Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
The first piece, carved out of soft batikuling wood, is a rather crude
statuette of the Sacred Heart to which the Jesuits maintain a special
devotion. (One of the urban legends in the present Ateneo de Manila
University is that the Loyola School of Theology was supposed to be
named the Sacred Heart Institute of Theologyuntil someone
pointed out its not so holy acronym.)
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Rizals Sacred Heart has been reproduced many times over, and it is
often given as a gift to the select few who are honored by the
traditional Ateneo University Awards.
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The original sculpture now in the Ateneo Archives is flat but quite
competent as a boys effort. It manifested the religious fervor of Rizal
as a Sodalist in school, in a time of innocence before he suffered what
he described as a shipwreck of faith. This Sacred Heart statuette
was brought to Rizals death cell in Fort Santiago by the Jesuits who
had hoped that memory and a miracle might yet rekindle the embers
of his juvenile faith. They were sorely disappointed by Rizal.
In his mature life, Rizal had formed another small statuette in clay,
the original of which is now lost. That one depicted a hefty friar,
identifiable as one by his tonsure and habit with cowl and belt. The
friar held in his right hand a tray with a wine bottle and a glass; on
his belly was a silhouette of a woman that the impious refer to as
Rosario; and at his feet a bulging sack of (presumably) money. Rizal
incised on its base the words Orate fratres! (Pray Brothers!), giving
us a hint as to the satirical sculptures title. This sculpture, which
resembled Rodins depiction of Balzac, is often referred to as Fray
Botod, from an essay written by Rizals contemporary Graciano
Lopez-Jaena.
Who is Botod? Lopez Jaena asks in a long and winding sketch: Look
at him, there he goes, walking on the plaza, that chubby friar talking
with a woman at the foot of the talisay tree. Fray Botod is not his
proper name or his family name. Botod means pot-bellied. Lopez-
Jaena continues his description: fur seal with a moustache short
stature; bloated face forming a disk like a full moon, round
cheekbones, thick prominent lips, small eyes. large reddish nose,
with flaring nostrils hair the color of maize, the crown like a coconut
shell depressed and wrinkled forehead. And those were only the
physical characteristics.
In the Noli Me Tangere is a scene where Maria Clara and her friends
are in a river hunting for herons nests that were believed to make
the bearer invisible. Although they do not wear the skimpy swimming
attire that women of the 21st century wear, their wet bathing attire
emphasized the gracious curves of their bodies as Fr. Salvi, hidden in
the bushes, ogles at them.
The friar gets excited by their bare arms, their loose hair, the
graceful neck ending in a suggestion of a bosom. Their diminutive
rosy feet playing in the water aroused strange sensations and
feelings in his impoverished, starved being and made him dream new
visions in his fevered mind. Few teachers dwell on this part in the
Noli to point out that Salvi is playing with himself all along.
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(Conclusion)
Going over old notebooks recently, I saw data from 1898 that
estimated 1,180 regulars in the Philippines. As many as 439
(depending on the source) were prisoners of the Malolos government;
of this number, 25 died in captivity. The 439 priests were barely 5
percent of the total number of Spanish prisoners held by the
Aguinaldo government, yet they got a lot of attention. Depending on
who was in charge of them, the religious were treated in extremes:
either too well, such that some lay prisoners shaved the top of their
heads in imitation of a tonsure in order to get better treatment and
food, or there were isolated cases of torture, hunger, starvation, and
even execution.
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Race has a lot to do with the way we see friars of the past, with
everything rooted in a failed attempt in the 18th century to turn over
the Philippine parishes from the Spanish regulars to the hastily
ordained Filipino seculars. In revisiting the stereotype image of friars,
we must remember that they were almost all Spanish or European.
Would the propagandists have been as virulent if these friars were
Filipinos?
Friars were a necessary evil in the colonial system, and even if church
and state did not always see eye to eye, one source sums it up thus:
It is more important for the preservation of the colony to send 200
religious rather than 2,000 bayonets.
Why did some towns protect their parish priests from the excesses of
the Revolution? A pro-friar source, Telesforo Canseco, documents the
reaction against the expulsion of the friars in San Francisco de
Malabon (now General Trias, Cavite) by quoting someone who said:
Cung umalis ang mga pareng Castila, sinong matitirang pari? Ang
mga Tagalog? Cung ganoon ang caramihan natin ay maguiguing
Judio!(If the Spanish priests leave, who will be left? The Tagalogs? In
that case, many of us will become Jews.)
***
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Spittaels charming home, outside the town center, does not look any
different from the neighbors except that his driveway has a tarpaulin
showing the chronology of Rizals life and works. Inside the home he
shares with his Filipino wife Madeline Acosta Abordo is a veritable
Rizal museum with pictures, busts, memorabilia, etc. Rizal started as
a hobby for him and has grown into an obsession, such that I am sure
he knows more about our national hero than the average Filipino.
Spittael and I have been corresponding by email for some time now,
and finally having the opportunity to meet him and go beyond
pleasantries taught me a great deal about the details of Rizal and his
stay in Belgium, which should lead to some revision of what we know.
For example, all historians studying Rizal have long accepted that he
had a girlfriend in Belgium named Suzanne Jacoby. She does not look
very attractive in an extant photograph; some people have even
commented unkindly that she could have passed for a man!
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You may not have received yet my letter and I am writing you this
one because the young gentleman from Madrid came to our house.
He arrived at Brussels at one oclock and came to the house at night.
As it was a little late (10:00 oclock), we had gone upstairs to bed.
Aunt Suzanne and I were both in bed. Aunt Marie was still up. When
he first rang, we thought it was a street urchin, but at the second
time Aunt Marie went to open the door and let him in. Then she woke
up Monsieur Fernand for whom I believe Monsieur Baudrio has
brought a letter. All three were in the kitchen and I could hear very
well all that he said. When we heard him speak, we thought it was
you and then the name of Monsieur Rizal puzzled us.
I had a hard time holding back Aunt Suzanne. She maintained that
you had returned, that it was you who were in the kitchen, but we did
not see you. Monsieur Fernand gave him much information and
placed himself at his disposal for other things. All I know about him is
that he is taller than you and combs his hair in a different way. But I
will see him better, for Aunt Marie has invited him to come again.
Then I will ask to talk again about you. He must learn French at once.
Aunt Marie asked him if you have become stout, what you were
doing, and if you liked Madrid very much.
I hope your courts are open and I shall not have to wait a long time
for your decision.
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Dont delay too long writing us because I wear out the soles of my
shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you.
Waiting impatiently for your letter in which you will tell me all that I
want to know, the whole family sends you regards with wishes for
your return.
P.S. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in
that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back. Tell
us a little about the kind of house in which you are lodged and how
the people are there.
Spittael pointed out the obvious. These letters are not from Aunt
Suzanne but from her niece Suzanne Thill! Obviously, Rizal chose
youth over age, and now the quest for Suzanne T. continues.
My distinguished friend:
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I received your letter of the 27th of last month and excuse me for
not having answered you before this, for I have had to consult some
countrymen and books concerning your question about the hashish.
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If I had Fr. Blancos Flora [de Filipinas], I could find out if this plant
exists. I believe therefore that its use is unknown. Opium was
introduced only after the arrival of the Spaniards. We Tagalogs call it
apian.
The thought that Rizal could be executed without trial today, based
on his admission made in the letter, made me rethink a position I
have long held regarding the national heros chance of being elected
president of the Philippines. Knowing what Rizal was like as a person,
and how he was first rejected in the election for the leader of the
Filipino community in Spain, when he ran against Marcelo H. del Pilar,
I am of the opinion that he will not even be elected barangay captain
in Calamba or Dapitan: He will be too serious for voters who elect
people who can dance and sing at the drop of a hat. Since he will be
too principled to buy votes or pay poll watchers, this significantly
trims his chances of election victory.
I used to say that if Rizal were alive today he would probably be shot
in Luneta all over again because he would rail against the people and
structures that make life in the Philippines unbearable. Now he may
be killed for simply admitting to experimenting with marijuana.
ADVERTISEMENT
Opium was confined to the Chinese; its sale and distribution were
regulated because it brought in revenues to the government. When
the First Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo was established, opium was
still considered part of the revenue track. That all changed when the
Americans took over, and it has been banned ever since.
If you take the trouble to read the Epilogue to Noli Me Tangere, you
will see a reference to opium use and how it changed the once jolly
Kapitan Tiago into a shell of his former self:
Not one of our readers now would recognize Kapitan Tiago if they
saw him He already fell into a state of total depression such that he
began to lose weight and became morose and brooding and
suspicious He wanted to live alone. He took to playing liampo and
to cockfighting with such a frenzy that he began to smoke opium If
at any time, when afternoon comes, and you pass the first street of
Santo Cristo, you will see seated in a Chinese store a smallish,
jaundiced man, thin and bent, with sunken sleepy eyes and muddied
lips, and nails, staring at people as if he does not see them. At
nightfall you will see him rise painfully, and leaning on a cane, head
for a narrow alley to enter a filthy hut at the entrance of which there
is a sign in big red letters: Fumadero Publico de Anfion (Public
Smoking Den for Opium).
