Life and Works of Rizal

What is a Hero?

• Someone who is admired for his or her achievements and noble qualities and regarded as an ideal or model

• Central figure in an event, period or movement, honored for outstanding qualities

• Someone who showed great courage and benevolence

What makes an individual good or evil?

• Things that could foster evil to an individual includes:

  • Dehumanization

  • Diffusion of responsibility

  • Obedience to authority

  • Unjust system

  • Group pressure

  • Moral disengagement

  • Anonymity

• Factors or reasons that possibly foster someone as good or heroic:

  • More compassionate or empathetic

  • Perhaps a hero gene

  • Level of oxytocin → Paul Zack

    • An american neuroeconomist

    • “Love hormone” in the brain ↑ the likelihood of someone demonstrating altruism

Philip Zimbardo

• Explored the nature and roots of heroism

• Defined heroism: “an activity with several parts”

  • Performed in service to others in need

  • Engaged in voluntarily

    • Act going beyond what is asked

  • Heroic act is one performed with recognition of the possible risks — actor is willing to accept sacrifices

  • Act without external gain

Other Research on Heroism:

• The very same situation that inflame the hostile imagination in some people – making them villains, can also instill the heroic imagination in other people – prompting them to perform heroic deeds

  • E.g. Holocaust

    • Christians who helped the Jews were the same with,

    • Civilians who helped imprisoned or kill Jews, or ignored their suffering

“There is no clear line between good and evil. Instead, the line is permeable; people can cross back and forth between it”

M.C Escher

“The world is filled with angels and devils, goodness and badness, and these dark and light aspects of human nature are our basic yin and yang.”

“We are all born with the capacity to be anything.”

NOTE:

• We are all born with tremendous capacity to be anything, and we get shaped by our circumstances, which are accidents of birth:

  • family

  • culture

  • time period

• Whether we grow up in a war zone vs peace; or if we grow up in poverty rather than prosperity.

• Each of us possess the capacity to:

  • Do terrible things, or have

  • An inner hero

    • Once stirred, it is capable of performing tremendous goodness for others

• Between the two extremes of good and evil, in the bell curve of humanity are the masses or the general population who does nothing

  • Refuse to call to action

  • Implicitly support the perpetrators of evil

Who will set the criteria for the recognition of the national hero?

• NO law, executive order, or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figures as a national hero

• Due to significant roles in the process of nation building and historical contribution – there were laws enacted honoring them

• BUT, according to historians, heroes SHOULD NOT BE LEGISLATED

  • Appreciation to the them should be better left to academics

  • Acclamation for heroes would be recognition enough

• Issued by Pres. Fidel V. Ramos – March 28, 1993

• create a National Heroes Committee under the Office of the President

Principal duty:

• To study, evaluate and recommend Filipino national personages / heroes in due recognition of their sterling character and remarkable achievements for the country.

Criteria:

Heroes are those who:

1. have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom.

2. define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a nation.

3. contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation.

NHC Technical Committee

• November 15, 1995

• adopted the criteria submitted by Dr. Alfredo Lagmay

As follows:

1. A hero is part of the people's expression, but that process of a people's internalization of a hero's life and works takes time, with the youth forming part of that internalization

2. A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generations.

3. The choice of hero involves not only the recounting of an episode or events in history, but of the entire process that made this particular person a hero.

• On the same year the committee selected the following figures to be recommended as heroes:

  • Jose Rizal

  • Andres Bonifacio

  • Emilio Aguinaldo

  • Apolinario Mabini

  • Melchora Aquino

  • Marcelo H. del Pilar

  • Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat

  • Juna Luna

  • Gabriela Silang

• Republic Act No. 1425 or The Rizal Law

• was passed in 1956

• It is the mandatory teaching of Jose Rizal’s life with the emphasis on his landmark novels

  • all educational institutions in the Philippines to include in their curricula courses on the LIFE, WORKS, AND WRITINGS of Jose Rizal

• The law was proposed by Sen. Claro M. Recto – in 1995

• On April 17, 1956, then Senate Committee on Education Chair Jose P. Laurel sponsored the bill.

