FACTS ABOUT RIZAL

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1425

AN ACT TO INCLUDE IN THE CURRICULA OF ALL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS,

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES COURSES ON THE LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS OF
JOSE RIZAL, PARTICULARLY HIS NOVELS NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL
FILIBUSTERISMO, AUTHORIZING THE PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION THEREOF, AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES

WHEREAS, today, more than any other period of our history, there is a need for a re-dedication to the
ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died;

WHEREAS, it is meet that in honoring them, particularly the national hero and patriot, Jose Rizal, we
remember with special fondness and devotion their lives and works that have shaped the national
character;

WHEREAS, the life, works and writing of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, are a constant and inspiring source of patriotism with which the minds of the youth,
especially during their formative and decisive years in school, should be suffused;

WHEREAS, all educational institutions are under the supervision of, and subject to regulation by the
State, and all schools are enjoined to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience and to
teach the duties of citizenship; Now, therefore,

SECTION 1. Courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novel Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the curricula of all schools, colleges and universities,
public or private: Provided, That in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated editions of the
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their English translation shall be used as basic texts.

The Board of National Education is hereby authorized and directed to adopt forthwith measures to
implement and carry out the provisions of this Section, including the writing and printing of appropriate
primers, readers and textbooks. The Board shall, within sixty (60) days from the effectivity of this Act,
promulgate rules and regulations, including those of a disciplinary nature, to carry out and enforce
the provisions of this Act. The Board shall promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption
of students for reasons of religious belief stated in a sworn written statement, from the requirement of the
provision contained in the second part of the first paragraph of this section; but not from taking the course
provided for in the first part of said paragraph. Said rules and regulations shall take effect thirty (30) days
after their publication in the Official Gazette.

SECTION 2. It shall be obligatory on all schools, colleges and universities to keep in their libraries an
adequate number of copies of the original and unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, as well as of Rizal’s other works and biography. The said unexpurgated editions of the
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their translations in English as well as other writings of Rizal
shall be included in the list of approved books for required reading in all public or private schools,
colleges and universities.

The Board of National Education shall determine the adequacy of the number of books, depending upon
the enrollment of the school, college or university.
SECTION 3. The Board of National Education shall cause the translation of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, as well as other writings of Jose Rizal into English, Tagalog and the principal Philippine
dialects; cause them to be printed in cheap, popular editions; and cause them to be distributed, free of
charge, to persons desiring to read them, through the Purok organizations and Barrio Councils throughout
the country.

SECTION 4. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as amendment or repealing section nine hundred
twenty-seven of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the discussion of religious doctrines by public
school teachers and other person engaged in any public school.

SECTION 5. The sum of three hundred thousand pesos is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of
any fund not otherwise appropriated in the National Treasury to carry out the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 12, 1956

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 52, No. 6, p. 2971 in June 1956

José Rizal, in full José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, (born June 19, 1861, Calamba,
Philippines—died December 30, 1896, Manila), patriot, physician, and man of letters who was an
inspiration to the Philippine nationalist movement.

The son of a prosperous landowner, Rizal was educated in Manila and at the University of Madrid. A
brilliant medical student, he soon committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in his home country,
though he never advocated Philippine independence. Most of his writing was done in Europe, where he
resided between 1882 and 1892.

In 1887 Rizal published his first novel, Noli me tangere (The Social Cancer), a passionate exposure of the
evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines. A sequel, El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed),
established his reputation as the leading spokesman of the Philippine reform movement. He published
an annotated edition (1890; reprinted 1958) of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, hoping to
show that the native people of the Philippines had a long history before the coming of the Spaniards. He
became the leader of the Propaganda Movement, contributing numerous articles to its newspaper, La
Solidaridad, published in Barcelona. Rizal’s political program included integration of the Philippines as a
province of Spain, representation in the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), the replacement of Spanish friars
by Filipino priests, freedom of assembly and expression, and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards before
the law.

Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892. He founded a nonviolent-reform society, the Liga Filipina, in
Manila, and was deported to Dapitan in northwest Mindanao. He remained in exile for the next four
years. In 1896 the Katipunan, a Filipino nationalist secret society, revolted against Spain. Although he
had no connections with that organization and he had had no part in the insurrection, Rizal was arrested
and tried for sedition by the military. Found guilty, he was publicly executed by a firing squad in Manila.
His martyrdom convinced Filipinos that there was no alternative to independence from Spain. On the eve
of his execution, while confined in Fort Santiago, Rizal wrote “Último adiós” (“Last Farewell”), a
masterpiece of 19th-century Spanish verse.
####

The 19th century

By the late 18th century, political and economic changes in Europe were finally beginning to
affect Spain and, thus, the Philippines. Important as a stimulus to trade was the gradual elimination of the
monopoly enjoyed by the galleon to Acapulco. The last galleon arrived in Manila in 1815, and by the
mid-1830s Manila was open to foreign merchants almost without restriction. The demand for Philippine
sugar and abaca (hemp) grew apace, and the volume of exports to Europe expanded even further after the
completion of the Suez Canal in 1869.

The growth of commercial agriculture resulted in the appearance of a new class. Alongside the
landholdings of the church and the rice estates of the pre-Spanish nobility there arose haciendas of coffee,
hemp, and sugar, often the property of enterprising Chinese-Filipino mestizos. Some of the families that
gained prominence in the 19th century have continued to play an important role in Philippine economics
and politics.

Not until 1863 was there public education in the Philippines, and even then the church controlled the
curriculum. Less than one-fifth of those who went to school could read and write Spanish, and far fewer
could speak it properly. The limited higher education in the colony was entirely under clerical direction,
but by the 1880s many sons of the wealthy were sent to Europe to study. There, nationalism and a passion
for reform blossomed in the liberal atmosphere. Out of this talented group of overseas Filipino students
arose what came to be known as the Propaganda Movement. Magazines, poetry, and pamphleteering
flourished. José Rizal, this movement’s most brilliant figure, produced two political novels—Noli me
tangere (1887; Touch Me Not) and El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed)—which had a wide
impact in the Philippines. In 1892 Rizal returned home and formed the Liga Filipina, a modest reform-
minded society, loyal to Spain, that breathed no word of independence. But Rizal was quickly arrested by
the overly fearful Spanish, exiled to a remote island in the south, and finally executed in 1896.
Meanwhile, within the Philippines there had developed a firm commitment to independence among a
somewhat less privileged class.

Shocked by the arrest of Rizal in 1892, these activists quickly formed the Katipunan under the leadership
of Andres Bonifacio, a self-educated warehouseman. The Katipunan was dedicated to the expulsion of the
Spanish from the islands, and preparations were made for armed revolt. Filipino rebels had been
numerous in the history of Spanish rule, but now for the first time they were inspired by nationalist
ambitions and possessed the education needed to make success a real possibility.

The Philippine Revolution

In August 1896, Spanish friars uncovered evidence of the Katipunan’s plans, and its leaders were forced
into premature action. Revolts broke out in several provinces around Manila. After months of fighting,
severe Spanish retaliation forced the revolutionary armies to retreat to the hills. In December 1897 a truce
was concluded with the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a municipal mayor and commander of the rebel
forces, was paid a large sum and was allowed to go to Hong Kong with other leaders; the Spanish
promised reforms as well. But reforms were slow in coming, and small bands of rebels, distrustful of
Spanish promises, kept their arms; clashes grew more frequent.
Emilio Aguinaldo
Emilio Aguinaldo.
Brown Brothers

Meanwhile, war had broken out between Spain and the United States (the Spanish-American War). After
the U.S. naval victory in the Battle of Manila Bay in May 1898, Aguinaldo and his entourage returned to
the Philippines with the help of Adm. George Dewey. Confident of U.S. support, Aguinaldo reorganized
his forces and soon liberated several towns south of Manila. Independence was declared on June 12 (now
celebrated as Independence Day). In September a constitutional congress met in Malolos, north of
Manila, which drew up a fundamental law derived from European and Latin American precedents. A
government was formed on the basis of that constitution in January 1899, with Aguinaldo as president of
the new country, popularly known as the “Malolos Republic.”

Meanwhile, U.S. troops had landed in Manila and, with important Filipino help, forced the capitulation in
August 1898 of the Spanish commander there. The Americans, however, would not let Filipino forces
enter the city. It was soon apparent to Aguinaldo and his advisers that earlier expressions of sympathy for
Filipino independence by Dewey and U.S. consular officials in Hong Kong had little significance. They
felt betrayed.

U.S. soldiers in a trench near Manila, Phil., during the Spanish-American War, 1898.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

U.S. commissioners to the peace negotiations in Paris had been instructed to demand from Spain the
cession of the Philippines to the United States; such cession was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty
of Paris on December 10, 1898. Ratification followed in the U.S. Senate in February 1899, but with only
one vote more than the required two-thirds. Arguments of “manifest destiny” could not overwhelm a
determined anti-imperialist minority.

By the time the treaty was ratified, hostilities had already broken out between U.S. and Filipino forces.
Since Filipino leaders did not recognize U.S. sovereignty over the islands and U.S. commanders gave no
weight to Filipino claims of independence, the conflict was inevitable. It took two years of
counterinsurgency warfare and some wise conciliatory moves in the political arena to break the back of
the nationalist resistance. Aguinaldo was captured in March 1901 and shortly thereafter appealed to his
countrymen to accept U.S. rule.

Philippine-American War: Manila

Portion of the ruins of Manila, Philippines, after shelling by U.S. forces in 1899.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The Filipino revolutionary movement had two goals, national and social. The first goal, independence,
though realized briefly, was frustrated by the American decision to continue administering the islands.
The goal of fundamental social change, manifest in the nationalization of friar lands by the Malolos
Republic, was ultimately frustrated by the power and resilience of entrenched institutions. Share tenants
who had rallied to Aguinaldo’s cause, partly for economic reasons, merely exchanged one landlord for
another. In any case, the proclamation of a republic in 1898 had marked the Filipinos as the first Asian
people to try to throw off European colonial rule.

