UNIVERSITY OF SAN AGUSTIN

Social Science 7

Module 5. Rizal’s Concepts on Nation Building

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, the student is expected to :

1. Find out if Rizal’s blueprint for nation-building in terms of political, educational and socio-
economic reform is relevant today;

2. Assess recent programs of the government that is similar on what was advocated by
Rizal for nation building.

Below is a schedule for Module 6:

Description Time to Complete
Activity Section

1 1 Overview and readings 30 minutes

2 Watch a video 10 minutes

Metacognitive Assignment (Storyboard)

3 60 minutes

4 Virtual Game: Create a Nation 20 minutes

Total 120 minutes

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 Overview

Jose Rizal’s nation building thrust lies on reforming the political landscape and strengthening unity
and sovereignty. He advocated of peaceful reforms of the nation through education and
awakening the national consciousness of the people. His unrelentless love for the motherland is
conceptualized in his love for justice, freedom and human dignity. Among other heroes in the
Philippines he was the most successful in awakening the minds of the Filipinos against several
forms of slavery, political and human injustices and oppressions. He desired for political, social
and education and economic reforms.

Romero and Sta Romana in their book entitled “Rizal and the Development of National
Consciousness” comprehensively discussed Rizal’s Blueprint for Nation Building.

Rizal’s Blueprint for Nation Building

Source : Rizal’s Concepts on Nation Building

Romero, Ma. Corona et al.(1977). Rizal and the Development of National Consciousness
Quezon City : JMC Press

Despite political inhibitions, Rizal aimed at the restoration of his people’s dignity and the
recognition of their natural rights. 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 the vices of the Spaniards and the Filipinos
alike, helpless with her oppressed unhappy people. The country inspired in him not only sympathy
but an enduring love. He began to understand now that the prolonged subjugation of his people
was caused primarily by two factors, namely, the absence of national consciousness and the poor
training and education of the people. Gradually, his own lifetime plan emerged into a reality of
direction and dedicated leadership.

He not only showed his people how to live nationalism; he also conceived an idealism of
dedication and intrepidity for the betterment of Philippine society. Hence, his blueprint for nation
building includes the importance of education, of 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.

Rizal looked upon education as a pre-requisite to the realization of a people’s freedom. It is

through education that a people obtains 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.

The long period of colonial domination and the constant humiliation 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 of the people’s sense
of pride in themselves as a nation. Rizal wanted to inculcate into his people an understanding of
history from which, he believed, sprang the roots of genuine nationalism. Without these roots,
nationalism would degenerate into the flippant, flag-waving category, which he criticized in Noli
Me Tangere and El Filibusterism.

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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.

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.

The paramount problem during Rizal’s time was the development of a national consciousness,
that is, the creation of the spirit of nationhood in the minds of the people. It was important that the
people realize the sordid facts of their existence, the causes of their oppression, and the sacrifices
they must endure to be freed from colonial domination. Rizal felt the need for a psychological
approach to rouse the people’s pride of their ancient heritage. This was necessary to restore the
native dignity which had been denied them by three centuries of systematic humiliation and
degradation. Once stirred from their inertia of servility and apathy, they should organize
themselves and direct their efforts and action toward building a nation. Rizal envisioned a nation
of individuals who would make responsible and independent judgment and who would think in
terms of the welfare of the whole community. Hence, a national community would be created
where the fruits of Filipino labor would benefit the people and not a foreign master.

Rizal’s Program of Action. His program of action consisted of a plan to organize a group of Filipino
students in Madrid. They would form the nucleus of a group that in the future would use their
varied talents to work for solutions to the Philippine problems. He 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. He thought that a similar
presentation of conditions in the Philippines would arouse his countrymen to strive for a better
way of life and coerce Spain to initiate reforms in the country. The book was to be project of the
Circulo Hispano-Filipino with each member contributing a chapter. When details were discussed
at a meeting, most of the members wanted to write about the Filipino women and were scarcely
interested in the other topics of the proposed book. Disgusted, Rizal decided to carry on the work
by himself. This book was to be entitled Noli Me Tangere.

As a man obsessed with freedom and liberty for his people, Rizal felt compassion for the helpless
victims of tyranny at home. He scorned those Filipinos in Madrid who could help their less
fortunate countrymen but refused to lift a finger. But Rizal did not lose hope. He felt that the
predisposition of the Filipinos to individualistic pursuits would, in due time, be channeled to
positive action conditioned to the idea of nationhood and independence.

