The El Filibusterismo

Noli vs. Fili

Rizalwrote theEl Filibusterismoabout four years after the Noli. The

experiences he had in those four years spelled a lot of differences in the way
he treated his two novels.

In depicting the social conditions in the country, both novels employ satires
and caricatures. El Fili however is more serious as there is less humor and
more bitterness in the treatment of situations.

In the Noli, the author reveals the cruelty and exploitation suffered by the
natives at the hands of colonizers. In El Fili, Rizal depicts a society at the brink
of rebellion as the natives’ minds have been awakened and revolutionary
forces have been formed.

Generally, El Fili presents a gloomier depiction of the country under the

Spanish regime. More radical and revolutionary, the novel has less idealism
and romance than the Noli. The El Fili manifests Rizal’s more mature and less
hopeful attitude toward the socio-political situation in the country. The grimmer
outlook and more tragic mood can be attributed to the persecutions and
sufferings the author and his family experienced from the Spanish friars and
officials in the years he was writing the novel.

Notwithstanding the sufferings caused by the Spaniards to the Rizal family,

the Fili, its author claimed, is not a matter of revenge. Jose wrote to Blumentritt:
“I have not written in it [Fili] any idea of vengeance against my enemies, but
only for the good of those who suffer, for the rights of Tagalogs ..."

Some of Rizal’s friends like Blumentritt and Graciano Lopez Jaena

expressed that Fili was more superior than Noli. Rizal himself apparently once
believed in the superiority of the Fili. When its printing had to be stopped for
lack of funds, he wrote to Basa: “It is a pity because it seems to me that this
second part [the Fili] is more important than the first [the Noli].”

After the Fili was published nonetheless, Rizal appeared to have a change
of heart. In his October 13, 1891 letter to Marcelo Del Pilar, he said: I
appreciate what you say about my work and I value your opinion highly that
considered my Filibusterismo inferior to the Noli. I, too frankly, without irony or
words with a double meaning, share your opinion. For me, the Filibusterismo
as a novel is inferior to the Noli… You are the first one to tell me the truth and I
agree with you. This flatters me as it proves that I still know how to judge
myself. “

As regards his friends who told him that Fili was better, Rizal explained in
the same letter: “Blumentritt, all those in Paris and Barcelona, for their
benevolence towards me say it [the Fili] is superior. I attribute it only to their
benevolence.”
Noli and Fili Stolen

In Rizal’s time, the Permanent Commission of Censorship recommended

the absolute prohibition on the importation, reproduction, and circulation of the
Noli. The copies of the Fili, on the other hand, was destroyed by Customs in
Manila upon shipment to the Philippines. The rare surviving copies of the
novels were secretly purchased and “according to one friend of the family, had
to be read in the smallest, most private room in the house—the toilet” (Ocampo,
p. 108).

That was the fate of the first edition of Rizal’s novels. But that is nothing
compared to what happened to their original manuscripts about 70 years after
their publication.

The original manuscripts of the Noli and Fili (along with that of the poem
‘Mi Ultimo Adios’) were stolen from the National Library on the evening of
December 8, 1961. After some days, the thieves who outsmarted the building’s
sleepy guards sent a ransom note “made of newspaper cutouts” to the Jose
Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC) (Ocampo, p. 148). The
robbers demanded 1.4 million pesos for the return of the original texts, else
Rizal’s handiworks would be burned.

To summarize the ‘historic robbery’, the then Education Secretary

Alejandro ‘Anding’ Roces personally met with the burglars and, after some
various negotiations, had retrieved the documents without paying a single
centavo. The manuscripts were returned on installment basis—the ‘Ultimo
Adios’ during the first meeting, the ‘El Fili’ on the next negotiation, and lastly,
the ‘Noli’. There was a time when the demanded ransom was reduced to
100,000 pesos and then to 10,000 pesos (Ocampo, p. 148). But recognizing
perhaps that they would get nothing from the government, the robbers
ultimately settled on returning the expensive documents, free of charge.

Many still find this ‘charge-free return of the manuscripts’ strange and
mind-blowing. But the following additional details about the story could
perhaps shed light on the account.

During the negotiations, one of the burglars related to Roces that on the
night of the robbery, “the Rizal manuscripts suddenly became heavy as a
cavan of rice”. The thief thus exclaimed, “The manuscript must be holy or
haunted!” (Ocampo, p. 148). One robber even claimed that he read Rizal’s
handwritten novels and described the feeling, “Ang sarap basahin,
kinikilabutan ako!” (Ocampo, p. 148). It’s remarkably funny to note however
that the thief did not understand Spanish! Nonetheless, these indicate that the
stealers were probably bothered by their conscience, hence the consent to just
send back the national hero’s works.

Anding promised not to identify the robbers or to be a witness against them

in court. Thus, the hilariously controversial thieves were never known.
The novels’ legacy

For fearlessly depicting the corruptions and abuses by the Spanish clergy
and colonial government during the Spanish regime in the Philippines, the two
novels arehistorically very significant. Basically a social sketch of the country
then, the Noli and Fili reveal the true setting and condition of the Filipino
society in the era.

As essential source of sociological and anthropological studies, the books

provide rich insights into the culture of the 19th and 20th century Philippines.
Their realistic depictions expose a conflicted colonial society seriously split
between the oppressors and the suffering local slaves. The novels’ characters
mimic the various elements and types of individuals in that society.
Furthermore, they show favorable positive traits of the natives then like the
sense of gratitude, the fidelity of women to their loved ones, and the yearning
for freedom and equality.

For their explicit portrayal of what the locals really wished for their country,
the books were instrumental in forming the Filipino’s (Indios) sense of national
identity. Indirectly but significantly, the novels influenced the revolution led by
the Katipunan as they inspired Andres Bonifacio and other revolutionaries in
their cause.

Rizal was arrested, exiled to Dapitan, and ultimately executed in 1896

based principally on his writings. In 1956, the Philippine Congress passed the
Rizal Law (Republic Act 1425) requiring all levels of Philippine schools to teach
as part of the curriculum the hero’s two novels.

Originally written in Spanish, the Noli and the Fili had been translated into
various languages like Filipino, English, German, French, Chinese, and other
Philippine languages. In 2007, an English version of Noli Me Tangere was
released to major Australian book stores. It was published by Penguin Books
Classics as part of the publication’s commitment to publish the major literary
classics of the world.