GEC 19 [JOSE RIZAL]
L1: UNDERSTANDING THE RIZAL LAW
How a Bill Becomes a Law: The Legislative Process
The Context of the Rizal Bill
The postwar period saw a Philippines rife with challenges
and problems. With a country torn and tired from the
stresses of World War II, getting up on their feet was a
paramount concern of the people and the government.
THE TRIALS OF THE REPUBLIC ACT No. 1425 OR
THE “RIZAL LAW”
Claro M. Recto
 Senator Claro M. Recto was the main proponent
of the Rizal Bill.
 He sought to sponsor the bill at Congress.
However, this was met with stiff opposition from the
Catholic Church.
 He was charged with being a communist and an
anti-Catholic for mandating the reading of Rizal’s
novel
JOSE P. LAUREL, SR.
 He co-authored in the Philippine Senate together
with Claro M. Recto the Rizal bill in 1956.
 He was the Chairman of the Committee on
Education who sponsored the bill in the Senate.
 He vigorously fought for that Act, braving the wrath of
the entire Catholic Church and incurring the intense
animosity of his very wife Paciencia.
SENATE BILL 438
AN ACT TO MAKE NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL
FILIBUSTERISMO COMPULSORY READING MATTER
IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
REPUBLIC ACT 1425
AN ACT TO INCLUDE IN THE CURRICULA OF ALL
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, AND
UNIVERSITIES COURSES ON THE LIFE, WORKS AND
WRITINGS OF JOSE RIZAL, PARTICULARLY HIS
NOVELS NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL
FILIBUSTERISMO….
OPPOSITION
 An attempt to discredit Catholic religion
 The two novels contained views inimical to the
tenets of Catholic faith
 The compulsory nature of the bill is a violation of
religious freedom
 Novels were heretical and impious.
 Violate freedom of conscience and religion
 It belongs to the past and harmful to read because
it presented a false picture of the conditions in
the country at the time
 Attack on the clergy
 Endanger the youth’s salvation, “the young are too
apt to take as literally true whatever they see in print”
A vast majority of our people are at the same time
Catholics and Filipino citizens. As such, they have
two great loves: their country and their faith. These
two loves are not conflicting loves.
~Senator Francisco Rodrigo
This is the basis of my stand. Let us not create a
conflict between nationalism and religion; between
the government and the church.
~Senator Francisco Rodrigo
PROPONENTS
Rizal’s novels were considered as “a constant and
inspiring source of patriotism”
Enable the Filipino to grasp the ideals of freedom and
nationalism
To develop “moral character, personal discipline,
civic consciousness and…teaching the duties of
citizenship.”
His writings will serve as a document of the
achievements, development, and transformation of
Philippine society, culture, and nation.
SOCIAL CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION is its core
principle – the need for transforming consciousness and
society; and the truthful, realistic depiction of Philippine
society.
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo must be read
by all Filipinos. They must be taken to heart, for in their
pages we see ourselves as in mirror, our defects as well
as our strength, our virtues as well as our vices. Only
then would we become conscious as a people and so
learn to prepare ourselves for painful sacrifices that
ultimately lead to self-reliance, self-respect, and
freedom.
~Senator Jose P. Laurel
Rizal did not pretend to teach religion when he wrote
those books. He aimed at inculcating civic
consciousness in the Filipinos, national dignity,
personal pride, and patriotism and if references were
made by him in the course of his narration to certain
religious practices in the Philippines in those days,
and to the conduct and behavior of erring ministers
of the church, it was because he portrayed faithfully
the general situation in the Philippines as it then
existed.
~Senator Claro M. Recto
Rizal Law: An act to include in the curricular of all
public and private schools, colleges and universities
courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal,
particularly his novels, Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, authorizing the printing and distribution
thereof and other purposes.
Whereas today, more than any other period of our
history, there is a need for a rededication of the ideals of
freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and
died;
GEC 19 [JOSE RIZAL]
Whereas, it is meet that in honoring them, particularly the
national hero and patriot, Jose Rizal; we remember with
special fondness and devotion their lives and works that
have shaped the national character;
Whereas, the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal,
particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo are a constant and inspiring source of
patriotism with which the minds of the youth, especially
during their formative and decisive years in school,
should be suffused;
Whereas, all educational institutions are under the
supervision of and subject to regulation by the state and
all schools are enjoined to develop moral character,
personal discipline, civic conscience and to teach the
duties of citizenship.
Now, therefore, be it enacted by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:
Section 1: Courses on the life, works and writings of
Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and
El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the curricula of all
school, colleges and universities, public or private;
Provided that in collegiate course, the original or
unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo or their English translations shall be used
as basis texts.
Section 2: it shall be obligatory on all schools, colleges
and universities to keep in their libraries an adequate
number of copies of the original and unexpurgated
editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as
well as Rizal’s other works and biography. The said
unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo of their translation in English as well as
other writings of Rizal shall be included in the list of
approved books for required readings in all public or