The Noli was finally published in March, 1887. It elicited varied reactions from Spaniards and
Filipinos and, together with its sequel, El Filibusterismo, which he wrote during his second trip to
Europe, made Rizal a doomed man.

The regrettable turn of events which compelled him to leave the Philippines again in 1888 made
Rizal determined to pursue his next plan of action. 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 because of its objective presentation of life in the Philippines at the time of the arrival of
the Spaniards. He patiently compiled notes and made annotations on certain points which he
believed needed clarification. Excerpts from his dedicatory remarks read: “It is necessary to first

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lay bare the past in order to better judge the present and to survey the road trodden during three
centuries.” Only in knowing the historical past could they hope to rectify the prejudicial defects of
the Filipino race. With this knowledge, said Rizal, “we can proceed to study the future.”

Rizal must have speculated that once the Filipinos were convinced that their ancestors led a free,
happy, and prosperous life because of their industry and perseverance, they would realize that
the much criticized indolence of the Filipinos was not hereditary but was mainly caused by foreign
domination. Somebody had to explain what these factors were and once these obstacles to self-
improvement were removed, the Filipinos would be inspired to work, study, and improve
themselves. Thus he wrote “The indolence of the Filipinos,” which came out as a series of 5
articles in La Solidaridad from 15 July to 15 September 1899.

Back in the Philippines, the friars were beginning to feel the effects of the Propaganda Movement.
Anti-friar sentiment was prevalent; social and political discontent existed. On 1 March 1888, a
public demonstration against the friars was held in Manila. The demonstrators presented a petition
asking for the expulsion of the friars and the secularization of parishes. But the petitioners were
either imprisoned or exiled. Another case showing Filipinos asserting their rights was the petition
signed by the tenants of the Dominican estate in Kalamba asking for either a written contract
between the farmers and the landowners or an outright sale of the lands to them at reasonable
prices. The tenants were sued by the Dominican estate, and they lost their case in both the lower
court and the Royal Audiencia.

As the news and stories of the oppression in the Philippines spread, Rizal hastened to reassure
his fellow reformist in a letter dated 18 April 1889, that such persecution would serve to stir more
discontent among the people and make them more determined to ask for reforms. Rizal knew
that the Filipinos’ fight for the rights had commenced. He had aroused the Filipino intelligentsia
into action and there was no turning back. He concluded his letter with these words: “The fight
has begun; who wavers shall fall. Let us now show the world and our enemies that we are not
afraid of the friars’ threats.”

Having aroused the people to action, Rizal feared the possibility of their resorting to arms as a
desperate means to fight openly. With this apprehension in mind, Rizal wrote El Filibustirismo to
show his countrymen the price they should be willing to pay and the problems they would have to
solve first before plunging the country into a revolution. Among the questions he proposed for
them to consider before girding for battle were: Were there enough dedicated and highly trained
leaders among them? Were the soldiers trained, disciplined, and well-armed? Could the collective
strength of the country insure a good chance of victory? Were the people united and educated
enough to assume their respective roles during the war? How effective were their means of
communication?

The revolution in El Filibustirismo failed because its leaders failed to consider these problems.
Thus did Rizal warn his countrymen to consider seriously its decision to revolt against Spain if no
reforms were granted. This was the reason why he objected to the plan of the Katipunan to rise
in arms in 1886.

Since Rizal opposed a revolution during that particular stage of the country’s development, he
thought of showing the people how to organize themselves into a compact homogenous body in
the Philippines. Rizal’s major plan of organization was the establishment of La Liga Filipina
(Philippine League).

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Had the Liga been given a chance to survive, its membership would have increased until all
provinces and towns were involved in the whole project. It could have disciplined its members
and trained them to work towards a common social goal, thereby achieving a national sentiment
of solidarity. Had these projects been accomplished with the help of the Spanish government, the
Philippines and Spain would have parted in a more genial and friendly atmosphere. For Spain
would have eventually recognized the independence of the Philippines as other colonizers had
done in the 20th century. Then the course of Philippine history would have been different. But fate
decreed otherwise for Rizal and his ountry.

When Rizal 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 for nation building. The establishment of a school and a clinic therein, the
community development projects he undertook, and the numerous activities he engaged in were
tasks Rizal performed to enhance the development of his country.

