Critical Analysis on Fr.

Balaguer’s Statement
Scan of the retraction document
November 1996
Dated December 29 1826
Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
• (Author of Biografia de Rizal that won the
literary contest in 1938)
• In Pride of the Malay Race, Analysis of Rizal’s
Retraction is included
• The only testimony is the hearsay from
Taviel de Andrade’s (what he heard the
priest say)
• Better treatment of Church to Rizal after
the said reconciliation does not show
Palma’s Points
1. The document of retraction was kept secret
2. Petitions made by Rizal’s family to view to documents of retraction and
marriage were denied
3. His burial was kept secret.
4. No masses were said for his soul.
5. Buried in in ground without cross or mark, not in Catholic cemetery of
Paco, but
6. His name was not on the book burials on page with those buried in
December 30, 1896. He was considered among persons who died
impenitent and did not receive spiritual aid (among those who commit
suicide)
7. No moral motive for the conversion
Austin Coates’s Critical Analysis
• Rizal : Philippine Nationalist and Martyr
• On the eve of Rizal’s death, it was said that he:
• retracted his religious “errors”
• adjured freemasonry
• married Josephine Bracken
• Views of Rizal’s family and closest friends:
• It is an ecclesiastical fraud
• The archbishop is interest in his conversion for political motives
• Loopholes in Father Balaguer’s statement that Rizal retracted:
• No signed letter of retraction was revealed to the public, not even to the family of
Rizal who demanded it
• He was not buried decently. No Christian burial.
Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• Presented on 2016 “Re-examining the Last 24 Hours of Rizal Using Spy
Reports” by NCCA
• Spy Report of Fredrico Moreno to Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• Cuerpo de Vigilancia
“Most Illustrious Sir, the agent of the Cuerpo de Vigilancia stationed in
Fort Santiago to report on the events during the [illegible] day in prison
of the accused Jose Rizal, informs me on this date of the following:
“At 7:50 yesterday morning, Jose Rizal entered death row accompanied
by his counsel, Señor Taviel de Andrade, and the Jesuit priest Vilaclara. At
the urgings of the former and moments after entering, he was served a
light breakfast. At approximately 9, the Assistant of the Plaza, Señor
Maure, asked Rizal if he wanted anything. He replied that at the moment
he only wanted a prayer book which was brought to him shortly by
Father March.
“Señor Andrade left death row at 10 and Rizal spoke for a long while with
the Jesuit fathers, March and Vilaclara, regarding religious matters, it
seems. It appears that these two presented him with a prepared
retraction on his life and deeds that he refused to sign. They argued
about the matter until 12:30 when Rizal ate some poached egg and a
little chicken. Afterwards he asked to leave to write and wrote for a long
time by himself.
“At 3 in the afternoon, Father March entered the chapel and Rizal handed
him what he had written. Immediately the chief of the firing squad, Señor
del Fresno and the Assistant of the Plaza, Señor Maure, were informed.
They entered death row and together with Rizal signed the document
that the accused had written. It seems this was the retraction.”
“At 5 this morning of the 30th, the lover of Rizal arrived at the prison
…dressed in mourning. Only the former entered the chapel, followed by a
military chaplain whose name I cannot ascertain. Donning his formal
clothes and aided by a soldier of the artillery, the nuptials of Rizal and the
woman who had been his lover were performed at the point of death (in
articulo mortis). After embracing him she left, flooded with tears.”
• Jose Taviel de
Andrade
Analysis of the Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• Agrees the existence of the retraction document
• Fr. Balaguer wasn’t mentioned
• Makes Balaguer a secondary source to the writing of the document
Rizal’s Connection to the Katipunan
• Precursor of the Katipunan is La Liga Filipina
• Katipunan was established few days after Rizal’s exile on 7 July 1892
• Rizal objected the plan of Katipunan for it will be suicide to fight
against Spaniards who had the military advantage