Life and Works of Rizal

Chapter 10

Jose Rizal And Philippine Nationalism

– Bayani and Kabayanihan
Chapter 10
Jose Rizal and Philippine Nationalism – Bayani
and Kabayanihan
Introduction
“I have observed that the prosperity or misery or each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its
prejudices and, accordingly, to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers.”
-Juan Crisostomo Ibarra

According to National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), official national symbols of
the Philippines represent the country’s traditions and ideals and convey the principles of Philippine
sovereignty and national solidarity. With this, a country has their own national symbols to identify
themselves from others and to unite its citizens through nationalism.

Specific Objectives
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Interpret views and opinions about Bayani and Kabayanihan in the context of Philippine history
and society.
2. Assess the concepts of bayani and kabayanihan in the context of Philippine history.
3. Examine the values highlighted by the various representations of Rizal as a national symbol
4. Advocate values Rizal’s life encapsulates

Duration
Chapter 9: Jose Rizal And Philippine = 3 hours
Nationalism – Bayani and (2.5 hours discussion;
Kabayanihan .5-hour assessment)
– National Symbol
Lesson Proper
Bayani at Kabayanihan
The word “Bayani” or hero in Filipino is someone who saves somebody’s lives.
However, this word carries a deeper context wherein only those people who are willing to suffer
and sacrifice themselves for the good of the country are worthy enough to be called as such.
Being called a hero requires a greater act of bravery. Dr. Jose P. Rizal was a man of intellectual
power and artistic talent whom Filipino’s honor as their national hero (Szczepanski, 2019).
Rizal is not only admired for possessing intellectual brilliance but also for taking a stand
and resisting the Spanish colonial government. While his death sparked a revolution to
overthrow the tyranny, Rizal will always be remembered for his compassion towards the Filipino
people and the country. Another remarkable hero that we all know is Andres Bonifacio. The
Kataas- taasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or KKK played a huge
role in the revolt of the Filipinos against the Spaniards. In the center of that revolution was its
founder, Supremo Andres Bonifacio. Furthermore, according to Vallejo Jr., (2010), Filipinos also
remember General Antonio Luna as a brilliant, brave soldier and tactician of the second phase of
the Revolution and the proverbial hothead but never as the excellent scientist. He has no epitaph
but perhaps his words before leaving exile in Europe for Manila are apt: “I will fight and offer
my life, my small knowledge and science for the liberation of the Motherland.”
What does it take to be a hero? The heroism in real life does not require someone to
sacrifice his or her life to be called a bayani. The people that we set up as heroes are people that
generally go above and beyond in terms of the call of duty, they do things that are extraordinary.
The act of heroism is debatable to some people however, for any hero, it's enough just knowing
they helped someone else. That's what makes them a true hero.

Dr. Jose P. Rizal

José Protasio Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda was born on June 19, 1861 to Francisco
Mercado and Teodora Alonzo in the town of Calamba in the province of Laguna. He had nine
sisters and one brother. At the early age of three, the future political leader had already learned
the English alphabet. And, by the age of five, he could already read and write (Valdeavilla,
2018).
Rizal had been very vocal against the Spanish government, but in a peaceful and
progressive manner. For him, “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And through his writings,
he exposed the corruption and wrongdoings of government officials as well as the Spanish friars.
While in Barcelona, Rizal contributed essays, poems, allegories, and editorials to the Spanish
newspaper, La Solidaridad. Most of his writings, both in his essays and editorials, centered on
individual rights and freedom, specifically for the Filipino people. As part of his reforms, he
even called for the inclusion of the Philippines to become a province of Spain. But, among his
best works, two novels stood out from the rest – Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not) and El
Filibusterismo (The Reign of the Greed). In both novels, Rizal harshly criticized the Spanish
colonial rule in the country and exposed the ills of Philippine society at the time. And because he
wrote about the injustices and brutalities of the Spaniards in the country, the authorities banned
Filipinos from reading the controversial books. Yet they were not able to ban it completely.
Days before his execution, Rizal bid farewell to his motherland and countrymen through
one of his final letters, entitled Mi último adiós or My Last Farewell. Dr. José Rizal was executed
on the morning of December 30, 1896, in what was then called Bagumbayan (now referred to as
Luneta). Upon hearing the command to shoot him, he faced the squad and uttered in his final
breath: “Consummatum est” (It is finished). According to historical accounts, only one bullet
ended the life of the Filipino martyr and hero.
The Americans decided for him being a national hero at their time in the country. It is
said that the Americans, Civil Governor William Howard Taft, chose Jose Rizal to be the
national hero as a strategy. Rizal didn't want bloody revolution in his time. So, they wanted him
to be a "good example" to the Filipinos so that the people will not revolt against the Americans.
Rizal became a National Hero because he passed the criteria by being a National Hero during the
American period.
Adding that, Rizal passed the Criteria for National Heroes:
● Heroes are those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the
nation’s freedom. In reality, however, a revolution has no end. Revolutions are only the
beginning. One cannot aspire to be free only to sink back into bondage.
● Heroes are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a
nation. Freedom without order will only lead to anarchy. Therefore, heroes are those who
make the nation’s constitution and laws. To the latter, constitutions are only the
beginning, for it is the people living under the constitution that truly constitute a nation.
● Heroes are those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation. (As defined
by Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz)

