans, or mulattos, and many, even of the young students,
do not know whether the Philippines belongs to the English or to the Spanish. One
Arienne Mae A. Ferenal
BSN 3B

day such a one asked one of our countrymen if the Philippines was very far from
Manila, and the like.
 Josephine Bracken (relationship with the Rizal Family, views about Filipinos, Retraction
Issue, Rizal Experience bad life while exiled in Dapitan?

o Josephine Bracken is the apple of Doctor Jose Rizal’s eyes. She was the girl Doctor
Jose Rizal was indenting to marry, but because of Doctor Jose Rizal’s political views
on the catholic church of Spain, they were not allowed to be wedded. He had to
comply with their requests such as his conversion to be a catholic again. Even though
they didn’t allow them to be wedded until he complied to their conditions, he still
considered her as his wife that they even had a son but apparently wasn’t able to
survive. The family saw her as a bait to get to Doctor Jose Rizal’s Achilles heel.

o She had a bad perception towards the Filipino people because of the treatment of the
siblings of Doctor Jose Rizal towards her, It was even depicted in the movie
Bayaning 3rd World that the sister of Doctor Jose Rizal was “bad-mouthing” her in
her face. She also thought of Filipinos as being rude, bad-mannered and inconsiderate
because they used the word stupid to describe her and they also say bad things about
her.

o The retraction issue was about the withdrawal of all Doctor Jose Rizal’s writings
about how the Spanish friars / Spaniards in general through signing a paper that states
it. There were some speculations that the letter signed by him is not authentic because
of the questionable signature, it was very peculiar compared to the usual signature of
Doctor Jose Rizal in his letters. It brought up a lot of arguments one side says that it
was only the friars who made up that letter and the other side says that it was the
redemption of Doctor Jose Rizal for his sort of emancipation from the catholic
church.

o While he was in Dapitan, he tried to make himself available or busy at all times. He
had clinical hours, he studied some more and based on the movie he even caught bugs
Arienne Mae A. Ferenal
BSN 3B

and dissected it. He tried to make himself useful around there too. He wrote a lot to
his family back in Laguna and told them about what he preoccupied he is. It was also
in Dapitan where he met Josephine Brackem. She was with a blind mind, and she
immediately caught his attention. It was there the all the romance started.” Here he
describes the knowledge of the people of Spain about the Philippines.

III. Conclusion
 Rizal: Revolutionary/Reformist

o The difference between Revolutionary and Reformist is that revolutionists use brute
force to get what they want while reformists uses literature or democracy to promote
what they want. Another difference is that revolutionists during Andre Bonifacio’s
time, wanted to be emancipated from the rule of the Spaniards, while for the reformists
during the time of Doctor Jose Rizal, for them is to enlarge the worth of the Filipinos
in their country.

o I believe that Doctor Jose Rizal was a reformist, because his main focus was not to
free Filipinos from the Spanish rule, but to improve the way of living of Filipinos. He
wanted the Filipinos to have an equal amount of rights compared to the Spanish
settlers. He wanted Filipinos to have the opportunity be educated right even if they
didn’t have much money. He wanted to improve the privileges of the Filipinos to
their own country.

o Unlike revolutionists, reformists were not secretive of their works and

organization. Doctor Jose Rizal was able to address all his perceptions towards the
treatment of the Spaniards towards the Filipinos why writing it in books and posting it to
a newspaper.