Rizal’s Program of Reforms

The nationalism he taught his people did not end with the attainment of independence. He looked
beyond independence to the progressive development of a new nation in politics, economics,
technology, and education. His writings conveyed concepts that are applicable for all time
especially to the present in all major areas of national development. His program of political, socio-
economic, and educational reforms, and his moral teachings and principles convey the essence
of a national awareness. His profound ideas and teachings have become the model and
inspiration for Philippine national leaders.

Rizal’s Political Reforms. Rizal waged a relentless campaign to ameliorate the lot of his people
through his political writings and ideas. His political views sought to seek a self-reliant self-
respecting government and “a people’s government, made for the people, by the people and
answerable to the people.” Rizal was a pragmatist in politics for he had practical approaches for
the solution of domestic as well as international problems.

In his essay, “The Philippines Within a Century,” Rizal warned the Spanish government that
unless she provided a solution for their accumulated complaints, the Filipino people would one
day revolt against Spain. Spain could not deprive the people of material progress that they
deserve. Therefore, the mother country should adopt measures to meet the changed conditions.
Thus, Rizal foresaw nationhood as the ultimate destiny of the Philippines.

To prevent this costly and undesirable explosion Rizal advocated the adoption of certain basic
reforms by the government. “Reforms,” he said, “to be effective must come from above. Those
which come from below will be irregular and unstable.” He believed that f carried out as planned,
such reforms “will render the Philippines the happiest country in the world.”

Foremost among the political reforms that Rizal advocated were the restoration of Filipino
representation to the Spanish Cortes and the freedom of the press. Rizal believed that if Spain
sincerely wished to govern justly, it would seek accurate information about her colonies. The
Philippines was so far away from Spain and restoring the colony’s representation to the Cortes
would promptly supply the Spanish government with accurate information regarding the
complaints and needs of the Filipino people. And with the press to report and comment on the
acts of the Spanish officials, concrete reforms could be easily adopted, the abuses of the
administration would be to exposed and curtailed, and there would be better liaison between the

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Philippines and Spain. “A government that rules a country from a great distance has the most
need for a free press more so even that the government of the home country, if it wishes, to rule
rightly,” he commented. Sharing the responsibility of correcting the administrative abuses through
legislation, the Spanish Cortes would eliminate one source of Filipino grievances. Besides, Rizal
thought, restoring Filipino representation to the Cortes would silence malcontents and thereby
improve the conditions in the country.

Rizal refuted as unfounded and based on racial prejudice the objections raised against allowing
Filipino participation in the government. To allay the fears of the conservative elements that the
Filipinos would advocate independence once allowed representation to the Cortes, Rizal argued
that the Philippines had been represented in that body during the most unstable period of the 19th
century when Spain’s Latin American colonies declared their independence; yet, the Filipino had
remained loyal to the mother country. The Philippines wanted representation in the Cortes so that
her problems could be discussed in parliamentary debates and the necessary reforms granted to
the Philippines.

Rizal felt that the Filipino should not be denied representation in the Cortes because of his inferior
education. Inadequacy of his educational preparation was not his fault; yet, he was willing to learn
and to serve his country. Rizal insisted that if he was intelligent enough to pay his taxes, he should
be allowed to elect a representative who can watch over his interests.

By proposing the general reorganization of the administrative machinery, Rizal included the
secularization of parishes, the improvements in the judicial procedure and the improvement of the
quality and efficiency of the government personnel. Although he had not expressly advocated a
bill of rights, we can say that Rizal’s demand for freedom of expression also included the
protection of the other basic freedoms. He called them “innate human rights.” He could not have
meant anything else when he condemned the searching of homes without court order and the
imprisonment of the Filipinos without trial, or when he spoke of his people being deprived of liberty
and freedom. The writings of Rizal proclaim the significance of equal rights and dignity; the right
of individuals to life, liberty, and the security of the person; equality of individuals before the law;
and freedom. As he said: “All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. All of us were born free,
unshackled, and nobody has the right to subjugate the will and spirit of another.” He also stated:
“Deprive a man of his dignity and you not only deprive him of his moral strength but you also make
him useless.” In another instance, Rizal declared that “the right to life is inherent in every
individual like the right to liberty and to light.”

