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Kamille Nayra Bsme Ii Rizal's Life, Works and Writings RZ101/B188

1. The document discusses the criteria for declaring national heroes in the Philippines as determined by the National Heroes Committee. The key criteria include heroes aspiring and struggling for the nation's freedom and contributing to a system of freedom and order. 2. Actions taken by the government and Filipinos to recognize Rizal as the national hero are described, such as building statues of him and preserving his works. 3. While Rizal was already revered as a hero before the Americans came, the document acknowledges that the Americans encouraged cultivating Rizal as the preeminent national hero in order to minimize the importance of other heroes who resisted American rule.

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Carlo Dimaranan
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59 views

Kamille Nayra Bsme Ii Rizal's Life, Works and Writings RZ101/B188

1. The document discusses the criteria for declaring national heroes in the Philippines as determined by the National Heroes Committee. The key criteria include heroes aspiring and struggling for the nation's freedom and contributing to a system of freedom and order. 2. Actions taken by the government and Filipinos to recognize Rizal as the national hero are described, such as building statues of him and preserving his works. 3. While Rizal was already revered as a hero before the Americans came, the document acknowledges that the Americans encouraged cultivating Rizal as the preeminent national hero in order to minimize the importance of other heroes who resisted American rule.

Uploaded by

Carlo Dimaranan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Kamille Nayra

BSME II
Rizal’s Life, Works and Writings
RZ101/B188
Module 5
Make a group discussion of the following through breakout sessions:
1. Provide at least 5 criteria in selecting/declaring a national hero.

Criteria for National Heroes


The Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee held a series of meetings on
June 3, 1993, August 19,1993 , September 12, 1994 and November 15, 1995 , defining,
discussing and deliberating upon the merits of the various definitions and criteria of a hero. The
Committee adopted the following criteria as basis for historical researchers in determining who
among the great Filipinos will be officially proclaimed as national heroes:

Criteria for National Heroes

1. Heroes are those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the
nation’s freedom. Our own struggle for freedom was begun by Bonifacio and finished by
Aguinaldo, the latter formally declaring the revolution’s success. In reality, however, a
revolution has no end. Revolutions are only the beginning. One cannot aspire to be free only
to sink back into bondage.

2. Heroes are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a
nation. Freedom without order will only lead to anarchy. Therefore, heroes are those who
make the nation’s constitution and laws, such as Mabini and Recto. To the latter,
constitutions are only the beginning, for it is the people living under the constitution that
truly constitute a nation.

3. Heroes are those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation. (As defined
by Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz)

Additional Criteria for Heroes

(Adopted by the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee on November 15,
1995, Manila)
1. A hero is part of the people’s expression. But the process of a people’s internalization of a
hero’s life and works takes time, with the youth forming a part of the internalization.

2. A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generations.

3. The choice of a hero involves not only the recounting of an episode or events in history,
but of the entire process that made this particular person a hero. (As defined by Dr. Alfredo
Lagmay)

2. Discuss other manifest actions of the government or the Filipinos in general to


recognize Rizal as the Philippine National Hero.

The following are the actions of the government and the Filipinos in general to recognize
Rizal as the national hero

- They built a statute of jose rizal in luneta.


- The preserved his works, house and even mad a museum for him
- There is also a law that made him the hero of the Philippines.
- Even though there were rumors that Rizal isn't that good looking, Filipinos still brag
about him internationally.
- His face is in the 1peso coin.

3. Was Dr. Jose Rizal an American-sponsored hero?

No, Rizal was already a hero before the Americans came to the Philippines. Wherever you ask
Filipinos, Rizal is their hero. In short, it’s a kind of consensus that shouldn’t be questioned. No
elaboration was offered.

Then it came as a realization to some in the audience that there’s no law declaring Rizal the
country’s national hero.

There is, in fact, research done on this issue of American involvement in selecting Rizal as the
Philippine national hero, putting him in the league of George Washington of the United States,
Mahatma Ghandi of India, Jose Marti of Cuba, Sun Yan Sen and Mao Zedong of China, etc.
although Rizal was already a revered figure and became more so after his martyrdom, it cannot
be denied that his pre- eminence among our heroes was partly the result of American
sponsorship. This sponsorship took two forms: on one hand, that of encouraging a Rizal cult, on
the other, that of minimizing the importance of other heroes or even of vilifying them. There is
no question that Rizal had the qualities of greatness. History cannot deny his patriotism. He was
a martyr to oppression, obscurantism and bigotry. His dramatic death captured the imagination of
our people. Still, we must accept the fact that his formal designation as our national hero, his
elevation to his present eminence so far above all our other heroes was abetted and encouraged
by the Americans.

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