THE EXILE OF RIZAL IN DAPITAN

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 Rizal was implicated as one of its founders and was tried for sedition, rebellion and conspiracy before a military court. He was sentenced to death and was exiled to Dapitan in 1893. 

Rizal was arrested by the Spanish authorities on several grounds, including founding a society, publishing books and newspapers that spread rebellious and seditious ideas to the public, possessing a bundle of handbills that violated the Spanish orders, criticizing the religion spread by the Spaniards and spreading filibusterism in the Philippines.

His arrival in Manila on June 26, 1892 had become very sensational among the Filipinos. His popularity feared the Spaniards, and as such, payed careful attention to his every moves – all houses where he had been were searched and the Filipinos seen in his company were suspected. As he had planned, on July 3, 1892 he founded the La Liga Filipina in the house of Doroteo Ongjunco in Tondo, Manila.

La Liga Filipina was a civic organization established by Jose Rizal in 1892 while the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule. Its aims were to unite the country, to protect and assist all its members, to fight violence and injustice, to support education and to study and implement reforms.

Four days after the civic organization's foundation, Jose Rizal was arrested by the Spanish authorities on four grounds:

1.  for publishing anti-Catholic and anti-friar books and articles;

2.  for having in possession a bundle of handbills, the Pobres Frailes, in which advocacies were in violation of the Spanish orders;

3.  for dedicating his novel, El Filibusterismo to the three “traitors” (Gomez, Burgos and Zamora) and for emphasizing on the novel's title page that “the only salvation for the Philippines was separation from the mother country (referring to Spain)”; and

4.  for simply criticizing the religion and aiming for its exclusion from the Filipino culture.

Even though Rizal was sent to Dapitan as a prisoner, his years of stay in the province served as one of the most fruitful periods of his career as a doctor, agriculturist, businessman, engineer, teacher, scientist and linguist. He used his remaining days in Dapitan to improve his literary and artistic skills. It was also in Dapitan that Rizal met and married Josephine Bracken, the daughter of a retired Hong Kong engineer. The two had one son, who died shortly after birth.

I am amazed that even though Rizal was in exile, he didn't mind the fact that he was sent to Dapitan to live like a prisoner and yet he still manages to accomplish many things. He has taught the poor Mindanao folk to unite for trading so that they may become independent and free themselves from the Chinese and thus become less exploited, in the sense that he organized a cooperative even in exile. While many people would be in panic, despair or lose hope for any success in their lives because of being exiled Jose Rizal continued to serve his country. This is what made Jose Rizal stand out of the others as a hero to a nation. He was truly a man of action. He always put his countrymen first before him. He truly was a man of action, he did not only looked over the people nor just tell people what to do, he helped them in their everyday work. Rizal was intelligent and yet very humble. He truly was a person for his countrymen, he truly was a patriot and nationalistic for he never wanted to see his fellow countrymen being oppressed and being exploited.

Rizal had maximized his stay in Dapitan by devoting much of his time in improving his artistic and literary skills; doing agricultural and civic projects; engaging in business activities, and writing letters to his friends in Europe, particularly to Ferdinand Blumentritt and Reinhold Rost. His stay in the province was more than “he” living in exile – it was the period when Rizal had been more focused on serving the people and the society through his civic works, medical practices, land development and promotion of education.

His careers and achievements in different fields were as follows:

✅As a physician, Rizal provided free medicine to his patients, most of them were underprivileged. However, he also had wealthy patients who paid him well enough for his excellent surgical skill.

✅As an engineer, Rizal applied his knowledge through the waterworks system he constructed in Dapitan. Going back to his academic life, Rizal obtained the title of expert surveyor (perito agrimensor) from the Ateneo Municipal. From his practical knowledge as agrimensor, he widened his knowledge by reading engineering-related books. As a result, despite the inadequacy of tools at hand, he successfully provided a good water system in the province.

✅As an educator, Rizal established a school in Dapitan which was attended by 16 young boys from prominent families. Instead of charging them for the matriculation, he made the students do community projects for him like maintaining his garden and field. He taught them reading, writing in English and Spanish, geography, history, mathematics, industrial work, nature study, morals and gymnastics. He encouraged his students to engage in sports activities to strengthen their bodies as well. There was no formal room, like the typical classroom nowadays. Classes were conducted from 2 p.m to 4 p.m. with the teacher sitting on a hammock while the students sat on a long bamboo bench.

✅As an agriculturist, Rizal devoted time in planting important crops and fruit-bearing trees in his 16-hectare land (later, reaching as large as 70 hectares). He planted cacao, coffee,sugarcane, and coconuts, among many others. He even invested part of his earnings from being a medical practitioner and his 6000-peso winnings from a lottery on lands. From the United States, he imported agricultural machinery and introduced to the native farmers of Dapitan the modern agricultural methods. Rizal also visualized of having an agricultural colony in Sitio Ponot, within the Sindañgan Bay. He believed that the area was suitable for cattle-raising and for cash-crops as the area had abundant water. Unfortunately, this plan did not materialized.

✅As a businessman, the adventurous Rizal, with his partner, Ramon Carreon, tried his luck in the fishing, hemp and copra industries. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Manuel T. Hidalgo, he pointed out the potential of the fishing industry in the province (as the area was abundant with fish and good beach). He also requested that two good Calamba fishermen be sent to Dapitan to teach the fisher folks of the new fishing methods, using a big net called pukutan. But the industry in which Rizal became more successful was in hemp, shipping the said product to a foreign firm in Manila.

