RIZAL’S EXILE, TRIAL, AND

EXECUTION

MODULE 5
PRE-EXILE
• In 1892, Rizal decided to return to the
Philippines thinking that the real struggle was in
his homeland
• Rizal arrived in the Philippines on June 26, 1892
• He encouraged his friends to join the La Liga
Filipina, a socio-civic organization that Rizal
established on July 3, 1892
• Rizal was arrested and brought to Fort Santiago
on July 6, 1892 - Pobres Frailes (Poor Friars)
EXILE
• Rizal lived at the commandant’s residence
• He built three houses- all made of bamboo,
wood, and nipa
• 1st – home
• 2nd – living quarters
• 3rd – chickens
• During his exile, Rizal practiced medicine, taught
some pupils, and engaged in farming and
horticulture.
• The school he founded in 1893 started with only
three pupils,and had about more than 20 students at
the time his exile ended.
CONT...
• Rizal would rise at five in the morning to see his
plants, feed his animals, and prepare breakfast.
• Teaching his pupils would begin at about 2 pm
and would end at 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
• Rizal would spend the night reading and writing
• Rizal provided significant community services in
Dapitan like improving the town’s drainage and
constructing better water system using empty
bottles and bamboo joints.
CONT...
• He also taught the town folks about health and
sanitation
• He bettered their forest by providing evident trails,
stairs, and some benches
• He invented a wooden machine for mass
production of bricks
• Rizal equally treated all patients regardless of their
economic and social status.
• Rizal also helped in the livelihood of the abaca
farmers in Dapitan by trading their crops in Manila
CONT...
• Rizal was in Dapitan when he learned that his
true love Leonor Rivera had died
• In August 1893, Doña Teodora, along with
daughter Trinidad, joined Rizal in Dapitan
• Jose’s sisters Maria and Narcisa also visited him
• In 1895, Doña Teodora left Dapitan for Manila to
be with Don Francisco who was getting weaker
• Josephine Bracken
• Francisco
CONT...
• Emissaries sent to spy on Rizal:
• Dr. Matias Arrieta
• Pablo Mercado (Florencio Nanaman)
• Doctor Pio Valenzuela
• He thus recommended that if the Katipunan was to
start a revolution, it had to ask for the support of rich
and educated Filipinos, like Antonio Luna who was
an expert on military strategy
CONT...
• In 1895, Blumentritt informed Rizal that the
revolution-ridden Cuba, another nation
colonized by Spain, was raged by yellow fever
epidemic
• July 30, 1896 - received a letter from the
governor general sanctioning his petition to
serve as volunteer physician in Cuba
• July 31, 1896 – departed for Manila
• four years, thirteen days, and a few hours
TRIAL AND
EXECUTION
• Preliminary investigation - November 20, 1896
• Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade
• December 26, 1896 - guilty and sentenced to
death by firing squad
• rebellion, sedition and conspiracy
• December 30, 1896 at 7am in Bagumbayan
• Two letters
• “Fuego”
• “consummatum est”
TRIAL AND
EXECUTION
• Paco Cemetery
• RPJ
LAST DAYS
• 6 October 1896, 3:00 AM:  On his 4th day of being held in
his cabin at the MV Isla de Panay docked at Barcelona,
Spain on his way to Cuba, Rizal was awakened to be
brought to Montjuich Prison in Barcelona, Spain
• 6 October, 8:00 PM:  Aboard the Colon, Rizal left
Barcelona for Manila.
• 3 November:  Rizal was brought to Fort Santiago, where
other patriots, including his brother Paciano, were being
tortured to implicate him
• 26 November:  The records of the case were handed
over to Governor General Ramon Blanco who then
appointed Captain Rafael Dominguez as special Judge
Advocate.
LAST DAYS
• 8 December:  From a list submitted to him by the
authorities, he chose the brother of his friend, Lt.
Luis Taviel de Andrade to become his trial lawyer. 
• 11 December - “principal organizer and the living
soul of the Filipino insurrection, the founder of
societies, periodicals and books dedicated to
fomenting and propagating the ideas of rebellion.”
• 13 December:  Ramon Blanco was replaced by
Camilo de Polavieja
• 15 December:  Rizal issued his manifesto to certain
Filipinos calling to end the “absurd” rebellion and to
fight for liberties with education as a prerequisite.
LAST DAYS
• 26 December, 8:00 AM:  Trial of Rizal began at the
Cuartel de España.  On the same day, the court-
martial secretly and unanimously voted for a guilty
verdict with the penalty of death before a firing
squad
• 28 December:  Polavieja signs the death verdict.
• 29 December, 6:00 AM:  Rizal was read his verdict
by Captain Rafael Dominguez
• 29 December, 7:00 AM:  Rizal was transferred to the
chapel cell adorned by religious images to convince
him to go back to the Catholic fold.  His first visitors
were Jesuit priests Fathers Miguel Saderra Mata
LAST DAYS
• 29 December, 7:15 AM:  After Fr. Saderra left, Rizal
asked Fr. Viza for the Sacred Heart statuette which he
carved when he was an Ateneo student. 
• 29 December, 8:00 AM:  Fr. Viza was relieved by Fr.
Antonio Rosell who joined Rizal for breakfast.  Lt. Luis
Taviel de Andrade joins them.
• 29 December, 9:00 AM:  Fr. Federico Faura, who once
said that Rizal would lose his head for writing the Noli
Me Tangere, arrived.  Rizal told him, “Father you are
indeed a prophet.”
• 29 December, 10:00 AM:  Fathers José Vilaclara and
Estanislao March visited Rizal, followed by a Spanish
journalist, Santiago Mataix of El Heraldo de Madrid, for
LAST DAYS
• 29 December, 12:00-3:30 PM:  Rizal’s time alone in his
cell.  He had lunch, wrote letters and probably wrote
his last poem of 14 stanzas which he wrote in his
flowing handwriting in a very small piece of paper. - Mi
Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell)
• 29 December, 3:00 PM: Rizal signed what seems to be
the document retracting his anti-Catholic writings and
his membership in masonry.
• 30 December, 5:00 AM:  Teary-eyed Josephine
Bracken and Josefa Rizal came. Josephine was gifted
by Rizal with the classic Thomas á Kempis book
Imitations of Christ in which he inscribed, “To my dear
and unhappy wife, Josephine, December 30 th, 1896,
LAST DAYS
• 30 December, 6:00 AM:  Rizal wrote his father,
Francisco Mercado “My beloved Father, Pardon me
for the pain with which I repay you for sorrows and
sacrifices for my education.  I did not want nor did I
prefer it.  Goodbye, Father, goodbye… Jose Rizal.” 
To his mother, he had only these words, “To my very
dear Mother, Sra. Dña Teodora Alonso 6 o’clock in
the morning, December 30, 1896.  Jose Rizal.” 
• Spanish Colonialism ended in 1898.