Republic Act No.

1425: The Rizal Law is about implementing rules to educate people about the Life,
Works and Writings of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, especially his novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo. This is to give the students and the future generations an ample background and for
them to understand about how Jose Rizal hands over his life for our country.

The objectives and purposes of this act:

First, is to enrich the minds of the students about the history of the Philippines specifically talking about
our national hero.

Second, is for the people not to take advantage of the novels of Rizal. For example, making revisions
and/or deleting other parts of the texts resulting to variations that would affect the understandings of
the students and other readers. This act simply wants to preserve the original content of the writings.

Third, is to prove the people that violence is not always the solution in battle like what Rizal did.

Fourth, mainly is for the people to have an inspiration through the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal.

Section 1 states that the courses on the life, works, and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli
Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo shall be included in the curricula of all schools and the original copy
must be used maintaining that the content should not be revised nor deleted any part of the novels. It
also states that the exemption from studying these writings is because of religious beliefs in a sworn
statement.

Section 2 states that all schools must have in their libraries the sufficient copies of the writings and
works of Rizal, as well as its unedited and translated editions, and the number of copies must be in
proportion to the number of students.

Section 3 states that the Board of National Education must handle the translation of Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo as well as the other writings of Rizal into English and other dialects to be
distributed to the people in cheap prices especially through the Purok and Barrios.

Section 4 states that this act does not alter the section 927 of the administrative code in prohibiting any
persons engaged in any public schools to discuss religious doctrines.

Section 5 states that, the authorized amount of 300,000 pesos is enough to pursue and implement the
purpose of this act according to National Treasury.

Section 6 states that this act must be implemented right after its approval.
I think when talking about if it is “properly” implemented, it is not. It’s because of the primary reasons
that the priorities and the point of view for education today differs then. Actually most of the schools
couldn’t follow this act. Most schools especially public schools of today don’t even have proper rooms
for the students. The schools are overpopulated reaching to the point that the students are already
seated on the floor. There is a big problem in financing and producing schools for children, so how much
more in providing their books? The government doesn’t have enough budgets for education, especially
having the continuous growing of population. Now because of these reasons, the objectives of this act
couldn’t be met the way it is supposed to be. But then because of the perseverance of the patient
teachers, I think somehow the students are slowly and carefully learning about the history and Rizal
despite of the problems.

In my opinion there are some sections in this act that are unsuitable with the trend of today and need to
be updated, so I think it should be amended.