A Written Term Paper On Wheter Rizal Did Retracted or Not
A Written Term Paper On Wheter Rizal Did Retracted or Not
A Written Term Paper On Wheter Rizal Did Retracted or Not
Presented to the
Faculty of the General Education
Central Luzon Doctors ‘Hospital – Educational Institution
Tarlac City
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Course
Readings in Philippine History
Presented to:
Ms. Charmaine Kaye A. Taguiam
By:
Allan Glenn P. Aceres
INTRODUCTION
The expedition of Ferdinand Magellan together with Spaniards led to the discovery of the
Philippine Island. Since they found out that it was a land rich of natural resources. They also
found out that our island would be a great help if they would make it as their colony. Before the
time they arrived here, Philippines already have people living on it. They were the once who was
oppressed by the colonizers. Upon oppression, there was this people who sacrificed, fought and
gave themselves for the sake of the country. Through the spirit of Nationalism and Patriotism,
they died and they haven’t reserved anything for their selves. One of those was Jose Protasio
Dr. José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, 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.
Humble beginnings
José Protasio Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda was born on June 19, 1861 to Francisco
Mercado and Teodora Alonzo in the town of Calamba in the province of Laguna. He had nine
sisters and one brother. At the early age of three, the future political leader had already learned
the English alphabet. And, by the age of five, José could already read and write.
Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now referred to as Ateneo De Manila
University), he dropped the last three names in his full name, after his brother’s advice – hence,
being known as José Protasio Rizal. His performance in school was outstanding – winning
various poetry contests, impressing his professors with his familiarity of Castilian and other
foreign languages, and crafting literary essays that were critical of the Spanish historical
While he originally obtained a land surveyor and assessor’s degree in Ateneo, Rizal also
took up a preparatory course on law at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). But when he
learned that his mother was going blind, he decided to switch to medicine school in UST and
later on specialized in ophthalmology. In May 1882, he decided to travel to Madrid in Spain, and
Apart from being known as an expert in the field of medicine, a poet, and an essayist,
Rizal exhibited other amazing talents. He knew how to paint, sketch, and make sculptures.
Because he lived in Europe for about 10 years, he also became a polyglot – conversant in 22
languages. Aside from poetry and creative writing, Rizal had varying degrees of expertise in
architecture, sociology, anthropology, fencing, martial arts, and economics to name a few.
Rizal had been very vocal against the Spanish government, but in a peaceful and
progressive manner. For him, “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And through his writings,
he exposed the corruption and wrongdoings of government officials as well as the Spanish friars.
While in Barcelona, Rizal contributed essays, poems, allegories, and editorials to the
Spanish newspaper, La Solidaridad. Most of his writings, both in his essays and editorials,
centered on individual rights and freedom, specifically for the Filipino people. As part of his
reforms, he even called for the inclusion of the Philippines to become a province of Spain.
But, among his best works, two novels stood out from the rest – Noli Me Tángere (Touch
In both novels, Rizal harshly criticized the Spanish colonial rule in the country and
exposed the ills of Philippine society at the time. And because he wrote about the injustices and
brutalities of the Spaniards in the country, the authorities banned Filipinos from reading the
controversial books. Yet they were not able to ban it completely. As more Filipinos read the
books, their eyes opened to the truth that they were suffering unspeakable abuses at the hands of
3
the friars. These two novels by Rizal, now considered his literary masterpieces, are said to have
To commemorate what he did for the country, the Philippines built a memorial park for
him – now referred to as Rizal Park, found in Manila. There lies a monument which contains a
standing bronze sculpture of Rizal, an obelisk, and a stone base said to contain his remains. The
monument stands near the place where he fell during his execution in Luneta.
We all know that one of the main reasons why Spanish did a voyage is that they want to
spread Catholicism. From that perspective, we can san that it was the Spanish who was able to
bring Catholicism here and became one of the major religions of the country. Upon studying the
life of Rizal, he was one of those persons who experienced how Spaniards gave a miserable life
to every people during their time. Also, upon execution in the public of GOMBURZA, due to
their alleged plan of throwing away Spanish leaders, he was one of the crowd who witnessed
how the GOMBURZA was executed to death. It was the fierce beginning to Rizal in making
himself as one of the people who would fight till death to gain the independence and reform that
everyone is longing since foreign people started to stay here and colonize the country.
Since Rizal is intelligent. He was able to fight through his words. He was able to publish
books such as the famous Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which talks about how Spanish
treats Filipino. He was also able to write articles that was against the religion. From this, there
was an alleged issue that is being debated if Rizal retracted or ask for forgiveness of whatever he
published that was against the religion or not. He was able to hate religion because it was the
Spaniards who brought it here and sufferings started when Spaniards came.