One other relic of the opium days is Fumadero street in San Nicolas
near Binondo that is classified today as a commercial area, with price
per square meter recorded in the internet at P23,625.
Rizals dumbbell
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:30 AM August 12, 2016
Anyone who has seen me in person will know that I dont go to the
gym. From my body type it is obvious that my exercise consists of
lifting, not weights, but spoon and fork, to bring food from my plate to
my mouth. It may seem frivolous to be writing about Rizal again
when I should be commenting on the rising incidence of extrajudicial
killings of suspected drug users and pushers. Perhaps I should
comment on the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga
Bayani scheduled on Sept. 18, a date that comes between Marcos
birthday, Sept. 11, and the date that some martial law babies like
myself remember as National Thanksgiving Day, Sept. 21, when
martial law was officially declared. Its actual implementation came
after the historic document was signed, or, at best, antedated, to
comply with Marcos personal numerology that had all significant
dates in his life defined by seven, or multiples of seven.
It was not an ordinary five-pounder such that anyone would use for
limbering up; it was an enormous weight almost a foot long and as
thick as a young boys head at the knobs. From my almost four
decades experience in the field of weights, I knew that whoever used
those heavy dumbbells was either a very big man or a small man
trying to compensate for his vertical deficiency.
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Claudio felt that Andens conclusion was unfair and a bit rash in the
context of recent academic works on the history of physical culture. I
asked Claudio about Rizals program of studies for a proposed school
that included Swedish gymnastics first thing in the morning. I was
puzzled by Rizals describing these gymnastics as purely hygienic.
Claudio said these were light exercises that do not make one perspire
profusely, and may very well be what we know in schools today as
calisthenics.
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Rizal also made time for: horseback riding, fencing and swimming
during the day, and ballroom dancing after dinner. When he was a
student at the Ateneo Municipal in Intramuros, his PE equipment
consisted of parallel bars, weights, and Roman rings or argollas, so
it is safe to presume that he would have these in his planned school
of boys in Dapitan.
It is not well known that during his exile in Dapitan, Rizal went back
to his love for sculpture and made some delightful pieces in clay: a
wild boar, a woman cutting grass, etc. He also carved wood reliefs
one a profile of Josephine Bracken and another depicting a man lifting
weights. When I showed this to Claudio, he exclaimed: Thats the
bent press! I didnt have a clue what this was, so he patiently
explained that this way of lifting made it possible to lift more weight:
The bent press is only done for single reps, not like the bicep curl
which you do for more than 10 reps. With a bent press, you struggle
with it for sometimes as long as three minutes. In terms of his
physical attributes, Rizal would have been strong in what Russian
physical culturists call maximal strength, as opposed to strength
endurance, although we dont know if Rizal had good strength
endurance as well. But in laymans terms, his strength would have
been more similar to a power lifters [than] to a bodybuilders. Rizal
gained strength with minimum weight gain.
So for those who really want to know what Rizals height was, based
on his clothing, it is 53, and the body proportions were classical
and near-perfect. It seems there is much more that needs to be
researched, not just on Rizals physique but on the history of physical
culture in the Philippines as well.
Rizal was quite open about the formation of the Liga. It may be
assumed that he was aware that the Spaniards knew what he was up
to, since he was recruiting influential people into the organization. In
other words, the Liga was not supposed to be an illegal or
underground association. And yet, interestingly, its activities were
supposed to be kept secret. Every member was required to adopt a
new name, while keeping his true name hidden and known only to
the secretary of his council.
The Liga constitution provided for three such levels of authority: the
popular councils, the provincial councils, and a Supreme Council. The
Supreme Council is composed of all the chiefs of the provincial
councils, while the provincial council is made up of all the chiefs of
the popular or town councils.
More than independence from Spain, the basic impulse that animated
the establishment of the Liga had to do with the protection of the
ordinary citizen from arbitrary poweri.e., from violence and
injustice. Rizal would have resolutely opposed political dynasties and
warlords. At the same time, he intended the organization to be a
laboratory for the emancipation of Filipinos from the scourge of
poverty, illiteracy, and economic stagnation. These were the values
that were uppermost in his mind when he drew the constitution of the
Liga.
One hundred and 24 years after Rizal envisioned the nation that
would be built on the foundations of the Liga, we are nowhere near
the democratic and prosperous society that he imagined our country
could be. This has little to do with the form of government. It has
everything to do with the feudal social structure, at the root of which
is a property system that has consigned more than half of the
population to a life of perpetual deprivation, dependence, and
ignorance.
Is patriotism pass?
By: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:18 AM June 12, 2016
Is the Philippines worth dying for? On June 28, 1892, the eve of his
return to the country, Jose Rizal eloquently stated the affirmative
case on this question.
Four and a half years later, the colonial government sentenced him to
die before a firing squad. Rizal was the quintessential patriot. But he
had the wisdom to distinguish between the country and its
government. He did not equate the people with the government that
ruled it at any given time. Indeed, even as he attacked the religious
orders in the Philippines, he was conscious of the difference between
religion and the friars.
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The country is formally free, but the masses of its people remain
shackled to poverty, patronage, ignorance, and superstition. There is
prosperity, but it is shallow and not self-sustaining. There is wealth,
but only a few privileged families control it.
Those who have much to contribute to the nations growth find little
hope in its future. They care even less about its past. They prefer to
seek their personal fortunes abroad, many of them choosing not to
come back. The things that give them shame as Filipinos increasingly
overshadow the things that make them proud.
Many choose not to come back. The successful among them become
part of the international community of scholars and scientists, and
the country justly takes pride in their achievements abroad. But, the
governments persistent wish is for them to eventually come home
and lend some of their time and expertise to mentor local scientists
and professionals.
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The question that the project was grappling with was: Does the State
have a moral right to demand return service from the scientists and
engineers whose careers it nurtured in their early years? If so, what is
a fair return for the government support that scholars enjoy during
their period of study? The present arrangement requires one year of
return service for every year of scholarship at a local institution, and
two years return service for every year of study abroad under
government fellowship or sponsorship. Return service typically means
working at a government institution, although, more and more, it
requires nothing more than the obligation to work in the Philippines
for a certain period and share ones training and experience.
Nowadays, the idea of a legally binding contract might not appeal to
students who have been raised in an atmosphere where all education
is regarded as a right or an entitlement. They would probably be
horrified by the thought of pledging a portion of their future to an
anonymous State in exchange for a scholarship. The more they think
government is corrupt, the more they would resist the idea of public
service.
The idea of a return service contract might not even arise if every
generation thought of its future as basically inseparable from that of
the country from which it is sprung. But, today, we know that is no
longer the case. In a world that is shrinkingwhere barriers of nation
are becoming irrelevantyoung people cannot be faulted for wanting
to seek opportunities for personal growth outside the country.
Abroad, a cosmopolitan ethos calls upon them to set aside narrow
loyalties, so they can assume their responsibilities as citizens of one
universal community.
We Filipinos were lucky to have a genius like Jose Rizal who could do
that imagining for us and write about what he saw in a most eloquent
way. In so doing, he made it possible for generations of young people
to grasp the concept of a Filipino nation, giving them a reason to
dedicate their lives to its full realization. No better example is there of
Rizals brilliant articulation of this modern concept than his essay,
The Philippines a century hence.
Thus began a new era for the Philippines. Its inhabitants lost their
old traditions and memories of their past. They gave up their writing,
their songs, their poems, their laws, and began to learn by rote other
doctrines they did not understand, another morality, art forms that
were different from those inspired by their climate and their manner
of thinking. Thus they declined, lowered in their own eyes, ashamed
of what was their own. They began to admire and praise whatever
was foreign. Their spirit was broken.
This is a sketch of her past. Lets understand her present. And now,
what will her future be? Will the Philippines remain a Spanish colony,
and in this case, what kind of colony? Will she become a Spanish
province with or without autonomy? And, in order to attain this
status, what kind of sacrifices must she make? Will she eventually
separate from the mother country, Spain, to live independently, to
fall into the hands of other nations, or to ally herself with other
neighboring powers?
