Chapter 7

EL FILIBUSTERISMO: CONTINUING RELEVANCE

After tracing the historical background of Rizal's El Filibusterismo in the previous chapter, it
is now time to look into its content and review its social significance as a novel. Rizal clearly stated that
he wrote the novel to describe the Philippine society and expose the injustices that he and his fellow
Filipinos were experiencing. The novel may be written more than a hundred years ago, but it cannot be
denied that the social ills that Rizal depicted in his novel are still present today.
This chapter will focus on the important themes tackled by Rizal in his second novel.
Through these themes, the national hero's views and ideas about the different aspects of society can be
examined.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. discuss the summary and the important themes in El Filibusterismo;
2. explain why a knowledge of history is important in reading a historical novel; and
3. examine the conditions of the Philippine society through Rizal's El FiIibusterismo

VOCABULARY

Reform--improvement or change to a better state (social, economic, and political institutions)

Revolution--a violent attempt to overthrow a government
principalia class--the ruling and usually educated upper class in the nineteenth century Philippines

One hundred twenty years after Rizal's execution, his writings remain socially relevant. The
ills that he rallied against inept leadership, corruption, abuse of women, and the influence of the
Catholic Church over political and social affairs are still persisting in the Philippine society today. A
thorough understanding of the historicity of his novels is important as it serves as the background of the
story. In reading historical novels like El Filibusterismo, one must be knowledgeable about the social
milieu of the period when it was written. In this way, history can be used as a tooI for interpreting a
literary work like El Fili (Nuncio, 2014).
As with Noli Me Tángere, Rizal's main objective in writing El Filibusterismo is to expose the
Philippine situation as he witnessed during his time. In reading this novel, one can see the nation's past
and present situations which make this literary work enduringly significant. Renato Constantino (1971,
p. 137) wrote about the relevance of Rizal's teachings where he said:

The importance of Rizal's ideas for our generation has a twofold basis first, the applicability to
present-day problems, and second, their inspirational value. Rizal holds a mirror to our faces
and we see ourselves, our vices, our defects, our meanness. Because the conditions he
describes are the very conditions we see around us, and the characters he portrays are people
 we continue to meet, we readily respond to his earnest desire for basic Changes in our society
and in ourselves. One hand holds a mirror to shame us and the other points the way to our
regeneration. Yet, the truth is that the mirror was not meant to reveal our image, but the
image of the people and the society of Rizal's time.

By going back to the themes that Rizal tackled in El Fili, one can see the importance of the
novel at present. Themes are three main ideas that flow through the narrative which can be used to
evaluate Rizal's views and ideas on different social issues.

Revolution as a Means of Social Change

In the novel, Simoun is the filibustero who encourages the principalia class to abuse the
poor so that the latter would be driven to revolt against the government. His character may be
interpreted as someone who represents the Filipino revolutionaries that supported the idea of a bloody
revolution against the Spanish colonial government. Simoun's death in the story made some readers
conclude that Rizal was against the Idea of a revolution. Simoun's failed uprisings in the narrative, were
interpreted as Rizal's abhorrence of violence and bloodshed. They failed to see that Rizal, together with
other reformists like Marcelo H. del Pilar, regarded reform and assimilation as a first step towards
Philippine independence. In his letter to Blumentritt on June 19, 1887, he said:

"I assure you that I have no desire to take part in conspiracies which seem to me very premature
and risky. But if the government drives 4s to the brink, that is to say when no other hope remains
but seek our destruction in war, when the Filipinos would prefer to die rather than endure their
misery any longer, then I will also become a partisan of violent means. The choce of peace or
destruction is in the hands of Spain, because it is a clear fact, known to all, that we are patient and
peaceful, mild, unfeeling, etc. But everything ends in this life, there is nothing eternal in the world
and that refers also to our patience" (Ocampo, 2012).