Retraction is an act wherein someone who wrote something against another person would
ask for forgiveness and take everything back what he said. It was a large debate because in recent
memory, there was an incident in which the forging of documents served to negate the existence
of an independent Philippines.
who carried with him documents from Aguinaldo. The American then faked some documents
4
complete with forged signature, telling Aguinaldo that some Filipino officers were sending him
guerrillas with American prisoners. With the help of a Spanish traitor, Lazaro Segovia, the
Americans assembled a company of pro-American Filipino soldiers, the Macabebe scouts. These
were the soldiers who penetrated the camp of Aguinaldo, disguised as soldiers of the Philippine
Republic. They managed to capture Aguinaldo. With the president captured, his generals began
The document of the retraction of Jose Rizal, too, is being hotly debated as to its
authenticity.
It was supposed to have been signed by Jose Rizal moments before his death. There were
many witnesses, most of them Jesuits. The document only surfaced for public viewing on May
13, 1935. It was found by Fr. Manuel A. Gracia at the Catholic hierarchy’s archive in Manila.
But the original document was never shown to the public, only reproductions of it.
However, Fr. Pio Pi, a Spanish Jesuit, reported that as early as 1907, the retraction of
Rizal was copied verbatim and published in Spain, and reprinted in Manila. Fr. Gracia, who
In both reproductions, there were conflicting versions of the text. Add to this the date of
the signing was very clear in the original Spanish document which Rizal supposedly signed. The
Later, another supposedly original document surfaced, it bears the date “December 29,
189C”. The number “0” was evidently altered to make it look like a letter C. Then still later,
another supposedly original version came up. It has the date “December 29, 1896”. This time,
Those who strongly believed the faking of the Rizal retraction document, reported that
the forger of Rizal’s signature was Roman Roque, the man who also forged the signature of
Urbano Lacuna, which was used to capture Aguinaldo. The mastermind, they say, in both
Lacuna’s and Rizal’s signature forging was Lazaro Segovia. They were approached by Spanish
friars during the final day of the Filipino-American war to forge Rizal’s signature.
5
This story was revealed by Antonio K. Abad, who heard the tale from Roman Roque
To this day, the retraction issue is still raging like a wild fire in the forest of the night.
Others would like to believe that the purported retraction of Rizal was invented by the
friars to deflect the heroism of Rizal which was centered on the friar abuses.
Incidentally, Fr. Pio Pi, who copied verbatim Rizal’s retraction, also figured prominently
during the revolution. It was him, Andres Bonifacio reported, who had intimated to Aguinaldo
There are also not a few people who believe that the autobiography of Josephine
Bracken, written on February 22, 1897 is also forged and forged badly. The document
supposedly written by Josephine herself supported the fact that they were married under the
Catholic rites. But upon closer look, there is a glaring difference between the penmanship of the
IMPORTANCE OF STUDY
Our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal was the mind that was behind the destruction of the
Spanish Colonization in the Philippines. I was fortunate enough to watch this movie and be able
to see one. These movies opened my mind and rattle my principle in life. A principle that was
recently established and I treated as important part of my life. Rizal was named as the Great
Malayan, Expert doctor and others. The whole world recognizes his fame and genius mind.
Rizal’s liberal ideas destroyed the Spaniards which was replaced by the Americans.
Succeeded by the Japanese but the Americans returned. In the end the Filipinos won the
freedom. All of his greatness and fame led to the propagation of cult that treats Rizal as their
God or Dios ng Katagalugan. Rizal’s life was dedicated to free his oppressed people.
He is against the Friars who abuse their authority in religion to become wealthy.
December 25, 1896 the last Christmas of Rizal for on December 26 he was accused as pioneer of
the revolution but he pleaded not guilty. On December 28 the sentence was approved by firing
squad two days later which was known throughout Manila except for Rizal. Doña Lolay or Doña
Teodora Mercado Rizal stressed the Spanish education system was dark in the monastery not like
the educational system today which is bright and clear. In those days gaining knowledge was
almost a crime.
7
An ecclesiastical fraud
The morning after the execution of Jose Rizal, the newspapers of Manila and Madrid
recorded the event, and announced that on the eve of his death Rizal retracted his religious
errors, abjured freemasonry, and in the last hours of his life had married Josephine Bracken.
In most newspapers the text of a letter of retraction supposedly written by Rizal was
printed in full. The government sent the announcement to Spanish consulates abroad with the
Those who had read Rizal's books or who knew him closely and admired him, both in the
country and abroad, took one look at the announcement and declared it "an ecclesiastical fraud."