But three centuries of colonial rule altered the terrain. Today there is
a factor which did not exist before. The national spirit has awakened,
and a common misfortune and a common abasement have united all
the inhabitants of the Islands. It counts on a large enlightened class
today constitut[ing] the brains of the country, [and] within a few
years its entire nervous system
***
public.lives@gmail.com
Their relationship was not easy because Rizals mother did not
approve of the fact that they were living together outside of
marriage. Josephine tried to leave him once in 1895 and again in
1896. She wrote to him while he was imprisoned on board the ship
Castilla moored on Manila Bay shortly before the outbreak of the
Philippine Revolution against Spain that would, in part, be blamed on
him. In the letter dated Aug. 13, 1896, Josephine says:
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My dear Joe,
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This morning at half past eight Sra. Narcisa received a letter from
you, I am very sorry that I have made a mistake of your [clothing,]
not sending your pants and waistcoat, but as you said you are not in
great need of it. I only send you some more collars and cuffs. You ask
in your letter for mangoes, cheese, tyrines and some lansones. I hope
I can fulfill your wishes in sending the things, mangoes I am sure I
can send to you, but the other things I am not very sure. Yet we send
Antonio to see if we can get the cheese, lansones and tyrines.
After the catalogue of requests, she states her difficulty with Rizals
family and says she is breaking off their relationship:
In a postscript she adds that she will send foie gras, cheese and 100
sweet santol, saying: If you are not ashamed of me alright the
same.
My darling Love,
I received your most kind and most welcomed letter dated the 10th
Wednesday. I am very much surprised not hearing anything about if
you have received the three tyrines of foie gras: well! Perhaps you
have not received any other letters that I have written to you. I went
to the Governor General today but unfortunately he is laid up with a
severe cold but his aide came [and] told me to go back in three days
to receive an answer from him.
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Dear I would like very much to go with your dear family, but; you
know what I have written to you, I would like to go alone, so I can
speak to you better for in your familys presence we [cant] be very
free to each other.
I know my dear it breaks my heart to go and bid you good bye! But!
Dear what can I do; than to suffer until the Good God brings you back
to me again? Your sister Choling came to visit me yesterday and she
wants to give me her daughter Maria Luisa [S]he says she had
great confidence in me, well I told her for my part I am quite willing,
and satisfied but I have to communicate with [you] first if you are
willing, I have also many pupils about fifteen three dollars each and I
am also studying Piano 4$ a month in Sra. Marias house one of my
pupil, Dear. I have to do something like that because I am always
sorry thinking of you oh! Dear how I miss you. I will always be good &
faithful to you, and also do good to my companions so that the good
God will bring you back to me. I will try all my best to be good to your
family especially to your dear old parents the hands that we cannot
cut lift it up and kiss it or adore the hand that gives the blow How it
made the tears [flow] in my eyes when I read those few lines of you.
Say darling say it makes me think of our dear old hut in Dapitan and
the many sweet [hours] we have passed there.
Love I will love you ever, love I will leave thee never, ever precious
to thee never to part heart bound to heart or never to say good bye.
So my darling receive many warm Affection and love. From Your Ever
faithful and True till death Josephine Bracken.
Its a pity that we learn about Rizal only through textbooks and
hearsay, because he left 25 volumes of writings for a nation that does
not read him.
Rizal in love
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:30 AM February 12, 2016
Valentines Day is just around the corner. This weekend the prices for
long-stemmed roses and other flowers will spike, there will be few
vacancies in motels, and boxes of imported chocolates will fly out of
store shelves. Why should one wait for one day in a year to make a
show of love and affection instead of expressing these all year round?
Why should I wait for February to write about Rizals love life when I
can do so even during Holy Week?
Not many are familiar with a poem Rizal wrote for Josephine in July
1895, shortly before she sailed from Dapitan to Manila. A Josefina,
translated from the original Spanish by Nick Joaquin, reads:
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Why Josephine left for Manila is unclear from the poem, but there
seems to have been trouble in Dapitan because Rizal is unsure if she
will return to him or travel onward to Shanghai, China, or Japan.
Josephine did return, to Rizals relief, because the rumor in Manila
was that she had been sent away. They should have lived happily
ever after, but more troubles were to come. They were not married,
yet they were living together in a small, gossipy, conservative town.
Worse, the domestic arrangement did not sit well with Rizals mother
and other members of the family, who may not have expressed their
disapproval openly but showed it in other ways. When Rizals
younger sister Trinidad planned a visit in August 1895, he reminded
her of his domestic situation and told her frankly that if she could
accept it, she was welcome to stay in his home; if not, he would rent
a house in town for her. In this letter he complained that he was
being treated like a child rather than an adult.
The letters between Rizal and Josephine, and the letters to his family
with references to Josephine, give us an idea of their domestic life:
She kept him company, darned his socks, and tended to his nephews
and the chickens. Rizal added:
She cooks, washes, sews, and takes care of the chickens and the
house. In the absence of miki for making pancit, she made a kind of
long macaroni noodles out of flour and eggs that served the purpose.
If you could send me a little ankak, I would be grateful to you, for she
makes bagoong; she also makes chile[?] miso, but it seems to me
that what we have will last us for ten years!
In a letter to his mother, dated Jan. 15, 1896, and sent with a
package of dried fish, Rizal tried to explain his relationship:
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You will receive a small quantity of salted fish that was prepared by
the person who lives in my house. She is good, obedient, and
submissive. We lack nothing, except that we are not married, but as
you yourself say: It is better to live in the grace of God than being
married in mortal sin. Until now we have not quarreled and when I
advise her, she does not answer back. If you come and accept her I
expect that she will get along with you. Besides, she has nobody in
the world except me. I am all her kinsfolk.
Miss J. is better than her reputation, and since she has been staying
with me her little defects are being corrected. She is meek and
obedient, and not hard-headed, besides she has a good heart. What
we only need is to pay a curate, that is to say it is not necessary to
us. Until now we have not quarreled; we are always gay, jesting. The
public can say it is a scandal; without doubt it is very scandalous to
live better than many married people. We work and are contented.
She will do everything to be your friend, but what will people say?
Rizalistas vs Pilaristas
No unanimity
While Rizal enjoyed the respect of his countrymen in Spain, this was
far from unanimous. According to Del Pilar, who recounted what
transpired in a letter to
The majority required was not secured. Rizal and I were the
candidates. The balloting was repeated three times with the same
result, and Rizal and I parted with the greatest cordiality, so much so
that he told me that, since the balloting would be resumed the next
day, it would be advisable for us to join in voting for a third person so
as to avoid the formation of factions, to which I agreed.
ADVERTISEMENT
The balloting again took place in the afternoon of the following day; I
had to go out and could not be present, so I authorized Naning
[Mariano Ponce] to vote and make any agreements for me. On my
return home I found the following news: that on the first balloting a
majority had once again been lacking; that in view of this Naning
conferred secretly with Rizal, proposing a coalition third candidate
recommended by the two opposing parties; that Rizal without
accepting or rejecting the proposal, replied that he was going abroad
to work by himself because there was no unity possible where there
were two Filipinos; that the balloting took place a second time, and
again failed to produce a decision; that in view of this, Rizal counted
the votes in his favor in everyones presence and said: Well, I see
that I have 19 friends in the colony; goodbye, gentlemen, I am going
to pack my bags, see you later, and, seizing his hat, went off.
Moral leader
Rizal saw himself as the moral leader of the Filipinos in Spain and was
encouraged in this belief by partisans in Manila, who sent funds for
the publication of La Solidaridad and offered him editorship of the
paper.
He declined in 1889, saying he was busy researching in the British
Library and working on his annotations to the 1609 book Sucesos de
las islas Filipinas (Events of the Philippine Islands) by Antonio de
Morga.
Friends who urged Rizal to challenge Del Pilars leadership set him up
for a major disappointment. Del Pilar, de facto leader of the Madrid
group, would not yield his position as well as editorial control of La
Solidaridad to Rizal easily.
3 ballots
In his letter to Arellano quoted above, Del Pilar claimed he did not
want to be elected yet his actions spoke louder than his words
because he refused to withdraw nor yield his votes to Rizal.
On the other hand, Rizal kept threatening to leave Spain and the
Reform movement to complete his second novel El Filibusterismo
but he did not withdraw or deliver his votes to Del Pilar, either.
This is a clear case of mixed signals and the Filipino trait of saying
something but meaning anotherjele jele bago quiereof making an
outward show of humility to fish for compliments or support, of
saying he wants to leave when he actually wants to be asked to stay.
This minor episode in Philippine history is a glimpse into Filipino
election behavior; it makes us ask ourselves: Rizal for president?
Maybe not.
One thing is certain, though. If Rizal were alive today, his idealism,
his seriousness, his sharp pen, would get him shot in the Luneta all
over again.
Jose Rizal (JR): I myself, though in 1879, used hashish; I did it for
experimental purposes and I obtained the substance from a
drugstore.
ARO: You were 18. Being that age in our times means you can drive,
you can get married, you can vote, but you cannot smoke hashish. So
hashish was for medicinal use rather than recreation? Or maybe you
needed it for historical research?