Rizal's words in the aforementioned letter are significant because they proved that he was
not against the idea of violence if necessary. Historian Ambeth Ocampo (2012) wrote: "Simoun failed-
not because Rizal was against the revolution, but because he reflected on the anger and bitterness in his
heart following the agrarian dispute in Calamba, and realized that one must start with a good intention
to succeed."

On Leadership and Governance

El Fili's message is very clear-the inept leaders, corrupt officials, and system of government
in the Philippines could lead to Spain's downfall. When Simoun said: " What is a man to do when he is
denied justice? Take the law into his own hands or wait for Spain to give him rights...?" he stressed that
if the demands of the people would not be granted, they would be driven to oppose the system and
organize movements to fight for their rights. Rizal himself was admired as a good leader. His colleagues
in the Propaganda Movement respected him because he showed a kind of leadership that was not
motivated by personal interest. The call for a good leadership could be gleaned from El Fili when he
stressed the importance of national sentiment to guard the society against all kinds of injustices and
oppression. Rizal condemned the friar-led officials for their greed, corruption, and exploitation of the
natives. On the other hand,he also criticized his fellow Filipinos who did not respond to the challenges
under the abusive leadership of the Spaniards. The character of Basilio, for example, who, despite the
extreme sufferings that he and his family experienced, did not support Simoun’s plan of overthrowing
the government. He only joined the revolutionary group after being arrested and imprisoned, followed
by the death of his sweetheart, Juli. There was also one character, Señor Pasta, who abandoned his
noble ideas to serve only the interest of those who hired him.

While Rizal exposed the injustices done by the colonial government, he also challenged the
Filipinos to guard their rights as one of their main responsibilities. Good leadership and governance
bring about social, economic, and political reforms in the country. All this can be achieved if the leaders
have moral fiber, and are ready to give up their personal interests for the welfare of their constituents.

On Education and Language

At the time that Simoun was planning to launch the revolution, students including Basilio
were also fighting for the establishment of a school that would allow natives to learn the Spanish
language. Simoun strongly reacted against the project advocated by the students. Fir him, it would
mean the death of national identity and the institutionalization of tyranny. In Chapters 6 (Basilio) and 7
(Simoun), Simoun expressed his disapproval of the student’s program, convincing Basilio to join him in
his plan of revolution instead. He questioned the students; advocacy and said:

What will you be in the future? A people without character, a nation without liberty. Everything in
you will be borrowed, even your defects. You are asking to be Hispanized and you do not blanch
with shame when it is denied you! Even if it conceded, what would you want? What would you
gain? At best, to become a country of pronouncements, a country of civil wars, a republic of the
rapacious and the discontented, like some republics of South America. Why do you now come
with your teaching of Spanish, a pretension that would be ridiculous were it not for its deplorable
consequences? Do you wish to add another idiom to the more than forty already spoken in the
islands so that you may understand each other, each time, less….?

Still about the language issue, Simoun added:

You allow yourselves to be misled by big words and you never get to the bottom of things to
examine the effects in their ultimate manifestations. Spanish will never be the common language
in the country; the people will never speak it because for the ideas of its mind and the sentiments
of its heart there were no words in that idiom. Each country has its own, as it has its manner of
feeling. What will you gain with Spanish? The few who speak it? To stamp out your originality,
subordinate your thoughts to other minds and instead of making yourselves free, make yourselves
truly slaves! Nine out of ten of those among you who presume to be enlightened, are renegades to
your motherland. Those among you who speak that language are indifferent to their own tongue,
so much so that they neither write nor understand it. How many have I seen who pretend not to
know a single word of it!
 Basilio, on the other hand, believed that through education, he would be able to alleviate
the lives of his fellow Filipinos. He did not believe that revolution could be an effective means to achieve
freedom. For him, education and science would save the country from its present situation.
On the Filipino Youth

Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their illusions, and their enthusiasm
for the welfare of their country? Where are they who would generously shed their blood to wash
away so much shame, so much crime, so much abdomination? Pure and spotless the victim has
to be for the holocaust to be acceptable!...Where are you, youth who will incarnate in yourselves
the vigor of life that has fled from our veins, the purity of ideas that have been soiled in our
minds, and the fire of enthusiasm that has been extinguished in our hearts?...We wait for you, O
youth! Come, for we await you!