In a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt shortly after the execution, Fredrich Stahl, a Manila
pharmacist, wrote:
"On the day of the execution, the Spaniards published an article in all the local papers,
according to which, Rizal, in a written declaration made by him on the day of his death, retracted
all his writings and deeds and proclaims himself to be a repentant sinner and a loyal Spaniard.
But nobody here believes this, as the Spaniards publish the same thing about everyone who is
shot. Besides, nobody has ever seen his written declaration ... It is in the hands of the
archbishop."
Was there a plot among the higher ecclesiastical authorities to perpetrate a fraud?
There was certainly no signed letter of retraction, a contradiction in itself for a man so
strong in conviction as Rizal. There was also no marriage with Josephine Bracken, although they
Rizal himself believed that there was a strong likelihood of fraud after his death, and that
the prime mover in this would be the friar archbishop. It was the friars who were zealously
seeking his retraction. They even came up with several retraction formulas for him to sign.
8
Rizal's intuition of fraud was not misplaced; what played him false was the involvement of his
mentors, the Jesuits, who took part in the effort to make him retract and return to the Catholic
faith.
The Rizal family did not accept the retraction and the marriage. They knew that that if he
had retracted, he would certainly have said so in his 6a.m. communication to his mother on the
Balaguer's account exposed itself through major discrepancies in his story. His claim of
In his account, Balaguer was totally unaware that Rizal had written "Mi Último Adiós"
on the eve of his execution. Balaguer allowed no time for Rizal to write the poem. The poem in
its third stanza carries the exact date and time when it was written.
In his claim of having performed the canonical marriage of Rizal and Josephine, Balaguer
said he performed it in front of one of Rizal's sisters between 6 and 6:25 a.m. on December 30.
For all these contradictions and falsehoods in Balaguer's story, the church nevertheless
adopted the lie. And some Filipinos, including Rizal's biographer Leon Maria Guerrero, believed
I find the words of Rafael Palma, who witnessed the execution and saw Rizal turn away
Palma wrote:
"Of the version circulated by ecclesiastical authorities of that time, the part which refers
to Rizal's abjuration of masonry and to his conversion to Catholicism at the last hour was not
First, instead of the words "mi cualidad" (with "u") which appear in the original and the
newspaper texts, the Jesuits’ copies have "mi calidad" (with "u").
Second, the Jesuits’ copies of the retraction omit the word "Catolica" after the first
"Iglesias" which are found in the original and the newspaper texts.
Third, the Jesuits’ copies of the retraction add before the third "Iglesias" the word
"misma" which is not found in the original and the newspaper texts of the retraction.
Fourth, with regards to paragraphing which immediately strikes the eye of the critical
reader, Fr. Balaguer’s text does not begin the second paragraph until the fifth sentences
while the original and the newspaper copies start the second paragraph immediately with
Fifth, whereas the texts of the retraction in the original and in the manila newspapers
have only four commas, the text of Fr. Balaguer’s copy has eleven commas.
Sixth, the most important of all, Fr. Balaguer’s copy did not have the names of the
Why would Jose Rizal write the retraction documents? What possible reasons could have
pushed Jose Rizal to write his retraction document, assuming that he truly wrote the said
document? The following four reasons would have been worthy of his character and mentality.
Rizal may have been told that he faced the dilemma of signing the retraction or of
having his relatives pursued by further persecutions. Since he hoped his death would
stop the persecution of his relatives, the retraction may have seemed to him to be the
Rizal, even though he for a time suspected Josephine as a spy, seems to have
become convinced that she now loved him, and he may have desired to give her a legal
status in the eyes of the church, and so provide for her future.
4. To help the church cut away from the disease which harmed her.
Rizal did not desire to injure the Roman Catholic Church, but to remove the
cancer which ruined both church and state in the Philippines -- friar control of land and
domination by the government. He was also struggling for freedom of thought and of
conscience to the individual. He may have felt that much of his propaganda had
produced the insurrection, and have repented of that. His letter to Paciano, written the
night before his execution, supports that theory. It also had been suggested that Rizal
may have written the word "Catholic" in the broad sense of the "Church Universal" as
it is used by all branches of the Christian Church excepting the Roman Catholics. All
churches repeat, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," in this broad sense.