For further curtailment of abuses in the government, Rizal asked that Filipinos be allowed the
same opportunity to hold government positions equal to the Spaniards. Greater participation of
the Filipinos in the task of good government could serve as an incentive for both groups. So that
only qualified officials would be employed, Rizal advocated the adoption of a competitive
examination and the publication of its results “so that there may be stimulus and that discontent
may not be bred. Then, if the native does not shake off his indolence, he cannot complain when
he sees all the offices filed by Spaniards.” With the proper checks and balances, abuses of all
forms would be minimized, if not totally removed, and “justice will cease to be a colonial irony.”

A recurring major obstacle to the effective implementation of reforms was the interfering friars.
Rizal believed, as did the other Filipino reform leaders, that influential, selfish, but very
conservative friars, unless deprived of their powers, could obstruct any reform as they had done
so in the past. He, therefore, demanded the removal of the friars from the administration of
provinces, towns, and parishes. He claimed that the friars should be politically immobilized for
they were an “evil influence” in government and politics. They should be confined only to their

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religious duties where they rightfully belong. In the assignment of priests to administer parishes,
the Filipino and the Spanish clerics must b given equal chances, Rizal opined.

A party of the political reform Rizal advocated was religious liberty. This, he believed, would
complete the necessary principal reforms for the country. Rizal expressed this belief, according
to Governor Carnicero, in the latter’s report to Despujol. Rizal considered religion as something
that “should never make men enemies but brothers.”

Rizal desired healthy conditions and equal opportunities for the freedom and fulfilment of the
Filipinos. Ashe put it in his words: “Peoples and governments are correlated and complementary:
a fatuous government would be an anomaly among righteous people just as a corrupt people
cannot exist under just rulers and laws.”

Rizal’s Educational Reforms. Rizal gave top priority to the importance of education in the
pursuance of liberty. To him, independence was a farce if the people were not ready for self-
government. He advocated education as a necessary condition in a free society. He explicitly
expressed such an idea in El Filibustirismo when he stated: “With Spain of without Spain they
would always be the same and perhaps worse! Why independence, if the slaves of today will be
the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to
tyranny loves it.” Rizal believed in the effectivity of education as a solution to the political,
economic, and social problems of the country. Thus, education is the wellspring of national good
for it would result in a capacity for improvement an dignity. “Without education and liberty,” he
said, “- that soil and the sun of mankind – no reform is possible, no measure can give the desired
result.”

Rizal advocated mass education for his people in his writings. In his conversation with Governor
Carnicero at Dapitan, Rizal expressed his desire for the promotion of primary instruction and the
establishment of schools of arts and crafts in capitals of provinces which had a population at least
16,000. The latter kind of school would contribute to the instruction of the people in self-
sufficiency. In a letter to his sister Lucia, Rizal commented that the education of the people did
not necessarily mean that everyone should be a professional. “We cannot be all doctors,” he said:
“it is necessary that some of us cultivate the soil. We must follow everyone’s own personal
inclination.” He also wished that farmers and laborers have ample instruction for technical and
vocational efficiency. As he put it in the Fili: “Laborers . . . are what we need . . . After all, even if
the only wish is to make the country one solely of farmers and laborers, I don’t see any evil in
enlightening those same farmers and laborers, in giving them an education that will enable them
to understand many things of which they are now ignorant.”

Mass education is therefore a “must” in a free society. Rizal emphatically expressed this idea in
the Noli when he said that “the school is the basis of society, the school is the book in which is
written the future of the national! Show us the schools of people and we shall show you what the
people are.”

However, mass education would not be possible if the friars were not divested of their political
powers and their control over the education system. They hindered the education of the people,
for intolerant priests who adhered to the medieval system of education hampered the
development of independent thought and the teaching of scientific advancement. He revealed
this idea in conversation with Governor Carnicero at Dapitan. Free from clerical interference, a
well-balanced curriculum could be gradually adopted. The Filipino teachers in the primary schools
would be able to conduct their classes without fear or the friars’ rebuke and ridicule. With more

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substantial salaries, the schools could attract qualified and dedicated men and women who would
morally, physically, and intellectually qualified to inspire learning among pupils.

Despite the Educational Reform Decree of 1863 which offered an enriched curriculum, many of
the defects of the old system persisted to the end of the Spanish regime. The effect of three
centuries of neglect and subjugation was too heavy to overcome in a generation. In 1889, a school
of agriculture was established and the following year a school of arts and trades was set up. By
1893 three similar schools were established. Realizing the importance of this type of school Rizal
asked for one school in every provincial capital with a population of 16,000. These schools would
not only train students for gainful occupation, but also provide them with necessary skills and
knowledge to develop the natural resources of the country.

