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Veneration Without Understanding - A Reflection Paper

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Charmaine Mae Catalan Allego

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 Republic of the Philippines

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

College of Business Administration

A Reflection on An Alternate View of Rizal

“Veneration Without Understanding” by Renato Constantino

by:

Charmaine Mae C. Allego

BS Office Administration 4-1N

to:

Instructor Jacinto Valila Jr.

GEED 10013

Buhay at Mga Sinulat ni Rizal

May 2022
 Does Rizal Deserves to Be Our National Hero?

Being nationally identified as a hero is a huge honor a person can get. What more
if you are awarded with the title as the national hero? Jose Rizal was famous all over the
Philippines because of this title, but does he really deserve to be identified as our
country’s national hero? With my basic knowledge about him, I would totally say yes. He
was introduced as a person who died for his country’s cry for independence, but does he
really want independence in the first place against the country’s colonizer? We achieved
our nation’s sovereignty with the help of many people who fought hard for us to enjoy the
freedom we have today, Rizal is not the only hero, and I am going to indulge myself trying
to answer if Rizal deserve his title.

Indulging in Rizal’s life and works is mind-blowing. Different views are being
presented, and it’s my time to reflect on an alternate view of Rizal. “Veneration Without
Understanding” by Renato Constantino was a trigger of a roller-coaster emotions and
views that is really different with Rizal’s biography, which now sounds like biased to Rizal.
This one is a whole different thing, and I was about to tell you why.

But first, let me introduce the author of this alternate view of Rizal. Renato
Constantino was a Filipino historian and a nationalist. He had a great stand about
examining our colonial history for the Filipino people to use the past as a powerful
instrument to face future nationalism. His works speaks for Philippines’ national
sovereignty, democratic rights, peace, and social justice. Given this kind of mindset he
has, it is clear that he had intentions to criticize happenings in the past that leads to having
a different perspective on what is the common knowledge that are being disseminated in
today’s generation.
 The national hero is usually the one who leads the revolution, but not in the
Philippines’ case. Our national hero, Rizal, rather condemned the revolution and stand
against it. He also planned to work under the Spanish people and use his medical
knowledge to achieve freedom for himself against his deportation. I remember, in “The
First Filipino” by Leon Guerrero, he accepted his friend’s help to escape and be a military
doctor in Spain, but their plan didn’t go well. He was arrested and taken to Fort Monjuich
of Barcelona. He was imprisoned there, and then later returned to the Philippines.

Thinking about this incident, I did not make a big deal out of it because I was like
reading a book where the protagonist is Rizal, and him escaping was a good plan
because, in that way, he will not be imprisoned anymore. As the main character of the
story, of course, I want him alive and be free because I believed that he did not deserve
to be imprisoned, but right now, I am seeing that as an act of turning his back on the
Filipino people. Now, it looks like he prioritized saving himself rather than saving the
Philippines in the hands of the colonizers.

However, Rizal’s stand about the revolution is not an act of betrayal for a lot of
Rizalists. He just does not want a rebellion and achieve liberty in more peaceful way, but
I can’t blame Bonifacio with establishing the Katipunan though because the abuses of the
Spaniards are too much for the Filipino people to handle and had been enduring the
mistreatments for the longest time. The goal is to be free from Spanish regime, but their
way out was very different from each other. You can’t condemn each other’s plan, but it
can ignite of which side you would choose.

Speaking of side, it was tackled in Constantino’s article that Rizal’s proclamation

as a national hero was chosen by the Americans and not by Filipinos. It was a
manipulative move for me. No contest that Rizal has a great mind, status, a good life
story, and a very talented man, but for them to use that against other heroes who doesn’t
have those qualities but made a lot of difference in achieving our freedom was something
doubtful. They glorified Rizal’s heroism too much and disseminated to Filipinos minds that
a hero does not involve in any movement using force or militarization. A clear move of
manipulating someone’s mind that you can achieve your goal without fighting physically
for it in the act of rebellion. This was rooted with the plan of influencing everyone’s
thoughts that because the country’s national hero is not aggressive, Filipinos should not
be aggressive as well with the colonizers, wherein that specific moment, we are under
the America’s colonization. What a trick. Filipinos are intelligent, but with this kind of attack
to silence the voices and prevent Filipinos of fighting for our mother land, you would not
notice it immediately. I am just thankful that even though our country was colonized three
times, Filipino’s stood their ground of fighting the freedom and independence we deserve.

