Rizal’s Last Work

And
Rizal’s Exile, Trial and
Execution
LESSON 10-11
Trial; process
Preliminary investigation: November 20, 1896
Rizal’s counsel: Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade
Arraignment: December 11, 1896 For rebellion,
illegal association
Actual trial: December 26, 1896
 Rizal’s Last Hour and the Retraction controversy

When did Rizal know of his sentence and death?

❑ December 26, 1896 - the military court tried Jose Rizal; found guilty of
rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy.
❑ Reason: according to Spanish authorities, Rizal’s writings “fatally and
necessarily” incited the rebellion
❑ 6 a.m. - Capt. Rafael Dominguez read before Rizal his death sentence
Where did Rizal spend his last hours?
Around 7 a.m., Rizal was transferred to his death cell in Fort Santiago.

Who visited Rizal at his death cell? Rizal’s visitors:

❑ His counsel
❑ Spanish officials
❑ Priests
❑ Former professors
What else did Rizal do during the last hours?

❑ Read the bible

❑ Read thomas à kempis’s Imitation of Christ
❑ Wrote the poem we know now as “Mi Ultimo Adiós”
❑ Wrote letters to Paciano Rizal, his friend Ferdinand
Blumentritt
 When was Rizal executed?
❑ On December 30, 1896, around 7 a.m. at Luneta, Manila, Rizal was executed by firing
squad

What was the content of his letter to his brother Paciano?

❑ He asked his brother to ask their father for forgiveness for all the pain he had caused him

What was the content of his letter to his friend Blumentritt?

❑ “When you receive this letter, I shall be dead by then…. Tomorrow at seven, I shall be shot;
but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion…. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.”
 What is a retraction?
❑ It is an act of a person to renounce his own statements thereby reversing what has been established as
fact with the said statement.
❑ In the case of Rizal, the Archbishop of Manila at the time of his death said “ “During that day, although
Rizal did not reject [the Jesuits], he persisted in his errors contrary to the Catholic faith.… However, at
the last hour, Rizal abjured, in writing, his religious errors.” In other words, Rizal, a Mason, was said to
have recanted his statements against the Church and to have returned to the Catholic faith.”
❑ In this case, if it was true that Rizal retracted, then it would have been the same as saying that Rizal did
not really believe in all that he has said in any way including his writings about the Catholic Church in
the Philippines, and that he would have been convinced that his statements against the church were
wrong.
❑ However, the truthfulness of the retraction was not resolved.
Rizal, a
National
Her0
LESSON
12
 Who is a hero or “bayani”?

He/she is a person who is admired for great or

brave acts or fine qualities or a person who is
greatly admired (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
The Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee
adopted the following criteria on June 3, 1993 and November 15,
1995:
1. Heroes are those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the
nation’s freedom.
2. Heroes are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a
nation.
3. Heroes are those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation.
4. A hero is part of the people’s expression.
5. A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generation.
6. The choice of a 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.
The committee also recommended as national heroes:

❑ Jose Rizal
❑ Andres Bonifacio
❑ Emilio Aguinaldo
❑ Apolinario Mabini
❑ Marcelo H. del Pilar
❑ Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat
❑ Juan Luna
❑ Melchora Aquino
❑ Gabriela Silang
Jose Rizal, and
the American
Made hero
Controversy
LESSON 13
 An American-Sponsored Hero
❑ We have magnified Rizal’s role to such an extent that we have lost our sense of
proportion and relegated to a subordinate position our other great men and the
historic events in which they took part.
❑ There is no question that Rizal had the qualities of greatness. History cannot deny
his patriotism. He was a martyr to oppression, obscurantism and bigotry. His
dramatic death captured the imagination of our people.
❑ It was Governor William Howard Taft who in 1901 suggested that the Philippine
Commission that the Filipinos be given a national hero.
Acts of the Philippine Commission:

❑ Act No. 137

Which organized the politico-military district of Morong and
named it the province of Rizal “in honor of the most illustrious
Filipino and the most illustrious Tagalog the islands had ever
known
❑ Act No.243
Which authorized a public subscription for the erection of a
monument in honor of Rizal at the Luneta

❑ Act No. 346

[p.128] which set aside the anniversary of his death as a day of
observance
❑ Rizal never advocated independence, nor did he advocate
armed resistance to the government
❑ The public image that the Americans desired for a Filipino national hero was
quite clear. They favored a hero who would not run against the grain of
American colonial policy.
❑ Several factors contributed to Rizal’s acceptability to the Americans as the
official hero of the Filipinos. In the first place, he was safely dead by the time
the American began their aggression.
❑ It must also be remembered that the Filipino members of the Philippine
Commission were conservative illustrados. The Americans regarded Rizal as
belonging to this class. This was, therefore, one more point in his favor.
Jose Rizal,
an Asian
Nationalist
LESSON 14
 NATIONALISM DEMOCRACY
❑
❑ Comes from the Greek word
Defined as describing two phenomena:
the attitude that the members of a nation
possess about their nation’s identity and demos, which means people. It is a
the actions that the members of a nation government in which all the power
take to achieve and attain is shared the democracy by citizens.
self-determination. Democracy is sometimes known as
❑ Is the idea of oneness by a group of representative government. Under
people who possess common traditions, this form of government., the
shared history, a set of goals and belief in people have the right to sit in a
a specific future. There is a strong chamber that determines their
identification with the values, the heroes,
and the traits of a country.
future.
IMPERIALISM

❑ is the policy of extending a nation control and

authority beyond its territorial boundaries
through the acquisition of new territories.
Rizal’s Concept of Filipino Nationalism (J. Rizal the
Man and The Hero, 2014 pp. 242-243)
❑ Nationalism as a concept was still vague from its humble beginnings in 1872,
particularly for the poor people in the Philippines. Jose Rizal and other
reformers at the time had but a scant idea of what it is all about.
❑ Rizal’s concept of nationalism is parallel with that of Hans Kohn, who is
nationalism is first and foremost a state of mind an act of consciousness
❑ Rizal showed national sentiment throughout his career even as a youth through
his poem “A la Juventud Filipina”