Rizal’s literary works and private correspondence abound with remarkable ideas on education.
He believed that education was a lighthouse that guided men to enjoy freedom and prosperity.
To raise the level of education in his country, Rizal constantly advised his countrymen and the
members of his family to acquire more knowledge. Hence, in a letter to one of his sisters written
when he was in Europe in 1886, he stated: “It is to be regretted that there in our country, the main
ornament of woman almost always consists in dresses and luxury but not in education.” He
counseled his sister to be like European women who were “serious, studious, and industrious.”

Rizal was gravely concerned with elucidating his ideas on education. In a letter to Blumentritt, he
nurtured the plan of establishing a college in the Philippines when conditions improved. He
likewise planned to set up a modern school in Hong Kong. In the constitution of the Liga which
he prepared, Rizal emphasized the association’s principal aim: the “development of instruction.”
Had he been given a chance to work out his plans, he would have established a modern school,
a school with an atmosphere conducive to learning and advancement.

The curriculum of the college he planned to establish in Hong Kong would have given emphasis
to the study of science and technology. The European educational system taught him that science
was the key to industrial progress. In addition to science, academic and cultural subjects, the
curriculum would offer subjects on health and physical education to develop the students’ physical
fitness, courses that would develop their artistic talents and aesthetic sense, courses on etiquette
to refine their manners and social behavior, and vocational subjects to prepare the students for
gainful occupation.

To complement this well-balanced curriculum, he prepared a schedule of the students’ daily

activities to train them to be useful and effective. The schedule specified time for study, recreation,
class work, and leisure. He even specified the type of recreation the students should participate
in at certain hours of the day.

Aware of the defective methods of instruction prevailing at the time, Rizal opted for a school that
would respect academic freedom and develop the potentials of the students. The school would
promote the dignity of the individual and no corporal punishment would be inflicted. A teacher
would inspire learning by encouraging a wholesome class competition.

Rizal knew that mass education was possible only with substantial financial support from the
government that would finance the construction, maintenance, and administration of the schools.
In the Noli he referred to the school as the basis of society. He compared it to a book in which is
written the future on nations. The school as envisioned by Rizal would indeed be a source of pride
for the Filipinos.

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Rizal stressed that education would liberate the Filipinos from ignorance and prepare them for
reforms and freedom they had been aspiring for. In a manifesto he wrote while confined in Fort
Santiago, he emphasized the value of education. “I place as a prior condition the education of the
people, that by means of instruction and industry, they may have a personality of their own and
make themselves worthy of these liberties.”

Rizal reiterated his insistence on education as an important ingredient in the task of nation
building. As he put it in the words of Padre Florentino in the Fili, liberty must be secured “by
making ourselves worthy of it, by exalting the intelligence and the dignity of the individual, by
loving justice, right, and greatness, even to the extent of dying for them.” (Fili, p 360)

And through Ibarra’s words in the Noli, Rizal further opined:

I desire the country’s welfare; therefore I would build a schoolhouse. I seek it by

means of instruction, progressive advancement, without light there is no road. (Noli, p 392)

Socio-Economic Reforms. Rizal believed that enlightenment through education was not enough
to improve the country’s plight. There was an imperative need to implement socio-economic
reforms. He considered the socio-economic aspects in campaigning for political reforms for he
must have believed that such reforms would be meaningless if the people remained in poverty.
Rizal envisioned the Philippines as an independent nation economically developed and self-
sufficient.

Nineteenth-century Philippines was experiencing the kindling of an economic awakening and

material prosperity. However, prosperity was confined to a small group of Filipinos. The effects of
more than two centuries of intellectual and trade isolation for the Philippines and the many
frustrating government policies were clearly discernible in the socio-economic life of the people.

Since Philippines was basically an agricultural country, Rizal stressed that its economic
development would depend largely on the concentration on agricultural improvement.
Indispensable to the to the development of agriculture was the improvement of trade and industry.
And economic development, he felt, would be affected by the education of the people, as well as
by the moral, material, and administrative support of the government.