JR: I do not believe that its use was introduced either before or after
the arrival of the Spaniards. The Filipinos drank arak, nipa-palm and
coconut wine, etc., and they chewed buyo before the arrival of the
Spaniards, but they did not smoke hashish. Neither does the word
hashish exist in our language.
ARO: Maybe you needed it for a medical condition? Ive read that you
were a frail and sickly child, that you had an oversized head, that
your left shoulder was lower than the right, that you spoke with a
slight lisp. I dont quite like the big head story because translated
into Filipino, malaki ang ulo can mean you were arrogant.
Often I got sick with fever despite the gymnastic exercises that we
had, in which I was very much behind, though not so in drawing
under Agustin Saez, a teacher worthy of his name and under whose
guidance I still continue to study.
ARO: Yes, aside from verse your pen was also good at drawing, you
having studied under Agustin Saez who was also the teacher of Juan
Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. Your selfie actually shows you
shirtless, but unfortunately the original is believed to be one of the
casualties of the Battle for Manila in 1945. Sayang!
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So you studied drawing and did watercolors while you were in the
Ateneo and continued to paint in oil when you were a medical
student at the University of Santo Tomas?
JR: For a month and a half I studied solfeggio, piano, and singing. If
you hear me sing, you would say that you were in Spain, for you
would hear the braying of an ass.
ARO: Do you remember what books you read in the Ateneo? Authors
you liked?
***
Rizals self-portraits
late 19th centurys
selfies
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 02:05 AM June 19, 2015
RIZAL MORE THAN EVER On his 154th birth anniversary Friday, the
countrys national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, remains very much a part of
not just the Philippine landscape, with major roads across the nation
named after him and his monument gracing parks, public schools and
plazas, but also an inspiration for the nation. Here, a statue of Rizal in
a scholarly pose is outlined against the sky at dusk in Intramuros,
Manila. JILSON SECKLER TIU
It may interest the digital generation that Jose Rizal took two selfies
without a cell phone or digicam.
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inRead invented by Teads
He did the next best thing in the late 19th centuryhe drew himself
with a pencil on paper. The first selfie remains unlocated and is
believed to have been one of the cultural casualties of the Battle of
Manila in 1945. The other is in a museum north of Prague in the
Czech Republic.
If Rizal had a cell phone, he would have taken selfies. If Rizal had a
cell phone, he would not have churned out the 25 volumes of writing
that fueled the academic cottage industries more than a century
after his death.
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His most reproduced photo, the one from which all Rizal monuments
throughout the archipelago are based, was taken by Enrique Debas in
Madrid in 1890 when he was 29.
Rizal as teenager
The first was drawn sometime in his last years as a high school
student at Ateneo Municipal or his early years as a college student at
the University of Santo Tomas.
Blumentritts collection
Sketch of myself
Rizal was to meet his friend Blumentritt face to face for the first time
in May 1887 so he sent this selfie ahead of his arrival, in a letter on
Dec. 9, 1886, saying:
Jose Rizal, my
dream guy
By: Khanna Blithe O. Cortes - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 08:22 PM October 23, 2011
I have thought long and hard about Rizals attributes and qualities
that made him a suitable boyfriend. His humor and sense of
formality, the way he captured a ladys heart with his wit and
charisma got me thinking.
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The many-sided persona of Jose Rizal made him a curious person. Not
to mention his mastery of more than 20 languages and his
outstanding writing.
Another trait of his that I truly liked was the different way he looked
at the worldwith unselfishness and great fervor. He was not
absorbed in his own convictions and anxieties. He found the time for
his family and friends.
This might mean that his notion of time was precious and he would
really find the time for me.
There are just two problems about being his girlfriend. One is that he
was such a charmer that other women would run after him. And two,
being an eloquent writer and all, Rizal would express his opinion
through whatever medium. This might mean that he would blog if
there wasnt any other way to be heard.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
If Rizal was a blogger in his time, he would be famous for the depths
of meanings captured in his words. He would be a prolific blogger
with a talent for changing the perspectives of people who would read
his blog. His commentaries would be controversial pieces.
Rare gem
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But, looking at his works, I realized that he was a gem that was really
hard to find. He would write about the injustices and discriminations
against the Filipino people. But he would not only dwell on his love for
the country but also the philosophies he had learned in life.
The lessons he learned from his mother, his friends and his family
strengthened his ideals. For what defines a person? It is his
philosophies that shape him and form his ideals.
His love for knowledge paved the way to many other things, things
that won the hearts of the Filipinos and sparked a revolution.
I imagine Rizal writing his tenth entry in his website with the blog
title: The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword. For he believed in
attaining freedom through peaceful reform rather than violence. He
would have written that good always conquered evil and only the
restoration of the dignity of the people was real justice.
Rizal would have expressed his progressive ideas on the rights and
liberty of the people and his anger at corruption. He would ask
questions that would be haunting and thought-provoking. He would
ask why, instead of Filipinos ruling their motherland, a foreigner
claimed to own it.
Rizal was not only centered on politics and inequality but also had his
own outlook on the sciences and arts. Education for him vanquished
ignorance and enlightened minds. Rizal would write in his blogs about
the Triumph of Science over Death. About how, through scientific
advancements, the ignorance of humankind was slowly fading, how
science helped us conquer our fear of death. He would have told us
to face life with wisdom and understanding.
But nobody escapes death, even Jose Rizal. As I review his writings, I
realized it was not his brilliant ideas or his love of country that made
him great. It was his willpower.
He said, I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love
of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our
duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those
one lovesfor his country and for others dear to him.
Maybe Rizal would not be so bad when it came to love. If you really
think about it, he was really one of a kind and just about perfect. Its
sad that he is just a Dream Guy, my Dream Guy.
Rizals SALN
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:50 AM May 20, 2015
Reading about the alleged Binay billions and the paper trail that leads
to Canadian banks reminded me of an inquiry made, shortly before
the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in August 1896, regarding
assets of Andres Bonifacio in Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp.
and Chartered Bank. I was disappointed that the Manila
representatives of these banks replied to my query that Bonifacio did
not maintain accounts with them, though I presume that funds had
been withdrawn and the accounts closed by then.
Rizal also declared land acquired from public domain with the
exception of a small part acquired from the property of a certain
Lucia Pabangon at P8. Here is a description of the land and what was
found on it:
Jose Rizal knew he was a marked man when he disembarked from the
steamer that brought him from Hong Kong to Manila in 1892. He
chose to stay in a hotel and told relatives and friends who had offered
their hospitality that this was not a snub but for their own good.
Agents from Cuerpo de Vigilancia had trailed him, noting every place
he visited, whom he met, and what he did. I have not seen the actual
documents, but I presume these would be so detailed to contain: the
color of his hat or the food he had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and
merienda in between. The surveillance reports can be deduced from
the questions Rizal was asked at the beginning of his trial for treason
four years later.
On Nov. 26, 1896, Rizal was sworn in and the court records listed him
as a native of Calamba, Laguna, of legal age, single, physician,
never been tried before. Here is a list of names that began with Pio
Valenzuela. Rizal was asked if he knew the suspected rebels, namely:
Martin Constantino Lozano, Jose Reyes Tolentino, Antonio Salazar (the
owner of the bazaar where Rizal bought his shoes), Jose Dizon (an
engraver), Moises Salvador, Domingo Franco (a tobacco dealer from
Nagtahan), Ireneo Francisco, Deodato Arellano (a brother-in-law of
Marcelo H. del Pilar with whom Rizal did not see eye to eye),
Ambrosio Flores (a Mason), Timoteo Plata, Ambrosio Salvador,
Bonifacio Arevalo (a sculptor and dentist Rizal had met for dinner),
Timoteo Paez, Francisco Cordero, Estanislao Legaspi (from Tondo),
Alejandro and Venancio Reyes (brothers who own a shop on Escolta
where Rizal had a suit made), Arcadio del Rosario, Apolinario Mabini
and Pedro Serrano.
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From the list presented to him, Rizal said he knew some but not all,
some of the names he neither recognized by name nor by sight.
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Then Rizal was asked: How does the prisoner explain the fact that his
portrait is included among those of the members of the said
association (Katipunan)?
His reply: As to the portrait, since the prisoner had one of ordinary
size made in Madrid, they might have secured a copy of the portrait.
As to their using his name as a rallying cry, the prisoner has no idea
why they should do this, as he has given them no pretext whatever
for it, and he looks upon it as unqualified presumption on their part.
He did indeed learn from his family that his name was being used to
collect funds for him. [He brought this matter to the military governor
of Dapitan for transmittal to the Governor General in Manila and] got
his family to spread the word around by means of their
acquaintances that he was not asking for alms and that he had
sufficient funds for all his needs with what he earned by the practice
of his profession and what he had won in the Lottery.
