Rizals Contribution to the Reform Movement

Laying the Groundwork

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Two young Doctors of Law, Pedro Paterno and Gergorio Sanciano, both Chinese
Mestizos endowed with nationalist sentiments were in Spain during with lull years
following the tragedies of 1872.
These two intellectuals were soon joined by Graciano Lopez Jaena, Jose Rizal, Pedro de
Gavantes and Eduardo de Zete.
Dr. Pterno published his first literary work which has a collection of verses entitled
Sampaguitas (1880).
Dr. Gregorio Sanciano wrote on a more serious theme: economic reforms to improve
political administration this book El Progreso de Filipinas (1881)
Sanciano defended the Indios from Spanish writers whose literary exaggerations
portrayed indolence as a national and racial trait of the natives.
He cited the tobacco monopoly and analysed its brutalizing consequences.
The works of Paterno and Sancianco clearly summed up the ideas that were recur in the
political and intellectual activities.
UNIFYING FORCES DURING THE UNORGANIZED YEARS

No formal organization to coordinate and direct their activities characterized the early
stages of Propaganda movement in Spain.
The most sympathetic to the cause of the Filipinos during the early years was Los Dos
Mundos where Graciano Lopez Jaena and Pedro de Gavantes were staff members.
Circulo Hispano Filipino led by Juan Atayde, a Spaniard born in the Philippines. It
published a short-lived newspaper, the Revista del Circulo Hispano-Filipino. When Rizal
arrived in Madrid, he saw that the Circulo had become more of a social group and he
tried in vain to strengthen its purpose.
1884 The victory of Luna and Resurreccion Hidalgo over all their Spanish competitors at
the Exposicion de Ballas Artes in Madrid was an occasion to be proud of Lopez Jaena
with his usual eloquence referred to their awards as a vindication of the Filipinos who
had usually been considered incapable of achievement in the arts and sciences.
March 1887 Rizals Noli Me Tangere was published which added fuel to heated
arguments between the pro and anti-propagandists. Father Salvador Font lashed at the
book claiming that it evoked memories of Cavite and sought to overthrow the yoke of
oppression. Del Pilar wrote a defense of the Noli emphasizing that Father Font was not
qualified to criticize the book because the friar himself admitted that the book offended
him.

REVIVAL OF ACTIVITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES

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The local strategy in organizing the Propaganda work was performed by Marcelo H. del
Pilar.
His duplos and essays which satirized local conditions were widely circulated in the
Tagalog provinces.
Del Pilar secretly organized the comite (Junta) de Propagand. The small but active group
used Manila and Malolos as centers of their operation.
Del Pilar was suspected of being the mastermind of secret meetings held in various
towns: of being the author of rebellious and slanderous essays: of having popularized the
Noli Me Tangere and being against the church and government.

CONSOLIDATION OF PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES: THE FINAL PUSH FOR

REFORMS

Filipino Nationalists formally organized Rizal, the most scholarly of the group wielded
his pen as he researched among the Filipiniana collection of the British museum in
London. He wrote his principle essays for la Solidaridad, and published his annotation of
Antonio Horgas Sucesos de als Islas Filipinas and his novel El Filibusterismo when the
propaganda movement was at its weight. Thus, giving the movement more strength and
dignity. His annotation of Sucesos revealed the extent and painstaking researches he
made on the history of the Philippines.
This book became a good source of materials for the reformists in refuting prejudicial
comments. Such historical materials have inspired our countrymen and evoked pride in
our ancestry, antiquity and gentility of our culture.

PROBLEMS OF THE PROPAGANDISTS

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The propagandists financial difficulties forced Rizal to comment that the majority talked
the great deal but were reluctant to help finance the movement.
The sympathizers among moneyed group were indeed Dominador and Pablo Rianzares
Bautista who finance La Solidaridad.

