BORBON, Camille R.

The Life and Works of Rizal

1. Considering the context of the 1950s, what issues and interests were at stake in the debate over
the Rizal Bill?
The Rizal Bill is all about Rizal's novels as mandatory reading material in all colleges and
universities, and the content of these novels is controversial among the Catholic Church. The
church argued that the novels should not be taught because of the anti-clerical theme, which
claims to be attacking the practices and beliefs of the church, and it would violate the freedom of
conscience and religion. Due to their strong opposition to the bill, the Catholic schools
threatened that they will close the schools, along with the other Catholic groups. The church
even charged Sen. Claro M. Recto, the proponent of the bill, as a communist and anti-Catholic.
2. Dela Costa mentioned that Rizal declared that he did not intend to attack the Catholic church
itself, but the abuses in it. Point-out ideas and concepts from the article that proved this
statement. What is your take on it?
Dela Costa mentioned in his pastoral letter that Rizal assured that he is not attacking the
church but the abuses in it through a letter for his friend, Resurreccion Hidalgo, in which he
expressed that those priests mentioned in his novels only used the Gospels and church doctrines
to gain money. It shows that the man itself, the priest, is at fault and only uses his knowledge in
the religion to have the power and abuse it.
When I read and studied the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in high school, I do
agree that Rizal did only attacked the abuses and not the church itself because he still showed
that there are priests who are capable to be good just like Padre Fernandez and Padre Florentino
of El Filibusterismo. If Rizal really intend to attack the church itself, he wouldn’t have a
character who is an “indio” priest. Also, we all know how religion, power and politics are
affiliated during that time because even in Spain, priests have a power within a community, and
Rizal only showed how those priests uses their positions and power, as well as the teachings of
the church to influence the people,
3. Rizal mentioned that he did not blame all ills on strangers, and proclaimed that the Filipino
people were also victims of their own vices and defects? Do you agree with this? Why?
I agree to Rizal that Filipino people were also victims of their own vices and defects.
Catholicism made a lot of impact to us Filipinos and we are known to be very religious in which
it was used by the Spaniards to take an advantage to the Filipino people. They were very blind by
their religious faith, to the point it could be used to control them. Also, even the Filipino itself
abuses their own co-Filipinos because we seek the power we can’t have from the Spaniards, and
in that way, I think that Filipinos that time thought that if they can’t have the power over the
Spaniards, they can have the power over their own nationality. Rizal also an essay entitled “The
Indolence of the Filipino” which is about the existing laziness of the Filipinos during the Spanish
colonization though Rizal pointed in this one that the indolence that the Filipino has was caused
by the climate and social disorders, I still believe that this indolence were also one of the reason
why Filipinos became the victims of their own vices and defects.

4. Do these issues remain pertinent in the present day? How? Cite examples.
Issues and arguments between the church and the state or government are still relevant to
the present day because some laws and bills contradict the Catholic church. One of these laws is
the Reproductive Health Law, wherein it was highly debated by the church and government. The
church claims that some of the goals and objective of this law, disagree with teaching and
doctrines of the Catholic faith. An example of this is using contraceptives wherein the
government requires the people to use contraceptives to those who cannot control and do the
natural family planning. Another example is an abortion where the church claims that it violates
the church’s doctrine “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the
moment of conception.” It is still one of the vast issues between the church and the state.
Another example and the most recent one is the SOGIE Bill wherein the church opposes because
if this bill got approve, there is a probability that the same-sex marriage will also be allowed here
in the country, and that also violates the church’s doctrine wherein man and woman are the ones
who should be married, and there’s no other gender that God made other than man and woman.