CHARACTERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL FILIBUSTERISMO

 NOLI ME TANGERE

1. Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra)

A wealthy young mestizo who has just returned to the Philippines after seven years of studying

in Europe, Ibarra is sophisticated, highly esteemed, and very idealistic. The priests of San Diego all

view him with great wariness on account of his highly liberal education and connections. His father,

the equally idealistic Don Rafael, was labeled a subversive and a heretic by the corrupt priesthood

and incarcerated, ultimately leading to his death. Ibarra hopes to create a school in San Diego in

order to carry out his father's dreams and ideals, but he becomes entangled in conflicts with the

church and is forced to flee San Diego as a result of a conspiracy led by the scheming Father Salvi. In

contrast to his more radical friend Elías, Ibarra generally wants to work within systems to reform the

Philippines, rather than overthrow them, but he shifts towards Elías's beliefs as the novel progresses.

2. Maria Clara

A woman of high social standing, she is thought to be the daughter of Capitan Tiago and

goddaughter of Father Dámaso. She is the biological daughter of Father Dámaso, the product of a

scandalous relationship between the old priest and Capitan Tiago’s wife. María Clara grew up

alongside Ibarra and planned to marry him, but Father Dámaso disapproved of the union. After

Ibarra is excommunicated from the church, her guardians set her up to be wed to Linares, a wealthy

young man of Spanish descent, and she tries to go along with the plan to avoid hurting her father,

the weak-willed Capitan Tiago. When Ibarra is put on trial for sedition, she is coerced into

surrendering the letters Ibarra has sent her as evidence of his guilt. Ultimately, when she hears of

Ibarra's apparent death, she refuses to marry Linares and joins a convent.
3. Padre Damaso

Father Dámaso is an old, power-hungry, and shamelessly corrupt Spanish priest who has lived

among the native Filipinos for nearly two decades. Despite having spent all that time among them,

the years have done nothing to endear him or develop any sympathy in him for his “flock.” He is

deeply racist, as well as petty and vindictive, and he thinks nothing of using his considerable

influence to ruin the lives of those who have slighted him, regardless of how small the offense is. He

masterminded the death of Don Rafael Ibarra, then brazenly taunted the younger Ibarra. After he

publicly insults Ibarra's father, Ibarra attacks him and he excommunicates Ibarra from the church. He

is also the godfather (and, in fact, the biological father) of María Clara, giving him influence over her

relationship with Ibarra.

4. Elias

A mysterious character, Elías is a man on the run from the law who resents both the Spanish

colonial government and the Catholic Church, despite his strong religious convictions. He crosses

paths with the more temperate Ibarra when Ibarra bravely saves him from a crocodile. Elías uncovers

a plot against Ibarra's life and works closely with him throughout the second half of the novel. He

and Ibarra have several long conversations regarding the ethics of politics and governance, with Elias

taking a more revolutionary stance.

5. Father Salvi

A younger, more cunning Spanish priest who assumes control over Father Damaso’s post as friar

curate of San Diego. He is in many regards more dangerous than his precursor as he is a more gifted

strategist who uses his religious role for political influence as well as personal vendettas. He

frequently fights with the town's ensign for power. His most significant role in the novel comes

through his plot to ruin Ibarra, who is engaged to María Clara, who he is in love with.
6. Kapitan Tiago

Kapitan Tiago is a rarity in that he is a wealthy Filipino who is native-born. He keeps close ties

with high-ranking members of the Catholic Church, despite having no respect for religion, and

shamelessly joins in others' racist insults against his own people. His primary concern is to marry off

his daughter, María Clara, to an affluent man from an influential family. This is one of the main

reasons that he is quick to toss his loyalties to Ibarra when he is labeled a subversive. His

predilection for advantageous social pairings makes him quick to assent to Linares as a potential new

match for his daughter.

7. The Ensign

The nameless head of the Civil Guard of the township of San Diego. A man of Spanish descent,

he is in a constant bitter feud with Father Salvi to gain power in the town. He imposes curfews that

make it all but impossible for the citizens of San Diego to attend mass at the proper schedule. He

drinks excessively and is married to Doña Consolación, who he frequently fights with.

