Sections DrRizal.com Some Filipinos Need to Stop "Reinventing" Rizal (As Updated)
| Some Filipinos Need to Stop "Reinventing" Rizal (As Updated) |
People are often stunned when I, a member of the Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKR), try to stop some Filipinos and certain Overseas Filipinos from making a mockery, if not an overkill, of Jose Rizal, his teachings and beliefs. And tomorrow, June 19, 2007, on the occasion of Rizal's birth anniversary, he will again be subjected to an overkill at the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles, California. The program at the consulate is led by a Filipino writer, who has refused to join the Ladies of Rizal and even work with the OKR. Rizal's name will be used again in vain.
Jose P. Rizal, the foremost national hero of the Philippines and a man of peace, was martyred in the City of Manila on Dec. 30, 1896, before a Spanish-led firing squad. But the killing of Jose Rizal continues. In fact, it has amounted to an overkill of Rizal's legacy, especially his contributions to the making of the Filipino heritage. Yes, the overkill happens wittingly or unwittingly in our midst and even in our time.
Some people present an overkill of Rizal's virtues, values and attributes. Some folks make him just short of being the second coming of the Redeemer. There is no truth to the belief that Rizal could walk on water or convert water into wine. (Actually pundits said that he loved to sip vintage wine, especially in the company of beautiful women, as romantic songs were being sung.)
Rizal appears not only in monuments, parks and avenues in the Philippines (and now in several other countries) but he has also become a trademark owned by different businesses. Rizal has been registered as the Philippine brand name of a kerosene, matches (light-your-fire sticks), a theater, a college, a commercial bank and Rizal-this, Rizal-that business name or establishment of all sizes and types. But few of the business people -- who use Rizal as a business name -- donate a certain percentage of the corporate income to promote the hero's legacy. Or even to support Rizal's causes and concerns that he fought so hard in his lifetime for his people to have and hold. In fact, these business tycoons, taipans and moguls would not probably recognize Rizal -- if he were resurrected like Lazarus -- even if he would not wear sunglasses when he appears to them.
The Modern-day Fray Damasos
National leaders in the Philippines like to stage rallies and even inaugurations at the country's Rizal Parks but they continue to emulate the Spanish colonial masters that Rizal mocked in his political novels. Some Filipino church leaders attend Rizal Park events but they continue to behave like Fray Damaso, the despicable Spanish friar that Rizal wrote about in his literature. Why, even the national capital continues to be called by many as "The Imperial Manila," with the royalty-like pomp and pageantry that Rizal protested during his lifetime. Yes, Rizal is long dead but millions of the ordinary Filipinos continue to wallow in poverty, in the mire of ignorance, the muck of exploitation, so on and so forth, as if the colonial powers continued its control over the archipelago. And even some Knights of Rizal emulate the national hero only in being a "ladies' man." Why, some of my fellow Rizal knights think that our motto is, "Once a (k)night is enough."
In Southern California, some Filipino Americans take advantage of Rizal to make money, nay, more money. A Filipino-Chinese supermarket chain offered its stores in West Covina, San Diego and Carson as sites for busts of Rizal, which actually were paid for by the Philippine government. Now, grocery carts are parked beside the Rizal busts, along with candy dispensers, newspaper racks and what not. What a way for Filipino-American shoppers to honor (or dishonor) Rizal as they search for bargains, Bagoong and bananas. Yes, Rizal would go bananas if he saw his busts at the Seafood City supermarkets.
A Filipino-American woman writer continues to organize Rizal-Day celebrations in December and June of every year but she never tenders an accounting of the donations made by patrons and sponsors. She refuses to work with the local chapter of the Knights of Rizal. She has refused also to join the Ladies of Rizal and this led to wags saying that perhaps she is organizing a "Mistresses of Rizal" sorority. Poet-pundit Fred Burce Bunao was asked by an inquisitive mind the "Rizalist" background of this woman writer. Perhaps to rationalize her other activities such as organizing essay-writing and poetry contests for Rizal commemorations? Mr. Bunao explained that this woman writer used to be dubbed the number-one shopper in Avenida Rizal of Manila and that made her an expert in the buying and selling of Rizalian and non-Rizal memorabilia.
Rabid Rizalistas
There are rabid Rizalistas who are alleged members of a Filipino-American history club, the name of which is similar to Poet-pundit Bunao's "Philippine-American National Hysterical Society (PANHS)." These alleged Rizalistas want to put up markers in public restrooms in San Francisco (CA), Chicago (IL) and New York (NY) that proclaim, "Jose Rizal answered the call of nature in this toilet during his visit to the United States."
Perhaps we must just tell Mainstream America and the world at large my "copyrighted" (sic) line of introducing the Philippines' foremost national hero: "Before there was Mahatma Gandhi, before there was Martin Luther King, there was a Filipino man of peace and his name was Jose Rizal. He became the Philippines' foremost national hero. Yes, foremost is the word because there were hundreds of other Filipino national heroes who were contemporaries of Rizal . . ." # # #
Malayan race, was born on June 19, 1861, in the town
of Calamba, Laguna.."
The ascription "pride of the Malayan race" to me looks
like a child's work. It looks like an invention, part
of the deceptive scheme authored by the USA to make
Rizal our national hero.
No less than Admiral Dewey testified that Rizal was
working against Spain to free his Philippines.
Renato Constantino wrote a rebuke in his "Veneration
without Understanding"- "the Revolution broke out
despite his [Rizal's] refusal to lead it and continued
despite his condemnation of it."
Truth has its own way of getting to the surface. It is
truly hard to keep a good man, the real heroes, like
Bonifacio and Aguinaldo, down forever.
Ogie Reyes
Moderator of Cebu Politics ( )
Here is an article that appeared in the Malaya newspaper. I believe that it is an appropriate reading material (as an additional piece to this MabuhayRadio essay about REINVENTING Jose Rizal).
