Photo shows somewhere in Barcelona, Spain where this crazy admirer of Dr Jose Rizal THOUGHT that by holding the award-winning Rizal biography "THE FIRST FILIPINO" by Leon Ma. Guerrero will act as medium to evoke the appearance of the ghost of Rizal who spent considerable time here.
 
He was deeply disappointed as the book is a straight biography, not a spirit séance. No apparition nor was there any uncharacteristically human smell purported to be Rizal’s.
 
Guerrero called Rizal “the First Filipino”, Nick Joaquin pictured him “the Wandering Jew” while other writers just dismissed him the “first” Overseas Filipino Worker!
 
Incidentally, the city of Barcelona was where Rizal wrote his first literary work in Spain, titled "Amor Patrio" (love of country). It appeared in "Diarong Tagalog", then Manila's daily using a pseudonym, "LAONG LAAN”. When he moved to Madrid and joined the Freemasonry, Rizal chose "MAY PAGASA".  But as correspondent for La Solidaridad, he is known by his nom de plume or pen name,”DIMASALANG “
 
 The last time Rizal was in Barcelona was when he was detained in a Barcelona jail on his way to Cuba to volunteer his medical services to the Spanish army during the Cuban Revolution on suspicion that he is the mastermind of the disturbances in Manila and the suburbs led by Bonifacio and his Katipuneros. Few days later, he was escorted to the ship bound to the Philippines to face criminal charges.
 
TODAY, there are people who still look at Rizal more and more of an ENIGMA and they even entertained doubts Rizal being a hero. If Rizal is a true patriot they argued, why did he volunteer his services to the enemy? Why did he call Bonifacio’s revolution “absurd”?
 
The ghost of Simoun and Elias : While he was aboard the ship bound for Cuba, a man disguised like a  sailor asked Rizal to jump off ship with him where a waiting rescue mission sent by Supremo Andres Bonifacio will pick them up for safety in the territorial waters of British Hong Kong.  Rizal refused.              
 
The man in sailor’s uniform was Emilio Jacinto, right-hand man of the Supremo who later became the “Brain of the Katipunanan”. Why did Rizal spurn such rare opportunity? Was there any promise by the Spanish officials in exchange for services volunteered, like dropping all the charges filed against him? If there is nothing but enigma, then why do we call Rizal a hero, a martyr to the cause?
 
 Conceived and never hatched! Nick Joaquin thinks that the Philippine Revolution” was made in Spain.  Rizal’s fellow “Ilustrados in Europe and the local Ilustrados in the Philippines like Aguinaldo and Mabini have devised a blue print for power and governance once the Spaniards are out in the Philippines. Among others the friar estates will be confiscated and subdivided. There will be a representative form of democratic government to be setup where two political parties take turns running the government apparatus.
 
Naisahan sila ni Andres! The Ilustrados were caught flatfooted and their planned revolution was sidetracked when a bodeguero from Trozo, Tondo led the revolt of the masses.  UP professor Teodoro Agoncillo wrote a book about Andres Bonifacio and his militant organization of proletarian origin titled “THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES”.
 
Fear, Fear, Fear!!!!!  While the poor, uneducated peasants were stealing the show from the Ilustrados in Pugad Lawin and in the hills of Balara, the Ilustrados were reluctant to join that in the words of Agoncillo, “only Bonifacio can speak the language of the masses”. There was a growing fear among land owning Ilustrados that a socialist radical peasant leader like Bonifacio might even confiscate their lands and distribute them to his Katipunan members.
 
Joaquin is of the belief that that Rizal distanced himself from the Katipunan, he denied being a member and vehemently argued that he was being used by the Katipunan without his knowledge. But the Spanish authorities and the clergy were not stupid to buy Rizal’s defensive arguments. Yes, his enemies still believe that while Rizal may not like Bonifacio personally nor approve his brand of revolution to gain independence, it was Rizal himself who fed and nourished Bonifacio the idea of patriotism and the ultimate goal of independence!
 
In short, feeding the people like Bonifacio and his men with seditious and subversive ideas tantamount to starting a REVOLUTION. The Military Court found the defendant Jose Rizal  “GUILTY AS CHARGED”.
 
On December 30, 1896 at 7:00 am in the grounds of Bagongbayan and before the firing squad, Dr. Rizal met his death.
 
What an irony of fate!  Rizal riddled with bullets fell to the same hallowed grounds where 24 years earlier Padres Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were garroted.
 
What is more ironical is that Rizal dedicated his FILI to their memory then followed them 24 years later walking in Bagumbayan fields the same path to martyrdom.
 
        “MANY were called but FEW are chosen”
                                                                               … the Bible, Matthew 22:11 

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‘Sharing the spirit of Rizalism is one thing. Spreading to further Rizal and Rizalism is another.’   The Vision and Mission of Scarborough Knights of Rizal  and  Ladies of the Knight of Rizal.
 
 
 

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine