INDOLENCE

Rizal’s 2 essays published in la solidaridad:

- Sobre la indolencia de los Filipinos

- Los Agricultores Filipinos

Sobre la indolencia de los Filipinos – cause of Filipino indolence was the climate of the Philippines

- Physical sense – tropical country

- Sociopolitical sense – social disorders rooted in the Spanish rule
 Filipino indolence can be traced to the abuse and discrimination experienced by the Filipinos
under the Spanish rule which led to the deterioration of Filipino values.
 Rizal compared Filipino indolence to an illness which must be properly diagnosed before a
description could be made.

Factors of Filipino indolences:

1. Economic policies: tributo – unreasonable taxes; polo y servicio – mandated forced labor on
Filipino males 16 to 60 years for a 40-day period.
2. Limited training and education provided – for the fear of Filipino insubordination and retaliation
3. Lack of national sentiment of unity among Filipinos caused by the stigma that Filipino culture
was inferior to foreign culture.

Rizal’s solution to indolence was education and liberty from oppression.

Los Agricultores Filipinos – Rizal commended the intention of the Spanish colonizers to develop
agriculture in the Philippines.

- Rizal recommended to the Minister of Colonies to consult Filipino tillers who would be
affected by any agrarian problem and assist them.
- Rizal pointed that calamities were not to blame solely for the poor harvest but also because
of the abusive colonial policies such as polo y servicio.
- Banditry and thieves and the inability of the colonial guards to provide adequate protection.
Rizal’s solution- urged the farmers to be equipped with guns to defend themselves.

ABANDONMENT OF ASSIMILATION

Factors of abandonment:

1. Lack of significant progress in the campaign for reform.

2. Loss of motivation
3. Lack of unity: for other Filipinos opted to passively participate, while others find their own ways
in more active campaign against Spain.
4. Personal rivalries arose and became a hindrance to the formation of concrete plans and actions.
Ex: Graciano Lopez-Jaena and Jose Rizal’s disagreement and differences cause them to withdraw
from La Solidaridad.
5. Marcelo H. Del Pilar – left alone and manage the newspaper single-handedly.
6. Establishment of a new organization to counter the Spanish rule resulted in setbacks on the
efforts initiated by La Solidaridad.
  For Rizal the lack of Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes and the denial of justice to
the appeal of the Filipinos over agrarian reforms has proven the improbability of a campaign for
Filipino rights.
 Rizal’s reformation:
- No separation from Spain but more care, better instruction, better officials, one or two
representatives, more security for people and property.

La Liga Filipina – a secret Society that embodied the ideas Rizal embodied in El Filibusterismo – provision
of mutual protection, defense against all injustices and promotion of instruction and education among
Filipnos.

EL FILIBUSTERISMO

Rizal dedicated the book to the 3 martyr priests.

1888 – he started writing el filibusterismo, finished on 1889. With 39 chapters.

Rizal had to move to Ghent for cheaper printing.

Valentine Ventura – offered financial help for the publication in September 1891. The original manuscript
was given to him as a token of gratitude.

Noli Me Tangere – to expose to the Filipinos the abusive ways of the Spanish authorities and friars;
corruption of the Spaniards; insights of the condition of the Philippine society under the Spanish colonial
rule through the different characters in the story.

- Elias – family suffered from abuses of the Spaniards and thus took part in the revolutionary
spirit of the Filipinos.
- Padre Damaso – epitome of hypocrisy and moral corruption of the Spaniards, particularly
the friars.
- Basilio – as a youth recognized their role in the society as the catalyst for social change.

El Filibusterismo – Rizal warned that its corrupt and self-seeking colonial government would lead to
disaster such as what happened to Kabesang Tales and Basilio.

- Basilio – as a youth discontented in the Philippine society experienced great loss. Seemed to
represent Rizal in the novel.
- Dona Victorina and Paulita Gomez – Filipino elites who out or greed, selfishness,
complacency, and cowardice turned a blind eye on the abuses of the Spanish authorities as
long as these did not affect them.
- Padre Florentino – called on the youth to respond to change by preparing for eventual
independence once they are proven to be worthy and ready for it through education,
exemplary lives and willingness to sacrifice.

1911 – the Noli Me Tangere was acquired by the Philippine government for 32,000 from Soledad Rizal de
Quintero

1928 – El Filibusterismo was sold by Valentine Ventura to the Philippine government for 10,000 pesos.
German government – offered a conservation project in 2011 for the restoration of Rizal’s original works:
Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, Mi Ultimo Adios

LIFE IN EXILE

June 26, 1892 – Rizal returned to Manila but he was already declared as enemy of the state.

July 3, 1892 – Rizal and his friends established La Liga Filipina

Doroteo Ongjunco – offered his house for the group’s safehouse, located in Tondo Manila.

