Gec 9

Jose Rizal –
National Symbol
Rizal’s Concept of Nation Building
● Dr. Jose P. Rizal cautioned his countrymen about the responsibility that comes with liberty.
● He put special emphasis on the importance of education as a tool to acquire national
identity of a people who deserve freedom to govern themselves.
● Rizal's dream of a modern education system did not materialized, however, as bloody
revolution broke out and the Filipinos effectively kicked out the Spanish colonizers.
 The poor training and
01 education of the people
2 factors considered by
Rizal
Absence of National
02 Consciousness

04
Rizal's political conviction and concept of nationalism
matured between 1882 and 1887. From a distance he
gained a better perspective of his country's problems.
He saw his country abused, maligned by vices of the
Spaniards and the Filipinos alike, helpless with their
oppressed unhappy people. The country inspired in
him not inky sympathy but an enduring love.
Rizal’s Blueprint in Nation
Building
01
his blueprint for nation building includes the
importance of education, instilling racial pride
and dignity among the people, the promotion of
national consciousness, the re-orientation of
values and attitudes, and the willingness to
sacrifice for the country.
02
Rizal looked upon education as a prerequisite to the
realization of a people's freedom. It is through
education that people obtain knowledge of themselves
as individuals and as members of a nation. He insisted
on educating his people so that they may successfully
eradicate the vices of their society. He wanted them to
develop a national awareness of their rights and pride
in their country's heritage and culture.
03
The long period of colonial domination and the constant
humiliations and discrimination experienced by the Filipino
people from their colonial masters produced a feeling of
inferiority and a lack of racial pride and dignity. This attitude
must give way to a restoration or the people's sense of pride in
them as a nation. Rizal wanted to inculcate into his people an
understanding of history, from which, he believed sprang the
roots of genuine nationalism.
04
He wanted his people to dedicate their thoughts,
words and actions not solely to themselves as
individuals but to themselves as citizens of a
nation. National consciousness is a key to the
attainment of a better society. The people must
reorient their values and attitudes in order to
contribute to the task of nation building.
05
Rizal emphasized that the task of nation building
is accompanied by hardships and sufferings
which the people must inevitably experience to
bolster their courage. The sacrifices experienced
by a people strengthen their bonds of unity and
their sense of independence.
06
Rizal envisioned a nation of individuals who
would make responsible and independent
judgment and who would think in terms the
welfare of the whole community. Hence, a
national community would be created where the
fruits of Filipino labour would benefit the people
and not a foreign master.
Rizal’s Program of Actions
His program of action consisted of a plan to:
● Organize a group of Filipino students in Madrid and to form the nucleus group that in
the future would use their varied talents to work for solutions to the Philippine
problems.
● Proposed to them the writing of a book similar to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle
Tom's Cabin and Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew which would deal with the
various aspects of Filipino life. The book would be the project of the Circulo
Hispano-Filipino with each member contributing a chapter. (This book was entitled
Noli me Tangere, 1887)
● From the records in the vast Filipiniana collection of the British Museum, Rizal had
pieced together the past history of the Philippines which revealed that even before the
coming of the Spaniards; the Filipinos already had a developed culture. And of these
records, he chose to annotate Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. (Excerpt from his
dedicatory remarks "It is necessary to first lay bare the past in order to better judge
the present and to survey the road trodden during three centuries.")
His program of action consisted of a plan to:
● He wrote "The Indolence of the Filipinos" which came out as a series of articles in La
Solidaridad from 15 July to 15 September, 1899.
● Feared the possibility of the Filipinos resort to arms as a desperate means to fight, he
wrote El Filibusterismo to show his countrymen the price they should be willing to
pay and the problems they would have solve first before plunging the country to
revolution. He warned his countrymen to consider seriously its decision to revolt
against Spain if no reforms were granted.
● He thought of showing the people how to organize themselves into a compact
homogeneous body in the Philippines. Rizal's major plan of organization was the
establishment of La Liga Filipina (Philippine League).
● When he was deported to Dapitan he had already accomplished a major part of a self-
imposed mission of redeeming the Filipinos from medieval colonialism. His exile
demonstrated the hero's untiring efforts at continuing the program of action that he
relentlessly pursued for the realization of his blueprint of nation building.
Establishment of a school and a clinic therein, the community development projects
he undertook.
Rizal’s Program of Reforms
Or three columns?

01 02 03
He looked beyond His writings conveyed His profound ideas and
independence to the concepts that are teachings have
progressive development applicable for all time become the model
of a new nation in politics, especially to the present in and inspiration for
economics, technology and all major areas of political, Philippine national
education. socio-economic and leaders.
educational reforms and
his moral teachings and
principles convey the
essence of national
awareness.
Political and Economic
Reforms
"Rizal's Socio, Political and Economic
Thought: Thought of Change" is
about his main political. His literature
would be lead to the independence of
the Philippines from Spanish colonial
rule. His whole works would
determine his political thought yet
there is still complexity whether he
supports reforms or revolution. His
political thought between reform and
revolution will also determine his
thought regarding the society and
economy.
According to Jose Rizal governments are established for the welfare of
the people..."- similar to Lincolnian democracy he wanted to inflict the
following of Rights,

Magna Carta Freedom of the

protecting the life, press, of association,
liberty and property of religion and
of Filipinos. equality before the
law and

Restoration of Freedom assimilation

Filipino of the Philippines.
representation in
the Spanish Cortes.
Educational Reforms
● Rizal insisted that education is necessary condition to a free society. Mass education for
all the people opted for a school that would respect academic freedom and develop the
potentials of student’s education. Education should liberate Filipinos from ignorance
because education is as important ingredient in the task of nation building.
● Rizal always considered education as a medicine or something that could cure the
problems of colonial Philippines. He believed in education that is free from political
and religious control. He asserted that reform cannot be achieved if there is no suitable
education, a liberal one available to Filipinos.
● In 1893, Rizal’s idea of education as an instrument of change has not diminished a bit.
In one of his letters to Alfredo Hidalgo, a nephew, Rizal stated: Life is very serious
thing and only those with intelligence and heart go through it worthily.
● He left the UST to pursue his studies at the Madrid Central University was in
conformity with the ideas of Fr. Jose Burgos, one of the three martyred priests of 1872.
Fr. Burgos strongly advocated that Filipinos should study abroad because overseas
education was considered an essential step to achieving reform. And this thinking he
shared with his only brother, Paciano Rizal.
● He wrote in 1890 which described the education of the masses under the Spanish
regime. Rizal said the education of the Filipinos from birth until the grave is
brutalizing, depressing, and anti-human.
● It is through this scenario that we could better understand why Rizal was clamoring for
a different education, a new idea of teaching the Filipino youth. Rizal believed that
even modest education, no matter how rudimentary it might be, if it is the right
education for the people, the result would be enough to awaken their ideas of perfection
and progress and eventually, change would follow.
● This is the situation how education was acquired during that period. Rizal’s idea of
education was therefore the most enlightened. His concept of education was felt as
early as when he was only 16 years old.
Final Exam na!
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