✅As an inventor, little was known of Rizal. In 1887, during his medical practice in Calamba, he invented a special type of lighter called sulpukan which he sent to Blumentritt as a gift. According to Rizal, the wooden lighter's mechanism was based on the principle of compressed air. Another of his inventions was the wooden brick-maker can manufacture about 6,000 bricks a day.

✅As an artist, he had contributed his talent in the Sisters of Charity who were preparing for the arrival of the image of the Holy Virgin. Rizal was actually the person who modeled the image's right foot and other details. He also conceptualize its curtain, which was oil-painted by a Sister under his instruction. He also made sketches of anything which attracted him in Dapitan. Among his collections were the three rare fauna species that he discovered (dragon/lizard, frog and beetle) and the fishes he caught. He also sculptured the statuette called “The Mother's Revenge” which represented his dog, Syria, avenging her puppy to a crocodile which killed it.

✅As a linguist, Rizal was interested in the languages used in Dapitan, thus, studied and made comparisons of the Bisayan and Malayan languages existing in the region. In fact, Rizal had knowledge in 22 languages: Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisayan, Subanun, Spanish, Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Arabic, Malayan, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, Chinese, Japanes, Portuguese, Swedish and Russian.

✅As a scientist, Rizal shared his interest with nature to his students. With his boys, they explored the jungles and searched for specimens which he sent to museums in Europe, particularly in Dressed Museum. In return, scientific books and surgical instruments were delivered to him from the European scientists. He also made a bulk of other researches and studies in the fields of ethnography, archaeology, geology, anthropology and geography. However, Rizal's most significant contribution in the scientific world was his discovery of three species:

• Draco rizali – flying dragon
• Apogonia rizali – small beetle
• Rhacophorus rizali – rare frog

✅Rizal also partakes in civic works in Dapitan. Upon arriving in the province, he noticed its poor condition. He drained the marshes of Dapitan to get rid of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. He also provided lighting system – coconut oil lamps posted in dark streets – in the province out of what he earned from being a physician. He beautified Dapitan by remodelling the town plaza, with the aid of his Jesuit teacher, Fr. Francisco Sanchez, and created a relief map of Mindanao (footnote: using stones, soil and grass) right in front the church.

 WORKS OF RIZAL

WHY WE STUDY THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL? 

We study the life and works of Rizal for many reasons, based on the movie, "Nasa Puso natin si Rizal", people know Rizal, but not really well. People's information about him is limited only. It is like, he is only known by name. Therefore, we really need to study his life and works, so that his whole identity will be revealed to us. It is also important to study his works, because many people, specially young people has limited understanding about his works. Yes, maybe they are familiar with the works, but many of them didn't really know what the works are all about, what are the messages inside the works, and for whom these works are. As our National Hero, we must have enough knowledge about Rizal itself, about his life and his works. 

In the song "Sino ka ba Rizal?", I learned a lot about his life, there's a lot of information that was mentioned there, including his family background, his life when he was still young, his past experiences in life, happenings in his life and family, his educational background, and even his love life, and many more. We study the life and works of Rizal in order for us to broaden our knowledge about these information, and in order for us to deepen our knowledge in our national Hero.

The R.A 1425 which is known as the Rizal Law, mandates all educational institutions in the Philippines to offer courses about Jose Rizal. This law is very essential for us as Filipinos, and for the youth of our country, which believes as the hope of our fatherland. The purpose of the Rizal law is to commemorate the sacrifices of our heroes in the fight for our freedom. Also, this law seeks to accomplish meaningful goals, these are to rededicate the lives of youth to the ideals of freedom and nationalism, for which our heroes lived and died, To gain an inspiring source of patriotism through the study of Rizal's life, works, and writings, and to pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in shaping the Filipino character. 

We study the life and works of Rizal because of his love and compassion for our country  and for his countrymen. The life of Rizal contributed a lot in our lives as Filipinos, his life means a lot in our country for he sacrificed it in order for us to gain independence. His bravery and love showed in his entire life, his way of fighting is different, because he chose to fight for his country through knowledge and the power of letters, the purpose of his works is to open the eyes of all Filipinos to see the evilness of Spaniards, and to awaken and ignite the nationalism of every Filipino. He wrote the two novels; Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo to show people how Philippines were being bondage by Spain, these novels aims to enlighten the society and bring the Filipinos closer to the truth. We study the life and works of Rizal not just to show our deepest admiration for his heroism, but also because to recognize the importance of his ideals and teachings in relation to present conditions and situations in the society and to foster the development of the Filipino youth in all aspects of citizenship. It is very important for us to learn more about Rizal, so that we better understand the essence of being Filipino in the way of having love for our country and for our countrymen. There are so many learnings from his life and works that we can imitate and admire. Let us make ourselves proud for being Filipinos as Rizal did, and let us make him as a good example.

The life and works of Rizal created a big impact to our present generation, it contributed a lot in the lives of every Filipino, particularly to youth. Through the study of his life and works, the patriotism and nationalism awaken. With the example of Rizal, we can able to lead our country to the betterment and success, through loving our country and through having compassion to our countrymen. I believe, all of us can be a hero, because being a hero cannot only define by death for the country, it is define on how we act as a citizen, on how we show our love to everyone, and on how can we impact the lives of others through the way of our living. As a future educator, and in my own opinion, we need to continue the teaching of life, works, and writings of Rizal, because it gives us learnings in many aspects of our lives as Filipinos and as human beings. 

ANGELICA C. JONES

 BSED ENGLISH 3-A