June 26, 2020

Today is our first meeting in the subject, The Life and Works of Rizal. We first get to
know each other and our professor, Ma’am Christinie Intac. She also shares a brief background
of her life and included here are the subjects she handled involving this subject. After that, the
discussion about the subject was started with the introduction about the subject. We were
taught about the life of Rizal as a child and to where he was born and grow. Legends said that
Rizal was able to read at the young age of three, which made me realize how smart he truly is.
It was also the help of her mother, Teodora Realonda, that molded him to become a wise
person. In fact, she was the first teacher of Rizal.

The first day of learning through the life of Rizal was quite fun and interesting. Also,
knowing that he is the National Hero of our country, it really drives my curiosity on how he
started in scratches to become what he was known at this day. I have high hopes that I’ll learn a
lot and will also soon apply these learnings in my life as I grow.

June 29, 2020

This day is our second meeting in this subject. Today sums up the continuation of the life
of Rizal and also introducing some of his works that were popular in these times. It started with
how Rizal showed his interests in writing literary works and poem by writing some of it. In his
mother’s birthday, he wrote a poem entitled “Mother’s Birthday” which shows how he truly loves
her mother. Next to that, we knew how religious Rizal is. He also shows interests in reading
Spanish bibles and other religious texts. The parable, “Parable of the Moth” made a huge
impact on his life and in this story dwells on how he improved his life through realizations and
learnings.

Halfway through the discussion is the introduction of Rizal’s education. He started

schooling at the age of 9 at a boys’ school in Biñan, Laguna. His first formal teacher in this
school was Dr. Justiniano Aquino Cruz. We are also taught about his good records when he
started studying on Ateneo de Manila and University of Santo Tomas. Lastly is the life of him
when he started to go abroad for studying ophthalmology. He met several professionals in this
branch and learned a lot from them through practices. In this time also, he met a friend in Spain
which was the key why his famous work ”Noli me Tangere” was published.

In this second day of knowing Rizal’s Life, I realized that he overcame many challenges
as he grow to be independent. But the outcome of him bravely accomplishing all of these is the
knowledge and power he had in his works which is his weapon against the oppressors. There
are several learnings in this subjects and I’m truly craving for more.

July 1, 2020

For today, we’ve had our first activity by group in this subject. It focused on how
essential it is to study the life and works of Rizal and to know how this country proclaimed him
as the National Hero. On answering the activity, it mentioned to state the best sacrifice we have
done for your family. Knowing Rizal, he had faced several challenges and dilemmas way back
since he was a kid and these moments brought him to be awakened to the factuality of life. This
made a realization to him that life is full of struggle and winning is not option but a choice. As a
student, myself, I also face struggles in studying and this is normal. Like having pressure on
deadlines due to the lack of time management that later can be dealt with by having a concrete
schedule that prioritize the ones that are needed to be finished first. The activity also highlighted
the importance of his works and the impacts of them to the society we live in. It was stated that
we must choose one poem of Rizal and explain what values or learning we’ve got from that
work. We had come to choose the poem, “Sa Aking mga Kabata” which is his first work at the
young age of 7. It interprets his fascination and love to our native language and also informing
the youth of the significance of using our mother tongue. This poem taught us the importance of
using “Filipino”, our mother tongue, as it is giving us a sense of our identity. Enriching and
nurturing of it would be must to show our sense of pride as Filipinos. Here also lies the famous
line, “Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda” that engraved
on the nation’s minds until these times. Dr. Rizal taught us that we must love and be proud of
our race as we, the youth, are this nation’s hope.

Upon answering the activity, I came to a realization that Rizal truly contributed a lot for
the sake of the country. With the publishing of his work, we did not know how much he went
through just to publish one. And with all of the works he have done, it truly showed how sincere
his love and how patriot he is to his land.