private schools, colleges and universities.
Section 3: The Board of National Education shall cause
the translation of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo as well as other writing of Rizal into
English, Tagalog, and principal dialects; cause them to
be printed in cheap, popular editions; and cause them to
be distributed free of charge, to persons desiring to read
them through the Purok organizations and Barrio
Councils throughout the country.atholi
Section 4: Nothing in this Act shall be construed as
amending or repealing section nine hundred twenty-
seven of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the
discussion of religious doctrines by public school
teachers and other persons engaged in any public
school.
Section 5: The sum of three hundred thousand pesos is
hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any fund not
otherwise appropriated in the National Treasury to carry
out the purposes of this Act.
Section 6: This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
APPROVED, June 12, 1956
L2: NATION AND NATIONALISM
Nation, State, Nation-State
Nation
A group of people that shares a common culture, history,
language, and other practices like religion, affinity to
place, etc.
Nation-State
A state governing a nation.
State
A political entity that wields sovereignty over a defined
territory.
The development of nation-states started in Europe
during the period coinciding with the Enlightenment. The
“classical” nation-states of Europe began with the Peace
of Westphalia in the seventeenth century.
In the “classical” nation-states, the process was an
evolution from being a state into a nation-state…
A second path was taken by subsequent nation-states
which were formed from nations.
A third path involved breaking off from a colonial
relationship…
By way of secessions by people already part of an
existing state.
The roots of nation…
Primordialism – it traces the root of nation and national
identity to existing and deep-rooted features of a group of
people…
Modernism – states that nation, national identity, and
nationalism are products of modern condition and are
shaped by modernity…
Constructivist Approach – maintains that nation and
nationalism are discursive… this states that nationalism
is socially constructed and imagined by people who
identify with a group.
…is an imagined community—and imagined as both
inherently limited and sovereign…
~Benedict Anderson
Anderson argues that it is imagined as a community
since the nation is always conceived as a “deep,
horizontal comradeship.”
Nationalism is a set of systems—political, social, and
economic—characterized by the promotion of the
interests of one nation anchored on the aim to achieve
and maintain self-governance or total sovereignty. Its
basic elements include: culture, history, language,
religion and territory.
We need to understand that nationalism is not just a term
for “love of country.” More than that, it is also power and
a philosophy of power.
Rizal’s Works and Nationalism
Anderson points out that Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere
conjured an imagined community as if the readers and
the author were familiar to and intimate with each other,
with the characters and readers being situated in the
same context of time and space.
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo emerged as the
founding texts of Philippine nationalism.
GEC 19 [JOSE RIZAL]
Through his novels, Rizal emphasized the values of
nationalism and loving one’s country. The scathing
national narrative Rizal presented became the inspiration
for strengthening the anti-colonial movement.
L3: 19th Century Philippines
Economic and political developments that were to
affect the Philippines either directly and indirectly were
shaping up in Europe.
 Industrialization
 Concept of democracy
 Spirit of liberalism
 Growing salutary effects of nationalism
The Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a political movement that
originated in France during the mid-1700s.
This political movement focused mainly on politics and
society and involved ideas that challenged the concept
of absolute monarchy.
DIVINE RIGHT – Theory that stated that Kings had God
given right to rule their nation as they wished.
John Locke
 People are basically moral and reasonable.
 Free & equal natural rights- life, liberty, and property.
 People may change or replace the government.
 Remember— a social contract is an arrangement
where people give up their rights to be protected by
the government
Jean Jacques Rousseau
 Believed that people were naturally good, but were
corrupted by society
 Stressed the importance of the general will—the will
of the people as a whole
 Believed the good of the community should be
placed above individual interests—the common good
The government attains its right to exist and to govern by
“the consent of the governed.”
Baron de Montesquieu
Believed having 3 branches in government would prevent
tyranny
 Executive (enforces laws)
 Legislative (makes the laws)
 Judicial (interprets laws)
Having a separation of powers would prevent any one
branch from gaining too much power over the other two
“In order to have…liberty, it is necessary that government
be set up so that one man need not be afraid of another.”
Voltaire
Fought for civil liberties- rights/freedoms of citizens
 Freedom of Speech
 Freedom of Religion
 Separation of Church and State
“I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it.”
Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
Nationalism is a historical development; a Child of the
‘French Revolution.’ It was exported to the other nations
through the Napoleonic wars, trade and commerce, and
by colonialism itself.
~Alexander Lichauco, “Nationalism”
Rizal in the 19th Century Philippines
Jose Rizal was born in the 19th century. During this time,
Spain’s glory and rule as a colonial power was already
waning. The natives of the Philippines were slowly
realizing the need to awaken their national
consciousness. This was sparked by movements
against the oppression of the Spanish colonizers.
Under the Spanish rule:
 Filipino – peninsulares, insulares, mestizo
 Indio – native inhabitants
It was Jose Rizal who first used the word Filipino to refer
