PART 1

From the characters of Noli, choose at least 2 characters and consider who are their counterparts
today. For example, who is Crisostomo Ibarra for you today then discuss why you consider him
as such. (10 points)

Even though he firmly believes that he is a son of the holy mother church, Rizal showed and sowed
enmity between him and the current shade of the frailocratic system the Philippines was under during
those times. When Rizal penned, published, and publicized his work, Noli me Tangere, it was a spit
on the face of the oppressive, anti-Filipino, avaricious clergymen who filled the sanctimonious
hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the country during that time. In the form of Padre
Damaso, he vividly expressed how inebriated priests are in pleonexia and power. These men of the
cloth wanted and wielded authority in order to satiate and gratify their insatiable desires to be gods
themselves - gods of land and laypeople, for they grabbed land from the natives and lord over the lives
of the laypeople in a persnickety manner. Their lifestyles were incongruous with their sermons and
homilies - teachings that were rooted in the narratives of the Christ they claim to represent. They were
experts in hypocrisy. They were impediments to progress and prosiliency.
Fast forward to this day, they claim to have strayed away from the belligerent nature their predecessors
were infamous for. However, they still maintained that thin veneer of humanitarian superficiality that
masquerades their truest intentions: To stay in the seat of ecclesiastical power.
The present-day successors of Padre Damaso, the villainous friar in Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me
Tangere, never tire of engaging in partisan politics despite the constitutional mandate separating the
Church and the State. Yes, they are known for advocating human rights by lambasting the
government’s orchestration of a string of violations, but once someone tries to criticize the cruelly
conservative stances that demonize progressive ideas people are branding as normal nowadays, things
seem to get unchristian. They still maintained their truest colors. They have never switched tracks by
getting their lives changed. Like Damaso, they have proven themselves to be enemies of change. They
do not want to be judged. They never wanted a fresh wind on their sails. They are like DAMASO.
But it doesn’t stop there. They’re not just a bunch of Damasos. Remember! There were two ungodly
friars that starred in Noli Me Tangere. Some priests of the contemporary Catholic Church are no
different from SALVI, who was, in my opinion, the very example of “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Lewd and licentious, I know for a fact that there are some priests who were not faithful to the oath of
celibacy they have sworn. There are even some who go overboard in wickedness by preying on the
precious lives of innocent children. They both have transgressed against the laws of God and the laws
of the land. Those are grounds for punishment on two levels: Divine and Legal! Like Padre Salvi who
cannot resist the call of the flesh, many priests in our neoteric times have pathologically committed
acts of salaciousness that are unimaginable for their kind to even commit. These are the reasons why I
chose these two characters, for the reality on which they are based is still very much alive and kicking.
PART 2
After reading the summary of the novel, which was provided in your lesson properly through
the slide share, point out the significance of the novel in the formation of Philippine
nationalism. You can discuss it by considering the impact of the novel on the Filipinos who were
able to read the novel during Rizal's time and to you as a citizen of this country today. (The
essay should not be less than 300 words)

Rizal’s intentions - written in the preface of his literary handiwork - were as clear as day, which was no
other than to expose the abuses, oppression, and exploitation of the natives by the Spaniards - colonial
government, religious friars/priests, military, and Spanish citizens in the Philippines. Rizal’s novel
illustrates the slavery of the Filipino natives under the Spaniards. As the natives got this book into their
hands and hearts, the message resonated. Even though Rizal actually advocated direct representation to
the Spanish government and an overall larger role for the Philippines within Spain's political affairs, his
shamelessly explosive exposé ignited a revolutionary conflagration to let all hell break loose upon the
current foreign superpower domineering the land and locals from almost four centuries. That, however,
didn’t stop the natives of central and south-central Luzon from conspiring an anti-Spanish rebellion.
Certainly, it was caused by a number of abuses done by friars owning large rural estates and, but the real
reason is there has been a weakening of Spanish control throughout the archipelago since the Spanish
Glorious Revolution of 1868 — in little or no way at all these were all caused by Rizal’s literary works, he
himself being opposed to the conspiracy and the resultant rebellion since he merely only wanted political
reform in the Philippines.

Just as many of the natives during those times rose up in arms, we are to take action against the injustices
that are being plastered in newspapers and broadcasted by the media. We extract the principles we can
acquire out of the novel that is still applicable even if a hundred years have passed. The concept of
destabilizing a corrupt-to-the-core system doesn’t have to be chimerical nor does have to be just a thing of
the past. We can transform our society by ridding it of its ills in ways that are methodical, humanitarian,
and bloodless. Though the people in the past and our contemporaries manifest differently, both have the
same heart of liberating the nation out of whatever snare it is enmeshed in.