EL

FILIBUSTERISMO
“THE REIGN OF
GREED”
 THE WRITING OF THE SECOND NOVEL
• EL FILIBUSTERISMO IS A SEQUEL TO NOLI ME TANGERE
• RIZAL HAD BEGUN WRITING THE SECOND NOVEL IN
OCTOBER 1887, WHILE PRACTICING MEDICINE IN
CALAMBA.
• 1888- IN LONDON HE MADE SOME CHANGES IN THE
PLOT AND CORRECTED SOME CHAPTERS ALREADY
WRITTEN
• HE WROTE MORE CHAPTERS IN PARIS AND
MADRID AND FINISHED THE MANUSCRIPT
IN BIARRITZ ON MARCH 29, 1891.
• RIZAL TOOK HIM, THREE YEARS TO WRITE
HIS SECOND NOVEL
• PLACE OF PUBLICATION – GHENT
• PUBLISHER – F. MEYER-VAN LOO PRESS
 RIZAL’S FINANCIAL CONDITION - PUBLICATION

• RIZAL PAWNED HIS JEWELS IN ORDER TO PAY THE

DOWN PAYMENT AND THE EARLY PARTIAL PAYMENT.
• AS THE PRINTING WAS GOING ON, RIZAL BECAME
DESPERATE BECAUSE HIS FUNDS WERE RUNNING LOW
AND MONEY HE EXPECTED FROM HIS FRIENDS DID NOT
ARRIVE. HE HAD RECEIVED SOME MONEY FROM BASA
AND P200 FROM RODRIGUEZ ARIAS FOR THE COPIES OF
MORGA’S SUCESOS SOLD IN MANILA. BUT THESE FUNDS
WERE ALSO USED UP, AND MUCH MORE WERE NEEDED
TO PAY THE PRINTER
• WRITING TO BASA FROM GHENT ON JULY 1891
“I HAVE ALREADY PAWNED ALL MY JEWELS. I LIVE IN A SMALL
ROOM, I EAT IN THE CHEAPEST RESTAURANT IN ORDER TO
ECONOMIZE AND BE ABLE TO PUBLISH MY BOOK: SOON I WILL
HAVE TO STOP ITS PUBLICATION IF NO MONEY COMES. . . . . . “

ON AUGUST 6, THE PRINTING HAD TO BE SUSPENDED AS RIZAL

FEARED BECAUSE HE COULD NO LONGER GIVE THE NECESSARY
FUNDS TO THE PRINTER
• RIZAL’S CALVARY IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRINTING OF THE
NOLI WAS REPEATED IN THE FILI’S PRINTING. HIS FUNDS RAN
OUT IN GHENT A SIMILAR CALAMITY THAT HE EXPERIENCED IN
BERLIN IN THE WINTER OF 1886. ONCE MORE HE FELT THE
DOLOROUS GRIP OF DESPAIR. IN A MOMENT OF BITTER
DISILLUSIONMENTS, HE ALMOST HURLED THE MANUSCRIPTS OF
THE FILI INTO FLAMES, JUST AS HE ALMOST DID THE NOLI IN
BERLIN.
• WHEN EVERYTHING SEEMED LOST, HELP CAME FROM AN
UNEXPECTED SOURCE. VALENTINE VENTURA IN PARIS LEARNED
OF RIZAL’S PREDICAMENT AND IMMEDIATELY SENT HIM THE
NECESSARY FUNDS. WITH HIS FINANCIAL AID, THE PRINTING OF
THE EL FILI WAS RESUMED
 FILI COME OFF THE PRESS

• ON SEPTEMBER 18, 1891 EL FILIBUSTERISMO CAME OFF THE

PRESS. RIZAL IMMEDIATELY SENT ON THIS DATE 2 PRINTED
COPIES TO HONGKONG- ONE FOR BASA AND THE OTHER TO
SIXTO LOPEZ.
• TO VALENTINE VENTURA, RIZAL GRATEFULLY DONATED THE
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT AND AN AUTOGRAPHED PRINTED
COPY. HE SENT COMPLIMENTARY COPIES TO BLUMENTRITT,
MARIANO PONCE, G. LOPEZ JAENA, T.H. PARDO DE TAVERA,
ANTONIO AND JUAN LUNA AND OTHER FRIENDS
EL FILIBUSTERISMO DEDICATED TO GOMBURZA
"TO THE MEMORY OF THE PRIESTS, DON MARIANO GOMEZ (85 YEARS OLD), DON JOSE BURGOS (30
YEARS OLD), AND DON JACINTO ZAMORA (35 YEARS OLD). EXECUTED IN THE BAGUMBAYAN FIELD ON
THE 28TH OF FEBRUARY, 1872."
• "THE CHURCH, BY REFUSING TO DEGRADE YOU, HAS PLACED IN DOUBT THE CRIME THAT HAS BEEN
IMPUTED TO YOU; THE GOVERNMENT, BY SURROUNDING YOUR TRIALS WITH MYSTERY AND SHADOWS
CAUSES THE BELIEF THAT THERE WAS SOME ERROR, COMMITTED IN FATAL MOMENTS; AND ALL THE
PHILIPPINES, BY WORSHIPPING YOUR MEMORY AND CALLING YOU MARTYRS, IN NO SENSE
RECOGNIZES YOUR CULPABILITY. IN SO FAR, THEREFORE, AS YOUR COMPLICITY IN THE CAVITE
MUTINY IS NOT CLEARLY PROVED, AS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN PATRIOTS, AND AS YOU MAY OR
MAY NOT CHERISHED SENTIMENTS FOR JUSTICE AND FOR LIBERTY, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEDICATE
MY WORK TO YOU AS VICTIMS OF THE EVIL WHICH I UNDERTAKE TO COMBAT. AND WHILE WE AWAIT
EXPECTANTLY UPON SPAIN SOME DAY TO RESTORE YOUR GOOD NAME AND CEASE TO BE ANSWERABLE
FOR YOUR DEATH, LET THESE PAGES SERVE AS A TARDY WREATH OF DRIED LEAVES OVER ONE WHO
WITHOUT CLEAR PROOFS ATTACKS YOUR MEMORY STAINS HIS HANDS IN YOUR BLOOD."