8. Dona Consolacion

The pugnacious wife of The Ensign, Doña Consolación is an older Filipina woman who is

ashamed of her heritage and pretends to be unable to speak Tagalog, her own native language. She

fights with her husband frequently and makes many of her husband's decisions for him. Despite

being described as very ugly, she is proud and demands respect from others.

9. Don Rafael Ibarra

Crisóstomo Ibarra’s father is posthumously mentioned in the novel. A critic of the corrupt

practices of the Spanish friars, he earns the ire of the vitriolic Father Dámaso, who accuses him of

sedition and heresy. He dies in prison before his name can be cleared. His remains are buried in the
Catholic cemetery in the town of San Diego, but Father Dámaso hires a gravedigger to disinter his

body to have him buried at the Chinese cemetery because of his status as a heretic.

10. Crispin

A young boy studying to be a church caretaker, Crispín and his brother Basilio work ceaselessly to

send support money to their beleaguered mother, Sisa. Crispín is blamed for stealing money from

the church coffers by the head sexton and is kept a virtual prisoner until the debt is paid. On the

night that he and his brother were to visit their mother, the head sexton keeps them until the

curfew, effectively barring the brothers from travelling. The head sexton beats him, and he is never

seen again afterward, presumably dying at the hands of the cruel head sexton, though another

church official claims he escaped.

11. Basilio

Basilio is Crispín's older brother. Like his younger brother, he works as a sexton. Basilio makes a

desperate run for their home the night Crispín is dragged away and attempts to locate his younger

brother the day after, but his search efforts are fruitless. The following day, the Civil Guard comes

looking for him and his brother. Fearing for his life, he runs to the forest where he goes into hiding,

living with kind family until Christmas Eve. When he finally locates Sisa, he learns that she has gone

mad from grief and is thus unable to identify him as her son. He follows her to the forest, where she

regains her wits temporarily and then dies from the shock.

12. Doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña

A fraud and a hustler, the Spaniard who calls himself Doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña was actually a

customs officer who was dismissed from his post shortly after arriving in the Philippines. Despite

having no medical experience, he travels the countryside posing as a doctor, charging extortionate
fees for his so-called services after his wife encourages him to pretend to be a doctor. His patients

eventually catch wind of his schemes, and he is forced to relocate to another area where he is all but

unknown. He finds his way to San Diego, where he resumes his fake medical practice.

13. La Doctora Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña

A brazen and determined Filipina social climber, Doña Victorina is the spouse of the counterfeit

doctor, Tiburcio de Espadaña. She is well past her prime and relies on garish make-up to carry on a

fade of youth. She eagerly tries to marry off her nephew to María Clara, likely as a means to further

advance her social status.

14. Lt. Guevara

A morally upright man of Spanish descent who holds both Crisóstomo Ibarra and the late Don

Rafael in high esteem, he is also the lieutenant of the Civil Guard. He is one of the few who openly

support the Ibarras and is vocal about his dislike of Father Dámaso’s control. He informs Crisóstomo

Ibarra of the fate of his father and how Father Damaso was involved in his death.

15. Linares

Dr. de Espadaña’s nephew, a respectable young Spanish man. Like his uncle, he has forged

credentials and hopes to climb through the social ranks.

16. The Schoolmaster

A teacher that Don Rafael housed, thus allowing him to suitably attend to the task of instructing

students; he informs Crisóstomo Ibarra of the sorry state of education of San Diego since the passing

of his father. The friars closely watch the material being taught in the school, forbidding him from

teaching Spanish. The schoolmaster is grateful to the Ibarra family, but he is not hopeful that he’ll

make headway in getting any lasting educational reforms to happen.

