Pareng Romy:

That was interesting -- those many different faces and images of Jose Rizal. I suppose those different sculptors and painters who sculpted and painted him had also different ideas on how Rizal looked like, thus those various and different images of our number one national hero. Personally, I like that "classic" image of him that graces his Noli Me Tangere book.

I have a great admiration for this man: of his many talents and unquestioned love for the Filipino people and for our Motherland. But something bothers me though about the plot of his second book, El Filibusterismo. Because it seems that the plot of El Fili has a glaring similarity to the plot of another book, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Both main characters in those two books -- Crisostomo Ibarra in El Fili and Edmond Dantes in The Count found sizable amount of TREASURES, which were used as instruments in exacting REVENGE. I wonder who plagiarized who. Was it Rizal? Or, was it Dumas?

I hate to think that it was Rizal who copied the plot. But then, I also hate to think that it was Dumas who did it. Both books are world-renowned classics. Forgive my ignorance, but can you please clear me on this?

Jesse Jose
Seattle, WA

Dear Romy and Ka Jesse and Friends:

There were other individuals who have raised before Ka Jesse's valid question. Almost all of the Knights of Rizal and other Rizalists have evaded the issue.

But here are some points to consider:

1.0 Alexandre Dumas (27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was born and died ahead of Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal (June 19, 1861 -- Dec. 30, 1896).

2.0 "The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas' most popular work. The writing of the work was completed in 1844. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from the plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.[1]" -- data from Wikipedia.

2.1 Dumas' obra maestra was completed in 1844, roughly 17 years before Rizal was born.

2.2 But even Dumas had a ghostwriter. But then as my journalism professors in San Beda said, "Almost all ideas have been written before, especially as narrated in the Bible, the Torah and the Koran. It is almost impossible to write an original story. One can only re-write a story already previously written and the writer can add a twist or two or even an O'Henry (surprise) ending.

2.3 While I am not saying that Rizal was the direct ascendant of the Perrytale writer (who copies a lot from the Wikipedia and other search engines and passes them off as his own original writing), certainly our national hero was inspired (again) by European history and other events and characters.

2.3.1 According to my grandfather-in-law, Don Belong de los Reyes, Rizal's line in the Fili ("Today's slaves are tomorrow's tyrants") was actually copied from a lesson derived from the French Revolution (1789–1799). Remember that some of the leaders of the French Revolution had their heads guillotined also, after they fought the others for supremacy and lost. This happened months after they guillotined first the French king and queen and most of their court members. History keeps on repeating itself. Even the NPAs in the Philippines eliminated too some of their comrades as a means of cleansing the revolution. The same happened in China during the Cultural Revolution and in other countries, too.

Since Rizal took his literary secrets to his grave, then we can only make educated guesses. And your guess, Ka Jesse, is as good as Romy's, which is as good as mine. Or as good as Joseph's or Bart's.

And if I may direct you to the 78-word biographical sketch of Dr. Rizal, which Romy featured in his newsvideo, I may write this line when I re-do Romy Marquez's biography for our coming souvenir program, "Before there was Hugh Hefner, there was Jose P. Rizal and after them came Romeo P. Marquez . . ." LOL.

Mabuhay,

Roberto "Lolo Bobby" Reyes y Mercado

Dear My Friend Don:

I never used the word "plagiarism" (whether as a noun or a verb, to plagiarize) in my e-mail addressed to Ka Jesse and Romy and to the six of you as the other recipients. Please read it again. I respect your opinion but I even titled the subject matter: "Re: Let Us Just Say Rizal Was Inspired by 'The Count of Monte Cristo'." So, please don't put words into my postings because it is like putting words into my mouth and I don't need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. LOL.

Mabuhay and thanks but no thanks to your commentary,

Lolo Bobby

Dear Romeo Marquez,

Thank you for the video its very informative, any reading on JPR is good reading, the pictures nice as well.

I guess that how Rizal really looked like will never be known, but from the pictures, they all are very near the same.

Regardless of how many Faces, Talents and Skills he had, his heart was in the right place. If all follow his ways the world could be a better place.

Keep up the good work.

NOM!

Sir Zane M. Thirlwall KCR
Deputy Regional Commander
Order of the Knights of Rizal
Middle East & Africa Region