In analyzing the socio-economic problems of the country, Rizal considered the three basic factors
of production - land, labor and capital. Land will remain idle without labor, but land and labor must
be aided by capital to insure profitable production. And labor and capital should be given their
rightful share in the profits of production.

Rizal averred that land is a primary factor of production. He wrote of the value of land in his letter
to his mother written when he was in Dapitan: “I have bought a piece of a land adjacent to a river,
which has a close similarity to Kalamba River . . . My land is planted to 6,000 abaca trees.”

Labor is necessary for the effective exploitation of the rich natural resources of the country. In his
letter to Manuel L. Hidalgo, his brother-in-law, he expressed the idea that the resources of the
land would be enhanced by the use of skilled labor. Rizal himself used labor in abaca production
and fishing projects in Dapitan.

Rizal knew that capital was necessary for the successful operation of any business venture; that
there can be no more production without capital goods. He revealed this idea in his letter to his
brother-in-law in January 1893. He said: “Please do me also the favor of informing my father or

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Antonino . . . that if my money has not been spent, I would like them to send me 500 dollars . .
.because I am intending to go into business here in Dapitan.”

Thus, Rizal placed emphasis on the development of agriculture. Knowing that Mindanao was a
land of promise, Rizal attempted to establish a colony in a place called Ponot along the coast of
Dapitan. Likewise, he also tried to establish a Filipino colony in Borneo. Failing in such attempts,
Rizal went on to include the encouragement of agriculture as one of the important objectives of
the Liga.

Rizal believed that given encouragement and sufficient incentives, the Filipinos would work
efficiently. In “The Indolence of the Filipinos” he wrote: “Man works for an object; remove that
object and you reduce him to inaction.” Again, in another part of the same essay, he continued:
“Every being in creation has his spur, his mainspring, his self-respect; take it away from him and
he becomes a corpse.”

Rizal proposed several incentives to develop the economy of the country such as educating the
people to become skilled farmers; securing foreign and domestic peace and providing protection
of person, work, and homes; encouraging reasonable taxes and dues; minimizing red tape in the
government and enacting just laws; dignifying labor and giving laborers their rightful share in the
fruits of production; encouraging the use of local materials and the use of machineries; and
providing mutual protection for Filipino farmers and traders.

Training the farmers to become skilled workers would erase their primitive and superstitious ways
of farming. In the Fili he showed this idea by stating that farmers should be given knowledge that
would help them improve themselves. He also foresaw in the same book a bright future for the
farmers when he said that “agriculture will develop under the mantle of liberty with wise and just
laws.” He bewailed the establishment of the encomienda system and the acquisition of the large
estates by the friars, leaving the less fertile regions to the indios. These twin agricultural evils of
the Spanish regime started the tenancy system in the Philippines. The oppressive effects were
exemplified by the Kalamba agrarian trouble and the story of Cabesang Tales. Agrarian problems
and revolts constantly plagued the Spanish government and retarded the development of
agriculture. Properly educated, a farmer would know and fight for his rights and would promote
his trade independent of the friar’s and landlord’s control and interference.

In “The Indolence of the Filipinos,” Rizal stressed that one cause of the backwardness of the
country was the rampant red tape and bribery that existed. He blamed the government’s economic
paternalistic policy. The colonial policy of deliberate curtailment of trade and intercourse, the
aphetic attitude of the government towards matters pertaining to commerce and agriculture, the
lack of encouragement for the farmers and the manufacturers, the imposition of all sorts of taxes
and high tariff dues on Philippine goods entering Spanish markets, are factors that multiplied the
problems and discouraged the few enterprising Filipino farmers and traders. The monopoly that
the administration officials exercised on important business opportunities caused further
discontent. Without government aid and protection, creative business enterprises were reduced
to a minimum.

Hence, Rizal believed that laws must passed to insure free trade and healthy competition; to
promote agriculture, trade, and industry; and to protect the economic interests of the farmer, the
manufacturer, and the trader. He also believed that the government should extend credit facilities
to the farmers and manufacturers.

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Rizal remarked: “How strange it is that the Philippines should remain poor despite its fertile soil.”
Attempting to solve this enigma, he compared the Philippines with other countries, thus:

The most commercial and industrial countries have been freest. France, England, and the United
States prove this. Hong Kong, which is not worth the most insignificant island of the Philippines,
has more commercial activity than all our islands put together because it is free and well governed.

The much abused and liberally utilized “force labor” had debased the indio. For months and even
years, he was forced to work in the forests, cutting timber, and in shipyards, building galleons. He
was made to work in public works projects such as the building of churches, roads, and bridges.
This forced labor destroyed his initiative and distorted his attitudes towards manual work. He had
to work for a nominal fee, if there was any at all, without provision for food.

One of the solutions that Rizal proposed was to re-orient the attitude of the Filipinos towards the
value of work and the dignity of labor. He made efforts at impressing upon his students in Dapitan
the importance of the dignity of manual work. This was manifested in teaching them industrial
subjects and practical agriculture. He taught them how to earn their living from their skill and labor
and how to make wise use of their leisure time. His Hymn to Labor also contains passages
relevant to his thoughts on the dignity of labor.

For the Motherland in war,

For the Motherland in peace,
Will the Filipino keep watch,
He will live until life will cease!

Go! To the field to till the land,

Hail! Hail! Praise to labour,
Of the country wealth and vigor!

Only man who struggles and works

Will his offspring know to maintain.

Teach us ye the laborious work

To pursue your footsteps we wish.

Rizal’s concern and high regard for labor inspire to write the poem “Hymn to Labor,” as well as
essays in which he advocated shorter working hours for the working man, good living conditions,
and equitable share in the profits in the form of wages. Labor, he said, must be respected and
given its due, and a laborer must be humanely treated. He also wrote: “Man is not a brute, he is
not a machine, his object is not mainly to produce. Man’s object is to seek happiness for himself
. . . by traveling along the road of progress and perfection.”

Rizal has been referred to as the first exponent of economic nationalism. In a statement prepared
for his trial, he defined his economic objectives for his country thus:

I like first unity, the establishment of factories, industries, banks, and the like. For this reason, I
have given moral and material support to those who studied crafts and industries in Europe. I
myself have spent much time studying ceramics, leather tanning, manufacture of cement, and
others. My dream was my country’s prosperity.

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 Faithful to this dream, Rizal had prepared the Constitution of La Liga Filipina to include as its
purposes: union, encouragement of commerce, industry, etc., because I understood and I
understand that a people cannot have liberties without having first material prosperity, that to have
liberties without having food to eat is to listen to speeches and to fast.

He urged each Liga member to give preferential treatment to all members of the association,
patronize the stores of its members, and help fellow members in case of danger and trouble.

In his novel El Filibuterismo, Rizal foresaw the blessings of industrialism in the country, the
lethargic region one day stirring with activity as iron rails crisscrossed the nation, as the ports
became international docks, as people dignified labor, and as wise and just laws encouraged free
development of commerce, industry, agriculture, and science. Rizal tried to do something
about the realization of these socio-economic reforms. While in Dapitan he was a merchant, a
farmer, a fisherman, and a brick manufacturer. Such preoccupations were no less important than
his work in medicine or in education or in other nationalistic endeavors. He became a merchant
because he desired to help the people of Dapitan. In a letter to his sister Trinidad, written in August
1894, he expressed this sentiment by saying: “To while the time away, to help the people a little,
I have become a merchant. I buy abaca and ship it to Manila. I have been lucky this month: I
made ₱200 in one deal.”

Rizal engaged in agriculture by acquiring 18 hectares of land which planted to cacao, coffee,
coconut, lanzones, and mangoes. In Daanlungsod, Lubungan town, he acquired 92 hectares
where he planted abaca and corn. He entered into a partnership with a Spaniard to provide
Dapitan with fish. Rizal felt that fishing methods in Dapitan were old-fashioned. Hence, he
suggested to his brother-in-law Hidalgo to buy a pukutan (a big net for trawl fishing) and to recruit
fisherman in Kalamba to be sent to Dapitan in order to teach the people better methods of fishing.

Rizal lamented the fact that foreigners controlled most of the business in Dapitan. He expressed
this sentiment with specific reference to the Chinese in a letter to Hidalgo in January 1893. To
alleviate the situation, Rizal suggested that more Filipinos join him in Dapitan and try to get
business out of foreign control, for he realized that individual businessmen could not compete
with alien businessmen. To set example Rizal engaged in a partnership with Ramon Carreon, a
Dapitan businessman, and invested ₱1,000 in the abaca and copra buy and sell business. In
another letter to Hidalgo, Rizal asked his sister Saturnina to invest her money in Dapitan in order
to augment the abaca enterprise.

