Rizal’s Most Contested and Ever Incontestable Manuscript

(GE 112)

By: Stephanie M. Villegas

October 2019
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This article, it talks about Rizal's Most Contested and Ever Incontestable manuscript:
retraction of Rizal, the document of Jose Rizal of his retraction is being hotly debated as to its
authenticity. It was supposed to have been signed by Jose Rizal moments before his death. There
were many witnesses, most of them Jesuits. A series of seemingly genuine secret documents,
with forged signatures, were attached to a British corpse dressed in military uniforms. It was left
to float somewhere in a beach in Spain, where plenty of German agents were sure to get hold of
it. The body with the fake documents was found eventually and its documents seen by German
agents.
The documents identified Sardinia and Corsica as the targets of the Allied invasion. The
document only surfaced for public. It was found by Fr. Manuel A. Gracia at the Catholic
hierarchy’s archive in Manila. But the original document was never shown to the public, only
reproductions of it. However, Fr. Pio Pi, a Spanish Jesuit, reported that as early as 1907, the
retraction of Rizal was copied verbatim and published in Spain, and reprinted in Manila. Fr.
Gracia, who found the original document, also copied it verbatim. In both reproductions, there
were conflicting versions of the text. Add to this the date of the signing was very clear in the
original Spanish document which Rizal supposedly signed. The date was december 29, 1890. It
became useless, because for those who thought that Rizal's greatness lies on his anti-catholic
ideas and writings, the retraction document became a total denial of such greater and that could
not be.
Therefore, we must put the question of retraction to rest, though Rizal is a hero, whether
he retracted or not, we must investigate if he really did a turn-around. If he did not, and the
documents were forgeries, then somebody has to pay for trying to deceive a nation, whether
Rizal died a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino. It is
because of what he did and what he was that we revere Rizal. Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still
Rizal, the hero who courted death, to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how
to die for our duty and our beliefs.