17. Don Filipo (Filipo Lino)

Don Filipo Lino is a representative of the younger, less religiously shackled generation of movers

and shakers in San Diego, and he also serves as the vice mayor of the town. He despises the idea of

spending lavish amounts of money on the numerous feast days that mark the religious calendar,

seeing it as both wasteful and burdensome to the citizens. His words, however, fall on deaf ears as

he is only deputy mayor, and the mayor himself is a dedicated follower of the Catholic church and

the de facto mouthpiece of the friars.

18. Sisa

The long-suffering mother of sextons-in-training Crispin and Basilio, she goes mad upon the loss

of her sons. Impoverished and married to a violent drunkard, she is allied only with her sons. She

wanders the town, clothes tattered and hair disheveled, calling out for her sons. When she does

meet Basilio, she cannot recognize him.

19. Father Sibyla

A priest serving in the Binondo district in the city of Manila, Father Sibyla serves as a foil to the

otherwise largely corrupt Father Dámaso and the perverse Father Salvi as he is rational and calm.

Father Sibyla is an adept and shrewd orator who takes obvious delight in antagonizing the pompous

Father Dámaso at Ibarra’s return party.

20. Aunt Isabel

A cousin of Capitan Tiago who raised Maria Clara as her own child after her mother’s untimely

death.

21. Old Tasio (Don Anastasio)

 An old man who previously studied philosophy and is believed to be crazy by most of the

community. He respects Ibarra and gives him valuable advice and helps Ibarra's father before him.

 EL FILIBUSTERISMO

1. Simoun

Crisostomo Ibarra in disguise, left for dead at the end of Noli me tangere. Ibarra has resurfaced

as the wealthy jeweler, Simoun, sporting a beard, blue-tinted glasses, and a revolver. Fueled by his

mistreatment at the hands of the Spaniards and his fury at Maria Clara's fate, Simoun secretly plans

a revolution to seek revenge against those who wronged him.

2. Basilio

Son of Sisa and another character from Noli Me Tangere. After his mother's death, he became a

vagabond until Captain Tiago took him in out of pity and hired him as a houseboy in exchange for

sending him to school. In the events of the book, he is a graduating medical student who discovered

Simoun's true identity and befriended him. His girlfriend is Juli.

3. Isagani

Basilio's friend and one of the students who planned to set up a new school. He is very idealistic

and hopes for a better future for the Philippines. His girlfriend was the rich and beautiful Paulita

Gomez, but they broke up once he was arrested. Despite this, his love for her still endured. He

sabotaged Simoun's plans by removing the lamp that contained explosives and threw it in the

waters.
4. Kabesang Tales

Cabeza Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former cabeza de barangay (barangay head) of Sagpang, a

barangay in San Diego's neighboring town Tiani, who resurfaced as the feared Luzón bandit

Matanglawin. He is the son of Tandang Selo, and father of Juli and Tano.

5. Don Custodio

Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous "journalist" who was asked by the

students about his decision for the Academia de Castellano. He is quite an ordinary fellow who

married a rich woman in order to be a member of Manila's high society.

6. Paulita Gómez

The girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doña Victorina, the old Indio who passes herself off as a

Peninsular, who is the wife of the quack doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña. In the end, she and Juanito

Peláez are wed, and she dumps Isagani, believing that she will have no future if she marries him.

7. Macaraig

One of Isagani's classmates at the University of Santo Tomas. He is a rich student and serves as

the leader of the students yearning to build the Academia de Castellano.

8. Father Florentino

Isagani's godfather, and a secular priest; was engaged to be married but chose to be a priest

after being pressured by his mother, the story hinting at the ambivalence of his decision as he

chooses an assignment to a remote place, living in solitude near the sea. Florentino also harbors

great hatred for the corrupt Spanish friars. He offered shelter to Don Tiburcio de Espandaña when

the latter was hiding from his wife, Donya Victorina.

9. Juli

Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of Kabesang Tales. To claim

her father from the bandits, she had to work as a maid under the supervision of Hermana Penchang.

Eventually, she was freed but committed suicide after Father Camorra attempted to rape her.

