THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL

THE STATE

STATE is a politically- organized body of people, occupying a definite territory and living under a
government entirely free from external control and competent to secure habitual obedience from all
persons within it

4 FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE STATE

 1.] Permanent Population/People

 2.] Territory/ Defined Territory
 3.] Government
 4.] Sovereignty

STATE:

 is a politically organized body of people (permanent population)

 occupying a definite territory (defined territory)
 and living under a government (government)
 entirely free from external control (external sovereignty) and
 competent to secure habitual obedience from all persons within it (internal sovereignty).

3 INHERENT POWERS OF THE STATE:

1] Police Power- the power of the State to enact such laws or regulations in relations to persons
and properties as may promote public health, public morals, public safety and the general welfare and
convenience of the people

2] Power to Tax- the power of the State to IMPOSE a charge or burden upon persons, property
and rights for the use, and support of the government so that the latter may able to discharge its proper
functions.

3] Power of Eminent Domain- the power of the State to take private property for public use
with just compensation.

The Philippines: as a State

 Prior to 1898- a colony of Spain

 Prior to 1946- a ‘colony’ of America
 1946- the Philippine independence from the Americans--- a sovereign state

LAW
the principles and regulations established in a community by some
authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation
or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision.
a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally
recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority

A Law reflects the goals, aspirations, ideals of a nation/state.

R.A. 1425 (The Rizal Law)

THE TRIALS OF THE BILL

Purpose of the bill

(Senate Bill # 438)

 Senator Laurel: to disseminate Rizal’s ideas and ideals through Noli and Fili
 Senator Recto: Rizal describing the realities of his time, critical of some erring ministers of the
Church but was appreciative of some through his characters Fr. Fernandez and Padre Florentino
 Other supporters: Congressmen Jacobo Z. Gonzalez, Emilio Cortez, Mario Bengzon, Joaquin
Roxas, Lancap Lagumbay, Quintin Paredes, and Senator Domocao Alonto of Mindanao
 - House Bill (HB) # 5561

OPPOSITION:
 Senator Francisco Rodrigo, Senator Mariano J. Cuenco and Senator Decoroso Rosales. 
 From the Lower House, it was also opposed by Congressmen Ramon Durano, Jose Nuguid,
Marciano Lim, Manuel Zosa, Lucas Paredes, Godofredo Ramos, Miguel Cuenco, Congresswomen
Carnen Consing and Tecia San Andres Ziga.

Original Bill (Senate Bill # 438)

 Noli and Fili as compulsory reading

 Emphasis on original editions or unexpurgated English and national language versions
 Punishments: dismissal, disqualification and withdrawal of permits

Anti-Rizal Bill
 Bill an attempt to discredit the Catholic religion
 Inimical to the tenets of the faith (170 lines in Noli and 50 in Fili)
 Compulsion to read something against one’s faith impairs freedom of speech and religious
freedom
 - Senator Emmanuel Pelaez suggested that Rizal’s novels “should be made available in the
libraries of school and not prescribed as compulsory reading; Noli andFili should only serve as
supplementary reading in school.

Final version of the bill (Substitute Bill)

 Included all the works and writing of and for Rizal

 Emphasis on unexpurgated or original Noli and Fili
 Removed the idea of compulsion by allowing exemption
THE PHILIPPINES IN THE 1950’s
 Agrarian unrest intensified; Huks saw the government as the new enemy
 President Elpidio Quirino’s efforts to negotiate an amnesty with the Huks was sabotaged by
landlords
 (1950-1952) Intensification of the anti-HUK campaigns of the government
 (1950) Bell commission reported that Philippine economy was on the brink of collapse
 (1950) Pres. Elpidio Quirino appointed Congressman Ramon Magsaysay as National Defense
Secretary
 (1951) CIA Operative Edward Landsdale arrived in Manila (close ally of Sec. Magsaysay)
 (1952) Robert Hardie, an American land reform adviser in the Philippines called for land
redistribution but was ignored
 (1953) Magsaysay was elected President of the Republic
 (1954) Huks surrendered
 (1955) Laurel-Langley Agreement, a means to further US economic interests, partly a way of
appeasing Philippine nationalism and partly a concession to Philippine elite
 (1957) Magsaysay died in a plane crash
 (1958) President Carlos P. Garcia promoted the “First Filipino Policy”
(Economic nationalism)

How about Today?

 Study of Rizal is sponsored by the state

- statute: RA #1425
 Youth are important in nation-building * Quizon: “RA 1425 is intended to awaken the sense of
patriotism and nationalism in every Filipino youth and push them to apply the principles
bequeathed by Rizal as solutions to present day problems.”
Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/20093/do-we-really-know-rizal-rizal-law-
ineffective#ixzz5OFnXAWsY
 Emphasis on the original and unexpurgated versions of Noli and Fili
 The law provided exemption by reason of faith*
 The production of materials about him become a profitable industry
 The law made Rizal all the more open to various meanings and interpretations
 Republic Act No. 229 - An Act To Prohibit Cockfighting, Horse Racing And Jai-alai On The
Thirtieth Day Of December Of Each Year And To Create A Committee To Take Charge Of The
Proper Celebration Of Rizal Day In Every Municipality And Chartered City, And For Other
Purposes. Effective: June 9, 1948

Lesson 3. Understanding Nationalism

 Nationalism vs Patriotism
 Anderson’s Imagined community
 What is nationalism?
 According to Watson, “no scientific definition of a nation can be devised, yet the phenomenon
has existed and exists”
 Nation-imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.
 Nationalism is a cultural artifact to be understood in how such historical being came into
existence and how its meaning changed over time, and how they command such profound
legitimacy
 It is not the awakening of nation to self consciousness but invents nations
 Nation does not predate nationalism, but the later creates the former
 It is imagined because the members of the smallest nations do not know most the members,
meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion
(1983, p.6)
 It is limited because it is not co-extensive with humanity
 It is sovereign because it emerged during the renaissance which challenged the canonical,
universality of truth imposed by religion
 Imagined community because regardless of inequality and exploitation that may prevail, the
nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. For this reason, millions of
people, not so much to kill but willingly die for such imaginings (ibid.,p.7)
 Nationalism should be understood not to be aligned with political ideologies but with cultural
systems that preceded it and as well as against it (ibid.,12)
 Religious community, dynasty, Christendom, Enlightenment (use of Reason)
 The origins of National Consciousness
 Print technology and capitalism created a new form of imagined community (ibid.,p.46)

 The Print-languages laid the bases for national consciousness in three distinct ways:
1. It created unified field of exchange and communication; the fellow readers in a way they
were connected formed the embryo of nationally imagined community
2. it gave fixity to language; the printed book kept a permanent form
3. It created languages of power

 Imagined Communities were created through the interplay of capitalism, print technology and
fatal diversity of languages
 this was when the nation was born as a shared story between equals and through the written
language (especially the Press and literature). This created a new, extremely powerful political
entity — the Nation State. Thus in the Andersonian vision, nations are ‘imagined communities’
and are the fruit of the march to modernity ( Calvet, 2016)