CHAPTER 1: CONTROVERSY OVER RIZAL’S
POEM
TRUE OWNERSHIP
The controversy surrounding “Sa Aking Mga
Kabata” centers on its true authorship. One
significant point of contention is the absence of
the original manuscript in Rizal’s handwriting,
raising doubts about the authenticity of the
attribution.
“Sa Aking Mga Kabatà"
(English: To My Fellow Youth) is a poem about the
love of one's native language written in Tagalog.
It is widely attributed to the Filipino national hero
José Rizal, who supposedly wrote it in 1868 at
the age of eight’
There is not enough evidence, however, to
support authorship by Rizal and several historians
now believe it to be a hoax.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
No manuscript for "Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" in
Rizal's handwriting exists. The poem was first
published in 1906, a decade after his death, in a
book by the poet Hermenegildo Cruz.
Cruz claimed that he received the poem from
another poet, Gabriel Beato Francisco, who
received it in 1884 from an alleged close friend of
Rizal, Saturnino Raselis.
José Rizal, however, never mentioned anyone
by the name of Saturnino Raselis. Cruz or
Francisco may have written the poem.
AUTHENTICITY
Historian Ambeth Ocampo, National Artist of
the Philippines, writer Virgilio S. Almario, and
others have debunked Rizal's traditional
authorship of the poem based on the following:
The poem uses the Tagalog word kalayaan
(liberty/freedom). However, the earliest Rizal
might have first encountered the word was in
1882, when he was 21 – 13 years after
supposedly writing the poem.
Rizal first came across kalayaan (or as it was
spelled during the Spanish period, kalayahan),
through a Tagalog translation by Marcelo H. del
Pilar of Rizal's essay "El Amor Patrio"(Love of
Country).
The fluency and sophistication of the Tagalog
used in the poem also do not match Rizal's grasp
of the language. Although Rizal's native tongue
was Tagalog, his early education was all in
Spanish.
In the oft-quoted anecdote of the moth and the
flame from Rizal's memoir, the children's book he
and his mother were reading was entitled El
Amigo de los Niños (The Children’s Friend), and
it was in Spanish
He would later lament his difficulties in expressing
himself in Tagalog. In 1886, Rizal was in Leipzig
working on a Tagalog translation of Friedrich
Schiller's play William Tell, which he sent home
to his brother Paciano. In the accompanying letter,
Rizal speaks of his difficulty finding an appropriate
Tagalog equivalent of Freiheit (freedom), settling
on kalayahan. Rizal cited Del Pilar's translation of
his essay as his source for kalayahan.
Rizal also attempted to write Makamisa (the
intended sequel to El filibusterismo) in Tagalog,
only to give up after only ten pages and start
again in Spanish
The eight-year-old Rizal's apparent familiarity with
Latin and English is also questionable.
In his memoir as a student in Manila, a year after
the poem's supposed writing date, he admitted
only having 'a little' knowledge of Latin from
lessons by a friend of his father.
The poem also makes use of the letters 'K' and
'W', whereas, during Rizal's childhood, Tagalog
spelling was based on Spanish orthography in
which neither letter was used.
The letters 'C' and 'U' were used instead (i.e., the
poem would have been spelled "Sa Aquing
Mañga Cabata").
The shift in Tagalog and later Filipino
orthography from 'C' to 'K' and 'U' to 'W' was
proposed by Rizal himself as an adult, and was
later made official in the early 20th century by the
Philippine government as per grammarian Lope
K. Santos's proposal
CHAPTER 2: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO
TOMAS
Fortunately, Rizal’s first romance, with its bitter
disillusionment, did not adversely affect his
studies in the University of Santo Tomas.
His love for higher education proved to be
greater than his love for a pretty girl. After
finishing the first year of the course in Philosophy
and Letters (1877-78), transferred to a medical
course.
During the year of his studies in the university,
which was under the Dominicans, rival
education of the Jesuits, he remained loyal to
Ateneo, where he continued to participate in
extra-curricular activities, and where he
completed the education course in surveying.
As a Thomasian, he won more literary laurels,
had more romances with girls, and fought
against Spanish students.