10. Juanito Pelaez

A favorite student of the professors. They belong to the noble Spanish ancestry. After failing in

his grades, he became Paulita's new boyfriend and they eventually got married.

11. Doña Matutinay

Victorina delos Reyes de Espadaña, known in Noli Me Tangere as Tiburcio de Espadaña's cruel

wife. She is the aunt of Paulita Gomez and favors Juanito Pelaez over Isagani. She is searching for her

husband, who has left her and is hiding. Although of Indio heritage, she considers herself as one of

the Peninsular.

12. Father Camorra

The lustful parish priest of Tiani, San Diego's adjacent town who has longtime desires for young

women. He nearly raped Juli causing the latter to commit suicide.

13. Ben-Zayb

The pseudonym of Abraham Ibañez, a journalist who believes he is the "only" one thinking in the

Philippines. Ben-Zayb is an anagram of Ybanez, an alternate spelling of his name.

14. Placido Penitente

 A student at the University of Santo Tomas who was very intelligent and wise but did not want, if

not only by his mother's plea, to pursue his studies. He also controls his temper against Padre Millon,

his physics teacher. During his High School days, he was an honor student hailing from Batangas.

15. Hermana Penchang

Sagpang's rich pusakal (gambler). She offers Juli to be her maid so the latter can obtain money

to free Kabesang Tales. Disbelieving Juli and her close friends, she considers herself as an ally of the

friars.

16. Tiburcio de Espadaña

Don Tiburcio is Victorina de Espadaña's lame husband. He is currently hiding at Father Florentino's.

17. Father Írene

Captain Tiago's spiritual adviser. Although reluctant, he helped the students to establish the

Academia de Castellano after being convinced by giving him a chestnut. The only witness to Captain

Tiago's death, he forged the last will and testament of the latter so Basilio will obtain nothing from

the inheritance.

18. Quiroga

A Chinese businessman who dreamed of being a consul for his country in the Philippines. He hid

Simoun's weapons inside his house.

19. Don Timoteo Pelaez

Juanito's father. He is a rich businessman and arranges a wedding for his son and Paulita. He and

Simoun became business partners.

20. Tandang Selo

 Father of Kabesang Tales and grandfather of Tano and Juli. He raised the sick and young Basilio

after he left their house in Noli me tangere. He died in an encounter on the mountains with his son

Tales, when he was killed by a battalion that included his own grandson, Tano.

21. Father Bernardo Salvi

Former parish priest of San Diego in Noli Me Tangere, now the director and chaplain of the Santa

Clara convent.

22. Captain Tiago

Santiago delos Santos, Captain Tiago is Maria Clara's stepfather and the foster father to Basilio.

His health disintegrates gradually because of his frequent smoking of opium, which Father Irene

unscrupulously encourages despite Basilio's attempts to wean his guardian off the addiction .

Eventually, he died because Father Irene scared him about the revolt of the Filipinos.

COMPARISON OF NOLI ME TANGERE AND

EL FILIBUSTERISMO IN TERMS OF PLOT

 NOLI ME TANGERE
 Noli Me Tangere or Touch Me Not was written in Spanish and published in the year 1887. It can

be considered that this literary piece played a huge role politically in the history of Philippines. Noli

Me Tangere’s plot revolves around the main character, Crisostomo Ibarra. He is a mixed-race heir of a

wealthy clan in the town of San Diego. Given that he is a part of the upper-class during the time, he

was able to study abroad particularly in Europe. During his years of living in a foreign country,

Crisostomo was able to gain and learned various information and experiences that gave him multiple

ideas on how to make a better life for his countrymen and after seven years, he was finally able to go

home to his hometown, San Diego. The ideas that Crisostomo have gave him the courage to start

something out of nothing with his countrymen in his mind, but striving for reforms, Crisostomo was

welcomed with different abuses such as abuse in ecclesiastical hierarchy.

