Egalla, Richard C.

Rizal Law

BSMT 12 – A5

ON DECEMBER 6, 1896, the trial of Dr. Jose Rizal by a Spanish military court for sedition, rebellion and
conspiracy, began. This leads to his execution and martyrdom.

Rizal, who was imprisoned first in Barcelona and later in Fort Santiago, was implicated in the revolution
which was launched in August 1896 by the Katipunan led by Andres Bonifacio, whose aim was to
liberate the country from Spanish colonization.

At the time of his arrest, Rizal was supposed to leave for Cuba after he was allowed by Spanish
Governor-General Ramon Blanco, who was sympathetic to him, to serve as a military surgeon in Cuba,
where there was also a revolution against Spain.

Before he left from his exile in Dapitan for Manila and then for Spain, Rizal had issued a manifesto
disavowing the revolution and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a
national identity were prerequisites to freedom.

Rizal was arrested while en route to Spain, imprisoned in Barcelona and sent back later to Manila to
stand trial. He was charged with being a traitor to Spain and the mastermind of the revolution.

He pleaded his innocence but he was still convicted on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and
conspiracy and sentenced to death.

Earlier, Rizal was already considered as an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities with the
publication of his two great novels — Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

Thus, Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896 in Bagumbayan (Luneta), which has been renamed Rizal
Park in his memory.
The trial of Rizal was quite biased. Some of the judges want him sent out of Philippines to assist the fight
in Cuba, but most judges feared the catholic Church’s intimidation and threats, so they relented. The
execution was really not fair for him.

The trial’s outcome was already set or manipulated by the friars. As Rizal was attracting too much
attention with his first novel which is “Noli Me Tangere” that focuses on the dark aspects of Spain’s
colonial rule in the Philippines with a dark particular focus for the tyrant friars. The trial was just a
manipulated show for justice and not a real trial that gives effort to really find the truth.

The trial was just a show of power by friars to the Filipino citizens so that no one would have the will to
fight back and be free from them in any way just like what Rizal did.