MOTHER’S OPPOSITION TO HIGHER
EDUCATION.
After graduating with the highest position in
Ateneo, Rizal had to go to the University of
Santo Tomas to prepare himself for a private
career.
The Bachelor of Arts degree during Spanish times
was equivalent to a high school diploma today. It
merely qualified its holder to enter a university.
Both Don Francisco and Paciano that Jose
should pursue higher learning. But Dona Teodora
did not want him to study more. She had a
premonition that too much knowledge would
imperil his child's life.
In a family council in the Rizal’s home in Calamba,
she vigorously objected to having her beloved
Jose acquire higher education.
She was thinking of the safety of her son. She
knows the fate of Filipino intellectuals Father
Burgos, and Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, Jose Ma.
Basa and others of 1872 were either executed or
exiled by the Spanish authorities and blamed their
sad fate on their learning.
Fearful of the Spanish authorities who seem to
frown on those Filipinos who learn too much, she
warned her husband. “Do not send Jose again to
Manila. If gets to know too much, they will cut off
his head!”Jose, who was present in their family
council when his mother said this, was shocked.
He knew her mother was a woman of education
and culture: she even taught him and inspired him
to write poetry; she came from a family of high
learning – her own brother ( and his uncle) Jose
Alberto Alonso had been educated abroad and
could speak multiple Spanish, French, English and
German.
RIZAL ENTERS THE UNIVERSITY.
In April 1877, Rizal, who was bearly 16 years old,
matriculated in the University of Santo Tomas
taking up Philosophy and Letters.
He enrolled in this course for two reasons:
1. his father liked it and
2. he was “still uncertain as to what career
to follow”. He had written to Father Pablo
Ramon, Recto of the Ateneo, who had
been good to him during his days in
Ateneo, asking for advice on the choice of
career.
The reasons why he studied medicine were:
1.) he wanted to be a physician so that he could
cure his mother’s failing eyesight.
2.) The Father Recto of the University, whom he
consulted for a choice of career, finally
answered in his letter and recommended
medicine.
Finished a Surveying course in Ateneo (1878).
During his term in the University of Santo Tomas
(1877 – 78), Rizal also studied in Ateneo, he took
the vocational course leading to the title of Perito
agrimensor (expert surveyor)).
In those days it should be remembered, that the
college for boys in Manila offered vocational
courses in agriculture, commerce,
mechanics, and surveying.
Rizal’s unhappy days at UST. Rizal’s Ateneo boy
wonder, found the atmosphere at the UST a
suffocating to his sensitive spirit.
He was unhappy with this Dominican Institution of
high learning because
1. the Dominican professors were hostile to
him
2. the Filipino students were racially
discriminated,
3. the method of teaching was obsolete and
repressive.
DECISION TO STUDY ABROAD.
After finishing the fourth year of his medical
course, Rizal decided to study in Spain. He could
no longer endure the rampant bigotry,
discrimination, and hostility in UST. His uncle,
Antonio Rivera, Leonor’s father, encouraged
him to go abroad. Both Paciano and Saturnina,
whom he contacted secretly, were of similar
opinion.
For the first time, Rizal did not seek his parent’s
decision and blessing to go abroad, because he
knew that they, especially his mother would
disapprove of his plan.
He did not also bring his beloved Leonor in his
confidence. He had enough common sense to
know that Leonor, being a woman, and young and
romantic at that, could not keep a secret.
Thus, Rizal's parents, Leonor, and the Spanish
authorities knew nothing of his decision to go
abroad to finish his medical studies in Spain,
where the professors were more tolerant and
understanding than those of the University of
Santo Tomas.
SPAIN
With his parent’s blessings and unknown to
Spanish authorities, Rizal left Manila on May 8,
1882. He went to Spain where he completed his
university study, and improved his knowledge
in language and arts.
At that time, the government in Spain was a
constitutional monarchy. Secret departure on
Spain. Rizal’s departure from Spain was kept
secret to avoid detection by the colonial officials
and the friars.
Even his parents did not know that he was
leaving. Only Uncle Antonio Rivera, Paciano and
sisters, and some close friends knew. Paciano
gave him 700 pesos.
