HISTORY OF RIZAL LAW

Senate bill 438 known as Rizal Bill which was first authored by Senator Claro M. Recto –
requiring the inclusion in the curricula of all private and public schools, colleges and universities
the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo – is considered as one of the most controversial bills in the Philippines. Normally,
before the bill was approved and implemented in all schools and was signed into a law known
as Republic Act 1425, it had been brought to the Upper and Lower House of the Congress for
deliberations. But what made it controversial is that the bill was not just fiercely opposed by
people from Legislative Arm but also by the Catholic Church due to the inclusion of compulsory
reading of Rizal’s novels in which according to them, catholic dogmas are humiliated.

Senator Recto brought the bill to the Senate and Senator Jose B. Laurel Sr. who was then the
Chairman of the Committee on Education sponsored the bill that consequently led to exchange
of arguments from the Congress. The bill was headedly opposed by three senators namely
Senator Francisco Rodrigo who was a former Catholic Action President, Senator Mariano
Cuenco and Senator Decoroso Rosales who was the brother of Julio Rosales, an archbishop.
Other oppositors were from Lower House namely Congressmen Ramon Durano, Marciano Lim,
Jose Nuguid, Manuel Soza, Godofredo Ramos, Miguel Cuenco, Lucas Paredes, Congressmen
Carmen Consing and Tecia San Andres Ziga. The Catholic Church was indirectly included in
the debates and played a major role for the intervention of signing of the bill into a law. Allied
with the church in battle against Rizal Bill were the Holy Name Society of the Philippines,
Catholic Action of the Philippines, Legion of Mary, Knights of Columbus and Daughters of
Isabela.

Oppositions argued that the bill would go against freedom of conscience and religion, The
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) submitted a pastoral letter to which
according, Rizal violated Canon Law 1399 which forbids or bans books that attack or ridicule the
catholic doctrine and practices. Oppositors argued that among the 333 pages of Noli Me
Tangere, only 25 passages are nationalistic while 120 passages are anti-catholic. While upon
scrutiny of thetwo novels by some members of catholic hierarchical, 170 passages in Noli Me
Tangere and 50 in El Filibusterismo are against catholic faith. Furthermore, oppositors pointed
out that Rizal admitted that he did not only attack the friars who acted deceptively on the
Filipinos but also the catholic faith itself. They suggested a reading material for students as to
what they called Rizalian Anthology, a collection of Rizal’s literary works that contain the
patriotic philosophy excluding the two novels.

Of course, Recto and Laurel defended the bill and argued that the only objective of the bill is to
keep the memory of the national hero alive in every Filipino’s mind, to emanate Rizal as he
peacefully fought for freedom, and not to go against religion. Senators LorensoTanada, Quintin
Paredes and DomocaoAlonto of Mindanao also defended Rizal Bill which was also favored by
Representatives from the House namely Congressmen Jacobo Gonzales, Emilio Cortez, Mario
Bengson, Joaquin Roxas, LancapLagumbay and Pedro Lopez. Other supporters of the bill were
Mayor Arsenio Lacson call anti-rizal bill “bigoted and intolerant” and walked out of a mass when
the priest read a pastoral letter from the Archbishop denouncing the Rizal Bill aqnd General
Emilio Aguinaldo with groups like the Knights of Rizal, Women Writers of the Verrnacular,
Philippine Veterans Legion, Colleger Editors’ Guild and Philippine School Teachers’
Association.

Excitement and intense scnenes were eventually arisen in settling the Rizal Bill. One of which
was the debate of Cebu Representative Ramon Durano and Pampanga Representative Emilio
Cortes that ended with a fistfight in Congress. Bacolod City Bishop Manuel Yap threatened to
campaign against pro-rizal bill legislators nad to punish them in future elections. Catholic
Schools Representatives threatened to close down their schools if the Rizal Bill was passed.
Recto told them that if they did, the State could nationalize the catholic schools. When there
was a proposal to use the expurgated novels as textbooks and put the original copies under
lock and key in the school libraries, Recto rejected this amendment and expressed:

“The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the schools…would bot out from our
minds the memory of the national hero…this is not a fight against Recto but a fight against
Rizal…now that Rizal is dead and they can no longer attempt at his life, they are attempting to
blot out his memory.”

Due to apparently never-ending debate on the Rizal Bill, approved amendments were
formulated through ideas of three senators. Senator Laurel’ created an amendment to the
original bill in which, other that Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, works written by Rizal
and works written by others about Rizal would be included and reading of the unexpurgated
revision of the two novels would no longer be compulsory to elementary and secondary levels
but would be strictly observed to college level. Senator Lim suggested the exemption to those
students who feel that reading Rizal’s novels would negatively affect his or her faith. Senator
Primicias created an additional amendment that promulgates the rules and regulations in getting
an exemption only from reading the two novels through written statement or affidavit and not
from taking the Rizal Course. According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, no student has ever
availed of this exemption. After the revised amendments, the bill was finally passed on May 17,
1956 and was signed into law as Republic Act 1425 by President Ramon Magsaysay on June
12 of the same year.

Source: https://dimasalang.weebly.com/ra-1425.html