JOSE RIZAL AND

PHILIPPINE
NATIONALISM: BAYANI
AND KABAYANIHAN
Group 5
 Hero vs. Bayani

HERO
• A hero is someone who possesses great
courage, strength, and
is favored by the gods.
• “Hero" as "a mythological or legendary figure
often of divine descent endowed with great
strength or ability; an illustrious warrior; a
person admired for achievements and noble
qualities; one who shows great courage.”
 Hero vs. Bayani
BAYANI
• Bayani is someone who fights with his ‘bayan’ or
community.
• The Vicassan's Dictionary (Santos, 1978): hero, patriot
("taong makabayan"), cooperative endeavor, mutual
aid, a person who volunteers or offers free service or
labor to a cooperative endeavor, to prevail, to be
victorious, to prevail ("mamayani"), leading man in
play (often referred to as the "bida"--from the Spanish
for life, "vida"--who is contrasted with the villain or
"kontrabida" from the Spanish "contra vida", against
life)” as cited in Ocampo, 2016.
 The Vocabulario de la
lengua Tagala by the Jesuits
Juan de Noceda and Pedro
de Sanlucar (1755 and1860)
lists these meanings for
UP Diksiyonariyong Filipino (2001) gives three meanings for 'bayani':
bayani:
1. a person of extraordinary courage or ability;
2. a person considered to possess extraordinary talents or someone who did something
"someone who is brave or
noble ("dakila"); and valiant, someone who
3. a leading man in a play (Ocampo, 2016). works towards a common
task or cooperative
endeavor ("bayanihan") ( as
cited in Ocampo, 2016).
 History professor Ambeth
Ocampo sees it significant
that bayani comes a few
words under bayan, which is
also defined as: "the space
between here and the sky."
Bayan (Ocampo, 2016) also refers to the day
(araw) or a time of a day (malalim ang bayan)
or even to the weather, good or bad
(masamang bayan). Ocampo, thus, concludes
that "hero" and bayanido not have the same
meaning.

Bayan is also a town, municipality, Bayani is a richer word than hero

pueblo, or nation, and can refer to
people and citizens (mamamayan)
who live in those communities, or
those who originate or come from
the same place (kababayan).
because it may be rooted in bayan as
place or in doing something great, not
for oneself but for a greater good, for
community or nation.
 THE CHANGING FORMS AND
DEFINITIONS OF BAYANI AND
KABAYANIHAN
Anchored on the definitions given by old dictionaries, mga bayani
may historically (and profoundly) refer to those who contributed
to the birth of a nation. In the early times, heroes are the warriors
and generals who serve their cause with sword, distilling blood
and tears; they are those, for the Filipinos, who served their cause
with a pen, demonstrating that the pen is as mighty as the sword to
redeem a people from their political slavery.
 However, the modern-day bayani may refer to someone who
contributes to a nation in a global world. In modern definitions, a
Hero is: someone who has distinguished courage and ability,
someone who do good deeds for the greater good of others, and
mostly works alone.