Saturnina gave him a diamond ring which helped
him very much during his days of poverty in
Europe. To maintain his studies and Sojourn
abroad, he needed a monthly allowance of 35
pesos, and this amount Paciano promised to
send regularly through Uncle Antonio. Rizal used
a passport obtained by a cousin named “Jose
Mercado”. To outwit the Spanish authorities, he
went to Calamba ostensibly to attain the town
fiesta.
A cryptic telegram by Manuel T. Hidalgo from
Manila arrived, announcing that the Spanish
steamer Salvadora was scheduled to sail to
Singapore.
Early in the Morning in May 1, 1882, he left
Calamba by carromata, reaching Manila after 10
hours of travel. He had time to book travel. He
had time to book passages on the Salvadora, to
write farewell letters to his family and friends, and
bid goodbye to his friends.
The kind Jesuit father, whom he visited to say
adios, gave him letters of recommendation to
members of their Society in Barcelona.
He said also a tearful farewell meeting to his
beloved, Leonor. This proved to be their last
meeting, for they were destined never to meet
again.
SINGAPORE.
During the voyage, Rizal keenly observed the
people and things around him and compared him
with those in the Philippines. He was the only
Filipino on board.
His fellow passengers were foreign travelers and
some Spanish employees and merchants
returning to Spain. “Almost all of those men,” he
wrote, speaking of the Spanish travelers, “spoke
ill of the country for which they have gone for
pecuniary reasons”.
After five days of sailing, the Salvadora reached
the English colony in Singapore.
For the first time, Rizal saw Singapore and was
impressed by its progress and beautiful sights. He
particularly admired “the confidence which the
native Singapore seemed to have their
government” surely a great contrast to “the fear of
their shown in the Filipinos”.
FIRST TRIP THROUGH SUEZ CANAL.
In Singapore, Rizal boarded Djemnah, a French
steamer, which was sailing to Europe.
It was larger and cleaner than Salvadora.
He tried to Speak French to some passengers but
to his surprise, the bookish French which he
learned in Ateneo could not be understood.
He had to speak it with a mixture of Latin and
Spanish words, aided with much gesticulation,
and frequent sketching on paper, to himself
understood.
A week after leaving Singapore, the steamer
reached Point de Galle. On the morning of May
18, the voyage was resumed, and in the afternoon
of the same day, the steamer docked at
Colombo, Ceylon.
From Colombo, the steamer crossed the Indian
Ocean to Café Guardafui in Africa. On May 18, he
saw for the first time the coast of Africa. On June
2, he arrived in the city of Suez, the Red Sea the
terminal of the Suez Canal.
From Port Said, the Djemnah proceeded on
its way to Europe. On June 11, Rizal reached
Naples. On the night of June 12, the steamer
docked at the French harbor of Marseilles.
BARCELONA.
At Marseilles, Rizal took the train for the last lap
of his trip to Spain. After the passport inspection
in Port-Bou, Rizal continued his trip by rail,
finally reaching his destination, Barcelona.
The Filipinos in Barcelona, some of whom were
his schoolmates in the Ateneo, welcomed Rizal.
They gave him parties at their favorite café in
Plaza de Cataluna.
RIZAL’S MOVED TO MADRID.
While sojourning in Barcelona, Rizal received sad
news about cholera that was ravaging Manila
and the provinces. According to Paciano’s letter,
dated September 15, 1882, the Calamba folks
were having an afternoon novellas to San
Roque and nocturnal procession and prayers so
that God may stop the dreadful epidemic, which
the Spanish health authorities were impotent
to check.
In one of his letters (dated May 26, 1882), Paciano
advised his younger brother to finish his medical
course in Madrid. Heeding his advice, Rizal left
Barcelona in the fall of 1882 and established
himself in Madrid, the Capital of Spain.
LIFE IN MADRID.
On November 3, 1882, Rizal enrolled in the
Universidad Central de Madrid ( Central
University Madrid) Medicine and Philosophy and
Letters.
“They ask me after verses”. In 1882, shortly after
he arrived in Madrid, Rizal joined the Circulo
Hispano Filipinos ( Hispano-Philippine Circle), a
Society of Spaniards and Filipinos.
Upon the request of the members of the society,
he wrote a poem entitled Mi Piderm versos
(They asked me for Verses). In this sad poem he
poured out the cry of his agonizing hearts. Rizal
became a Mason.
In Spain, Rizal came in contact with the liberal
and republican elements, most of whom were
Masons. Being young and lonely in a foreign
country, he was easily impressed by the way of
the prominent Spanish attacked the government
and the Church.
In due time, his friends who were Mason
persuaded him to join Masonry. In 1883 he
joined the Masonic Lodge Acacia in Madrid. His
Masonic name was Dimasalang.
Two reasons why he joined Masonry:
1. The bad friars in the Philippines, by their
abuses unworthy of their priestly habit
or calling, Rizal drove to desperation and
Masonry.
2. He needed the help of Masons to fight the
bad friars in the Philippines, for
Masonry, to Rizal, was a shield to use in
his fight against the evil forces of tyranny.
Rizal became a master of Masons in Lodge
Solidaridad on November 15, 1890. Later, on
February 15, 1892, he became a Master Mason
of Le Grand Orient France in Paris.
CHAPTER 3: LAND OWNERSHIP AND RISE OF
THE FRIARS
HOME AFTER FIVE YEARS
After leaving Rome, Rizal left for Marseilles
on July 3, 1887. He boarded the vessel Djemnah,
Paciano and his brother-in-law Silvestre Ubaldo
warned Rizal about his plan to return to the
Philippines, but Rizal ignored these warnings.
He was prompted by his desire to operate on his
mother's eyes. and to know the effect of the Noli
Me Tangere.
Like in his first voyage on the Djemnah five years
ago. There were foreigners among the
passengers. The Djemnah docked in Saigon in
Vietnam and Rizal boarded another steamer the
Haiphong which left for Manila on July 30. He
arrived in Manila on the night of August 6. His
novel Noli Me Tangere has stirred a hornet's nest
among the friars
He established a medical clinic in Calamba. He
was called “Doctor Uliman" or “Emulsion de
Scott". His sister Olympia died of complications
from childbirth. He was also unable to see Leonor
Rivera.
THE FUROR OVER THE NOLI ME TANGERE
Copies of the Noli Me Tangere had arrived in
the Philippines weeks before Rizal's return to
the Philippines. Some of his books fell into hands
of Spaniards, especially the friars.
The controversy over the novel reached the ears
of the governor-general, Emilio Terrero. He
sent Rizal a letter and asked him to come to
Malacanan.
During his meeting with the governor-general,
Rizal said that he was not spreading subversive
ideas but was just merely trying to provide a true
picture of conditions in the Philippines.
Terrero asked Rizal to provide him a copy of the
Noli. Rizal received a warning from his professors
Fathers Francisco de Paula Sanchez,
Frederico, Faura, and Bech that he "would lose
his head"
He assigned a bodyguard named Lieutenant
Jose Taviel de Andrade. Governor General
Terrero found nothing wrong with the novel after
reading it.
At that time the archbishop of Manila Pedro
Payo, O.P. sent a copy of the novel to the rector
of the University of Santo Tomas, Archbishop
denouncing the Noli as "heretical, impious and
scandalous in the religious order, anti-patriotic,
subversive of public order, injurious to the
government of Spain and of the Philippines
islands in the political order."
Governor General Terrero was not satisfied
with the committee report feeling that the friars
might be biased against Rizal. He then referred
the novel to the Permanent Commission on
Censorship headed by Fr. Salvador Font.
The commission came out with a report
recommending that the importation reproduction
of the Noli Me Tangere should be prohibited.
The Manila newspapers published Fr. Font's
report but instead of preventing people from
reading the novel it gained free advertisement
as more people wanted to read Rizal's novel.
The original price of the novel was only five
pesetas as of June 13, 1887. At the height of the
controversy, copies were selling at fifty pesos
each.
To prevent from being arrested and harassed,
people read the Noli Me Tangere in private at
Night. Fr. Jose Rodriguez, the prior of
Guadalupe published in 1888 a pamphlet
entitled Caingat Cayo in which he warned that
the readers of the Noli were committing mortal
sin. He called Rizal “an ignorant man”
The Noli me Tangere also had its defenders as
Marcelo H. Del Pilar, wrote a response to Fr.