July 3, 2020

On this day, we focused on studying the life of Rizal after his publication of his famous
work, Noli me Tangere. The discussion was started with Rizal’s journey to gather information
and experiences for his future works. He went to several countries like Hongkong, Japan, Spain
and United Kingdom and his experiences in these countries contributed a lot in the making. He
met several people that helped him and inspired him. La Solidaridad, the organization that
propagates the relationship between Spain and Philippines, was also mentioned in the
discussion which gave Rizal the dedication to share his ideals and works to the group. The
effects of Rizal’s work ‘Noli me Tangere’ being published, brought tremor within the country that
resulted in several threats and torture acts specifically all of those with connections to Rizal. His
family was mainly the target of these acts that gave the verdict of them being in prison. Many
deaths are also been heard to those who act against Spaniards. With these situations, Rizal
sought for help to the queen of London to help his family away from these dilemma.

At this point of Rizal’s life, I can say that it is really saddening since his one and only sole
purpose is to help the country to be freed with the help of his writings and to share his ideals for
the nation. But, these thing have arrived that made the Filipinos suffer. In this day of class
discussion, I gathered several realizations and learning that me seek for more in the next
meeting.

July 6, 2020

For this day, we have continued our discussion for the life of Rizal and talked about his
last times. It is started when Rizal went back to the country with his family which had led to an
uproar. Several people awaited on the dock and including here are the officials and majors.
They’ve searched on Rizal’s files and subversive files was found which includes the attacks on
Dominicans. In these times of crisis, an organization was founded by Rizal which named “La
Liga Filipina” with its objective to unite and protect the countrymen. However, Rizal was charged
with several accusations and included here is the secret betrayal of him founding this
organization. He was also accused of rebellious propagandas that came from his works. After
all of these accusations, he was then sent to Dapitan and lived there for four years. He found his
life there to be quite decent and he also made such contributions to the people living there by
building a school and agricultural property. He also met Josephine Bracken there which turned
to be his lover.

Several days have passed and the date of execution has come. But before this, he
expressed his last words and forgiveness to his family. His mother also sent her compassion
and love to his son through letter. At the day of execution, the crowd is quiet and the hero, Jose
Rizal showed his last moment by facing the trial bravely. This moment is quite a sad and
memorable one that brought by the Filipino nation up to these times.

July 8, 2020

This day highlights another activity inclined to the subject. We were tasked to do a
simple yet creative video presentation about Rizal being in London. This made us to brainstorm
about what kind of video we will opt to do and how to distribute the parts. Then the time went
through and I was selected to have the role of Rizal. At first, I don’t have a clue on how I will
perform this job and how will this come out as to be decent. Moreover, we have researched for
several information regarding Rizal’s stay in London and how his life had changed by doing so.

Rizal’s stay in London made him to study a lot and also know several people that gave
inspiration to his writings. He also stayed to improve his knowledge of the English language and
to carry on his fight against the Spanish tyranny safely. He came to the objective of awakening
the consciousness of the Filipinos of their glorious and dignified ways of the past and to prove
that his countrymen were civilized, even before the coming of the Spaniards.

As he departed from London, Rizal could not help but reminisce the beautiful and
memorable experiences he had as he crossed the English Channel on his way to the gay city of
Paris. Goodbye London, for his stay gave him spirit to carry on as the instrument of his
countrymen’s hero.

July 10, 2020

Today marks another day of discussion about life of Rizal and lies the video presentation
we have done about Rizal’s moments of exploring through several countries for the making of
his works. We have seen among our classmates’ works the ideal life Rizal has been through
that molded his intellect and knowledge through that specific field. He met several people and
some of them became his friends. This doing of him made him realize that there’s knowledge
everywhere even among the simplest thing that one’s eye can catch upon. The presentation
highlighted several moments and experiences of Rizal being on London, Spain and even about
Rizal as an educator. This simple activity made us taught that Rizal really did make several
things whether it could harm him to free our country. He really loves our homeland that showed
on all of the works he had made. He is truly an example of a hero, and calling him the national
hero of the Philippines fits. I am been meaning to indulge myself more to his knowledge and
continuing to focus and learn through the discussion would help so. I am looking forward for
more of your morals, Pepe.