I want to share this part from the article, “A proper understanding of our history is
very important to us because it will serve to demonstrate how our present has been
distorted by a faulty knowledge of our past.” (Constantino, 1969). This line literally gave
me chills. Our present is now distorted because of historical revisionism. Just like what’s
happening today. We’re literally doomed. Here comes an individual’s sense of nationalism
and citizenship. Filipinos are responsible for their beliefs, but the common problem is
people like the Rizalists, who are all turning a blind eye to Rizal’s actions that seems like
a traitor to his own country, but still seeing him as God-like. Many Filipinos are peddling
with fake news and allowing themselves to have their own version of truth with some
people in social media that feed their minds with distorted and faulty knowledge of the
past and I just can’t help myself to compare both situations.

This is the start of feeling humiliated for being a Filipino, without knowing the
essence of the term Filipino. I was dumbfounded when the article explained how Rizal
paved the way for us having our name back to its real owner instead of identifying the
natives of the Philippines as Indio in Spanish regime. Having the Filipino term was a long
fight and an anti-colonial because we are finally recognized with our own identity or
citizenship. With the current situation, I am feeling disappointed with majority of Filipinos
choices in today’s generation, but never ashamed to be a Filipino. Someone like Rizal
fought hard to give our name back, and I hope a simple recognition to his heroic act made
him proud today. Although there are a lot of instances that drags our country down, being
a laughingstock to other nations, sometimes I do really feel ashamed, not for being a
Filipino but because of other Filipino’s actions, but I am just feeding my mind that there’s
a lot more recognition from other countries where Filipino’s are proud to wave our
Philippine flag.

Expounding my claim about an individual’s sense of nationalism and citizenship, I

also felt lost in the conversation where Rizal is considered as a nationalist leader, yet his
stand against the revolution was not very nationalist in any form because the revolution
was planned to fight for our countrymen’s human rights and a declare of wanting our
country’s independence in the Spanish hands, but Rizal stand his ground about not being
supportive of that act. Bonifacio called Rizal a coward that time, and I can’t agree more. I
am not blaming Rizal for his selfish acts for his goal to leave Dapitan and serve as an
army doctor under the Spaniards just to escape his locked-up situation, but the puzzle
pieces about it was forming a thought that he will totally choose himself over the fight of
the Filipino people for independence.

I also viewed Rizal as extremely unique and legendary in his biography, that his
principle, dignity, and passion were overflowing. I can’t blame people for making a religion
out of his name because of his greatness, but right now, I have thoughts that it was
manipulated to everyone’s mind that Rizal is that great compared to other Philippine
heroes. I appreciate Bonifacio’s action more than Rizal this time, but I can’t say that
Rizal’s works that ignites the heart and mind of people like Bonifacio was not crucial in
the revolutionary act. He was still the First Filipino. His works sparked hope for
independence. This is his biggest issue, because as he was about to be shot at
Bagumbayan, he looked at his countrymen who watched his execution, with his thoughts
that these people are the one’s he is fighting for, his fellow Filipinos who he would die for,
even though he condemned the act of rebellion that was also for his fellow citizens.
 Does Rizal deserve to be our national hero? Now, I will definitely say no. Does he
really want independence against our country’s colonizers? Again, no. Upon reading
Constantino’s article, I rather not glorify Rizal’s name only. Yes, he did his part. His works
are magical, it triggered a revolution and sparked hope for better Philippines, but he is not
the only one who fought and what he wants is not independence at all. All our heroes
deserve to be a national hero. Not just the one who fought for our country’s independence
against the colonizers, but also our modern-day heroes who are fighting everyday for the
love of our country and for the love for Filipino people. Right now, we have another fight,
our fight for historical revisionism. I hope we can stand against the circulating
disinformation around, and I hope all our heroes who brought us independence today is
proud of us for continuing to love our nation. Mula sayo, para sa bayan.
 References

Simbulan, R. (2007). Renato Constantino: The Centennial Filipino Scholar, 1919–1999.

Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472330080000301

Guerrero, L. (1961). The First Filipino. Retrieved from http://www.xeniaeditrice.it/

firstfilipinoocrpdf

Constantino, R. (1969). Veneration Without Understanding. Retrieved from

https://bangkanixiao.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/renato-constantino-veneration-
without-understanding.pdf

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