Rodriguez’s pamphlet entitled Caiigat Cayo.
Rizal’s former professor Fr. Francisco de Paula
Sanchez defended the Noli in Public.
Fr. Garcia said that Rizal cannot be “an ignorant
man” as described by Fr. Rodriguez as he was a
graduate of a Spanish university and a
recipient of awards.
He also said that the Noli was not an attack on the
church but on the immoral and corrupt
practices of the friars and officials.
Finally, Fr. Rodriguez said that the readers of the
Noli were committing a mortal sin so was Fr.
Rodriguez because he had read the same.
Meanwhile, Rizal lived in Calamba accompanied
by Lt. Taviel de Andrade Officially, Taviel de
Andrade’s duty was to guard Rizal but he was
Governor Terrero’s eyes and ears. Their
companionship eventually bloomed into a
beautiful friendship. On one occasion Rizal was
handed a note calling him an ingrate. The note
was signed “Un Frailer”
His father warned him against going out alone and
at times he had to refuse invitations from some
people. It was said that whenever he went Rizal
carried a special silver spoon that changed color
whenever it came in contact with food laced with
poisons.
THE PROTESTA DE CALAMBA
While Rizal was staying in Calamba, Governor
Terrero ordered an investigation of the friar
landholdings. The colonial government
suspected that the Calamba estate might be
evading the full payments of taxes and the
Public Treasury Department decided to check
on how much the administrators of the estate
were paying the government.
Rizal was involved in this investigation in which
he helped draft an informative report on the
agrarian situation there.
The Tenants’ report was followed by a petition to
the government questioning the legitimacy of the
landholdings of the Dominicans or the least parts
of it.
In reply to Rizal’s charges, the Dominicans said
while it was true that the Dominican order
controlled the hacienda of Calamba also in the
neighboring towns of Binan, San Pedro, and
Santa Rosa. All these lands were properly titled in
the name of the orders.
In 1885 Paciano was allowed to clear the land
in Barrio Pansol and cultivate it. These were
very fertile lands coveted by other families. Under
the contract with the Dominican administrators,
they would not receive a single cent from Paciano
for five years during which it was reported that the
land produced a bountiful harvest.
According to the Dominicans, increases in
rent happen as cost increases. In the novel El
Filibusterismo which Rizal wrote as an offshoot
of the Protestant de Calamba, The increases were
depicted as excessive and the rent went up every
year.
The Dominicans had to remind the tenants to
neglect their lands at the expense of their
heirs. In many instances, the tenants are losing
money not because of poor harvests but because
of gambling one of which took place in the
house of Rizal’s sister, Lucia.
In cases of failure to pay due to poor harvest and
low prices of agricultural products, the hacienda
administrators provided generous grace periods
until the tenants were able to pay.
Felipe Buencamino who was the lawyer of the
tenants reportedly told the tenants not to pay
rent to the Dominican landowners unless the
other side showed proof of ownership of their
property.
The Dominicans spent one year trying to
persuade the tenants to pay until they were
forced to file a case in their court in 1889.
The Tenants won their case at the justice of
the peace of Calamba where Paciano practically
dictated its decision.
When the defiant tenants refused to obey the
decision of the tribunal of Santa Cruz, agents of
the court supported by a detachment of the
soldiers who destroyed 50 houses.
DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE
While still in Calamba, Rizal was seen as a
troublemaker and a rabble-rouser. His family
received threats on his life. His family was
worried for his safety every time he left the house.
The friars exerted pressure on Governor–General
Tererro to have him arrested or deported.
The Governor refused to act seeing that there was
no valid cause to arrest him. One day Tererro
summoned Rizal to Malacanan and advised him
to leave the Philippines for his own good.
His continued presence moreover caused undue
anxiety in his family. Just before leaving Calamba,
he composed a poem entitled Himno al Trabajo
(Hymn of Labor) to commemorate the elevation
of Lipa, Batangas into the status of a villa under
the Becerra Law of 1888
Upon leaving the Philippines Rizal said that he
would like to follow up the progress of the
agrarian protest of Calamba in Spain.