July 13, 2020

For today’s discussion, we’ve focused on the events that took place after the execution
of Rizal. It also introduced Rizal’s backgrounds and his successes as we all know as today’s
National Hero of the Philippines. We also had our activity regarding on making a poem that
show the situation of leaving this world by also sending off a poem to thy loved ones. The
aftermath of Rizal’s death brought anger and pain to all his countrymen especially to his loved
ones. His death was graved into all of the Filipino’s heart and minds that really signified how he
was loved by his people. His works and campaigns brought abridge to several accomplishments
that made the country flourish and renown for freedom. Moreover, his background about being
an educator made a significant role for the nation. Education, as Rizal have said, is the most
powerful weapon one could acquire and his showing how significant it is condemned through his
works. He also highlighted on how he promote woman empowerment and their roles in the
society. Rizal is a nationalist. With his literatures, he expresses how deep his love to our country
is. He is one of the most prestigious nationalist that this country had.

His death is one of the most unforgettable memory of the Philippine history. Imagining all
of the endeavours he had shown, he risked his life for the thought being of saving the country
from slavery and unjust. Rizal will be the ultimate hero of the Philippines and without him is just
unthinkable.

July 15, 2020

For today’s diary I will highlight a work of Rizal that made its impact on the Philippine
nation. “The Philippines hence” is a written essay by Dr. Jose Rizal that forecasts the future of
the Philippines within a hundred years. According to the essay, Rizal stated that the French
revolution has its repercussions on the Spanish government and the Colonies as well.

The aim of the study is to understand the impact and influence of the Spanish
colonization in the Philippines. How did the Spanish government prevent the Philippines from
progressing, how did the Spanish limit the sources of education and keeping the Filipinos
impoverish are some of the questions that Rizal pointed out on this essay. One question Rizal
raises in this essay is whether or not Spain has indeed prevented the progress of the
Philippines: Keeping the people uneducated and ignorant had failed. National consciousness
had still been awakened, and great Filipino minds still emerged from the rubble. Keeping the
people impoverished also came to no avail. On the contrary, living a life of eternal destitution
had allowed the Filipinos to act on the desire for a change in their way of life. They began to
explore other horizons through which they could move towards progress.

Exterminating the people as an alternative to hindering progress did not work either.
The Filipino race was able to survive amidst wars and famine, and became even more
numerous after such catastrophes. To wipe out the nation altogether would require the sacrifice
of thousands of Spanish soldiers, and this is something Spain would not allow.
 The essay written by Jose Rizal, he felt that the Philippines will progress no matter what
the circumstances. The question then arises as to what had awakened the hearts and opened
the minds of the Filipino people with regards to their plight. Eventually, the natives realized that
such oppression in their society by foreign colonizers must no longer be tolerated. Jose Rizal
envisioned the future of the Philippines through his essay and stated that Colonization can’t
prevent the country from advancing itself and it will continue to progress many years to come.

We have discovered that Rizal was right about his intuitions that the Philippines will gain
independence in the end and will continue to grow whatever the country faces. We believe that
Filipinos are resilient and full of faith for their country.

July 17, 2020

Maybe we all came to the point where we thought of History as a yawn-worthy subject.
Lots of dates, names, places and events to remember! One topic that would never get left
behind when we talk about history is our national hero. And yes, we get tired of it, too. Not until
we stumbled upon our course, Life and Works of Rizal. Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero, the
author of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, but what else? We asked ourselves, what else
do we know about our national hero aside from being the author of the books we are required to
study back when we're in high school? As the semester goes on, we learned deeper about Dr.
Rizal. One of his works that really hooked our interest so much is La Indolencia de los Filipinos
or The Indolence of the Filipinos. It tackled about the idleness of the Filipinos during the Spanish
colonization. Admitted many Filipinos are really indolent thus, one question was glued to our
minds, is indolence of today's generation a reflection of the past?

La Indolencia de los Filipinos is an exploratory essay by Dr. Jose Rizal wherein he defended
that there are reasons why Filipinos has exhibited to idleness during that time. He pointed out
that Filipinos, being idle can be rooted to several reasons and not just because they are
downright lazy. He mentioned how the problems and situations of the country gave birth to the
idleness of the people instead of the effect of the nature. The hot climate, discrimination,
frequent wars, decline of trade, corruption, etc. These are just few of the reasons Dr. Rizal
mentioned but all ends up in two main causes; lack of access to education and the lack of unity
and sentiment.

