“Does Rizal deserve to be our national hero?

There was a saying when I was in preschool, which was “words are more
powerful than fists”. Words have a more lasting impression than fists. It’s just like how
we can remember the insults we receive rather than compliments. For me, it is similar to
Jose Rizal and the country’s reaction to his death. Personally, I accepted Rizal as our
country’s national hero only because it was taught to me from a young age. But as I
learned more about him in school, including his life and studying his works such as Noli
me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, I started to learn why he became our national hero.

Firstly, how did Jose Rizal become our hero? Basing from the article “Veneration
Without Understanding”, it was mostly due to the influence of the Americans. Because
of this, doubts started to rise, questioning Rizal as our national hero. Why couldn’t it be
Andres Bonifacio who is the father of the Philippine revolution, or Mabini who was the
brains and conscience of the revolution? There were a lot of heroes that sacrificed their
lives to fight for our country’s freedom from the Spaniards. But the fact remains that it
was Jose Rizal that greatly influenced the revolution. He was the spark that started the
fiery revolt. Andres Bonifacio may have started the war, but according to Szczepanski
(2019), Rizal gave rise to Filipino nationalism which inspired his followers, including
Andres Bonifacio, who even tried to rescue him from execution (Szczepanski, 2019).
Rizal was the one that united the country to fight against the Spaniards. Quoting from
the article: “Rizal was a necessary moment in our evolution. But he was only a moment”
– Yes, it was only a moment, but this moment is what marked the start of our
revolutionary history. Even if he didn’t fight or pick up a gun, he was the one who set the
foundation to start the revolution by uniting the whole country through nationalism.
Heroes rose to fight for our freedom because of him.  

Next, why is he remembered as a hero? First and foremost, there was no

Philippines before the Spaniards came. The country was composed of multiple ethnic
groups that can be considered as independent nations with their own cultures and
language. The Spaniards were the one that conquered them one by one and forcefully
oppressed them for 300 years. It’s hard for groups of different people from different
origin to fight together when they weren’t even unified to begin with. Which is why
Rizal’s role had played a huge part in the revolution. According to Rizaliana (2015), he
was remembered as a hero who fought using a pen, rather than a sword and made
Filipinos realize the oppression they were going through under the Spaniards
(Rizaliana, 2015). Jose Rizal was the one who united the country, through his works, by
using the oppression of the Spaniards as a common factor. He was the one that instilled
Nationalism into the Filipinos. There is only so much a single warrior can do when
fighting against an army, much less another country. This then led to the unity of the
Filipinos which also played a huge role in fighting against the Spaniards. What is unity?
According to Oxford’s dictionary, unity means the state of being in agreement and
working together (2021). It refers to people uniting together for a common goal, to
cooperate with each other for a common cause, which was against the oppression of
the Spaniards. “Strength underlies unity, and whenever people act in unison with one
another, their strength increases thousand-fold” (NMK, 2017). The more united people
are, the more strength there will be. And this strength in unity, or our nationalism, was
what gave our ancestors the courage to start fighting against the Spaniards.

Lastly, why is Rizal relevant to our country until today? According to Cetenta
(2020), Rizal is still relevant up until today because the social ills that he was fighting
against during the colonization are still prevalent in the Philippines today (Cetenta,
2020). The issues that happened in the past are still happening today. According to
Jose (2016), Rizal is the manifestation of all his text (NHCP, 2016), not the other way
around. All his works show his beliefs, his realization, his actions, sacrifice and risks he
has taken all for the love of his country. According to the National Historical Commission
of the Philippines (2016) what he learned from going abroad in Europe was the idea of
liberalism, which he realized that a person has rights to be enjoyed within a society and
he didn’t see this being enjoyed by the Filipinos in the Philippines (Jose, 2016). Which
was why he had risked his safety and life to give us our freedom. As the Spanish had
colonized us, there are bound to be negative emotions. “The revolution won’t succeed if
it’s rooted on personal interest” (NHCP, 2016). This is how he instilled nationalism
among the Filipinos. Don’t do it for yourself, do it for your country. Rizal’s actions were
motivated by his love for the country. As Dumol (2016) has stated, Rizal’s target is the
ethical change of the Filipinos – the redemption of the Philippines requires virtue, and
virtue requires sacrifice, and sacrifice requires love, which is the love of country (NCHP,
2016). Colonial mentality is changing the mindset of today’s generation, mostly due to
globalization. Rizal’s works and life tells us to love our country for what it is, and to help
make our country better by doing whatever we can to improve our country, just like what
he did with the Spaniards.   

So, with these points in mind, my answer to the title of this paper is that Rizal
deserves to be our national hero. Not just because of his works, but because of his
reasoning behind his actions, the effects of his actions, and his lasting impression on
us. The ideals that he fought for should continue on till the present day, and his position
as our national hero should invoke, inspire, and remind us of our nationalism and pride
for our own country.

 
 References

Szczepanski, K. (July 2019) Revolutionary Heroes of the Philippines.

https://www.thoughtco.com/revolutionary-heroes-of-the-philippines-195657

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. “Unity” accessed March 7, 2022.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/unity#:~:text=
%28plural%20unities%29%20%5Buncountable%2C%20singular%5D%20the
%20state%20of%20being,of%20being%20joined%20together%20to%20form
%20one%20unit

NMK (January 2017) What Is The Meaning Of Unity? Why Is It Important?

https://nmk.world/meaning-unity-important-4887/

Cetenta, D. (January 2020) Rizal is still relevant in a modern society.

https://palawandailynews.com/feature/rizal-is-still-relevant-in-a-modern-
society/#:~:text=According%20to%20him%2C%20Rizal%20is%20still
%20relevant%20even,is%20that%20the%20new%20inflicters%20are%20also
%20Filipinos.

National Historical Commission of the Philippines (October 2016) Jose Rizal: Sa Landas
ng Paglaya. YouTube [Video File].  https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=KX4_mB4mplY