Rizal was asked about plans to escape from Dapitan and go to Japan.
He was asked to explain his plans to establish a Filipino settlement in
Sandakan. He was also asked to explain a note found in his papers on
the deflection of a magnetic needle of a compass in Dapitan. All
these details are often left out of our textbooks when they actually
flesh out, in part, a picture of what Rizal was likewhat he was doing,
who his friends or acquaintances were, etc.
When I first read the transcript of the trial of Rizal, I was surprised by
the details about his picture being in the meeting hall of the
Katipunan, and about his name being used as a rallying cry, as a
password, and as a means to solicit funds. Werent we taught to look
down on Rizal because he denounced the Philippine Revolution?
Some teachers go so far as to paint him as a traitor to the revolution,
when it seems from the trial that Rizal was not against the revolution
but, rather, advised that it be postponed for a better timea time
when the Katipuneros had arms, funds, and support from a foreign
power to see the revolution to its successful conclusion.
We have room for both Rizal and Bonifacio in the pantheon of heroes,
and it is unfortunate that some people refuse to appreciate the fact
that while Rizal did not raise a bolo, or fired a gun, he did inspire
Bonifacio into action that led to the Philippine Revolution. I hope that
by including more primary sources in the history curriculum, young
people may see beyond the opinion and ideology and form their own
conclusions.
Rizal is hardly
gasgas
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:36 AM December 11, 2015
Rizal tried his hand at writing Japanese characters, and even drew
and painted in the Japanese style. I think one or two of the women
sketched are of O-Sei-san, with whom he had a brief romance.
Her full name was Usui Seiko, and her nickname was O-sei. The
Usui family came from Chiba, a prefecture near the present Narita
International Airport. Her father was a samurai who turned to
business and ran a trading store in Yokohama. Her older brother was
killed in Ueno during the Shogitai revolt against the Meiji
government.
She was married to Alfred Charlton (born Aug. 13, 1859, in Liverpool;
died Nov. 2, 1915), an English teacher in the First High School, then
the Yamaguchi High School, in Imaguchi. He later taught chemistry in
the prestigious Gakushuin High School. He was decorated with the
Japanese Order of Merit, fifth class, as indicated on his tombstone.
The couple had a daughter named Yuriko, who married the son of a
senator named Yoshiharu Takiguchi. Seikos grandson (no name
provided) was a Japanese diplomat posted in Geneva.
Seiko never told anyone about her friendship with Rizal, and all we
know comes from her stepsister Usui Yoshida, who was tracked down
by Filipino historians in the 1950s. Yoshi said Seiko collected
Philippine stamps and cherished those which had Rizals picture. Her
stamp collection and any mementos left by Rizal were destroyed
during the bombing of Tokyo in 1944. After her home in Shinjuku was
destroyed, Seiko moved to Hagi, west of Yamaguchi, where she died
on May 1, 1947, at the age of 80.
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History has a roster of names that, for better or for worse, are
deemed to embody racial character. To mention a few: in the West,
theres George Washington, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill,
Charles de Gaulle, Karl Marx and Franklin Delano Roosevelt; in the
East, theres Mahatma Gandhi, Sun Yat Sen, Mao Zedong, Hirohito
and Ho Chi Minh; in Africa, theres Nelson Mandela. I believe that the
Filipino national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, is among those who qualify.
Rizal has been called the Great Malayan. But what in his persona
deserves this attribution? To me, it is his being Filipino.
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Rizal, declares the writer Leon Ma. Guerrero, is the First Filipino.
The archipelago had other sons who came before him and who like
him gave their lives to defend the land of their birth.
Lapu-Lapu struck Magellan down and ended the dream of the first
Spanish conquista less than a month after its landfall on the future
colonial soil.
But he didnt call himself Filipino; he was the proud chief of Mactan,
an islet of a petty kingdom.
For 300 years, tribe after tribe took up arms against the colonial
regime for one reason or anotherthe friars, the Church, forced
labor, a wine tax, the tobacco monopoly.
Whether the rebellion was long-drawn-out or short-lived, the rebels
fought for the same cause: to regain the freedom they used to enjoy.
The Spaniards who were born in the Philippines, who were snubbed
by Spaniards from Spain, called themselves Filipinos, but only to
assert an equal superiority.
To the very end all the Spaniards, regardless of origin, called the
natives by the derogatory name they had always usedindios.
Rizals contemporaries
Rizal was no exception. Absence made his heart grow fonder for his
native soil, and he wore his heart on his sleeve.
Everything Rizal did from about 1882, the year he left for Madrid at
age 21, was dedicated to extolling the land and people of his
affections.
La Liga Filipina
Through Noli and Fili, Rizal forced his countrymen to confront their
tragic lot and then taught them what they could do and be if they
loved what is just to the point of dying for it.
National catharsis
Rizals life fulfilled the spiritual and political aspirations of his people.
His death brought on a national catharsis that underscored the
primacy of sacrifice.
And in being Filipino, Rizal paid tribute to the Malay race. His
annotations to Morgas Sucesos was a call to awareness of the old
Malay legacy. His vision of racial unity in the region would be taken a
step further by future statesmen.
By contrast, ASA, Maphilindo and Asean rose from the region and
clearly promoted regional interests.
The Asean is now in its 47th year and, next year, will integrate into a
single bloc called the Asean economic community. Its original five
nationsIndonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand
have been joined by Brunei, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia
and Vietnam, bringing the total number of member states to 10.
Rizal in Paris
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:11 AM November 18, 2015
In Rizals time, the fastest train from Madrid to Paris took all of 36
hours, which he mostly spent looking out the window. He noted that
from the barren land of Castille, the landscape turned green in the
Basque country. His first stop in France was Hendaye, whose
landscape he found most pleasing. He arrived in Paris on a Sunday
and checked in at the Hotel de Paris (on 37 Rue de Maubeuge), which
had been recommended by Filipino friends. His only complaint, if any,
was that everything in Paris was expensive.
The environs of Paris are very beautiful and very picturesque. There
are little houses with gardens and the churches, like all those we
have seen along the road, are of Gothic style, so pure, so tall are their
turrets that with the landscape they form and constitute the
enchantment of the traveler. From Hendaye onwards, the politeness
and urbanity of the people are noticeable; if you address anyone, he
replies amiably and takes off his hat, and when you pay or give them
anything, they dont fail to thank you, just as for the slightest collision
or stumbling, they ask you for pardon or excuse. In Paris it is even
more so. What Grant says that the English in comparison with the
French are barbarians, I can apply to myself. Having been
accustomed to a certain kind of treatment for many months, now
that Im in Paris, I find myself and I consider myself almost rude.
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The original letters preserved in the Lopez Museum and Library are
an interesting read even if Rizals long, detailed description of Paris
landmarksChamps Elyses, Place Vendome, Place de la Concorde,
Opera, Madeleinewere all drawn from the Baedeker Guide. He
dined at the brasserie Duval and visited the shopping mallsBon
Marche, El Louvre, Le Printemps, Jardiniere, etc. But not all was
sightseeing, because he also spent time in the Laennec hospital to
observe. Then as now, the best way to explore Paris is on foot:
Early in the morning I went out for a stroll, and by the long time that
I walked and the little I covered, I can imagine how big is this city that
they call Babylon. Fill with magnificent houses the entire area of
Calamba, Cabuyao and Santa Rosa and youll have Paris more or less.
That is the way I figure it out because to traverse it in a coach from
one extreme to the other takes more than an hour and a half. Here
man is a real ant; there are streets whose ends cannot be seen and
nevertheless they are straight, wide and very well laid out, shops and
department stores everywhere; coaches for hire are said to reach
25,000. Passersby animate and throng the streets, the restaurants,
cafs, bouillons, beer halls, parks and monuments.
On every street, however small it may be, there is at least one hotel,
and these hotels are filled with travelers from all parts of the world
who come and go, so that there are always seen new faces, trunks,
and suitcases everywhere, different attires, strange types, including
us. Here they call us Japanese, because there are a large number of
them around.
On the first day I did nothing else but walk and walk. I saw the
Champs Elyses is an extensive park from the Place de la Concorde
to the Arch of the Carousel, wide and long, filled with trees, with
theaters on both sides in which plays and concerts are held at night,
with cafs, exhibitions, flowers and plants. There many persons go to
sew under the trees or to read. There are children with their nurses,
etc., etc. The Champs Elyses at night is full of people.
The original Rizal letters from Paris in the Lopez Museum are
incomplete, and he wrote in a series on the sights. Unlike Spain,
where Asians were mistaken for Chinese, in France Asians were
mistaken for Japanese. In an exhibit of Japanese art at the Palace of
Industries, Rizal impersonated a Japanese. In the Museum of Orfila,
he saw a table made of human organs and a painting of a noble
dwarf. He described public parks and gardens, also the Jardin des
Plantes, the Luxembourg palace and garden. He visited the tomb of
Napoleon at the Invalides.
In one letter, Rizal said not much has happened yet. He sent a long
meticulous report on the Pantheon, the ruins of Cluny, etc. Reading
this made me ask: Maybe it would have been easier for him to just
send the Baedeker Guide to Calamba? But every now and then, he
described what he saw in relation to something in the Philippines. For
example, in an exhibit of footwear from all over the world that he
viewed in a museum, he commented that he found embroidered red
slippers like those sold on Rosario street in Binondo, as well as straw
slippers of the twenty-centavo kind, etc.
Reading about Rizal in Paris in the days following the terrorist attacks
on this beautiful city is a way of believing that Paris and the French
will endure.
How much of a formal education did our heroes have? We all know
how Bonifacio was humiliated during the Tejeros Convention: His
election as secretary of the interior was questioned because he had
neither degree nor title. He was home-schooled and, according to
Teodoro Agoncillo, finished the equivalent of our Grade 4.
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Like Bonifacio, Mabini read a great deal. His reputation for learning,
for having a gintong ulo (golden head), led to his being ferried on a
hammock all the way from Batangas to Kawit, Cavite, where he
arrived on June 12, 1898, to witness Aguinaldos declaration of
Philippine independence from Spain. For a year, Mabini became the
closest and most influential adviser to Aguinaldo, the president of the
first republic.
ADVERTISEMENT
All this shows that a formal education can bring you only so far. What
you do after graduation, after receiving the diploma, is what matters
most.
***
All the interest generated by the film Heneral Luna helps us see
that history is composed of many narratives, some conflicting. It also
gives us a chance to reflect on the role of mothers in history. Teodora
Alonso, Jose Rizals mother, is said to have climbed the staircase of
Malacaang in 1896 to intercede for the life of her son. An hour
before his life was snuffed out by a bullet in the field of Bagumbayan,
Rizal left a note that reads: To my very beloved mother Sra. Doa
Teodora Alonso, At six oclock in the morning of 30 December 1896.
Jose Rizal. It leaves little to the historian, but much to a grieving
mother.
Nothing can be more tragic than for a mother to bury her child, worse
when it comes in threes, as it did for Laureana Novicio vda. de Luna
in 1899: First she buried her daughter Numeriana, then her son
Antonio was murdered in Cabanatuan in June, then another son Juan
died in Hong Kong in December. Antonios murderers were never
brought to justice, and Juan, we all know, died of a heart attack on
Dec. 7, 1899, as stated coldly in the death certificate: Juan Luna, 42
years old, painter, passed away in 2 Lower Castle Terrace, due to
angina pectoris, literally translated to pain in the chest, or a heart
attack. His death was registered the next day by a certain A. Martin
and PPJ Wodehouse, nephew of the British author P.G. Wodehouse.
ADVERTISEMENT
Our story should end with Juan Lunas death certificate, but I have
always been interested in a lead given me by E. Aguilar Cruz and
Teodoro A. Agoncillo, senior members of the National Historical
Institute, who suggested that the painter might not have died of
natural reasons, and was probably poisoned by someone hired by his
brother-in-law, Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera. Revenge was suggested
as the motive since Juan Luna had murdered Pardo de Taveras
mother Juliana Gorricho and sister Paz in a fit of jealousy in Paris in
1892.
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That Laureana Novicio vda. de Luna believed her two sons were
murdered is one thing. That her son and grandson also believed this
is shown in two articles by Alfonso T. Ongpin, published in the
Spanish-language Voz de Manila and Nueva Era in 1949. A part reads:
I used to frequent the residence of the brother [of Juan Luna] Don
Pepe (Jose Luna), reputable toxicologist who on one occasion told me
verbally that his brother Juan died treacherously poisoned in Hong
Kong by a compatriot of ours. This was also confirmed by his only son
Andres Luna de San Pedro, creator of notable buildings and
magnificent mansions that are now standing in this capital and in the
provinces.
While I have yet to find the so-called smoking gun, I have looked at
Juan Lunas handwritten apology to Pardo de Tavera dated Jan. 19,
1897, and preserved in the Lopez Museum, that reads:
ADVERTISEMENT
Josephine Bracken
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:36 AM August 26, 2015
The more positive interview transcribed from the China Mail of May
29, 1897 reads:
ADVERTISEMENT
Mrs. Josephine Taufer, widow of Dr. Rizal who was shot in Manila for
complicity in the Rebellion in the Philippines arrived in the Colony on
May 23 by the Yuensang. A representative of the China Mail visited
Mrs. Rizal at her place of residence to-day, and elicited a remarkable
story of her career in the Philippines.
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As is now very well known, Mrs. Rizal is an English girl, born in Hong
Kong. In August 1894, she sailed for Manila, where Mr. Taufer had
gone on medical advice, he having suffered for two years from
cataract. After staying for six months in Manila, they journeyed to
Perin on the island of Dapitan. Here Dr. Rizal was called upon to
undertake the treatment of Mr. Tauffers eyes. Dr. Rizal had frequent
opportunities of meeting Miss Taufer, and the friendship thus formed
deepened into love and ultimately they were engaged. Dr. Rizal was
at this time living in banishment. Everything was prepared for the
marriage but one day a Spaniard came and told the young couple
that if they were to be married he would separate them immediately
afterwards. Miss Taufer expressed her surprise at what she termed
his silly proposal, and said: If I am not married I remain under the
English Flag, and if I am married I will be under the Spanish flag.
On 28th July 1896 Dr. Rizals liberty was sent from Manila, on
condition that he should go to Cuba for medical service. They
immediately left Dapitan by the Spanish mail Espaa for Manila,
leaving everything behind. On arrival in Manila harbour, a steam
launch came alongside the steamer and a Spanish officer came
aboard, and gave instructions that Dr. Rizal would be detained on
board. Miss Taufer was allowed to go ashore half an hour afterward,
and went to Dr. Rizals home in Manila. About ten oclock at night a
message was sent on shore from Dr. Rizal that his sweetheart might
come on board. She immediately obeyed the summons, and when
she met the doctor he told her he had sent for her to say goodbye,
that he was going on board the Spanish Cruiser [illegible] which was
to convey him to Spain. The Castilla remained for about a month in
Manila harbour, during which time Dr. Rizal was closely watched by
order of [illegible] Henrique [illegible] mtalo. Miss Tafer [illegible] and
Rizals sister visited him [illegible] board the vessel. [illegible] the
preparation of that period that cruiser sailed for Spain. From
Singapore he wrote to Miss Taufer, and that was the last letter she
received from him during his absence in Europe, although he stated
when he returned to Manila that he had written from Barcelona. On
arrival at Barcelona he was detained by the authorities who searched
his baggage, where they found his masonry papers, which were
tucked away with his pen-knives, razors [illegible]. The Authorities
declared [illegible] chief of the Katipunan.
Josephine Bracken,
revolutionary
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 02:03 AM August 28, 2015
Two copies of Navarros clippings from the China Mail regarding the
Widow of Rizal existone sent to the governor general in Manila,
the other to Madrid. These yellowing and brittle clippings were
damaged along the folds, so when I transcribed them, I referred to
the missing texts as illegible. Now that the Hong Kong papers are
available online, I should update my notes. Since we are all familiar
with the romantic angle of Josephines life with Rizal, I conclude with
material after Rizals death, when Josephine slowly began to fade
from history. Before she returned to Hong Kong in May 1897,
Josephine was with the rebels in Cavite, having travelled there on the
afternoon of Dec. 30, 1896, the day Rizal was executed in Luneta:
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The same day she set off on foot at half past three to the rebel
position at Imus, without informing her sisters-in-law of her plans.
She walked all night and part of next day and arrived at Sapote
[Zapote] at eleven oclock in the morning. There she met one of the
civilian authorities who asked her who she was, to which she made
the reply, A Sister, Rizals widow. On the news becoming known, she
was well received, and from there was taken to Imus, where she met
Emilio Aguinaldo, the rebel leader. She was received with great
demonstration as the widow of a martyr for the cause. They
conducted her to San Francisco de Malabon [now General Trias], and
there she remained in one of the convents. In that convent were
many traces of the licentious life of the priests. Here she remained
for twenty-three days caring for the sick and wounded.
IN THE FIGHT
The long China Mail feature on Bracken ends with her saying: [A]s
long as she had breath it would be her endeavor to help the
Philippines in their fight for liberty. To clear my doubts on parts of
Brackens story requires more research that will hopefully result in
another book.