One case in point is our Overseas Filipino Workers ( OFWs) — Filipinos who are
working in foreign countries who basically travel abroad in pursuit of better
employment to provide for the needs of their respective families in the Philippines.
Truly, when they work abroad, they are taking risks (pakikipagsapalaran) and in
recognition of their sacrifices, they are named Bagong Bayani or “Modern-Day
Heroes”, acknowledging their contributions every December as the Month of
Overseas Filipino Workers.
 “Ang Salitang Bayani sa Pilipinas”
■ “Ang salitang “bayani” ay isang Austronesian na salita na dinala ng ating mga katutubo
sa ating bayan. Ang mga bayani ay ang mga mandirigma kung saan sila ay nangunguna
sa pagtatanggol ng pamayanan laban sa mga kinakaharap na mga kaaway at panganib.
Ang ilan sa mga diribatibo ng salitang bayani ay bajani, majani, bagabnim, bahani.
■ Ang mga antas na ito ay kinikilala bilang:
1. Maniklad, ang pinakamababang uri ng bayani na nakapatay ng isa o dalawang kaaway, karaniwang siya ay
nakasuot ng putong na pula at dilaw;
2. Hanagan naman kung tawagin ang nasa ikalawang antas, siya ay sumasailalim sa ritwal na kung saan ay
dapat siyang sapian ni Tagbusawa, ang diyos ng pakikidigma at kainin ang atay at puso ng mga kaaway.
Karaniwang nagsusuot ang mga ito ng pulang putong;
3. Kinaboan naman kung tawagin ang makakapatay ng dalawampu hanggang dalawampu’t pito at karaniwang
nakasuot ng pulang pantalaon;
4. Luto naman kung tawagin ang makakapatay ng limampu hanggang 100 na kaaway at karaniwang nagsusuot
ng pulang jacket;
5. Lunugum naman ang pinakapaborito ng diyos na si Tagbusaw dahil dito maipapakita niya ang
kanyang katapangan sa pakikipagdigma kung saan napatay niya ang kanyang kaaway sa sarili nitong
tahanan. Itim ang karaniwang suot ng mga ito.
Father of New Philippine Historiography and
Pantayong Pananaw (For-Us-From-Us Perspective)
Proponent, Dr. Zeus A. Salazar gives a different
definition of the term bayani.
In fact, he believes that bayani is different from
“heroes.” For him, “ang mga bayani ay mga taong
naglalakbay at bumabalik sa bayan… ang mga
bayani ay lumalaban ng may kooperasyon
[samantalang] ang mga hero (western concept) ay
lumalaban mag-isa… Ang bayani ay hindi
kailangang mamatay upang maging bayani...
Kailangan niya lang gumawa ng magagandang
impluwensya at mga gawain sa bayan upang
tawaging bayani (Ang Salitang Bayani sa Pilipinas,
n.d.).
 This definition gives us hope that anyone of us can be a
bayani, in our respective communities. Thus, we should now
realize that a modern bayani can be anyone who sacrifices
even the littlest of things for the benefit of others. A good
example for a modern bayani is Efren Peñaflorida, who
sacrificed his time and effort just to teach out-of school youths
in a simple pushcart classroom. He may not have died for the
country, but he responded to the needs of others – education.
■ “Each person has a hidden hero within, you
just have to look inside you and search it
in your heart, and be the hero to the next
one in need.” – Efren Peñaflorida
■ Today, anyone can be a bayani. A bayani
who can sacrifice the simplest of things
like: time, effort, and knowledge for those
who are in need. We do not need to die like
our traditional heroes, rather, a simple act
of kindness can be worth a lot to someone.
So, how can you be a Bayani of your time?
WHY IS RIZAL
OUR GREATEST
HERO?
In an article entitled, “Who Made Rizal Our ForemostNational
Hero and Why?,” the author, Esteban A. de Ocampo, denies
the claim that Rizal is a made-to-order national hero
manufactured by the Americans, mainly by Civil Governor
William Howard Taft. Instead, he defended Rizal as the
country’s foremost hero. This was done, allegedly, in the
following manner:

“And now, gentlemen, you must have a national hero". These

were supposed to be the words addressed by Gov. Taft to Mrs.
Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Luzurriaga, Filipino members of
the Philippine Commission, of which Taft was the chairman. It
was further reported that "in the subsequent discussion in
which the rival merits of the revolutionary heroes (Marcelo H.
del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Gen. Antonio Luna, Emilio
Jacinto were considered, the final choice—now universally
acclaimed wise one was Rizal. And so history was made."
 De Ocampo’s justification is founded on the definition of the
term “hero,” which he took from the Webster’s New
International Dictionary of the English Language, that a hero is
"a prominent or central personage taking admirable part in any
remarkable action or event". Also, "a person of distinguished
valor or enterprise in danger". And finally, he is a man "honored
after death by public worship, because of exceptional service to
mankind".
 WHY IS RIZAL A HERO, MORE CORRECTLY,
OUR FOREMOST NATIONAL HERO?