• The Law was heavily debated in its time

• The Rizal Law was passed in June 1956

Context:

“Whereas, today, more than other period of our history, there is a need for a rededication to the ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died.”

• This document was written in the year 1956 during Magsasyay’s regime

• the country was still recovering from the Japanese occupation and still very dependent on US governance

• Ideals of freedom and nationalism were very essential during those times – and was still gradually developing its national identity and integrity

• It reignites the lost patriotism and nationalism

Patriotic Objectives:

1. To recognize the relevance of Rizal’s ideals, thoughts, teachings, and life values to present conditions in the community and the country and apply them in the solution of day-to-day situations and problems of contemporary life;

2. To develop an understanding and appreciation of the qualities, behavior, and character of Rizal as well as his thoughts and ideas, and thus foster the development of moral character, personal discipline, citizenship and vocational efficiency;

3. To comply with the patriotic objectives of the Rizal Law given by the late Senator Jose P. Laurel.

From Rizal Bill to Rizal Law

• On April 3, 1956, Senate Bill No. 438 was filed by the Senate Committee on Education.

• On April 17, 1956, Senate Committee on Education Chair – Jose P. Laurel sponsored the bill and began delivering speeches for the proposed legislation.

• The bill became controversial – the Catholic Church began to express opposition against the bill. A major point:

  • whether the compulsory reading of the texts: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, appropriated in the bill was constitutional

  • the call to read the unexpurgated version was also challenged

• on May 9, 1956, Senator Jose P. Laurel proposed amendments to the bill to move its progress

Why Did the Catholic ChurchOppose the Rizal Law?

• almost 70 years after the publication of Noli Me Tangere, the Church still viewed Rizal’s novels as blasphemous

• Catholic Church of 120 years ago used the same influence in preventing the novels to be read by Filipinos

• Manila Archbishop Rufino Santos penned an impassioned pastoral letter protesting the bill

  • read on all masses

  • Manila Mayor Arsenio – allegedly walked out of the mass

• those who opposed the Rizal Bill painted Recto as communist and anti-Catholic

• According to Abinales and Amoroso (2005)

  • Church feared the bill would violate freedom of conscience and religion

Pre-Colonial Philippines

• innumerable institutions that predate the coming of Islam, Christianity and colonialism, most interesting includes:

  • Traditional socio-political organization

  • Leadership and Governance

  • Landholding practices

  • Conflict and Conflict Resolution

  • Value System

  • Religion

• 8th-15th centuries the Philippine Islands

  • part of a great Hindu-Malayan empire ruled from Java and Sumatra

• Negritos, proto-Malay, and Malay peoples were the principal peoples

  • Negritos are believed to have migrated by land bridges

  • some 30,000 years ago, during the last glacial period

• Filipino ancestors, despite idiosyncrasies, had developed an essentially homogenous culture

  • Onofre Corpus:

“...our ancestors evolved an essentially homogenous culture…Nature was a primary factor. Overall, community life through the archipelago was influenced by, and responded to the common ecology. The geographically benign tropical climate and the largely uniform flora and fauna favored similarities, not differences.”

Recap to Philippine History

• Prior to the time of European contact

  • Most major islands had rich political landscape, consisting of polities or

    • Chiefdoms of different economic scale and hierarchical complexity

  • Barangay was the social unit

    • Name was based on the Malay term Balangay – a boat

Spanish Colonization in the Philippines

• Leyes de las Indias

  • First code of colonial laws

  • Compiled by ecclesiastical authorities – medicated or clerical orders of the Catholic Church

• Gold, God, and Glory”

  • The motive generating the overseas exploration, expansion, and conquest

  • Allowed various European countries to structure “geopolitics” and to rise the world superpower

• Encomienda System

  • Introduced in 1570

  • Legaspi distributed lands in Cebu to loyal Spanish subjects

  • Encomiendero are the men who received the favor of land

• Repartimiento de Labor

  • Allowed for forceful labor

• Policies were implemented to keep the Filipinos in political subjection – also to exploit the country’s natural resources, manifested in:

  • Taxation system

  • Force labor

  • Galleon trade

  • Government monopolies

  • Agricultural and Trade policies

19th Century Spanish Philippines Taxation

• Required the conquered people to render tribute

  • recognition of Spanish sovereignty

• From 1571 - 1884

  • Filipinos paid tribute to Spain

  • Amounting 8 reales or 1 peso

    • Payable in cash or in kind

• 1589

  • Tribute was increase → 10 reales

  • Turned 12 reales in 1851

• 1884

  • Reform decreeing to abolish the tribute

  • Government instituted the personal cedula tax

    • Graduated poll-tax based upon the income of the taxpayer

• Bandala

  • The government required each province to meet quota of commodities assigned to it

Eliodoro Robles in The Philippines in the Nineteenth Century summarized these problems in the Following:

1. The lack of technical and qualified personnel;

2. The inability of many communities and provinces isolated by geographical features to raise their own fund;

3. The unbridled use of power on the part of local officials, resulting in rampant abuse and miscarriage of justice;

4. The rise of brigandage and social restlessness rendering local police ineffective;

5. The inadequacy of public improvements and general services;

6. The rationality of balancing ecclesiastical power…and of secularizing public instruction (including the teaching of Spanish) to make it more functional rather than dogmatic;

7. The need for more economy in administration;

8. The necessity of extending effective authority and control over “frontier: areas…; and

9. The need for promoting agriculture industry

Conditions in Spain

• 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and deposed King Fernando VII

• Absolutism returned Spain changed into a different forms of government

  • Military

  • Constitutional

  • Liberal

  • Republic (1868 - 1873)

The Reformation

• Protestant Reformation on 16th Century

  • Religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval – Catholic Europe

• Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Henry VIII

  • Challenged papal authority

  • Questioned the Catholic Church's ability to define Christian practice

  • Argued for a political and religious redistribution of power

    • Into the hands of Bible and pamphlet reading Pastors and Princes

Secularization of Parishes

• In 1770 a royal decree was issued

  • Effect the transfer of parishes from Spanish regulars who belong to the religious orders to the seculars who belong to the different dioceses

    • Some parishes were transferred to Filipino priests

    • Friars refused to hand-in majority of the parishes

  • Adjunct to the issue

    • Friars are negligent of their duties

    • Friars are occupied with amassing wealth and lands

• In 1826, Filipino seculars demanded for secularization of the parishes

  • They have been asking for more than ½ century

  • Some people would sympathize to the priests woes

Philippines within the Orbit of World Trade

• In 1834 the Philippines was opened to WT

  • Caused a great impact to Filipinos

  • It brought economic relief to poor colonials

  • Exposed Filipinos for the first time to various developments

• The opening led to the rise of the Middle Class

  • Native entrepreneurs composed it, later form the principalia

  • Principalia families sent their children to colleges and universities

    • Exposed Filipino students to political thoughts:

      • Locke and Rousseau

      • Ideals of French Revolution (1787-1799; climax: 1789):

        • Liberty

        • Equality

        • Fraternity

• Opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1896

  • Further contributed to the accessibility of Europe to Filipinos

• Governor-General Félix Berenguer de Marquina

  • recommended that the King of Spain open Manila to world commerce

• Bankruptcy of the Real Compaña de Filipinas (Royal Company of the Philippines)

  • catapulted the Spanish king to open Manila to world trade

• In a royal decree issued on September 6, 1834

  • the privileges of the company were revoked and the port of Manila was opened to trade

Economic Development

• End of the galleon trade

• Opening of the Suez Canal

• Opening of the Philippine port to the WT

• Rise of export crop economy

Social Transformation

• Education reforms

• Rise of the Middle Class

Political Reforms

• Liberalism

• Bourbon Reforms

• Cadiz Constitution

CARLOS MARIA de la TORRE

• Carlos María de la Torre y Navacerrada

• a soldier and politician

  • Carlist army Officer

• served as Governor-General of the Philippines from 1869 to 1871

• most beloved of the Spanish Governors-General ever assigned in the Philippines

• sent by Francisco Serrano

  • After the ouster of Queen isabel II

    • Result of La Gloriosa Revolution

• considered a liberal Spaniard

  • practiced the liberal and democratic principles for imposing liberal laws