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***
What most people do not know is that this woman, described by Rizal
as his poor and unhappy wife, laid claim to part of Rizals estate
and brought Teodora Alonso to court to force the family to produce
what she claimed was Rizals last will and testament. In her
desperate attempt to force the hand of the Rizal family, she wrote a
series of letters to Ferdinand Blumentritt.
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Well I must bid you good dear friend because the mail closes at 10
a.m. With fondest love to Mrs. Blumentritt [and] Children.
Respectable Friend: I let you know by these few lines that my late
husband Dr. Jose Rizal left all his books to you. There are three
bookcases I mean library [sic] in care of Mr. Jose Maria Basas house I
opened the Will last month and found that the bookcases were for
you, he very often told me that those books cost him 3000$. I asked
Mr. Basa for the books and he denied them, I think it is better for you
to write over and ask him for the things that my husband left for you.
Yes; dear friend the Philippines [Filipinos] out here now they are not
Gentlemen, they deceived me a great deal their [sic] were 1000$
given to Rizal by the Freemason Lodge so it was to be given to me,
but they took it and spent it all. I think it is the best thing for you to
me a letter to hand the bookcases to me and I will sent [sic] it over to
you, because Mr. Basa is selling all the best books. I have lots of
troubles with the Philippines they are not what I thought them to be, I
took them to be like my husband, but I see that I am deceived.
Hoping that all your family [sic] are enjoying good health and please
excuse my letter if it is badly written because I am with a strong
favour [sic].
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Basas reply to Josephine and her lawyers when they demanded the
turnover of Rizals books was that she had to give him proof of her
marriage to Rizal. A marriage certificate issued by Church authorities
in Manila, or even a certification from the British Consul in Manila,
would have been sufficient. Josephine was not able to produce the
document and failed to claim Rizals library.
The Rizals were not an ordinary 19th-century family. They were upper
class, educated, well-read and had a view of the world outside
Calamba. Paciano was far from the stereotype country bumpkin. In
their correspondence, Paciano asked Rizal to comment on the global
price of sugar in the New York commodities market and how
competition from the US beet sugar would affect his crop in Laguna.
In a letter dated May 26, 1883, he remarked: The country that is
most burdened with taxes, in the opinion of various persons, is the
Philippines.
Paciano complained of the poll tax and the cedula that everyone had
to carry on their person as a form of identification. So burdensome
had the poll tax become such that Andres Bonifacio, when he began
the Philippine Revolution against Spain, inspired his men to battle by
tearing his cedula. I presume that when the Katipuneros tore their
cedula, the feeling must have been similar to the feeling of those
who participated in Edsa 1986 and shouted Sobra na! Tama na!
Palitan na!
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husband of his sister Lucia, said this about taxes on Aug. 29, 1886:
The tax! With regard to your question on this, the answer is very
long, as it is the cause of the prevailing misery here. What I can write
you will be only one-half of the story and even Dumas,
senior, cannot exhaust the subject. Nevertheless, Ill try to write what
I can, though I may not be able to give a complete story, you may at
least know half of it.
Here, there are many kinds of taxes. What they call irrigated rice
land, even if it has no water, must pay a tax of 50 cavanes of palay
(unhusked rice), and land with six cavanes of seed pay 5 pesos in
cash. The land they call dry land that is planted to sugar cane, maize,
and others pay different rates. Even if the agreed amount is 30 pesos
for land with six cavanes of seed, if they see that the harvest is good,
they increase the tax, but they dont decrease it, if the harvest is
poor. There is land whose tax is 25 pesos or 20 pesos, according to
custom.
The most troublesome are the residential lots in the town. There is
no fixed rule that is followed, only their whim. Hence, even if it is only
one span in size, if a stone wall is added, 50 pesos must be paid, the
lowest being 20 pesos. But a
nipa or cogon house pays only one peso for an area of ten fathoms
square. Another feature of this system is that on the day you accept
the conditions, the contract will be written which cannot be changed
for four years, but the tax is increased every year. For these reasons,
for two years now the payment of tax is confused and little by little
the fear of the residents here of the word vacant is being dispelled,
which our ancestors had feared so much. The result is bargaining, like
they do in buying fish. It is advisable to offer a low
Im looking for a receipt to send you, but I cannot find any, because
we dont get a receipt every time we pay. Anyway it is value-less as it
does not state the amount paid; it only says that the tax for that year
was paid, without stating whether it is five centavos, twenty-five
centavos, one hundred, or one thousand pesos. The residents who
ask or get the said receipt accept it with closed eyes. The receipt has
no signature in the place where the amount paid ought to be,
although it bears their name. Until now I cannot comprehend why
some are signed and others are not. This is more or less what is
happening here in the payment of the land tax and it has been so for
many years since I can remember.
Besides this, the taxes on the plants in the fields that are far from
the town, like the land in Pansol, are various. The tax on the palay is
separate from the tax on maize, mongo, or garlic. There is no limit to
this tax, for they fix it themselves. Since July no one buys sugar and
since June locusts are all over the town and they are destroying palay
and sugar cane, which is what we regret here. The governor gave 50
pesos to pay the catchers of locusts, but when they took them to the
town hall they were paid only 25 cents a
cavan and a half; and it seems that the locusts are not decreasing.
According to the guess of the residents here only 300 cavanes of
locusts have been caught in this town. Many still remain. Though the
governor has not sent any more money, the people have not stopped
catching them.
While it is true that the only things certain in life are death and taxes,
reading about these from primary sources is more lively and relevant
than reading about them in textbooks.
Rizals Ateneo
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:43 AM June 18, 2014
JR: I dressed like the other studentsthat is, I put on a coat with a
ready-made necktie. With what fervor I entered the chapel of the
Jesuit fathers to hear Mass, what most fervent prayers I addressed to
God, for in my sadness I didnt know whom else to invoke. After Mass,
I went to class where I saw a great number of boys, Spaniards,
mestizos, and Filipinos, and a Jesuit who was the professor.
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JR: [One] was called Father Jos Bech, a tall man, thin, with a body
slightly bent forward, with hurried walk, an ascetic, severe and
inspired face, small, deep-sunken eyes, a sharp Grecian nose, with
thin lips forming an arc whose ends turned toward his chin. This
priest was a bit crazy, so that one should not be surprised to find him
sometimes disgusted and ill-humored; other times he played like a
child.
I had other professors, called Fathers Vilaclara and Minoves, the first
one of whom liked me very much and to whom I was somewhat
difficult. Although I was studying philosophy, physics, chemistry, and
natural history, and in spite of the fact that Father Vilaclara had told
me to give up communing with the Muses and give them a last
goodbye (which made me cry), in my leisure hours I continued
speaking and cultivating the beautiful language of Olympus under
the direction of Father Sanchez.
Father Heras, our friend and chief, complained that the work was very
tiresome. Father Pastells was my best friend; he was the most
distinguished and the best traveled among the Jesuit missionaries.
He was also very zealous. I sketched his picture from memory but
Father Snchez took it away from me Fr. Federico Vila was a
linguist; he also spoke German, French, English, Greek, Latin, etc. I
still remember the hardships of Father Torra when he entrusted to me
the first page for the Cartas de los PP, etc. Those were happy days.
JR: You should know that in the Jesuit colleges, two empires were
established to stimulate learning and competition among the
students. One was Roman and the other Carthaginian or Greek,
constantly at war, and in which the highest positions were won by
challenges that were successful when the opponent made three
mistakes. They put me at the tail end. I scarcely knew Spanish, but I
already understood it.
Don Teodoro R.
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Torre de Rizal, or
Insulting the
national hero
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 02:21 AM September 07, 2015
But when a measure of self-rule had been obtained after two wars
against two colonial powers, the emerging nations revolutionary
generation hastened to honor the memory of the First Filipino. They
did it in large part through public subscription: People from all walks
of life donated money for the establishment of a Rizal monument.
This extraordinary circumstance has not been noted in the ongoing
debate over the construction of the Torre de Manila and the national
significance of the Rizal Monument and its surroundings. The
monument required P100,000 in funding. Between 1905 and 1912,
Filipinos donated over P100,000 to the fund; the American
government contributed only P30,000.
And yet this same person was part of the committee that labored to
build a monument worthy of the herothe very same one who
conveyed Rizals startling message from jail cell to revolutionary
assembly, the one man whose personal sacrifice supported Rizals
studies abroad and the publication of his subversive writings. Other
members of the committee included friends and allies of Rizal
recipients of his letters and advice, believers in his cause. Would they
have dared to dishonor Rizals own wishes, about being buried in a
simple grave, about the admonition not to observe any anniversaries,
if they did not know that, the historical conditions having changed,
Rizal would approve changes to his final resting place, too?