to the inhabitants of the country, whether they are
Spanish or Filipino blood.
Industrial Revolution
The events around the world also contributed to the
formation of national consciousness led by Rizal and
other illustrados during the 19th century.
Industrial Revolution increased the movement of trade
around the world.
 Filipinos with Spanish descent became wealthier…
 Filipino merchants and small scale industrialists
became prominent in Philippine society, forming a
new group of influential middle class Filipinos.
 Many prominent figures of the Propaganda
Movement came from the middle class. They had the
privilege to recognize and condemn the ills of the
Spanish colonial government through their education.
By the 19th century, two centuries after the Spaniards
first came to the Philippines, the hold of the Catholic
Church in other Spanish colonies was already waning,
yet that was not the case in the Philippines.
The Spanish friars, despite the controversies involving
them, were crucial in maintaining the Philippine
archipelago as a Spanish colony.
 As the Spanish civil officials in the country became
more corrupt and immoral, the Spanish friars became
the refuge of the Filipinos for moral and political
guidance.
 This resulted into frailocracy—the rule of the friars.
The growing power of the friars in the 19 th century urged
the reformists and nationalists, such as Rizal, to work
harder to let people know who the real enemies were.
Significant events in the 19th century that contributed to
the formation of and the Propagandists’ consciousness:
 Opening of the Suez Canal
 The democratic leadership of Governor General
Dela Torre
GEC 19 [JOSE RIZAL]
 Governor General Izquierdo’s replacement of
Dela Torre
 Cavite Mutiny
Opening of Suez Canal
 Paved the way for the importation of books,
magazines and newspapers with liberal ideas from
Europe and America
 Instrumental to the political awakening of Rizal,
shaping his nationalist sensibilities
The leadership of Gov. Gen. Carlos Ma. Dela Torre
(1869-1871)
• Gave Rizal, the reformists, and the Filipinos a
foretaste of democratic rule
• Media censorship became relaxed
• Limited secularization of education began
• Gave amnesty to rebels including Casimiro
Camerino, the leader of the bandits in Cavite
• Establishment of Guardia Civil
Under Gov. Gen. Rafael Izquierdo (1871-1873)
• Indios should not be given the same rights and
freedom enjoyed by the Spaniards in the Philippines
• Imposition of harsh policies and laws
• Removal of the long-standing personal benefits
of the workers under the encomienda system and
forced labor exemptions among soldiers
Cavite Mutiny
• Resulting in disarmed, imprisoned, and dead
Filipino soldiers
• Arrestant of the suspected people involved in the
mutiny
• Used by the Spanish authorities and the friars to
implicate the three secular priests—Mariano Gomez,
Jose Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, known as
“Gomburza”—and proclaimed that they instigated the
said mutiny which was resulted in their execution by
garote at Bagumbayan on February 15, 1872.
Rizal’s aim to make the Philippines known as a country
of writers and intellectuals was a result of his first hand
experience of racial discrimination when he was in Spain.
A number of economic, social, political and cultural
changes in the country and around the world contributed
to the formation of Rizal’s national consciousness and his
reformist agenda.
Rizal’s liberal and progressive ideas, together with the
other reformists, stirred the national consciousness of
natives which eventually led to the Philippine
Revolution of 1896.
Rizal’s contribution to the decline of the Spanish rule in
the 19th century is recognized until today.
L4: The Ascendance of the Chinese Mestizo
Philippine history is not complete as a basis of
understanding contemporary society unless it includes
the contribution of the Chinese mestizos to the
development of the Philippines as a nation.
• The formation of the middle class
• Call for reforms
• 1898 revolution
• Formation of Filipino nationalism
Chinese History in the Philippines
• As early as 16th century, the Chinese were already
in the Philippine archipelago. Although there is an
assertion from other historians that the Chinese first
arrived in the country during the pre-colonial period, it
was only during the Spanish colonial period that the
Chinese immigrants became prominent in Philippine
society.
• In 1594, the Spanish Governor Luis Perez
Dasmariñas created Binondo as a permanent
settlement for Chinese mestizos who converted to
Catholicism.
• Binondo became a place for intermarriages between
Chinese immigrants and Filipino natives, thus the
emergence of Chinese mestizos.
• This growing community of Chinese posed a threat to
the Spaniards and their rule. They feared that the
Chinese would be far less loyal to the Spanish
regime than the Indios.
Nevertheless, one fact that the Spaniards could not
discount then was that the Chinese became pivotal to
their colonial rule because they provide valuable capital
to Manila. Thus, despite orders of expelling all Chinese
from the Philippines, Governor Dasmariñas realized
that Manila needed the Chinese for economic reason.
Other Chinese mestizo communities emerged in many
other parts of the archipelago.
• In Manila, notable communities were
Santa Cruz and Tondo.
• In the early 17th century, more than 100
Chinese individuals were married to native Filipinos
in Iloilo, Pampanga, and Cebu.
• In northern Luzon, Chinese mestizos
could be found in Pangasinan, Benguet, and
Mountain Province.
Since the Spanish colonial period began until 1740, the
inhabitants in the Philippines were classified into three:
Spaniards, Indios and Chinese.
However, as Chinese mestizos’ population grew,
questions about legal status in the country arose. And in
1741, their legal status was officially established.
The Philippine population then were reclassified into four
according to tax payment or tribute.
• Spaniards and Spanish mestizos
• Indios
• Chinese
• Chinese mestizos
Spaniards and Spanish mestizos were not required to
pay tax or tribute, whereas the three other classes were
required to pay taxes depending on their income.
GEC 19 [JOSE RIZAL]