• RIZAL’S MEMORY SEEMED TO HAVE FAILED HIM, THOUGH, FOR FATHER GOMEZ WAS THEN 73 NOT
85, FATHER BURGOS 35 NOT 30 FATHER ZAMORA 37 NOT 35; AND THE DATE OF EXECUTION 17TH NOT
28TH.
 THE MANUSCRIPT AND THE BOOK
• THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF EL FILIBUSTERISMO IN RIZAL’S OWN
HANDWRITING IS NOW PRESERVED I THE FILIPINIANA DIVISION OF
THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES MANILA. IT HAD BEEN ACQUIRED
BY THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT FROM VALENTINE VENTURA FOR
P10,000. IT CONSISTS OF 279 PAGES OF LONG SHEETS PAPER.
• THE AUTHOR CORRECTIONS ARE SEEN THROUGHOUT THE
MANUSCRIPT. ONLY A FEW PAGES HAVE NOT BEEN REVISED BY RIZAL.
• TWO FEATURES IN THE MANUSCRIPT DO NOT APPEAR IN THE
PRINTED BOOK NAMELY: THE FOREWORD AND THE WARNING. THESE
WERE NOT PUT INTO PRINT, EVIDENTLY TO SAVE PRINTING COST,
 FOREWORD

“ WE, HAVE SO OFTEN BEEN FRIGHTENED BY THE PHANTOM

OF FILIBUSTERISM THAT FROM ONLY A NURSE’S NARRATION
IT HAS BECOME A POSITIVE AND REAL BEING WHOSE NAME
ALONE IN DEPRIVING US OF OUR SERENITY) MAKES US
COMMIT THE GREATEST MYTHS IN ORDER NOT TO MEET THE
FEARED REALITY. INSTEAD OF FLEEING, WE SHALL LOOK AT
ITS FACE, AND WITH DETERMINED, IF INEXPERT, HAND WE
SHALL RAISE THE VEIL TO UNCOVER BEFORE THE
MULTITUDE THE MECHANISM OF ITS SKELETON.
IF, UPON SEEING IT, OUR AND ITS GOVERNMENT
REFLECT, WE SHALL CONSIDER OURSELVES HAPPY NO
MATTER WHETHER THEY CENSURE US FOR THE
AUDACITY , NO MATTER WHETHER WE PAY FOR IT LIKE
THE YOUNG STUDENT OF SAIS WHO WISHED TO
PENETRATE THE SECRET OF THE PRIESTLY IMPOSTURE.
(ON THE OTHER HAND, IF THE FACE OF REALITY,
INSTEAD OF BEING SOOTHED, ONE’S FEAR IS INCREASED
AND THE TREPIDATION OF ANOTHER IS AGGRAVATED,
THEN THEY WILL HAVE TO BE LEFT IN THE HANDS OF
TIME WHICH EDUCATES THE LIVING, IN THE HAND OF
FATALITY WHICH WEAVES THE DESTINIES OF THE
 WARNING
• THEY ARE GOING TO WASTE THEIR TIME WHO WOULD ATTACK
THIS BOOK BY HOLDING ON TO TRIFLES, OR WHO FROM OTHER
MOTIVES, WOULD TRY TO DISCOVER IN IT MORE OR LESS
KNOWN PHYSIOGNOMIES. TRUE TO HIS PURPOSE OF EXPOSING
THE DISEASE, OF THE PATIENT, AND, IN ORDER NOT TO DIVERT
HIMSELF NOR DIVERT THE READER, WHILST HE NARRATES
ONLY REAL FACTS WHICH HAPPENED RECENTLY AND ARE
ABSOLUTELY AUTHENTIC IN SUBSTANCE, HE HAS DISFIGURED
HIS CHARACTERS SO THAT THEY MAY NOT TURN TO BE THE
TYPICAL PICTURES SOME READERS FOUND IN HIS BOOK. MAN
PASSES; HIS VICES REMAINS, AND TO ACCENTUATE OR SHOW
THEIR EFFECTS, THE PEN OF THE WRITER ASPIRES