Doloroso, Charles Smith A.

P-202

“Jose P. Rizal Behind Fake News”

With the recent advancements in technology, we as human beings can share and spread
information in just a single tap or click but this comes with a heavy burden in which we have to
check or verify whether the information that we are spreading or sharing is rather true and based
on facts. But first we have to understand what can be labelled as “Fake News” it is an
information that is likely to be false or not based on facts for example some people claim that the
earth is flat which is in fact false because it has been long approved that the earth resembles a
sphere like form , others claim that Covid-19 is not true which in fact many people and frontline
workers are dying to further avoid the spreading of the virus and cause a medical crisis in which
would cause the downfall of the human lie.
In Spreading information, we should often regard with the primary source or the source
in which he or she has experienced or witness the said event or discovery for example Dr. Jose
Rizal witness first hand the discrimination of the Spaniards toward our Filipino ancestors in
which it has led to the start of the revolution. Dr. Rizal composed 2 significant literary novels
which were the El Fili and Noli Mi Tangere, now we can regard these two novels as primary
sources because Dr. Rizal himself wrote these novels and are based on the maltreatment of the
Spaniards especially the priests towards our fellow Filipinos.
As a fact Dr. Rizal was a victim of fake news as he was accused of the Spaniards to be
the leader of the revolution and a spy but he just rather an author of La Solidaridad, He was
captured and accused of treason and rebellion against the empire of Spain and was later executed
at the then known Bagong Bayan which is now known as Luneta Park or Rizal Park.
Information is powerful weapon it can rather inspire or break a person, like for example
the two novels that Dr. Rizal wrote El Fili an Noli Mi Tangere were instrumental in inspiring our
ancestors to fight for the freedom of our country and sacrifice their own lives so that their
children’s children would live a happy and fruitful life, with Information we can also break a
person just like what we call “Chismis” here in our country int the Philippines, many of our
elderly citizens tend to spread “Chismis” regarding someone that they don’t know or without
knowing the full picture or story behind it and I can say that this certain culture of us Filipinos
has been one of our worst traits.
Crab Mentality, this is where almost all of misinformation start from, we tend to not
accept that people around us are progressing in life while we are still stuck at same place despite
you both coming from the same starting point, it has become a toxic trait of our fellow citizens
that we are willing to degrade someone just because he or she achieve their own goals. We
Filipinos have always belittled our fellow citizens even in the time of Lapu-Lapu we fought
against our fellow Filipino’s to help the Spaniards colonized us or rather I say spread
Christianity.
Doloroso, Charles Smith A. P-202

As the future generation of a democratic country where in we can express our opinions
and thoughts about certain issues and agenda we bear the responsibility of spreading truthful
information so that we can avoid mislabeling or misinforming the masses like for example what
happened in the recent red-tagging of the “Philippine National Pulis” amongst the top
universities here in the Philippines some student leaders and even professors were labeled as
members of the New People’s Army or as communists destroying our country based on false
information despite the apology of the national police we cannot deny the fact that this certain
misinformation has affected everyone that was involved and some might get maltreatment or
rather harassment from people who believed this red-tagging event.
The Mainstream has also played apart in spreading Fake News as it now controlled by
certain people of the government and also business tycoons, we cannot the fact that money is
what makes world turn nowadays and for this we should change this culture we must advocate
for the truth even if it is hard to accept because facing the truth is much better than living a life
full of lies.
As a student of Holy Angel University, I fully support the programs that this school has
implemented so that every student is critical in handling information especially when it comes to
political and student affairs for example one student might spread that they have no classes for a
certain date but in fact they do have class and some might believe this and might go absent but
with the help of social media we can verify whether that information was likely to be or to be
false,
But this what Dr. Rizal has envisioned our country the Philippines to be a nation that its
citizens would have the power and freedom to express their own ideas and opinions and the
government would listen to the critical opinions of its citizens but we have also to remember that
Dr. Rizal envisioned a country that fights for the truth and the betterment of our country he did
not die for us to spread rumors and lies to degrade our fellow citizens but to uplift and fight for
our nation. This is all what we can work towards a much better country than yesterday and also
for ourselves we have to be better than the version of us yesterday and live a life that is truthful
and pure so that we can enjoy life without worries and regrets.
In the end we have to always remember that living a fake life is not worth the time and
effort we need to be true to ourselves.