Additional Criteria for Heroes:

● A hero is part of the people’s expression. But the process of a people’s internalization of a
hero’s life and works takes time, with the youth forming a part of the internalization.
● A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generations.
● The choice of a hero involves not only the recounting of an episode or events in history,
but of the entire process that made this particular person a hero.

1. Progressive Education
According to Kennedy, (2019), Progressive education is a reaction to the traditional style
of teaching. It's a pedagogical movement that values experience over learning facts at the
expense of understanding what is being taught. When you examine the teaching styles
and curriculum of the 19th century, you understand why certain educators decided that
there had to be a better way.
Talisay: the first progressive school in Asia

Upon his arrival in Dapitan, Rizal lived in the house of the governor and military
commandant, Capt. Ricardo Carnicero, which was just across the town’s central plaza.
He later bought, with Carnicero and another Spaniard residing in Dipolog, a lottery ticket.
This was to prove fortuitous. Rizal’s lottery ticket won second prize—20,000 pesos—
which was awarded on September 21, 1892, and promptly divided among themselves by
the three men. From his share of 6,200 pesos, Rizal gave 2,000 pesos to his father and
200 pesos to pay his debt to his friend Basa in Hong Kong.
 With what remained of his lottery earnings, Rizal was able to move to Talisay, a coastal
barrio off the Dapitan poblacion named after the talisay, a large deciduous tree that is
usually found along Philippine seashores. Rizal bought a 16-hectare piece of land. But, as
he noted in his February 8, 1893 letter to his brother-in-law Manuel Hidalgo, there were
no talisay trees in Talisay, so Rizal thought of naming his place Balunò or Baunò, after
the large trees that actually grew there. The first thing he did was to clear the land “to sow
rice and corn”. Then he built a house, a clinic and a school for local boyswho he
described as mostly “poor and intelligent.” On March 7, 1893, he wrote to Hidalgo
saying:
“My house will be finished either tomorrow or after tomorrow. It is very pretty for its
price (40 pesos) and it turned out better than what I wanted. My lot cannot be better and I
am improving it every day... I’m sure that if you come, you will be pleased with my
property. I have plenty of land to accommodate at least five families with houses and
orchards.”’

2. Social Entrepreneurship
In addition to being Dapitan’s unofficial or non-governmental public health provider,
Rizal engaged in what we now call “social entrepreneurship”, perhaps the first Filipino, if
not the first Asian, to do so. Social entrepreneurship is innovative business activity aimed
principally at benefiting and transforming the community in which it is undertaken (with
most of the profit reinvested back into the community).
Rizal formed Dapitan’s first farmers’ cooperative, the Sociedad de Agricultores
Dapitanos (SAD), where capital was to be provided by “socios industriales” (industrial
partners) and “socios accionistas” (shareholders). As stated in the Estatutos de la
Sociedad de Agricultores Dapitanos, 1 Enero 1895, the SAD aimed to “improve/promote
agricultural products, obtain better profits for them, provide capital for the purchase of
these goods, and help to the extent possible the harvesters and laborers by means of a
store (co-op) where articles of basic necessity are sold at moderate prices”. Rizal also
engaged in a joint-venture with a certain Carreon (a Spanish businessman) for the
construction and operation of a lime-burner (for making building mortar), whereby Rizal
would provide capital and Carreon would mobilize and supervise labor whose wages
were to be paid by Rizal; these advances would be deducted from the sale proceeds of
lime, the profit thereof to be equally divided between Rizal and Carreon.

