•CHAPTER 5: RIZAL’S LIFE

HIS TRIAL AND

EXECUTION
 Rizal left Barcelona for his return trip to the Philippines, on October
6, 1896 to face his trial.
 Madrid newspapers were full of publications concerning his so-called
leadership in the bloody revolution. He then felt that God was doing
him a blessing, allowing to go back to the Philippines to be able to
destroy such accusations.
 Knowing that Rizal was keeping a
diary, the Spanish Authorities got
curious and confiscated it. However,
they could find nothing incriminating
in it that it was returned after
nineteen days, the reason why Rizal’s
diary does not contain entries from
October 11 to November 1.
 Failed Rescue in Singapore
• Friends in Europe and Singapore did try to rescue him. Dr. Antonio
Ma. Regidor and Sixto Lopez sent telegrams to an English lawyer,
Hugh Fort to rescue Rizal from the Spanish steamer when it arrives in
Singapore using a legal strategy, the use of the writ of habeas corpus,
alleging that Rizal was illegally detained by the Spanish Authorities
but was denied by Chief Justice Lionel Cox.

 To successfully convict Rizal, his enemies gathered evidence against

him by having his friends arrested and tortured to implicate him,
among these were Dr. Pio Valenzuela, Moises Salvador, Jose Dizon,
Timoteo Paez, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, Domingo Paez, and Rizal’s own
brother, Paciano.
Preliminary Investigation
• The preliminary investigation that followed constituted
a five-day grueling, of being informed of the charges,
questioning by the judge advocate. But he was
deprived of his right to confront those who testified
against him, but was confronted with both
documentary and testimonial evidences.
 The following documents serve as the basis for the charges by the prosecution:

a. A letter of Antonio Luna to Mariano Ponce in Madrid dated

October 16, 1888, showing Rizal’s connection with the Filipino
reform campaign in Spain.
b. Rizal’s letter to his family, Madrid, dated August 20, 1890 stating
that the deportations are good for they will encourage the people
to hate tyranny.
c. A letter from Marcelo H. del Pilar to Deodato Arellano, dated
January 7, 1889, implicating Rizal in the Propaganda campaign
in Spain.

d. A poem entitled “Kundiman,” allegedly written by Rizal in Manila,

Dated September 12, 1891.
e. A letter of Carlos Oliveros to an unidentified person, Barcelona,
dated September 18, 1891, describing Rizal as the man to free
the Philippines from Spanish oppression.

f. A Masonic document, Manila, dated February 9, 1892, honoring

Rizal for his patriotic services.
g. A letter signed Dimasalang (Rizal’s pseudonym) to Tenluz (Juan
Zulueta’s pseudonym), Hongkong, dated May 14, 1892, stating
that he was preparing a safe refuge for Filipinos who may be
persecuted by the Spanish authorities.
h. A letter of Dimasalang to an unidentified committee, Hong Kong, dated June 1,
1892, soliciting the aid of the committee in the “patriotic work.”
i. An anonymous and undated letter to the editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph,
censuring the banishment of Rizal to Dapitan.

j. 10. A letter of Ildefonso Laurel to Rizal, Manila, dated September 3, 1892, saying
that the Filipino people look up to him (Rizal) as their savior.

k. A letter of Ildefonso Laurel to Rizal, Manila, dated March 17, 1893, informing
him of an unidentified correspondent of the arrest and banishment of Doroteo
Cortes and Ambrosio Salvador.

l. A letter of Marcelo H. Del Pilar to Don Juan Tenluz (Juan Zulueta), Madrid,
dated June 1, 1893, recommending the establishment of a special organization,
independent of Masonry, to help the cause of the Filipino people.
m.Transcript of a speech of Pingkian (Emilio Jacinto), in a
reunion of the Katipunan on July 23,1893, in which the
following cry was uttered “Long live the Philippines! Long live
liberty! Long live Doctor Rizal! Unity!”

n. Transcript of a speech of Tik-tik (Jose Turiano Santiago) in the

same Katipunan reunion, wherein the Katipuneros shouted:
“Long live the eminent Doctor Rizal! Death to the oppressor
nation!”