11
‘Unadorned fact’
Filipino historian Nicolas Zafra considered the controversy as “a plain unadorned fact of
history, having all the marks and indications of historical certainty and reality” in his book The
Dr. Augusto De Viana, head of UST’s Department of History , also believes that Rizal
retracted and said the National Hero just renounced from the Free Masonry and not from his
“He (Rizal) retracted. He died as a Catholic, and a proof that he died as a Catholic was he
was buried inside the sacred grounds of Paco Cemetery,” said De Viana, who compared the
martyr with Apolinario Mabini, a revolutionary and free mason who was buried in a Chinese
cemetery.
De Viana said it is not possible that the retraction letter had been forged because
He added that the evidence speaks for itself and moves on to the question on Rizal’s
character as some argue that the retraction is not in line with Rizal’s mature beliefs and
personality.
“Anti-retractionists ask, ‘What kind of hero is Jose Rizal?’ They say he was fickle-
minded. Well, that may be true, but that is human character. Rizal was not a perfect person,” De
Viana said.
He also mentioned that just like any person, Rizal was prone to flip-flop. He believes that
Rizal retracted because the national hero wanted to be at peace when he dies.
But would Rizal’s works deem irrelevant and futile because of his retraction?
De Viana answered, “Rizal awakened our knowledge of nationalism. For me, that is enough. The
Rizal was really a man of courage. He did anything he can just to help every Filipino to
get the reform they want including the equality of treatment, right to Spanish cortes, get back the
There are so many allegations published whether Rizal did retract or not. In my own
humble opinion, Rizal did NOT retract. The fact that we know how tough and courageous and
intelligent he was, he does know what would be the things he would be experiencing after
publishing such books that was against the Spanish and even publishing articles against the
religion that Spaniards had introduced into our land. A strong evidence I could provide is that
there are:
1. Difference between the phrases and sentences from what Balaguer had reported and from
2. There was really forger that was hired by the Spaniards to do the same thing that was
3. Rizal’s family did not accept the retraction. One of the articles I retrieved quoted that
“During the last call of Rizal to his family, he wasn’t able to mention anything about
retraction matters”.
4. One of the reasons why would he retract is that to have an official marriage with
Josephine Bracken but the thing is that, there is no such thing as married that was done.
Rizal isn’t a man who is really against of religion but rather he wrote such stuff because
Spaniards are the reason why religion had started in the Philippines and Spaniards are the reason
why Filipinos during their time had suffered so much pain and oppressions from officials.
It is a fact that Rizal believes in God. He even wrote articles which talks about how he
was amazed by the supernatural being. His articles don’t criticize directly our God but rather he
CONCLUSION
Whatever decisions Rizal had made before he was exiled at Luneta, whether he did the
retraction or not doesn’t make him less a person. It was all about freedom. He had the freedom
before to fight for the rights of Filipino; of course he has also the freedom to take care of his
family even on the last days of his life. We can’t already deny the fact that he did everything he
can to save us from colonialists. He became tough enough to publish the booms against
Spaniards that led as an eye-opener to everyone in the country. Furthermore, Senator Jose
Diokno once stated, "Surely whether Rizal died as a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts
nothing from his greatness as a Filipino... Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal - the hero who
courted death 'to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how to die for our duty
Rizal’s sacrifice may serve as an inspiration for everyone and a reminder as well that
fighting for something wouldn’t require bloody war nor includes weapons; rather if you are wit
enough, use it as your armor to be able to tell whatever opinion or stand you wanted to express.
Rizal is an example that will help us understand the importance of being calm in times of trouble
because this would help us to think clearly about what to be done next.
Life is full of sacrifices. We may not be like Rizal who used his wit to fight for the
reform that everyone was dreaming off a long time ago but we do have this little deeds in life
which would make us a little hero of ourselves and the people around us as well. May we always
remember those hardships of our heroes and put it always in our heart which will serve as an
inspiration that whenever we can extend some help onto to someone or to a group of people,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Valdeavilla, R. 2018. The Life and Legacy of José Rizal: National Hero of The Philippines.
life-and-legacy-of-jose-rizal-the-philippines-national-hero/
[2] Uckung, P. 2012. The Rizal Retraction and other cases. Philippines: NHCP. Retrieved from:
www.nhcp.gov
[3] Did Rizal really retracted all his words and deeds about the Chruch moments before his
retracted-all-his-words-and-deeds-about-the-chruch-moments-before-his-execution
[4] Santos, T. 2011. Rizal’s retraction: Truth vs Myth. Philippines: Varsitarian.net. Retrieved
from: www.varsitarian.net
[5] 2016, Nov 04. The Relevance of the Retraction Controversy. Retrieved from:
https://studymoose.com/the-relevance-of-the-retraction-controversy-essay