This covers for today’s topic and the continuation is upholding to the next.

July 20, 2020

If we will be going to look at it closely, this so called idleness of the Filipinos speaks
gravity of what they have gone through during the colonization. It is more than them being
indolent, it showed how the conquerors have suppressed the enthusiasm and diligence of the
Filipinos. It also emphasized how the Filipinos thirst for equality in terms of education, but gets
discrimination in return. Idleness of today's generation could be just summed up to mere
laziness and can be rooted from hunger for convenience. We opt to do something when it is
easy, fast and accessible. Technology became the new man's best friend. We are indolent
because we choose to be. We cannot blame the country's problems and situations because it is
ourselves, we are battling with. We realized that we cannot compare our sluggishness with that
of the past because their idleness mirrored a doleful part of our history.
 As the generation who is privileged enough to indulge in the dynamic technology and
developments, still, we must not be reliant to it in almost every aspect of our lives. Let's be
mindful of its consequences and possible impacts. We must not let it fuel up the fire of
procrastination and stalling.

July 22, 2020

A Simple and Prolific Life of Rizal in Dapitan “Simple yet prolific” is the best word that
can describe the life of Rizal in Dapitan. It is simple in a way that he lives like an ordinary people
and prolific because when he was there, his time was not wasted and made a lot of contribution
not only to the place but also to the people. In the first part of his exile, he lived in a
commandant’s house but after winning the second prize in the Manila Lottery and also from his
savings being a merchant and farmer, he bought a land in Talisay. In this place, he built three
houses made of bamboo, wood and also nipa with different shapes. The first house served as
his home, the second house is for his students and lastly, the third house is for his chickens.
Even though Rizal is in Dapitan, he continued to send a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt that
described his life in Dapitan. The letter says that Rizal is waking up early in the morning to feed
his chickens and cook for their breakfast. After eating their breakfast, Rizal treats those patients
who come to his house and also those in towns. In the afternoon, after being a doctor in the
morning, he transformed into teacher to teach the young boys in their town. These young boys
do not have any tuition fee, but there is one condition, they have to work, especially in the farm,
together with Rizal. And Rizal ended the day in reading and writing. After 4 years, he left
Dapitan but Rizal’s presence remains there because he has a lot of contribution and also some
projects that until now are running. One of his contributions is the good waterworks system he
constructed in the province. As you can remember Rizal studied surveying when he was in
Ateneo Municipal. Rizal also has a lot of contributions to the agricultural development, in his
multi hectare land; he planted crops and fruit-bearing trees together with his students. He also
introduced the modern methods and machineries in farming and also in fishing to many of our
Dapitenos. By these many reasons, we can’t deny that Rizal was truly loved by all Dapitenos.
As you can see, when Rizal left Dapitan, all of his students, their parents and also ordinary
people together with a band said their last goodbyes.

July 24, 2020

Last meeting, we had an activity about poster and slogan making and for this entry
entitles my opinion of why did Rizal became the national hero of the Philippines. Philippine
National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal fought against those who denies patriotism for the sole purpose of
freeing the country from the injustices brought by Spaniards. He used his novels, essays and
literary works that made inspiration to his countrymen and encouraged them to resist and stand
for their rights. He symbolizes as the pen which he believed is the weapon mightier than a
sword. And to the captive Philippine Flag that serves as an emblem of our sovereignty and
solidarity which is also an instrument of unity that bind the Filipino people. He is the radiant sun
that gave freedom its first shine in the first dawn. Jose Rizal is the image of greatness that’s
already been engraved to the history and brought people into one.

“A hero is part of the people’s expression,” this statement validates Jose Rizal being our
national hero. He had the concept of nation and thereafter aspired and struggled for the nation’s
freedom. With today’s youth, forming a part of him is enough to be called as one and only
HERO that symbolizes for greatness.