The Protesta left Rizal as a marked man. There
were fears that he would be deported shortly and
sent to Balbalac in southern Palawan or the
Mariana Islands. His friends and neighbors offered
money to make him leave.
On February 3, 1888, Rizal boarded the vessel
Don Juan on the first leg of his trip to Europe. At
that time. Rizal was 27 years old. Aboard this
vessel, he met the young seaman Perfecto Rufino
whom he persuaded to smuggle copies of the Noli
Me Tangere to the Philippines.
CHAPTER 4: RIZAL AND COLONIAL RULE
Through his literary works, such as Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibuster­ismo, Rizal exposed
the corruption and injustices of the colonial
government. His determinat­ion to shed light on
societal issues challenges the modern Philippine
justice system to prioritize transparen­cy,
truth-seeking, and the pursuit of justice.
CHAPTER 5: NOLI ME TANGERE
Noli Me Tangere is a novel by Filipino writer José
Rizal that exposes the abuses of the Spanish
colonial regime and the Catholic clergy in the
Philippines.
The novel follows the story of Juan Crisostomo
Ibarra, a young man of mixed Filipino and
Spanish descent who returns to the Philippines
after seven years of education in Europe. Ibarra
faces various challenges and conflicts as he tries
to reform society and avenge his father's death.
Noli Me Tangere takes place in the Philippines
during the time of Spanish colonization. In the
opening scene, a wealthy and influential Filipino
man named Captain Tiago hosts a dinner party
to welcome Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin
back to the Philippines. Ibarra has spent the last
seven years studying in Europe. In talking to the
various guests at Captain Tiago’s dinner party, he
discovers that his father, Don Rafael, recently
died, though he doesn’t know why or how
On his way home, Ibarra walks with Señor
Guevara, a lieutenant of the Civil Guard, Spain’s
colonial armed forces that police the Philippines.
The lieutenant explains that a few months after
Ibarra left, Father Dámaso accused Don Rafael
of not going to confession. Don Rafael was a
very powerful man, which meant he had many
enemies in both the Spanish government and in
the church.
The lieutenant tells Ibarra that one day Don
Rafael came upon a government tax collector
beating a boy in the street. When Rafael
interfered, he accidentally pushed the man too
hard, causing the tax collector to hit his head on a
rock. This injury eventually led to the man’s death,
and Ibarra’s father was thrown in jail and
accused of subversion and heresy. At this point,
Father Dámaso heaped new accusations on
him and everybody abandoned him. By the time
he was finally proven innocent, Guevara explains,
that Don Rafael had already died in prison.
officials. For instance, Father Salví, San Diego’s
new priest, is constantly at odds with the military
ensign in charge of the village’s faction of the Civil
Guard. Salví uses his important religious position
to spite his ensign, fining the man for missing
church services and delivering purposefully boring
sermons when he does attend.

During the dinner, Father Dámaso, a

loud-mouthed friar Ibarra has known since
childhood, stands up and insults Ibarra,
disparaging him for having traveled to Europe to
pursue an education he could have obtained in
the Philippines. In response, Ibarra swallows his
pride and refrains from directing insults at the
half-drunk friar. Instead, he leaves the dinner
early, ignoring Captain Tiago’s plea that he stay
a little longer to see his fiancée (and Captain
Tiago’s daughter), María Clara.

Ibarra and goes to his hometown, San Diego,

where the unfortunate events of his father’s
death took place. Since Captain Tiago owns
multiple properties there, María Clara also
relocates to San Diego. November is
approaching, a time the town celebrates with a
large festival. This festival is surrounded by
various religious holidays, such as All Souls’
Day, which commemorates dead people in
purgatory waiting for their souls to be cleansed
before ascending to heaven. Taking advantage of
this, San Diego’s priests implore the villagers to
purchase indulgences, which they claim shorten
the length of time a soul must languish in
purgatory.

Ibarra quickly sees that the power of the

Catholic friars in the Philippines has greatly
increased since he left for Europe, a fact made
clear by their control over even governmental