THE EXILE OF RIZAL

Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is tagged as the national hero (Pambansang Bayani) of the Filipino people. He was born on June 19, 1861 and executed on December 30, 1896. He is not only admired for possessing intellectual brilliance but also for taking a stand and resisting the Spanish colonial government. While his death sparked a revolution to overthrow the tyranny, Rizal will always be remembered for his compassion towards the Filipino people and the country. For him, “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And through his writings, he exposed the corruption and wrong doings of government officials as well as the Spanish friars. He was a prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tángere and its sequel, El Filibusterismo. Rizal was exiled in Dapitan due to his association with the members of Katipunan, Jose Riz...