July 27, 2020

Today, we talked about Rizal’s controversy of retraction. According to claims by the

Catholic Church, Dr. Jose Rizal wrote a retraction paper on December 29, 1896, taking back all
his words and writings against the church and professing his faith. Rizal was said to be
convinced in converting and writing the retraction paper by Fr. Vicente Balaguer, a priest he had
been with in Dapitan. The retraction paper was not revealed to the public until 1935. According
to most claims and theories, there are four reasons as to why Dr. Rizal retracted. First is that he
wanted to legally marry Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman whom he had been living with in the
Dapitan, The second is to save his family from the persecution of the government, knowing that
those he will leave behind will be the ones to suffer next, the third is to secure Spanish reforms,
hoping that in the retraction, there would be change, and the fourth is to heal the church for
inside, once again, in the hopes that something will change.

Some claims say that the letter was written by his brother Paciano, but the signature was
from Rizal himself, Paciano apparently did this to avert the remaining members of his family
from danger. In other words, a case of forgery, many theories suggest that Rizal’s letter was
created by someone else using his signature or a sample of his writings.

In the theories, the reason for his retraction was to marry the woman she fell in love with
while he was in exile, Josephine Bracken. However, no real record of the wedding between
Bracken and Rizal has been found, especially a marriage certificate. If the retraction was true,
then there should at least be a document that shows that the marriage happened and,
considering where Rizal was buried, outside the inner wall of Paco Cemetery, and the record of
burial is not the same day as his death.

Up to these days, the uncertainty of this issue does not totally ended and several
debates are still ongoing. But for me, this even is too convenient for it to occur, as if it was a
scripted play. It is more likely to be a ploy by the church, with the rising power of the
revolutionaries and the involvement of the west in the Philippines. The controversy was meant
to degrade the morale of the Filipinos, to make us think the hero who bravely faced death was a
coward who bit his tongue and took back his words.

July 29, 2020

Every now and then, we are constantly searching for someone to inspire us and save us
from irks of our daily lives. Profoundly, today we are in need of people who are deeply
concerned on the resolution of our country’s predicament. Sometimes, we are just about
dreaming of a person who will defend our rights, justice and equality, just possessing special
powers to love our country unfathomably just like Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

There is no doubt, that people cannot just assimilate their actions, without true leaders
which are necessary. And it is a true leader that can have perspective, objective and integrity,
until he becomes HERO.
 It is correct that Dr. Jose Rizal is a true leader. But who really is a true leader? A true
leader is a person who enables people to work together towards common goods and goals and
in some way to achieve some different objectives that will satisfy their needs. Leadership is a
way of living in which basic life strategies and principles reinforce one another. History has
established many leaders, and their stories are mostly concerned of taking great risks, even
their lives.

Oftentimes, he has been given a new personality and a childhood that may bear him a
little resemblance to his real one. It should also be stressed out, that Dr. Rizal’s refusal to align
himself with the revolutionary forces and his vehement condemnation of the said movement.
Instead, he dreamt of a peaceful reform of the government and his fellow Filipinos. Without
doubt, we can say that Rizal was a revolutionist, one who wanted change. Not that he wanted to
fight Spain, but just to have certain reforms in government, in the church, in the way the
Filipinos were being treated by those in authority.

He was a revolutionist at heart, but no one of the radical type. In this sense we can say
that he was a reformist. He would appeal first to the Spaniards’ sense of wrong and right,
exhaust all means, before perhaps resorting to actual violence. But reforms were truly,
desperately needed.

Certainly, Dr. Rizal is already a hero in the eye of the Filipino people even before the
American came. They duly accepted Dr. Rizal as the official hero of the honorable Filipinos.
Unfortunately, however, there are still some Filipinos who entertain the belief that our Rizal is a
“made-to-order” national hero, and that the maker or manufacturer in this case were the
Americans.

History tells us that Rizal symbolized not only Ideal and Inspiration, but also something
real and material – Action. His greatest claim to being first in our political history is that he was
the real founder of Philippine nationalism. At his death, he bequeathed to us Filipinos his
yearning for liberty while also giving us the necessary background of sacrifice.