Simultaneous with such activities, Rizal also manufactured bricks by inventing a machine capable
of producing 6,000 bricks a day. He also established a cooperative in Dapitan by organizing the
hemp planters into an association whose members cooperated with each other by eliminating
unfair business practices so as to stabilize the price of hemp. He believed that stabilizing the price
of a main source of livelihood would provide trade incentives for the businessmen.

Moral Principles and Teachings. Rizal was not a writer of moral treatises; neither was he a moral
philosopher, but he had the creative ability to guide society and the people in matters of right
conduct. To him morality was the “application of reason and conscience to specific problems of
behavior.” It was rooted in religion.

References to morality and behavior are constantly expressed in his writings and
correspondence. In his expose of the moral evils in 19th century Philippine Society, he repeatedly
condemned fraud and deceit, the disregard for and abuse of the dignity of the human personality,
and mercenary ploy. The virtues he admired were love, forgiveness, integrity, honesty, courage,

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generosity, purity, justice, honor, purpose, truthfulness, faithfulness to one’s word, compassion,
self-control, temperance, and tolerance.

The virtues of sincerity, honesty, purity, and love were urged to the women of Malolos. He said
that these qualities should be developed in their children for he believed that the home, more than
any other external factor, exerts a strong influence in the minds of children and that the mother is
the main guiding force who leads the children to the path of moral and ethical principles. Hence,
Rizal advised the Filipino mother to open their children’s eyes so that “they may jealously guard
their honor, love their fellowmen and their native land, and do their duty” and that it is “better to
die with honor than to live in dishonor.” A moral man, Rizal believed, is one who possesses these
virtues. He lives a good life and performs good deeds. He is capable of doing good because God
fashioned him to His image and endowed him with the gift of reason and intelligence.

No man has the right to subjugate his will to another, for one’s dignity and value must be respected
and remain independent. But man must live up to that respect by constructively dealing with the
problems of life for he is accountable to God. Rizal said in the Fili: “Millions and millions will have
to answer who do not know how to preserve the light of their intelligence and their dignity of mind.”
Rizal particularly attacked hypocrisy and all kinds of evil behavior performed behind the cloak of
respectability. Filipino indifference to and tolerance of Spanish abuses exasperated him.

As a reformer, Rizal was not only concerned with the individual but with society as well. In his
works he laid special emphasis on the mutual interplay of the individual and society represented
by the government and the officials. He upbraided the government for its vices and contradictions
and for its failure to encourage responsibility. He challenged his countrymen to show greater
interest in the cause of freedom. And he did not conceal his disappointment over his people’s
failure to assume the responsibility of improving their social and political standards.

He advocated a non-violent revolution to foster change through cooperation. He was against any
form of violence for he believed that “evils are not remedied by another evil.” It would only bring
another evil. As he said in the Fili: “Hate never produces anything but monsters and crime
criminals. Love alone can save.” The arguments against violence in the various writings of Rizal
may be summarized as follows:

Violence destroys human beings who individually are of infinite worth; it tends by its very nature
to produce additional evils; and it is essentially Godless for it is on the one hand a denial of the
methods which God approves and on the other a kind of practical atheism since it rejects the view
that there is a moral order which involves the ultimate triumph of right. Revolution, at best, is only
a final act of desperation.

Rizal taught morality to his people by the example of his own experience. Never idle, he amazed
his friends with his many accomplishments while he was in Europe. His secret was hard work and
strict adherence to a scheduled routine that he would prepare as he commenced his work. He
deplored gambling and drinking, and he was strict, frugal, punctual, thoughtful, and kindhearted.

He was a firm believer in God and he dedicated his life to a noble purpose - service to the
motherland. He subordinated all personal interests to those of his country fighting for and
upholding the dignity of the individual with an expertise he wielded so well – his pen. His
philosophy influenced the people and the Spanish government to work peacefully, and for this he
was condemned.

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Next to God, and country, he loved and honored his parents and his family. He also respected
womanhood. Women, to him, played an important role in shaping the destiny of the nation.
Lamenting the timidity, passivity, and prejudice of the women of his times, he advised them to
develop love for learning, independent convictions, strength of character, industry, courage, and
patriotism. He lived as he wanted every Filipino to live – using reason and conscience in upholding
the ideals of Filipinos.

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