o. A poem by Laong Laan (Rizal) entitled “A Talisay” in which the

author makes the Dapitan school boys sing that they know
how to fight for their rights.
• On November 26, the
preliminary investigation
was finished and the
records were transmitted to
Governor Ramon Blanco by
Col. Francisco Olive,
together with the
appointment of Captain
Rafael Dominguez as
special Judge Advocate for
the resolution of the case
based on “evidences”
presented for the filing of
charges, which the latter
immediately did.
 Governor Ramon Blanco referred the matter to
the Judge Advocate General, Don Nicolas dela
Peña. The recommendations of the Gen. were the
following:
a.That Rizal be immediately brought to trial;
b.That he should be kept in prison;
c. That an order of attachment be issued against his property to
the amount of one million pesos as indemnity; and
d.That he should be defended in court by an army officer, not a
civilian lawyer.
 On December 8, a list of 100 first and second
lieutenants was given to him from which the
name of his defense lawyer would come from.
After looking over the names, there was one
which caught his interest, and the officer was
Don Luis Taviel De Andrade, a First Lieutenant
of the Artillery who gladly accepted the
assignment.

 On December 11, Rizal was informed of

the charges against him, particularly of
rebellion in his prison cell, in the presence
of his counsel.
 As fate would have it, Gov.
Gen. Blanco, the more
humane person, who was
not convinced of Rizal’s
guilt, was replaced by Gov.
Gen. Camilo Garcia de
Polavieja, “the blood and
iron governor,” who later
signed the order of his
execution.
 On December 15, 1896, Rizal wrote a
manifesto the Filipino people,
appealing to them to stop the
unnecessary shedding of blood and
to achieve their liberties by more
peaceful means, through education
and industry.

 December 25, 1896 was the saddest

Christmas Rizal spent in his whole
life, alone in his cell, aware that his
case was a hopeless one.
The Trial
 The trial of Jose Rizal “was an eloquent proof of Spaniards
injustice and misrule. More than a farce, it was patently a
mistrial.”
 At 8:00 A.M., December 26, 1896, the court
martial of Rizal started in the military of
Building called Cuartel de España, with
seven members.

 The accused, was seated in a bench guarded

by two soldiers, arms tied behind, elbow to
elbow, like a common criminal. There were
many spectators, including Josephine
Bracken, some newspapermen and many
Spaniards.
 The defense showed a brilliant performance, arguing point by point
the charges against Rizal who wrote a supplementary defense which
runs as follows:
1. He could not be guilty of rebellion, for he advised Dr. Pio Valenzuela in
Dapitan not to rise in revolution.
2. He did not correspond with the radical, revolutionary elements.
3. The revolutionists used his name without his knowledge. If he were guilty,
he could have escaped in Singapore.
4. If he had a hand in the revolution, he could have escaped in a Moro vinta
and would not have built a home, a hospital, and bought lands in Dapitan.
5. If he were the chief of the revolution, why was he not consulted by the
revolutionists?
6. It was true he wrote the by-laws of the Liga Filipina, but this is only a civic
association–not a revolutionary society.
7. The Liga Filipina did not live long, for after the first meeting he
was banished to Dapitan and it died out.
8. If the Liga was reorganized nine months later, he did not know
about it.
9. The Liga did not serve the purpose of the revolutionists;
otherwise they would not have supplanted it with the Katipunan.
10. If it were true that there were some bitter comments in Rizal’s
letters, it was because they were written in 1890 when his family
was being persecuted, being dispossessed of houses, warehouses,
land, etc. and his brother and all his brothers –in-law were
deported.
11. His life in Dapitan had been exemplary as the politico-military
commanders and missionary priests could attest.
12. It was not true that the revolution was inspired by his one
speech at the house of Doroteo Ongjunco, as alleged by witnesses
whom he would like to confront.
 THE DEATH OF A NATIONAL HERO
 The last days of Rizal were
spent in meeting visitors,
including Jesuit priests,
Josephine, and members of
his family, a Spanish
newspaper correspondent by
the name of Santiago Mataix,
and some friends.
December 29, 1896

 6:00 A.M. – Captain Rafael Dominguez read the

death sentence to Rizal to be shot at the back by a
firing squad at 7:00 at Bagumbayan, the next day.
 7:00 A.M. – Rizal was moved to the prison chapel,
where he spent his last moments.
 7:15 A.M. – Rector Sanderra left. Alone with his
former teacher, Rizal reminded him of the
statuette of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which he
had given him when he was an Ateneo student. It
was said that Father Vita was expecting such
reminiscence and got the statuette from his pocket
and gave it to him, which the latter happily placed
on his table.
 8:00 A.M. – Father Antonio Rosell arrived and replaced Father
Vita, at the time that Rizal was eating his breakfast. Upon
invitation, Father Rosell ate with him for breakfast
 9:00 A.M. – Father Federico Faura arrived, Rizal reminded him
of saying once that he would lose his head for writing the Noli
and jokingly told him that he was indeed a prophet.
 10:00 A.M. – Another of Rizal’s teacher, Father Jose Villaclara
(of Ateneo) and Father Vicente Balaguer, another Jesuit
missionary, whom Rizal befriended in Dapitan visited him.
 12:00 noon to 3:30 P.M. – He was alone
and probably spent it in writing his “My Last
Farewell”, which he hid inside his alcohol
cooking stove. The cooking stove was given
to him as a gift by Paz Pardo de Tavera, wife
of Juan Luna during his visit to Paris in
1890.
 3:30 P.M. – Father Balaguer returned to
Fort Santiago and talked about Rizal’s
retraction of the anti-Catholic ideas in his
anti-Catholic writings and beliefs and also
about his membership in the Masonry.
 4:00 P.M. – His mother arrived. It was such
a pitiful sight, with Rizal kneeling before her
and kissing her hand, and begging her
forgiveness.
 6:00 P.M. – Don Silvino Lopez Tunon, Dean of the Manila Cathedral,
with Father Villaclara, visited him. Earlier, Fathers Balaguer and March
were there but left prior to the arrival of Don Silvino.
 8:00 P.M. – After taking his supper, Rizal informed Captain Dominguez
that he forgave all his enemies including the military judges who
sentenced him to death.
 9:30 P.M. – The fiscal of the Royal Audiencia in Manila came to visit
him. His pleasant conversation with Rizal gave him a good impression of
the prisoner’s intelligence and noble character.
 10:00 P.M – Father Balaguer visited Rizal for him to sign a retraction
sent by Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda, who was perceived to be anti-
Filipino, which was however rejected on the ground that it was too long,
but it was said that he came back with a shorter one.
December 30, 1896

 3:00 A.M. – The Fateful Day. Rizal heard

mass, had confession and took Holy
Communion.
 5:30 A.M. – After taking his last
breakfast, he wrote two letters, the first
addressed to his family and the second to
his brother, who had suffered but
withstood torture and physical
punishment for him. There was always
that special kind of relationship between
them till the end.
 6:00 A.M. – He wrote another letter to his beloved parents,
asking for forgiveness for the sorrows that he had given
them, and thanking them for their sacrifices to give him a
good education.

 6:30 A.M. – Rizal was prepared for the

execution. A trumpet sounded in the
stillness of the morning to herald the
event of the day. With four soldiers as
advance guards, Rizal, accompanied by
Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade, his defense
counsel and two Jesuit priests, Fathers
March and Villaclara, followed by more
soldiers behind him.
 In the Bagumbayan field, now the Luneta, the group
stopped and he walked slowly to where he was told to
stand – on a grassy lawn between two lamp posts,
overseeing the shores of the beautiful Manila Bay.
 He took time to bid farewell to his companions, and firmly
shook their hands. One of the priests blessed him and
offered a crucifix for him to kiss, which he did.
 He then requested the commander of the firing squad to
shoot him facing the firing squad, which was refused, with
the commander telling him of the orders that he had to
follow.
 When the command “fire” was heard,
Rizal made a supreme effort to face
the firing squad, saying,
“Consumtum Est!” and his bullet-
riddled body instead turned to the
right with his face facing the
morning sun.

 It was exactly 7:03 A.M., December

30th, 1896 when Rizal died, a
martyr’s death, at the prime of his
life, 35 years of age, five months and
eleven days.