RIZAL ATTEMPTS TO CARRY ON THE PROPAGANDA IN THE PHILIPPINES

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Rizal organized La Liga Filipina on July 3, 1892. His objectives according to its
constitution were: the unification of the whole archipelago into one compact, vigorous
and homogeneous body; mutual protection in every want and necessity; defense against
all violence and injustice encouragement of education, agriculture and commerce; and the
study and application of reforms.
The league was divided into three councils: Supreme, Provincial and Popular Council. Its
constitution defined the duties and rights of its members and officers.
However, La Liga was short-lived because of his exile La Liga Dapitan in 1892. Rizals
last desperate attempt to carry on Propaganda Movement in the Philippines had failed.
La Solidaridad folded up for lack of funds on Nov. 15, 1895. Lopez Jaena died of
fuberoulos two months later; Del Pilar died of the same disease, poor and hungry on 4
July 1896and Rizal was executed at the end of the same year.
RIZALS WRITING AND
The Resolute Propagandist

New Directions Towards Accomplishing His Mission.

Rizal proposed a book to the Filipino members of the Circulo Hispano-Filipino. The
books would deal on various aspects of Philippine life. A man of ideals obsessed with freedom
and liberty for the Filipino people, He felt compassion for the helpless victims of tyranny. Using
foremost talent he started writing one of his masterpieces, Noli Me Tangere His desire for more
mature contacts and his search for enlightenment to complete his book. He finish her first half
Noli in Madrid. He continued writing in Paris where the immortal declaration the rights of man
had been passed a century before. He finished his book in Germany were free from Church and
State control. Rizal planned to visit other European countries to study the peoples way of life
and adopt ideas and programs that would benefit his countrymen. He studied French and
mastered the language so well so that he could have translated Noli Me Tangere into French. He
studied Hebrew to enable him to interpret the bible in its original text and better prepared and
better prepared to defend any controversial religious issue that Noli Me Tangere. Rizal became a
member of the Geographical and Ethnological Society of Berlin, an organization composed of
scholars of different nationalities. For this requirement Rizal submitted Tagalische Verskunst
(The Tagalog Art of Versification) written in German. He also wrote an article , Ars Poetica
Tagala published in the Zeitchrift fur Ethnologie ( Journal for Ethnologie). He studied and
translated Blumentritts Ethnography of the Island of Mindanao and using Blumentritts map, he

corrected the 1852 map of Mindanao which he brought him to Europe. He researched in
Psychology while he was in Leipzig. He concentrated his studies on the comparison of race
characteristics as influenced by government, history and language.
Six-Month Sojourn in the Philippines.
He arrived in Maniala on 5 August 1887. He opened a medical clinic, successfully
operated on his mothers eyes and established a gymnasium. As the controversy in his Novel
Noli Rizal got involved in the Kalamba agrarian controversy. The bold expose Rizal and security
for the Rizal Family became a problem and Rizal was advised to leave the country. He secretly
departed on 3 February 1888.
Rizal Become An Active Propagandist.
Rizal showed that the past of the Philippines revealed that even before coming of the
Spaniards the Filipinos already had a developed culture. While he was annotating Sucesos he
was also writing El Filibusterismo. He wrote The Philippines within a Century and The
Indolence of the Filipino People to answer criticisms against Filipinos and their culture. At the
same time he admitted their faults as in his Letter to the Woman od Malolos, and emphasized
the imperative need to enlighten his people.
He finally completed the Fili manuscript in July 1891 while he was in Brussels. The Fili
finally came out in September of the same year. El Filibusterismo is a strong indictment of
Spanish colonialism and native supporters and defenders of the system. It portrayed a society on
the verge of a revolution. After the Fili was published his desire to go home grew much stronger.
He planned La Liga Filipina and a Filipino community in Borneo while still in Hongkong. He
negotiated with the representatives of the North Borneo Company for permission to establish
Filipino colony in Borneo. He was granted permission by the British Governor to found a
settlement on a 190,000-acre property in North Borneo. He drafted the plan, he presumed that the
Filipino settlement would be a free and independent entity entering into agreement. The
agreement guaranteed the Liberty of Filipino settlers, the security of the land, the right to retain
their citizenship and protection of their rights. Rizal envisioned a colony complete with cities,
towns, districts, schools, churches, and a government structures, determined by the peoples own
custom and laws. However, the plan was disapproved by Governor Eulogio Despujol because the
Philippines was short of manpower and he considered it improper and impractical.
Rizal Comes Home.
The compulsion to come home took the better of Rizal. He was taking a big risk so he wrote two
letters both dated 20 June 1892 addressed to his parents and to a close friend. And entrusted the
two letters to a close friend, Dr. Lorenzo Periera Marques of Macao. In his letter to his parents he
stated that he wanted to bring his work to a climax and implied that he was ready to die for duty
and conviction.
Together with her sister Lucia, He arrived in the Philippines on Sunday 26, 1892. The following
his friends took him to visit Malolos, San Fernando, Tarlac and Bacolor where his exhorted his
countrymen to join La Liga Filipinas. The favourable reaction to his efforts encouraged him to
organize the league on 3 July 1892.
Rizal Is Arrested and Deported to Dapitan.
On 6th July Rizal was summoned to Malacanang Palace. He was confronted with the charge of
having brought with him from Hongkong leaflets entitled Pobres Frailes (Poor Friars). In spite
of his protestations of innocences, he was arrested and brought to the Royal Fortress of Santiago
for detention. On 14 July he was notified and deported for having a written and smuggled into
the country leaflets. He was summarily accussed of dedicating his second novel, El

Filibusterismo, to the memory of three priests who had been proven traitors to the nation but
whom extolled as martyrs.
He was also accused of advocating separation from Spain as the only means of salvation for the
Philippines. Thus was Rizal accused, judged condemned without trial. After an eight-day
confinement in Fort Santiago he was surreptitious escorted under heavy guard to steamship Cebu
for deportation to Dapitan in Mindanao.
THE NATIONALIST IN EXILE
Practical Nationalism In Dapitan
While in Dapitan, Rizal demonstration how much a citizen could to help community. He arrived
on the night of 17th July 1892. Soon he was practicing his professional as a doctor, farmer,
teacher, businessman, community development, leader, engineer, and scientist. He also found
time to study the Malayan Language and several Philippine dialects. He continued his artistic
pursuits in sculpture, painting, sketching, and writing poetry. He rendered free medical services
to the poor. Many of his patients in Talisay and Dapitan were too poor to pay and times he
provided them with medicine and drugs. He constructed small houses which he called casitas de
salud where his patients and families stayed during treatment period. He applied some of his
modern educational ideas to group of 16 selected boys whom accommodated near his own.
Applying his knowledge as a land surveyor (perito agrimensor), he planned new street layouts
and constructed them through the cooperative labor of the people. With the limited knowledge of
engineering, he conceived the idea of providing the town with a water system which was
completed in 1895 through the help of his pupils and the townspeople. He likewise set about
providing the town with a lighting system which consisted of coconut oil lamps placed in dark
streets. He invented a wooden machine for making bricks. He also introduced a hemp stripping
machine improve the abaca industry thus increasing the output of the abaca planters. He
promoted the establishment of a Dapitan farmers cooperative association. These work
experiences in Dapitan enhanced Rizals concept of practical nationalism.
Rizals Reaction to the Katipunan
On the eve of 21 June 1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela visited Rizal in Dapitan to inform about the
founding of the Katipunan on 7th July 1892 which aimed at the separation of the Philippines from
Spain by means of revolution. Rizal considered the revolutions just and patriotic but when
Valenzuela informed him that the revolution might break out prematurely even without sufficient
arms, Rizal vigorously objected, stating that this would be veritable suicide.
End of Rizals Exile.
Inspite of the liberties extended to him by the Spanish government within the confines of
Dapitan. Rizal was not content because he was not a free man. Twice he wrote Governor General
Ramon Blanco: the first letter in 1894 sought his pardon, and the second in 1895 asked for his
release and a review of his case.
His Last Trip Home
On September 3, 1896, Rizal left for Barcelona on the board the Isla de Panay. As the ship was
nearing to Malta Island, the captain of the ship notified him that he was under arrest and was to
confine in the cabin. He had heard the rumors on board that the ship he was being blamed for the
outbreak of the revolution in the Philippines. The ship docked at Barcelona harbour on the early
afternoon of October 6, 1896, he was brought to the ss Colon bound for Manila which was
carrying soldiers to fight the Filipino Revolutionists.
On November 3, 1896 the ss Colon reached Manila and Rizal was brought directly to Fort
Santiago under heavy guard.

THE TRIALS AND EXECUTION

On the early morning of 29th December 1896, Rizal was formally notified of the courts verdict:
DEATH. He was to be shot at the sunrise for the next day. The verdict had been reached an
unprecedented one day trial held the day after Christmas by a military court composed of six
officers and precided over by Colonel Jose Tagores Arjona. Rizal was condemned for founding
illegal associations and of promoting and inducing rebellion, the first being the necessary means
to the second. Rizal was defended by Lieutenant Luis Taviel de Andrade, brother of his body
gurad in Kalamba in 1887-1888.
Preliminary Investigation
Proofs of Rizal guilts has been gathered by Captain Francisco de Olive and the preliminary
investigation was conducted by special judge, Colonel Rafael Dominguez.
He was questioned on several items, among them his participation in various political activities,
his association with certain people and his knowledge of certain circumstances.
The investigators had to trump up evidence from Rizals correspondence. La Liga Filipina which
the Spaniards alleged to be the cause of revolution, from his poems To Talisay and Kundiman
and from the speeches of Katipuneros that ended with: Long Live the Philippines! Long Live
Liberty! Long Live Rizal!
They questioned him on his membership in Masonic lodges, on his appointment as a honorary
president of the Katipunan, on the use of his picture to adorn the secret session room from the
Katipuneros, and on the testimonies of apprehended Katipuneros.
Desperate for more proofs of Rizal guilt, Captain Olive had Paciano tortured unconsciousness.
THE TRIAL
The inconclusive as the evidences were, Judge Dominguez recommended a speedy trial which
the Governor and judge advocate General Nicolas de la Pena approved. At the trial, Alcober
attempted to show that Rizals writings were described to incite anti-friar and anti-Spanish
feelings; that he planned to work through the Masonic lodges so the friars might be expelled
from the Hongkong.
Alcober exposed Rizal as the soul of the rebellion
He asked that the prisoner be absolutely and permanently deprived of civil rights and subjected
to police surveillance for life and compelled to pay an indemnity of P 20,000
For the defense- referring to works, Taviel de Andrade argued that the prosecutors impression on
Rizals writings was a misconception and that Rizal only asked for the nights of his people.
Neither lie be condemned for organizing the Liga because it aim was to unite the people for the
promotion of commerce, industry and agriculture and arts.
Alcocer arose and delivered a long speech summarizing the charges against Rizal and urged to
give the verdict of death to the accused. The Spanish spectators applauded noisily Alcocers
petition for the sentence of death.
The military court prejudiced as it was, remained indifferent to Rizals Pleading. The president,
Lt. Col. Togores Arjona, considered the trial over and ordered the hall cleared. After the short
deliberation, the military court unanimously voted for the sentence of death.
Polavieja Signs Rizals Execution. On December 28th Polavieja approved the decision and
orderd Rizal to be shot at 7:00 oclock in the morning December 30, at Bagumbayan Field
(Luneta).

For the signing the fatal document ordering the execution of Rizal, Governor General Polavieja
won an internal Odium of the Filipino People. He and other Spanish officials who were
responsible for the death of Riza; will evermore remain as obnoxious villain in Philippine
history.

Rizal and the development of national consciousness

A textbook for the course on Rizal life, works and writings
By MA CORONA S ROMEO
JULIETA R STA ROMAN
LOURDES Y SANTOS