La Liga Filipina – a social reformist group advocating social reforms through legal means, a threat to the
Spanish authorities.

July 6, 1892 – Rizal was arrested through the orders of Gov. Gen. Eulogio Despujol.

Gaceta de Manila – a newspaper that publicized Rizal’s arrest on the grounds of being anti-Catholic and
anti-friar stance manifested in his writings.

Dapitan, Zamboanga – were Rizal was exiled, far from his family and friends so that communication
would be difficult.

In Dapitan in Rizal:

- Serving the people and society through his civic works, medical practices, agricultural
projects, and education.
- Rizal studied the lifestyle, values, and beliefs of the cultural minorities. He realized that they
should not be excluded from the narrative of the Philippine society, they were important in
the formation of the national consciousness.

Fray Pablo Pastells – Superior of the Jesuit mission in the Philippines, tried his best to make Rizal
reconsider his stance against the Church

Josephine Bracken – lover of Rizal who was accompanying her blind foster father to seek Rizal’s help
about his cataract.

Dr. Pio Valenzuela – an emissary by Andres Bonifacio to seek Rizal’s opinion and approval of an armed
rebellion against Spanish authorities.

 Rizal opposing the idea of armed rebellion:

- The filipinos did not need to wage bloody revolution to gain independence
- Filipinos were not yet united and fully educated
- The Katipunan lacked the machinery to defeat the Spaniards.

TRIALS AND EXECUTION

Martyr – a person who suffer persecution and death advocating, renouncing, and refusing to advocate a
belief as demanded by an external party.
  Rizal’s death led to the birth of reforms and society and the transformation of the lives of the
Filipinos.
- He was accused of subversion; forming an organization that posted a severe threat to the
existing social order.
- He was presented with 2 kinds of evidence:
1. Documentary evidence:
 the exchange of letters he wrote to the propagandists and to his family,
 the poem Kundiman,
 a masonic document honoring Rizal’s patriotic services,
 a letter signed by Dimasalang (pen name of Rizal) which stated that he prepared a safe refuge for
Filipinos who suffered persecution from the Spanish authorities, an anonymous letter to the
editor of a Hong Kong telegraph censuring the banishment of Rizal to Dapitan.
 A transcript of the speck of Pingkian (pen name of Emilio Jacinto) in a reunion of the katipunan
 A transcript of the speck of Tik-tik (pen name of Jose Turiano Santiago0
 A poem of Laong Laan (another pen name of Jose Rizal) titled Himno A Talisay

2. Testimonies evidence whom Rizal did not know or had not met; Martin Constantino,
Aguedo del Rosario, Jose Reyes, Moises Salvador, Jose Dizon, Domingo, Franco, Deodato
Arellano, Pio Valenzuela, Antonio Salazar, Francisco Quison, Timoteo Paez

Luis Taviel de Andrade – Rizal’s lawyer

Rizal’s spent his last 24 hours in his prison cell.

During the last hours:

 He was visited by his family
 Wrote a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt – his 2nd brother
 Wrote Mi Ultimo Adios
 December 30, 1896 – in the morning, set on his walk from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan square.
 He was instructed to face the sea and turn his back against the firing squad, but he faced the
firing squad to show his innocence of the charges thrown at him. The Spanish authorities forced
him to face backwards and shot him to the back allowed him to turn his body sideways and fell
on the ground with his face upward.

Consummatum Est – IT IS FINISHED, Rizal’s last words.

THE TRANCENDENTAL HERO

Transcendental hero – someone who goes beyond the ordinary limits of his or her time and situation,
and inspires others to do the same; not bound by the rules of society, but follows his or her own vision
and values. (www.coursehero.com)

1. From a middle class family he suffered and struggled because of the prevailing social conditions
2. Talented and skilled that he always had advantage over his contemporaries.
 3. Leadership skills were exceptional as he led the propaganda movement
4. Writing skills when he wrote for the La Solidaridad to translate the pleas of the propaganda.
5. His aspiration and goal was the liberation of his fellow Filipinos from the bondage of political
tyranny and misery and ignorance.
6. The first Filipino to picture Philippines as a nation and the first one to use the term “Filipinos” to
the inhabitants of the land.
7. The central figure of revolutionary movement – poet, novelist, ophthalmogist, historian, doctor,
polemical, essayist, and moralist.
8. He dreamed for the Philippines to be known as a nation of writers and intellectuals, aimed at
making the Filipino race known to the world.
9. His works, achievements and contributions in various fields have been influential and inspired
and ignited the Katipunan-led revolution, making the Philippines the first independent republic
in Asia.
10. In the face of danger, he was bold despite the odds, and he was honored even more after his
death because of the legacies he left behind.

1900 – William Howard Taft, American Gov. Gen. and chairman of the 2nd Philippine Commission –
suggested Rizal as a national hero, to recognize his contributions to the significant social transformations.