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Everyone on that committee knew that Rizal worried often about the
legacy he would leave behind: hence the ambitious plan to complete
a deathless poem before his execution, the decision to wear the
clothes of a European (that is, as an equal of the Spanish) to his
death, the determination to avoid inflicting any more pain on his
family and his circle (thus, the admonition: No anniversaries). They
all thought that the simple obelisk design finally chosen because of
both choice and circumstance was appropriateour own Torre de
Rizal. The enthusiastic Filipinos who supported the public subscription
drive must have thought so, tooand it has been ever thus, until the
construction of Torre de Manila forced interested parties into
contorted rationalizations.
It is this story of the Filipino nation that the Torre de Manila seeks,
blithely, to set aside.
Torre de Rizal
By: Willy E. Arcilla - @inquirerdotnet
12:02 AM July 05, 2015
PHOTOBOMBER Increasing the height of the Rizal Monument would
solve the photobomber problem caused by Torre de Manila, according
to some quarters. ARNOLD ALMACEN/ERNIE SAMBO
Public donation
This time, we can draw from the vast talent pool of world-class
Filipino artists and architects (since the old monument was created
by a Swiss sculptor in an international competition) for a renovation
that can enhance and elevate the stature of the existing monument
and invite the public to donate funds. Such a project can even
rekindle the ideals of Rizal for our patria adorada, especially among
the youth.
Perhaps the Rizal monument stood tall back in the early 1900s, but
the world has already grown by quantum leaps in building structures
of shrines and memorials, monuments and towers, landmarks and
attractions.
This could be why the Quezon Memorial, built 50 years later, stands
much taller than Rizals, and does not have to compete with existing
edifices nor does it become a hindrance to future buildings.
Contrast the Rizal Monument with similar shrines, such as the Lincoln
Memorial and the Washington Monument. As the countrys principal
tourist landmark, the Rizal Monument also pales in comparison with
those of our Asian neighbors, such as Indonesias Monas (Monument
Nasional) and Malaysias Petronas Towers, Thailands Grand Palace
and Buddhist temples, Bruneis Sultans Palace (built by DMCI) and
mosques, the Great Wall of China and Chairman Maos image in
Tiananmen Square.
Man-made landmarks
Is it not about time we ask when the Philippines can ever erect
distinct man-made landmarks that Filipinos can be proud of and
foreigners can visit to admire, instead of just relying
Lapu-lapu Monument at Luneta Park
Turkeys Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, Englands Tower Bridge and
Big Ben Clock Tower, Buckingham Palace and Westminster,
Germanys Brandenburg Gate and medieval castles, Russias St.
Basils Cathedral in Moscow and St. Petersburgs Church of the Savior
on Blood.
Sydneys Opera House and Darling Harbor Bridge, Brazils Risen
Christ and today, the pride of the Middle East and the new capital of
the world, Dubai, with its Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa, The World and
Palm Jumeirah.
Ideal solution
120-meter-high memorial
As Kevin Costner said in the movie Field of Dreams, If you build it,
[they] will come. So too will more tourists flock to marvel at a bigger
and better Rizal Monument we can christen Torre de Rizal.
The following month, the local government of Manila city, under the
administration of then Mayor Alfredo Lim, granted a building permit
to DMCI because the company, according to Melvin Balagot, the city
building officer, had duly submitted all requirements, including an
approval from the city planning office in the form of a zoning permit.
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inRead invented by Teads
However, in January 2014, construction continued after the Manila
Zoning Board of Adjustments and Appeals granted DMCI an
exemption from the zoning regulation.
Demolition sought
In November last year, the high court ordered the inclusion of the
National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the National
Museum of the Philippines, the National Historical Commission of the
Philippines and Manila city officials as intervenors in the case.
The Knights has since made several calls on the high court to finally
issue a temporary restraining order, saying the building continues to
rise each day.
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The NCCA, however, claimed that DMCI had not abided by the order
as shown by footage of ongoing construction at the work site.
In 1999, DMCI spun off its housing division DMCI Homes. Other
projects of DMCI Homes include Cedar Crest and Royal Palm
Residences in Taguig, Magnolia Place in Tandang Sora in Quezon City,
East Raya Gardens in Pasig, Flair Towers and Tivoli Garden
Residences in Mandaluyong, La Verti Residences on Taft Avenue,
Illumina Residences in Sta. Mesa, Ohana Place in Las Pias, Siena
Park Residences in Paraaque and Rhapsody Residences in
Muntinlupa.Inquirer Research
A tomb
Contrary to popular belief, the Rizal Monument is not the exact spot
where Rizal was felled by a bullet on the morning of Dec. 30, 1896.
Rizal fell some 100 meters away, northwest of the monument, on the
side of Rizal Park toward the corner of Roxas Boulevard and P. Burgos.
Neither is the Rizal monument Kilometer Zero, the point from which
all geographical distances on highway markers in the Philippines are
reckoned.
Burial at Luneta
After Rizals execution in 1896, his corpse was not turned over to his
family for a proper funeral and burial. Rizal was interred in an
unmarked grave at Paco Cemetery, which one of Rizals sisters
located only after bribing one of the undertakers. She marked the
grave with a simple tombstone with the letters RPJ, the initials of
Jose P. Rizal in reverse.
The Rizal figure faces the Quirino Grandstand and the Manila Bay, to
gaze upon the setting rather than the rising sun. Arranged around the
obelisk are other bronze figures: on one side is a mother rearing a
child, on the opposite side two boys reading to underscore Rizals
love for family or the motherland caring for her citizens, and
education. Behind the monument is a still life composed of: a banana
tree, an earthenware jar and a plow to suggest industry and the
natural resources of the Philippines.
Last wishes
Bury me in the ground, place a stone and a cross over it. My name,
the date of my birth and of my death. Nothing more. If you later wish
to surround my grave with a fence, you may do so. No anniversaries.
I prefer Paang Bundok [the area where the Manila North and Chinese
Cemeteries now stand].
All but one of these last wishes were followed. Instead of a simple
cross and tombstone, a monument in granite and bronze was built
over Rizals grave. Instead of Paang Bundok, he now rests in Luneta.
Each year on Dec. 30, the President of the Philippines lays a wreath
on the monument and leads the nation in commemorating Rizals
death, when he specified no anniversaries.
Rizal might well be amused about the honor and respect we accord
him, manifested in the fierce defense of a monument and a sight line.
God forbid that Rizal comments with the title of Shakespeares play:
Much ado about nothing. (To be continued)
Controversies over
Bonifacios death
By: Ambeth R. Ocampo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 03:38 AM May 07, 2014
This situation has led some people to ask: Who is greater then, Rizal
or Bonifacio? It is an ideological rather than historical question that
finds no resolution, which is why I have always maintained that we
should stop comparing and measuring heroes against each other
because it is not a boxing match where one emerges the victor,
leaving a nation divided. Instead of choosing between Rizal or
Bonifacio, we should embrace both as National Heroes for they both
figured in the emergence of the nation.
The brothers were found guilty and sentenced to death; the sentence
was later carried out, textbook history says, by a company of men
under Lazaro Makapagal on May 10, 1897. I learned in school that the
site of their execution was Mount Buntis, but when I did some field
research in 1997 I was surprised to learn that the actual site is known
as Nagpatong. It did not escape my green mind to see that some of
the place names in the area could be arranged in order to suggest
the sex act: Nagpatong, Pumutok, Buntis, and Hulog.
Well, now it seems that the authenticity of the trial documents and all
the other primary sources that have led all Filipino historians to
accept May 10, 1897, as Bonifacios date of death is now in question.
(Concluded on Friday)
April 26, 1897 was interred in this site, the cadaver of Andres
Bonifacio.
What is not well-known is that Kalaw made his own transcription and
translation of the Bonifacio trial, then preserved in the archives of the
Bureau of Insular Affairs in Washington, DC. This was translated into
English by Paz Policarpio Mendez and published in 1926. It makes for
very painful reading today because on its pages we see the wounded
and disgraced Supremo of the Katipunan being tried for treason
against a government he did not recognize, and by a court he did not
recognize even if he did not put this on record. This week I step back,
allowing readers to form their own conclusions from the primary-
source text.
Asked if among the guns there was the mark Magdalo. He replied
that he did not know exactly the signs, but he was fully confident that
they were all his, because the men who had them had testified to
that effect.
Asked who took charge of rubbing out the signs on the guns. He
replied that there was nobody.
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Asked if he knew Pedro Giron, Benito Torres, Pio del Pilar, and
Modesto Ritual. He replied that he knew all of them.
Asked if during his stay in Limbon, he held meetings, and who were
present in the meetings. He replied that he did not recall holding a
meeting with anybody save with his companions.
Asked if he remembered how many times he held conference with
Pedro Giron on the subject of killing the President of the government.
He replied that he never talked to the person alluded to on the
subject he was being questioned.
More on Friday.