It was said in the article that he is our greatest hero because he took an “admirable part” in the
Propaganda Campaign from 1882-1896. His Noli Me Tangere (Berlin, 1887) contributed
tremendously to the formation of Filipino nationality and was said to be far superior than those
published by Pedro Paterno’s Ninay in Madrid in 1885; Marcelo H. del Pilar’s La Soberania
Monacal in Barcelona in 1889, Graciano Lopez Jaena’s Discursos y Articulos Varios, also in
Barcelona in 1891; and Antonio Luna’s Impresiones in Madrid in 1893. This claim was
evident in the comments that Rizal received from Antonio Ma. Regidor and Professor.
Ferdinand Blumentritt. Regidor, a Filipino exile of 1872 in London, said that "the book was
superior" and that if "don Quixote has made its author immortal because he exposed to the
world the sufferings of Spain, your Noli Me Tangere will bring you equal glory…"
Blumentritt, on the other hand, after
reading Rizal’s Noli, wrote and
congratulated its author, saying among
other things: "Your work, as we
Germans say, has been written w/ the
blood of the heart... Your work has
exceeded my hopes and I consider
myself happy to have been honored by
your friendship. Not only I, but also
your country, may feel happy for
having in you a patriotic and loyal son.
If you continue so, you will be to your
people one of those great men who will
exercise a determinative influence over
the progress of their spiritual life."
While Rizal’s friends and admirers praised him and
his Noli with justifiable pride, his enemies were
equally loud and bitter in attacking and condemning
the same. Perhaps no other work has, up to this day,
aroused as much hostile and spiteful argument not
only among our people but also among reactionary
foreigners as the Noli of Rizal. In the Philippines
alone, De Ocampo shared in his article that Rizal’s
novel was attacked and condemned by a faculty
committee of a Manila university (UST) and by the
permanent censorship commission in 1887 because
the committee found the book "heretical, impious,
and scandalous to the religious order, and unpatriotic
and subversive to the public order, libelous to the
government of Spain and to its political policies in
these islands", while the commission recommended
that "the Importation, reproduction, and circulation of
this pernicious book in the islands be absolutely
prohibited."
■ Coming down to our time, during the congressional discussions and hearings on the Rizal (Noili-
Fili) in 1956, the proponents and opponents of the bill also engaged themselves in a bitter and
long drawn-out debate that finally resulted in the enactment of a compromise measure, now
known as RA 1425. In the Spanish capital, attacks on Rizal’s Noli were also staged - Senator
Vida, Deputy (and ex-general) Luis de Pando and Premier Praxedes Mateo Sagasta were among
those who unjustly lambasted and criticized Rizal and his Noli in the two chambers of the
Spanish Cortes in 1888 and 1889.

■ But it was comforting to learn that 13 years later, Cong. Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin
delivered a eulogy of Rizal and even recited the martyr’s Ultimo Pensamiento on the floor of the
U. S. House of Representatives in order to prove the capacity of the Filipinos for self-
government. He said in part: "It has been said that, if American institutions had done nothing else
to furnish to the world the character of George Washington, that alone would entitle them to the
respect of mankind. So Sir, I say to all those who denounces the Filipinos indiscriminately as
barbarians and savages, with-out possibility of a civilized future, that this despised race proved
itself entitled to their respect and to the respect of mankind when it furnished to the world the
character of Jose Rizal." The result of this appeal was the approval of what is popularly known as
the Philippine Bill of 1902. The preceding paragraphs, De Ocampo claimed, have shown that by
the Noli alone Rizal, among his contemporaries, had become the most prominent/ the central
figure of the Propaganda Movement.
■ Even before the outbreak of the revolution against Spain in 1896, many instances can be
cited to prove that his country here and abroad recognized Rizal’s leadership. In the
early part of 1899 he was unanimously elected by the Filipinos in Barcelona and Madrid
as Honorary President of La Solidaridad. Some months later in Paris, he organized and
became Chief of the Indios Bravos. In January 1891, Rizal was again unanimously
chosen Responsable(chief) of the Spanish-Filipino Association. He was also the founder
and moving spirit in the founding of La Liga Filipina on Manila in July 3, 1892.
■ History tells us that the revolutionary society known as Katipunan likewise
acknowledged Rizal’s leadership and greatness by making him its honorary President
and by using his family name Rizal as the password for the third-degree members.
■ A year after Rizal’s execution, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and the other revolutionary chiefs
exiled to Hong Kong held a commemorative program on December 29, 1897 on the First
Anniversary of the hero’s execution and martyrdom.
■ Then on December 20, 1898 at the revolutionary capital of Malolos, Pres. Aguinaldo
issued the first official proclamation making December 30 of that year as "Rizal Day".
The same proclamation ordered the hoisting the Filipino flags at half-mast "from 12:00
noon on December 30, 1898" and the closing of "all offices of the government" during
the whole day of December 30. Actually, the impressive Rizal Day program, sponsored
by the Club Filipino, was held in Manila on December 30,1898.
 The question now is, who made Rizal the foremost hero of the Philippines?

De Ocampo (n.d.) writes, “no single person or groups of persons were responsible
for making the Greatest Malayan the No. 1 Hero of his people. Rizal himself, his
own people, and the foreigners all together contributed to make him the greatest
hero and martyr of his people. No amount of adulation and canonization by both
Filipinos and foreigners could convert Rizal into a great hero if he did not possess
in himself what Palma calls "excellent qualities and merits“.
THANK YOU