3. Community Development
In his four years in Dapitan, Rizal played multiple roles: doctor, social worker, farmer,
social entrepreneur, public works engineer, town planner, school founder, teacher and
scientist. He worked with the people as a civic volunteer, for he was unwaged and
without an official title. Whatever earnings he made from his social entrepreneurship and
from his wealthy patients went to the upkeep of his household, school and hospital. He
took to his tasks with vigor and vitality—mindful that they were all part of his pledge to
do everything he could for Dapitan. Rizal’s four years there are unparalled in the history
of the Philippines, if not Southeast Asia.
The model community that Rizal built in Talisay has since been made into a stale
museum of replicas of his house, school and clinic, sitting like fossilized relics on
manicured lawns for the benefit of the uncomprehending tourist. This shrine, which is
 overseen by the National Historical Commission (formerly the National Historical
Institute) but managed by the local government, comprises 10 hectares of Rizal’s original
16-hectare property in Talisay. The other six hectares were gifted by Rizal to his pupil
and valet Jose Acopiado in 1896, when he set off for Manila enroute to Cuba. The
Acopiado heirs now occupy some three hectares; the rest have been taken over by
squatters, among them a Rizalista cult. The beach is littered with the plastic detritus of
modern living.
Many of Rizal’s community projects must have been carried out through a system of
cooperative labor that we now call batarisan. We could likewise imagine that the many
recipients of Rizal’s services as a medical doctor, a secondary school teacher, a
community worker, and organizer/manager of his farm cooperative ‘paid’ or reciprocated
by lending their labor-time to his community projects. Thus, even with minimal financial
resources, the projects were realized by sheer community spirit.

4. Rizal Awakened the Mind and Perspective Of Filipinos Towards Nationalism

Rizal’s chief aim was to reform Philippine society, first by uncovering its ills and second,
by awakening the Filipino youth. His enemies were the oppressive colonial government,
but especially the corrupt elements among the friars, members of the religious orders that
exerted the greatest influence over the government and thereby held complete sway over
the lives of the Filipinos.
Rizal knew the best way to awaken the youth and lead them toward right action was
through education, but especially foreign education. For local education, being controlled
by the friars then kept the Filipinos in the dark, ignorant of their rights and heritage- and
meek in the face of oppression. This was partly why he left for Spain in 1882, to continue
his studies there.
Of his vision for the Filipinos, Rizal wrote his comrade Mariano Ponce in 1888: “Let this
be our only motto: For the welfare of the Native Land. On the day when all Filipinos
should think like him [Del Pilar] and like us, on that day we shall have fulfilled our
arduous mission, which is the formation of the Filipino nation”. To Rizal that nation was
a nation free of injustice, oppression and corruption. May the Filipinos of today finally
begin fulfilling this timeless challenge of Rizal. (Reyno, 2012)

References/Additional Resources/Readings

▪ Jose Rizal: Life,works and writings of a genius,Writer,Scientist and national Hero ;

Second Edition by Gregorio F.Zaide,Ph.D. and SoniaM.Zaide,Ph.D.
▪ https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/polytechnic-university-of-the-philippines/buhay-
mga-gawain-at-sinulat-ni-rizal/rizal-module-9-philippine-nationalism-national-symbol/1
4000278
▪ Zulueta, Franisco. Rizal: Life, Works and Ideals. Echanis press, Inc. 760 Boni Ave.,
Mandaluyong City, 2004
▪ Can be accessed through:
http://www.archive.org/stream/philippinescentu00riza/philippinescentu0Oriza_djvu.bt
▪ Eugenio, Damiana. Philippine Folk Literature: The Epics. QC: UP Press, 2001
▪ Nolasco, Ricardo Ma. D. Pinagmulan ng Salitang Bayani" sa Diliman Review, vol 45, no.
2-3, 1997, pp. 14-18
▪ Joaquin, Nick, A question of heroes. Pasig: Anvil, 2005. (Chapters on Rizal, Bonifacio,
and Aguinaldo.)
▪ Lahiri, Smitha. "Writer, hero, |a myth, and spirit: The changing image of Jose Rizal."
Cornell University papers on Southeast Asia.