More so, a policy that limited the number of Chinese Gregorio Sancianco, who were both Chinese
individuals who could reside in the Philippines and that mestizos.
restricted their area of settlement was implemented.
• They wrote about the essence of being a Filipino,
At the end of 19th century, there were almost 500,000 defended the dignity of Filipinos, and explained the
Chinese mestizos in the Philippines with 46,000 living in supposed indolence of the Indios. Rizal nurtured their
Manila. writings, also Chinese mestizo.

Who were considered Chinese mestizos: • The significant role of the Chinese mestizos in
the making of the nation was highly evident. Their
• Any person born of a Chinese father and involvement showed that they regard Spain as the
Indio mother enemy.

• A Spanish mestiza who married a
Chinese mestizo
• A child of a Spanish mestiza and a
Chinese mestizo
• A Chinese mestiza and an Indio were
listed as Indios.
Significance of the Chinese Mestizo
• The expulsion of the Chinese immigrants in the
Philippines enabled the Chinese mestizos to take
over the markets that the former previously
controlled. Chinese became prominent and influential
figures in the industry, commerce, and business
during the Spanish colonial period.
• They carried a lucrative commerce by collecting
goods from the north and selling them to Manila and
nearby provinces.
• They monopolize the internal trading in the
Philippines while the Spanish mestizos were
concerned with foreign trade.
• The entrepreneurial power of the Chinese
mestizos gave way to the emergence of the
Philippine middle class described as “more active
and enterprising, more prudent and pioneering, more
oriented to trade and commerce than the Indios”
(Bowring, 1963).
• The Philippine Revolution of 1896-98 was the
act of determination on the part of Filipinos—
Indios and Chinese mestizos alike—to claim for
themselves and for future generations the
incomparable birthright of nationhood.
Rizal and the Chinese Mestizos
• Rizal is a fifth generation Chinese mestizo.
However, he and his father were considered as
Indios.
• Some documents and scholarly papers noted
that Rizal disliked being called a Chinese mestizo
and dissociated himself from any Chinese relations.
• As most of us are familiar with, his novels, Noli
Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, exposed the
abuses and corruption of the Spanish authorities,
condemned oppression, ridiculed hypocrisy; but it
was, at the same time, a sign of his contempt
towards Chinese immigrants in the Philippines. His
novels brimmed with insults and scorn for them.
• Rizal clearly manifested his anti-Chinese feelings
in his writings, as well as in his correspondence with
family and friends.

• They shared economic power in terms of export

and imports. They became landholders, wholesalers,
retailers, and owners of the majority of the artisan
shops.

• Another role that the Chinese mestizos played in

the Philippine society was the formation of the
Filipino identity.

• By 1800s, Chinese mestizos in the provinces

began to form opinions regarding the Spanish
colonial rule. It was difficult to separate the Indios
from the Chinese mestizos since they identified
themselves with each other socially and culturally.
Chinese mestizos also shared grievances with the
Indios about the harsh conditions under the Spanish
rule.

• Spaniards feared that the independent mindset

and liberalism of Chinese mestizos might influence
the political consciousness of Indios.

• Evidently, this emergent middle class, the

Chinese mestizos, rekindled and intensified the
growing national opposition to colonial abuses and
demanded sweeping social reforms.

• The most vivid manifestation of the budding

sense of Filipino nationalism appeared in the late
1870s in the writings of Pedro Paterno and