JOSE RIZAL

TRIED BY A COURT MARTIAL

December 26, 1896

• Governor General Camilo G. Polavieja authorized the order to subject Rizal to trial by
court martial.
• On the same day, the court-martial secretly and unanimously voted for a guilty verdict
with the penalty of death before a firing squad.
• At 8 o’clock in the morning, court martial of Rizal started at the Hall of Banners of
Cuartel de Espania-a soldier’s dormitory was converted into an improvised courtroom.
(In front of Fort Santiago, Intramurous, Manila)
ON AN ELEVATED PLATFORM WERE
SEVEN MEMBERS OF MILITARY

• Lt. Col. Jose Togores Arjona (president)

• Capt. Ricardo Munoz Arias
• Capt. Manuel Reguerra
• Capt. Santiago Izquierdo Osorio
• Capt. Fernando Perez Rodriguez
• Capt. Manuel Dia Eseribano
• Capt. Branlio Rodriguez Nunez
PRESENT IN THE COURT

1. Capt. Rafael Dominguez- judge advocate opened the trial by reading the charges
against Rizal
2. Enrique de Alcocer- appointed prosecuting Attorney, who gave the summary of the
charges
3. Jose Rizal- the accused
4. Lt. Louis Traviel de Andrade- his defender
5. Josephine Bracken-his de facto wife
6. Rizal’s sister
TRIAL PROCEEDED

• The trial proceeded with the reading of the accusations against Rizal
• “as principal organizer” and
• “moving spirit of the Philippine insurrection,
• founder of societies, of newspapers and
• has written books designed to foment and propagate ideas of rebellion and sedition
among the people,
• as well as the principal leader of the anti-government in the country.”
RIZAL WAS ACCUSED OF THREE CRIMES:

• Rebellion
• Sedition
• Illegal association

Atty. Alcocer, the prosecuting lawyer. He tried really hard to convince the
members of military court to give the death verdict to Rizal.
RIZAL’S DEFENSE COUNSEL

• Taviel de Andrade, Rizal’s defense counsel, argued that in the law applying the Penal Code
of Spain in the Philippines, none exists to establish the guilt of the accused;
• he likewise challenged the veracity and impartiality of those who had given statements
incriminating Rizal;
• he closed his defense requesting the court to reject the images of war, for they could
only provoke ideas of vengeance, and that judges should not be vengeful but fair and just.
 RIZAL’S OWN-BRIEF MEMORANDUM OF POINTS OF
FACTS
1. I could not be guilty of rebellion because I even advised Dr. Pio Valenzuela in Dapitan
not to rise revolution
2. The revolutionist used my name without my knowledge. If I were guilty, I could
escaped from Singapore
3. If I had the hand in revolution I could escaped from Moro vinta and would not build a
house and bought land in Dapitan
4. If I were the chief in revolution why was I not consulted by the revolutionist?
5. La Liga Filipina does not live long, after the first meeting , I was deported to Dapitan
and it died out
6.If La Liga Filipina was reorganized nine months later, I did not know about it
7. It was true that I write the Constitution and By Laws of the La Liga Filipina but this is only a
civic organization not a revolutionary society
8. While it was true that there were some bitter statements in my letter, it was because they
were.
Written when my family was being persecuted, dispossed of their land and home, my brother
and brother-in-law were deported without due process.
9. It is not true that the revolution was inspired in one of my speech in the house of Doroteo
Ongjunco
10. My life in Dapitan had been exemplary as evidenced by my productive activities
• Rizal was a civilian but tried by military tribunal composed of military officials
• No due process (fair treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's
entitlement)

• Rizal was not given the right to face his accusers and the witness against him in
an open court
• Rizal could not expect to have a fair, honest and impartial justice
• No prosecution witness was allowed to testify so the defense could not ask
questions on cross-examination
PROCEDURE OF TRIAL

1. prosecution’s brief was read before the court by the prosecutor

2. Andrade present the defense brief on December 25
3. Rizal completed the process by reading his “Addition to my defense”
on December 26
• To Gov. Gen. Polavieja who affirmed the death sentence and decreed that
Rizal should be executed before a firing squad at 7am on December
30,1896 on the field of Bagumbayan with all the formalities required by
the law
• December 23- Rizal and Andrade receive the brief for the prosecution
• December 26- trial begin, 2 days preparations only, Innocents Day, military
courts submit verdict on the charges against Rizal
• December 28 : Polavieja signs the death verdict.
• December 29- Rizal received the judgement
DECEMBER 29, 1896

• 29 December, 7:00 AM: Rizal was transferred to the chapel cell adorned by religious images to
convince him to go back to the Catholic fold. His first visitors were Jesuit priests Fathers Miguel Saderra
Mata and Luis Viza.
• 29 December, 7:15 AM: After Fr. Saderra left, Rizal asked Fr.Viza for the Sacred Heart statuette which
he carved when he was an Ateneo student. From his pocket the statuette appears.
• 29 December, 8:00 AM: Fr.Viza was relieved by Fr. Antonio Rosell who joined Rizal for breakfast. Lt.
Luis Taviel de Andrade joins them.
• 29 December, 9:00 AM: Fr. Federico Faura, who once said that Rizal would lose his head for writing
the Noli Me Tangere, arrived. Rizal told him, “Father you are indeed a prophet.”
• 29 December, 10:00 AM: Fathers José Vilaclara and Vicente Balaguer visited Rizal, followed by a Spanish
journalist, Santiago Mataix of El Heraldo de Madrid, for an interview.
• 29 December, 12:00-3:30 PM: Rizal’s time alone in his cell. He had lunch, wrote letters and
probably wrote his last poem of 14 stanzas which he wrote in his flowing handwriting in a very
small piece of paper. He hid it inside his alcohol stove. The untitled poem was later known as Mi
Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell). In its second stanza, he already praised the revolutionaries in the
battlefield for giving their lives “without doubt, without gloom.”
• 29 December, 3:30 PM: Fr. Balaguer visits again and, according to him, talks to Rizal about
retracting his anti-Catholic writings and his being a mason.

• 29 December, 4:00 PM: Visit of Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso. Then Rizal’s sister Trinidad
entered to get her mother and Rizal whispered to her in English referring to the alcohol stove,
“There is something inside.” They were also accompanied by Narcisa, Lucia, Josefa, Maria and son
Mauricio Cruz. Leoncio Lopez Rizal, Narcisa’s eleven-year-old son, was not allowed to enter the
cell. While leaving for their carriages, an official handed over the alcohol stove to Narcisa. After
their visit, Fathers Vilaclara and Estanislao March returned to the cell followed by Father Rosell.
• 29 December, 6:00 PM: Rizal was visited by the Dean of the Manila Cathedral, Don
Silvino Lopez Tuñon. Fathers Balaguer and March left Father Vilaclara to be with the two.
• 29 December, 8:00 PM: Rizal’s last supper where he informed Captain Dominguez that
he already forgave those who condemned him.
• 29 December, 9:30 PM: Rizal was visited by the fiscal of the Royal Audiencia of Manila,
Don Gaspar Cestaño with whom Rizal offered the best chair of the cell. According to
accounts, the fiscal left with “a good impression of Rizal’s intelligence and noble
character.”