Such were the words of Jose Rizal through the character of Padre Florentino, a patriotic
Filipino priest in El Fili. Rizal saw the youth as the future of the country because this generation would
one day lead the nation. Their actions today would shape the path tomorrow.
Rizal stressed the important role of the youth in challenging the government as seen in the
efforts of students like Basilio and Isagani to organize themselves and unite to call for reforms. For
Simoun, it was way of embracing the Hispanization of the country. On the other hand, it could also be
seen as Rizal’s way of showing what the youth could do if they wanted reforms from the government.
 ACTIVITY 7.1
Name: ________________________________________________________ Date: ______________

Course/year/section: ____________________________________________

Directions. Relate the following characters to current social issues they represent and justify your
answer.

Character Current social issues he/she represents

Kabesang Tales

Placido Penitente

Padre Camorra

Hermana Penchang

Juli
 Chapter 8
PRE-COLONIAL PHILIPPINES RIZAL'S ANNOTATIONS OF MORGA
This section provides an overview of Rizal's study of the Philippines before the arrival of
the Spaniards. It highlights Rizal's perspective of pre-colonial Philippines and his research that was based
on the accounts of Antonio de Morga in Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
1. analyze Rizal's ideas on how to read and study Philippine history; and
2. compare and contrast Rizal and Morga's differing views of the Filipinos and Philippine culture.

Between 1889 to 1890, Dr. Jose P. Rizal spent several months in London as he tried to
improve his mastery of the English language. He stayed as a boarder with the Beckett Family at 37
Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, Camden town, Greater London.
During this time, Rizal was greatly interested in studying pre- colonial Philippines. He
believed that the Philippines already had an established community, way of life, and society, and was
not as backwards and inferior as the Spaniards claimed. On the contrary, Rizal was resolved that the
arrival of the Spaniards contributed to the decline of the rich pre-colonial Filipino society and culture.

As such, through a letter of introduction from Reinhold Rost, the Director of the India
Office Library, Rizal was granted a reader's pass to the British Museum where he stumbled upon Antonio
de Morga' Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609). Rizal laboriously copied the entire 351-page work while
making annotations. After four months of intense historical research, Rizal finished 639 annotations on
every nuance in Filipino cultural practices that Morga wrote about, and even on Rizal's Annotations of
Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas Morga's typographical errors.
Rizal's dedication to annotate Morga’s work was further enriched by the promise of
publication by a wealthy Filipino exile in London, Antonio Regidor. Regidor committed to equally divide
the profits between him and Rizal as soon as his investments were recovered. Unfortunately, Regidor
backed out of the deal prompting Rizal to publish the manuscript by himself on September 1889 with
the title, Sucesos las Islas Flipinas por el Doctor Antonio de Morga, Obra publicada e Mejico en el año de
1609, nuevamente sacada a luz y anotada por Joss izal y precedida de un prólogo del prof. Fernando
Bumentritt (Events in the Philippine Islands by Dr. Antonio de Morga, a work published in Mexico in the
year 1609, reprinted and annotated by Rizal and preceded by an introduction by professor Ferdinand
Blumentritt).
According to Ambeth Ocampo (1998), Rizal's choice of Morga's work as his primary source
for studying Philippine pre-colonial history instead of Antonio Pigafetta's was due to the objectivity and
civil nature of the former in contrast to the religious nature of the latter. Morga was said to be not only
an eyewitness but also a major actor as he narrated his accounts.
The 1609 original work of Morga was not reprinted in full until the publication of Rizal's
work in 1889 in Paris. In 1909, Wenceslao Retana made a reproduction of the original including the
misprints drawn from the Archivo General de ndias in Seville. Rizal's Spanish version was republished in
1958 in the Philippines, and an English translation commissioned and published in 1961 by the Jose Rizal
National Centennial Commission.