Mabuhay,
Ogie Reyes
Reintroducing Rizal, by Bernard Garkanilla, Malaya
This man is the national hero of the Philippines. What
made him heroic?
According to a former senator, Jose Rizal was one of
the "intellectual leaders" who "opened the eyes and
minds of the people to the dawning of a new day."
[Arturo M. Tolentino. Voice Of Dissent. Quezon City:
Phoenix Publishing House, Inc., 1990, p. 1]
Ah, a visionary. What else? According to an American
civil servant, this Filipino was a brave fellow for
exposing evil men. Rizal lived in a time when his
country was a maltreated Spanish colony. The most
visible agents of that maltreatment were the
paramilitary Civil Guards who disregarded the
Philippine natives’ human rights. "The members of the
Guardia Civil were regarded with detestation and
terror by the people, but their power was so absolute
that protest rarely became public. The one notable
exception was furnished by Dr. Rizal’s book entitled
‘Noli Me Tangere,’ which voiced the complaints of the
Filipinos against them." [Dean C. Worcester, The
Philippines Past and Present, Volume I, 1914]
The American bureaucrat who described Rizal was the
Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine Islands
from 1901 to 1913 and his book cites the testimony of
a naval officer (Admiral Dewey) before the United
States Congress. To wit: "I heard from Williams that
there was an insurrection there (Philippines) against
the Spaniards. The Spaniards were very cruel to them,
and I think they did not look much beyond getting rid
of them. There was one, Dr. Rizal, who had the idea of
independence."
A freedom fighter then. Another foreigner, Austin
Craig, who taught Oriental History at the University
of the Philippines, even wrote a biography of the
heroic Filipino, entitled "Lineage, Life and Labors of
José Rizal, Philippine Patriot."
This book, sub-titled "A Study of the Growth of Free
Ideas in the Trans-Pacific American Territory," which
came out in Manila in 1913, is heaving with yarns and
sketches of Rizal. Samples:
1. "At three he learned his letters, having insisted
upon being taught to read and being allowed to share
the lessons of an elder sister. Immediately thereafter
he was discovered with her story book, spelling out
its words by the aid of the syllabary or ‘caton’ which
he had propped up before him and was using as one does
a dictionary in a foreign language."
2. "The little boy spent also much of his time in the
church, which was conveniently near, but when the
mother suggested that this might be an indication of
religious inclination, his prompt response was that he
liked to watch the people."
3. "Sometimes José would draw a bird flying without
lifting pencil from the paper till the picture was
finished. At other times it would be a horse running
or a dog in chase, but it always must be something of
which he had thought himself and the idea must not be
overworked; there was no payment for what had been
done often before. Thus he came to think for himself,
ideas were suggested to him indirectly, so he was
never a servile copyist, and he acquired the habit of
speedy accomplishment."
4. "José had a pony and used to take long rides
through all the surrounding country, so rich in
picturesque scenery. Besides these horseback
expeditions were excursions afoot; on the latter his
companion was his big black dog, Usman…There were
other playmates besides the dog and the horse,
especially doves that lived in several houses about
the Mercado home, and the lad was friend and defender
of all the animals, birds, and even insects in the
neighborhood. Had his childish sympathies been
respected the family would have been strictly
vegetarian in their diet."
5. "Sleight-of-hand tricks were a favorite amusement,
and he developed a dexterity which mystified the
simple folk of the country… Entertainment of the
neighbors with magic-lantern exhibitions was another
frequent amusement, an ordinary lamp throwing its
light on a common sheet serving as a screen. José’s
supple fingers twisted themselves into fantastic
shapes, the enlarged shadows of which on the curtain
bore resemblance to animals, and paper accessories
were worked in to vary and enlarge the repertoire of
action figures."
6. "Some time during Rizal’s early years of school
came his first success in painting. It was the
occasion of a festival in Kalamba; just at the last
moment an important banner was accidentally damaged
and there was not time to send to Manila for another.
A hasty consultation was held among the village
authorities, and one councilman suggested that José
Rizal had shown considerable skill with the brush and
possibly he could paint something that would pass. The
gobernadorcillo proceeded to the lad’s home and
explained the need. Rizal promptly went to work, under
the official’s direction, and speedily produced a
painting which the delighted municipal executive
declared was better than the expensive banner bought
in Manila. The achievement was explained to all the
participants in the festival and young José was the
hero of the occasion."
7. "Rizal frequently attended the theater, choosing
especially the higher class dramas, occasionally went
to a masked ball, played the lotteries in small
amounts but regularly, and for the rest devoted most
of his money to the purchase of books."
We learn from Prof. Craig’s work that Rizal was a
precocious kid, a student of human nature, a fast draw
and original thinker, an animal lover as well as a
magician and amateur entertainer, an artist and a
smart consumer.
Rizal was certainly multi-talented and seemed to have
led a full life. Other biographies like Pascual H.
Poblete’s "Buhay At Mga Ginawâ Ni Dr. José Rizal" bear
this out.
Vision, courage and artistry. Qualities to make any
man extraordinary. But heroic?
"Because Rizal had certain qualities, he was able to
serve the pressing social needs of the period, needs
that arose out of general and particular historical
forces. He is a hero in the sense that he was able to
see the problems generated by historical forces,
discern the new social needs created by the historical
development of new social relationships, and take an
active part in meeting these needs. But he is not a
hero in the sense that he could have stopped and
altered the course of events. The truth of this
statement is demonstrated by the fact that the
Revolution broke out despite his refusal to lead it
and continued despite his condemnation of it." [Renato
Constantino, "Veneration Without Understanding"]
In getting to know Rizal, it is important to
distinguish between the man and the hero.
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