Lesson 13: The Trouble of Noli Me Tangere

THE FIRST HOMECOMING

         With all beautiful memories of his live years of travel in foreign lands. Rizal could
never forget the Philippines. His Motherhood During the time he was abroad, he
studied, acquired knowledge and learned the language foreign nations, enjoyed the
friendship of many great men of Western world, but he remained at heart a true Filipino
with an enduring love for the Philippine and very strong determination to serve and die
in the land of his birth the Philippines. He decided to return to Calamba for such reasons
to operate on his mother’s eyes: to help his family and the Filipino people, to find out
for himself have the Noli Me Tangere and his other writings were affecting the Filipinos
and Spaniards in the Philippines. Last but not the least: he wanted to find out why
Leonora Rivera remained silent while he was in Rome. On June 29, 1887, Rizal wrote to
his father about his Homecoming. He expected to be in the Philippines by the 15 th to
30th of August 1887.

          Rizal boarded the steamer Djemnah on July 3, 1887, the same ship which brought
him to Europe 5 years ago. Rizal was the only Filipino among the passengers
(Englishmen, German, Chinese, Frenchmen and also Japanese) who could speak many
languages, so he had a good time acting as interpreter for his companions. He also got
along well with the other passengers by playing chess.

          Reaching Saigon, hr transferred to another steamer Haiphong which was bound

for Manila on August 2, 1887. He reached Manila on August 6, and was welcomed
heartily by his parents, relatives and friends. He found Manila the same as when he left it
5 years ago. He stayed in the city for a short time to visit his friends. He returned to
Calamba on August 8. He wrote to Blumentritt. “I had a pleasant voyage. I found my
family enjoying good health and happiness. It was great seeing each other again. They
shed tears of joy and I had to answer their thousands of questions of the same time”.

          Amidst the happy and peaceful aura of his arrival, his family was worried for his
safety. Thus, Paciano did not leave him to protect him from any enemy assault. His own
father would not let him go out alone for something else might happen.

          In Calamba, Rizal build a medical clinic with his mother as his first patient, who
was almost blind. He treated his mother’s eyes but could not be operated on because
her eye contracts were not yet ripe. His coming back as a doctor spread far and wide. He
was called “Doctor Diliman” because he came from Germany. His reasonable fees were
reasonable, eben “geatis” for the poor. He opened a gymnasium for young folks to
introduce European sports, gymnastics, fencing, and shooting so as to discourage time
being spent in cockfights (sabong) and gambling.

TROUBLE IN NOLI ME TANGERE

          A few weeks after his stay in Calamba, he received a letter from the Governor-
General Emilio Tererro requesting him to come to Malacanang Palace to explain about
the subversive ideas contained in the Noli Me Tangere. Rizal went to see the Governor
General. He denied the charges and explained that he merely exposed the truth but he
did not advocate subversion. Pleased by his explanation and curious about the
controversial book, the Governor General asked for a copy. Rizal promised to give him
one. The Governor General minded Spaniard and knew that Rizal’s life was in danger
because the friars were powerful, he assigned a cultured, Spanish lieutenant named Don
Jose Taviel de Anndrade as his bodyguard. Governor General read the Noli Me Tangere
and found nothing wrong with it. Nonetheless, he had it banned when the reports were
submitted to him by the Commission of Censorship calling for its outright censorship.
The banning of the Noli Me Tangere made it more popular; causing everybody among
the masses to read the novel at night secretly.

THE ATTACKS OF NOLI ME TANGERE

          Salvador fort printed copies of the Commission’s report and Fr. Jose Rodriquez
printed eight pamphiets under general heading “Questions of Supreme Interest
(Custiones de Sumoditues)”. Many Filipinos were forced to buy but they did not believe
these Anti-Rizal pamphiets. The Noli Me tangere was also attacked in the senate of the
Spanish Cortes. It was also vociferously attacked by the Spanish academician, Vicente
Barrantes, who was once a ranking official of the Philippines.

DEFENDERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE

          The Noli Me Tangere had its great defenders who bravely came out to prove the
merits of the Noli and to enlighten the unkind attackers. They were the reformers in
foreign lands like Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena Mariano Ponce, Dr.
Antonio, Ma. Regidor, Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, Dr. Miguel Morayta, and Don
Segismundo Moret, a former Minister of the Court. Father Sanches of Ateneo upheld
and praised the Noli in public, Rev. Father Vicente Garcia, a Filipino Catholic priest-
scholar, a theologian of the Manila Cathedral and a Tagalog translator of the famous
“Immitators of Christ”, a defense of Noli Me Tangere under the penname Justo
Desiderio Magalang. This was published in Singapore as an appendix to a pamphlet
dated July 15, 1888. He believed the attacks and arguments of Fr. Rodriguez with the
following common argument:

1.    Rizal cannot be an “ignorant man” as Father Rodriguez alleged, because he was a

graduate of Spanish universities and was a recipient of scholastic honors.

2.    Rizal does not attack the Church and Spain because what Rizal attacked in the Noli
Me Tangere were the bad Spaniards officials and not Spain, and the bad corrupt friars
and not the Church.

3.    Father Rodriguez said that those who read the Noli Me Tangere committed a mortal
sin. Since he (Fr. Rodriguez) had read the novel therefore he also committed a mortal
sin.

          Rizal cried with overwhelming gratitude to Father Garcia’s brilliant defense of his
Noli Me tangere, Rizal wrote a letter to Barrantes to defend himself and to expose
Barrantes. Ignorance of the Philippine affairs and mental dishonesty which is unworthy
of an academician. While the controversy over the Noli was raging in fury, Rizal was
untouched in Calamba because he was with a bodyguard, because both of them are
young, educated and cultured with same interest so they became friends.

          While Rizal was in Calamba, his help was sought by the folks for their grievances
against the hacienda management, and they were calling for the central government to
impose certain reforms. After a thorough study of the conditions of the Calamba
hacienda which the Dominician Order owned since 1883, he wrote down his findings
which the tenants and the three officials of the hacienda signed on January 8, 1888 and
was submitted to the governor general for action.

1.    The hacienda of the Dominician order comprised not only the lands around
Calamba but the town of Calamba.

2.    The profits of the Dominicians order continuously increased because of the arbitrary
increase of the rentals being paid by the tenants.

3.    The hacienda owner never contributed a single centavo for the celebration of the
town fiesta; for the education of the children and for the improvement of agriculture.
4.    Tenants who had spent much labor clearing the lands were ejected from their lands
for flimsy reasons

5.    High rates of interest were charged from the tenants for delayed payment of rentals
and when the rentals could not be paid, their carabaos, tools and home were
confiscated.

          This report further heightened the anger of the friars and they pressured the
governor generals to deport him. Governor Terrero refused for there is no valid charge
against Rizal in court. Governor General Terrero advised Rizal to leave the Philippines for
his own good and to escape the fury of the friars.

1.    His presence in Calamaba is endangering the safe and happiness of his family and
friends.

2.    He could fight better his enemies and serve his country’s cause efficiently by writing
in foreign countries.

          Before Rizal left Calamba in 1888, his friends from Lipa requested him to write a
poem to commemorate the town’s elevation to a city (villa) by virtue of the Becerra Law
of 1888. He wrote the poem dedicated to the industrious folks of Lipa entitled Hymn to
Labor (Himno Al trabajo). He finished it and sent it to Lipa before his departure from
Calamba.