When Crisostomo Ibarra’s father, Don Rafael died, he was denied with the right to have a

catholic burial for his father. This rejection of Catholic burial for Don Rafael was made by Padre

Damaso. It can be seen that Crisostomo has been requesting for this Catholic burial even prior to his

homecoming, however the parish priest keeps rejecting his request to the point that they even

provoke him which led to him losing his temper and hit the priest. This scenario did not take long for

parish priest to deal with, they granted him with the title of excommunicated. Being an

excommunicated during that time means you are excluded from the communion of believers, the

rites or sacraments of a church, and the rights of church membership but not necessarily from

membership in the church as such. With this issue, Crisostomo became the talk of the town,

receiving various criticisms without hearing his side properly.

Luckily, due to the intervention of the Governor General of San Diego, the decree granted to

Crisostomo was rescinded. However, the problem does not end there as the Priests, Padre Damaso

and his successor, Padre Salvi embodied the rotten state of clergy when that happened. Padre
Damaso’s paternal feelings and Padre Salvi’s carnal feelings for Maria Clara made them harder and

more dangerous to deal with. Maria Clara is the beautiful daughter of one of the richest men in San

Diego, Kapitan Tiago and is Crisostomo’s lover. With her, Crisostomo plans and dreams of building a

school in which children are free to study without any problems and prejudices that hinders them

from learnings something that they could bring in their life. On the other hand, despite this being a

beautiful dream that he badly wanted to do, Pilosopo Tasio wryly notes that there are similar

attempts which failed because of the fact that all the colonial masters are afraid that when people

became educated, they will throw off the yoke of oppression and starts fighting for their rights.

After countless attempts of setting Crisostomo up, Padre Salvi, who’s madly obsess with his lover

finally succeeded in trapping him, implicating a fake insurrection. It is said that Maria Clara betrayed

her own lover in able to protect a family’s dark secret which could ruin their reputation once it is

leaked out. Through this, Crisostomo was imprisoned and was able to escape with Elias’ help. Elias

and Ibarra’s life are intertwined with one another however, while Ibarra lived a wealthy and

comfortable life, Elias suffered injustice at the hands of authorities which led him to believe that

violence is the only solution to end this oppression they are experiencing. After escaping, Ibarra

asked Maria Clara as to why she did that. It did not take long until Maria explained him why, and in

return he forgave her. The time he spent with his lover did not take long as well because he was

chased by the Guardia Civil. He and Elias rushed to the lake where one died and the other survived.

Believing that Ibarra did not make it, Maria entered the nunnery, refusing the marriage that Padre

Damaso, his own father, set up for her. With that, the novel ended, leaving the thought that

Crisostomo Ibarra, the main character, died after being chased by the Guardia Civil the night he

escape the prison.

 EL FILIBUSTERISMO

The second and last novel that our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal completed is El Filibusterismo

which is the sequel of his novel Noli Me Tangere or Touch Me Not. Unlike Noli Me Tangere which

contains some romance between Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra, hope and dreams which keeps

Crisostomo determined to build his school, and abuses from the Spanish officials as well as Parish

Priests, El Fili is known to have a dark, brooding, and satirical revenge concept. The protagonist is still

Crisostomo Ibarra, however, after the night when he and Elias’ escape from prison in Noli Me

Tangere, everyone who knew him thought he was dead including his lover, Maria Clara. It is said that

Ibarra dug up his jewels and used it to fly in Cuba where he started a new beginning as a jeweler

named Simoun.

Thirteen years have passed since the tragedy in Crisostomo’s life happened and all those years,

he spent his time building a new identity in which he will later use for revenge. All the ideals and

youthful dreams he had are now shattered and gone and is replaced with anger and greed for

revenge. As stated, Simoun is a wealthy jeweler who travels to the Philippines and gained the favor

of Governor General. However, little did everyone know, Simoun has two goals that he badly wanted
to achieve. First, he wanted to rescue his lover from the Santa Clara nunnery. Second, he wants to

foment a Philippine revolution against Spain.

There are numerous characters from Noli Me Tangere that appears in El Fili as well, among them

is Basilio. Basilio is the son of the mentally challenged character Sisa and the brother of Crispin, both

met their tragic end through abuse. Second character that reappeared is Padre Salvi who is carnal

over Maria Clara and the one who is responsible for Crispin’s death. Third is Maria Clara, the

idealistic school master of San Diego as well as Ibarra’s lover. Fourth is Kapitan Tiago, one of the

richest men in San Diego and Maria Clara’s legal father. Fifth and sixth are Doña Victorina de

Espadaña and her Spanish husband. Seventh, the faux doctor Tiburcio, now hiding from her with the

indio priest Father Florentino at his remote parish on the Pacific coast.

Different from Ibarra whose goal is to fight the abuses and violence in a calm and organized

manner, Simoun, on the other hand, is eager to foment it in order to get his revenge against Padre

Salvi and the Spanish colonial state. He wants to free his lover, Maria Clara from her suffocating life

as cloistered nun. He also wants to liberate his own country from the tyranny of Spain. Since Simoun

is considered as the Governor General’s adviser, he advises him to oppress the Filipinos more. This

advise contains Simoun’s hope that through this, his countrymen will be able to learn how to fight

the oppression from the Spain and its officials. He wouldn’t done this without his conspirators which

are the schoolmaster and a Chinese merchant, Quiroga. These people helped him in plotting a

terroristic act.

Basilio who is now a grown-up man has risen up from poverty with the help of Kapitan Tiago, he

is close to acquiring his Medical Decree and is near to marry a beautiful lady named Juli. Juli is young

woman and the daughter of Cabesang Tales which is a prosperous farmer whose land is taken away

by the friars. Tales then killed his oppressors and became a bandit that resides in the countryside.
Different from Simoun’s plan, there are various students who wanted to free the country in a way

that the old Ibarra wanted to do as well and that is pushing of founding of an academy devoted to

teaching Castilian in line with the decree of Madrid, those students are Isagani, Pelaez, and

Makaraig. But just like Crisostomo Ibarra, these students were discovered by the friars and later on

accused of being behind flyers that call for rebellion against Spain. Basilio is one of the accused

despite not being part of it.

On the other hand, Maria Clara’s absence took a toll on Kapitan Tiago. The old man became

addicted to opium and later on died out of overdose while being attended by Father Irene. A meager

amount of inheritance was granted to Basilio, unfair as it may be but everyone who were

incarcerated was freed except him. Because of this, Juli became desperate and asked Father Camorra

for her lover’s release. As tragic as it may seem and just like many women in the story, Juli was

almost raped by the friar, but she decided to end her life instead of giving in to the friar’s disgusting

desires. After Juli’s death, Basilio was release in prison. He then found out what happened to his

lover and since he knew who Simoun is, he reluctantly became a part of the latter’s plan.

There was a lavish wedding happening in Kapitan Tiago’s former residence since it is purchased

by Don Timoteo Pelaez, the bridegroom’s father. Little did they know, Simoun has already mined the

residence and is waiting for it to blow up once a fancy lamp – packed with nitroglycerin has been lit.

This scenario will be the go signal for them to start the uprising. However, Isagani who was informed

by Basilio about the plan, rushes to the house and snatched the lamp, throwing it to the river and

was able to escape through the confusion of people. Because of this, the planned uprising was

aborted. Simoun’s true identity was later found out by the people who knew him. Wounded, Simoun

managed to escape to Father Florentino’s residence. There, he decided to end his life after

confessing to the Priest about all the things he had done. Simoun left his jewels, in which the good
 Priest throw in the sea. The good Priest threw these jewels with the injunction that the precious

stones yield themselves only when the country needs them for a “holy, sublime reason”.

MESSAGE RIZAL CONVEYED THROUGH

NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL FILIBUSTERISMO

Noli Me Tangere depicts a message which is very relevant during the colonization of Spain in the

Philippines. It was all about how the Spanish treated Filipinos during Rizal’s time. This novel symbolizes

and shows real-life events that opened the eyes of the Filipinos during the Spanish colonization to start a

revolution and start to fight for their rights. Jose Rizal depicted the protagonist, Crisostomo Ibarra as

someone who is rich and has a comfortable life but continued fighting for his fellow countrymen’s

freedom and rights. On the other hand, Elias, another character from Noli Me Tangere was a poor man

who was oppressed by the Spaniards which resulted to him thinking that the only way to stop this

oppression was through violence. With this, we can clearly see how two different people can have the

same goal but different ways to attain it, just like before during Spanish colonization here in our country,

Philippines. Elias sacrificed his life for Crisostomo which paved the way to Crisostomo’s revenge against

the Spaniards in the sequel El Filibusterismo. The novel shows how powerful friars could be during the

time when Spaniards are taking control over our country. Their powers could be shown during the time

Padre Damaso granted Ibarra the excommunication title and when he took everything away from him,

how Padre Salvi took advantage over the young Maria Clara and how they have the upper hand in every

decision that will be made. The conflicts in the novel existed until today’s generation that it affects our

society and the country that needs to learn and read Noli Me Tangere. The conflicts that were dominant

in the novel like corruption, injustice, poverty, and abuse remain the same problem up to this day. The
Message that Rizal wanted to covey through Noli Me Tangere is that we should reflect on our actions and

beliefs for our country. We should always think about how our rights and how to fight them in a manner

that no blood should be shed. This novel tells us that Nationalism is a must in able to protect this country

from colonizers and that being a true Filipino means you know what are your goals that will benefit the

greater people of this country – that change starts within us and that the country that was once

colonized by foreigners only relies on us so that the history will never repeat itself again.

On the other hand, El Filibusterismo conveys the message of the present government system in

the Philippines – that there are corrupt officials, dominated by the friars, and being submissive over the

interest in one fashion or another. It is seen that because of this system where many Filipinos were

oppressed, the intelligent, generous, hard-working, courageous, and loyal citizens even those who are

close with Spain are pushed to opposition, crime, and subversion. It conveys a message of how the

government is cruel, unfair, and overall does not care about the citizens resides in the country especially

those who are termed as Indios. Unlike Noli Me Tangere, in El Fili, it can be seen how harsher the friars

can be. They abuse powers to satisfy their vile lust, to rob men with their lands, to preserve the

monopoly of education, and how they seek for their own interest in the country. Yet in this harsh picture

there are bright spots: the high official who opposes the governor-general over his subjective

proceedings, and who sympathizes with and defends the Filipino people; and the open-minded

Dominican, Father Fernandez, who favors the petition of the students for a Spanish academy and is

willing to discuss with the student Isagani on equal terms what the students expect from the friars.

Through this novel, Rizal wanted to convey to his countrymen the action to be taken if Spain does not

heed to his warnings. Rizal is ruthless in denouncing Spanish corruption, greed, exploitation, and

injustice, he is no less hard in condemning Filipino corruption, greed, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and

cowardice, which share in, or permit Spanish abuses. The Filipina, Doña Victorina, ashamed of her race;

the cowardly, time-serving Filipino lawyer, Senor Pasta; the brutalized civil guard, cruelest of all of their
own countrymen; the corrupt municipal officials – to name a few. Moreover, he criticized weak-willed

students who lack self-respect and courage to fight a dampening system of education; the silliness of

Paulita, who chooses the cowardly but wealthy braggart Pelaez over Isagani whose bravery and

patriotism have gotten him into trouble with the authorities; the superstition and fanaticism of the

women of San Diego.

He proclaims the unstable and presumably irreversible status of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines.

Yet he never urges revolution. Not only does he condemn an independence won by immoral means, like

Simoun's; he does not even want immediate independence, which could only mean a new slavery. The

task for the Filipinos is to prepare themselves, to make themselves worthy of freedom, and then God will

grant the means, be it revolution or peaceful separation from Spain. Education, decent lives, and

willingness to sacrifice for one's convictions, even to suffer martyrdom - this is the road to freedom that

Rizal would have his countrymen travel.