A district of Manila, Phil., set afire during an insurrection, 1899.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The period of U.S. influence

The juxtaposition of U.S. democracy and imperial rule over a subject people was sufficiently jarring to
most Americans that, from the beginning, the training of Filipinos for self-government and ultimate
independence—the Malolos Republic was conveniently ignored—was an essential rationalization for
U.S. hegemony in the islands. Policy differences between the two main political parties in the United
States focused on the speed with which self-government should be extended and the date on which
independence should be granted.

In 1899 Pres. William McKinley sent to the Philippines a five-person fact-finding commission headed
by Cornell University president Jacob G. Schurman. Schurman reported back that Filipinos wanted
ultimate independence, but this had no immediate impact on policy. McKinley sent out the Second
Philippine Commission in 1900, under William Howard Taft; by July 1901 it had established civil
government.

In 1907 the Philippine Commission, which had been acting as both legislature and governor-
general’s cabinet, became the upper house of a bicameral body. The new 80-member Philippine
Assembly was directly elected by a somewhat restricted electorate from single-member districts, making
it the first elective legislative body in Southeast Asia. When Gov.- Gen. Francis B. Harrison appointed a
Filipino majority to the commission in 1913, the American voice in the legislative process was further
reduced.

Harrison was the only governor-general appointed by a Democratic president in the first 35 years of U.S.
rule. He had been sent by Woodrow Wilson with specific instructions to prepare the Philippines for
ultimate independence, a goal that Wilson enthusiastically supported. During Harrison’s term, a
Democratic-controlled Congress in Washington, D.C., hastened to fulfill long-standing campaign
promises to the same end. The Jones Act, passed in 1916, would have fixed a definite date for the
granting of independence if the Senate had had its way, but the House prevented such a move. In its final
form the act merely stated that it was the “purpose of the people of the United States” to recognize
Philippine independence “as soon as a stable government can be established therein.” Its greater
importance was as a milestone in the development of Philippine autonomy. Under Jones Act provisions,
the commission was abolished and was replaced by a 24-member Senate, almost wholly elected. The
electorate was expanded to include all literate males.

Some substantial restrictions on Philippine autonomy remained, however. Defense and foreign affairs
remained exclusive U.S. prerogatives. American direction of Philippine domestic affairs was exercised
primarily through the governor-general and the executive branch of insular government. There was little
more than one decade of thoroughly U.S. administration in the islands, however—too short a time in
which to establish lasting patterns. Whereas Americans formed 51 percent of the civil service in 1903,
they were only 29 percent in 1913 and 6 percent in 1923. By 1916 Filipino dominance in both the
legislative and judicial branches of government also served to restrict the U.S. executive and
administrative roles.

By 1925 the only American left in the governor-general’s cabinet was the secretary of public instruction,
who was also the lieutenant governor-general. This is one indication of the high priority given to
education in U.S. policy. In the initial years of U.S. rule, hundreds of schoolteachers came from the
United States. But Filipino teachers were trained so rapidly that by 1927 they constituted nearly all of the
26,200 teachers in public schools. The school population expanded fivefold in a generation; education
consumed half of governmental expenditures at all levels, and educational opportunity in the Philippines
was greater than in any other colony in Asia.

As a consequence of this pedagogical explosion, literacy doubled to nearly half in the 1930s, and
educated Filipinos acquired a common language and a linguistic key to Western civilization. By 1939
some one-fourth of the population could speak English, a larger proportion than for any of the
native dialects. Perhaps more important was the new avenue of upward social mobility that education
offered. Educational policy was the only successful U.S. effort to establish a sociocultural basis for
political democracy.

American attempts to create equality of economic opportunity were more modest and less successful. In a
predominantly agricultural country the pattern of landownership is crucial. The trend toward greater
concentration of ownership, which began in the 19th century, continued during the American period,
despite some legal barriers. Vast American-owned plantations were forestalled, but legal restrictions had
little effect on those politically well-connected Filipinos who were intent on amassing fortunes. The
percentage of farmers under share tenancy doubled between 1900 and 1935, and the frustration of the
tenants erupted in three small rebellions in central Luzon during the 1920s and ’30s.

Nor was U.S. trade policy conducive to the diffusion of economic power. From 1909 the Payne-Aldrich
Tariff Act allowed free entry of Philippine products into the U.S. market, at the same time U.S. products,
mostly manufactured, were exempted from tariff in the Philippines. The free flow of U.S. imports was a
powerful deterrent to Philippine industrial growth. Export agriculture, especially sugar, prospered in the
protected U.S. market. Owners of mills and large plantations profited most, thus reinforcing the political
dominance of the landed elite.

American preparation of the Philippines for democratic self-government suffered from

an inherent contradiction, perhaps not recognized at the time. Transferring governmental responsibility to
those capable of undertaking it was not consistent with building a social and economic base for political
democracy. Self-government meant, of necessity, assumption of power by those Filipinos who were
already in positions of leadership in society. But those men came for the most part from the landed elite;
preservation of their political and economic position was incompatible with equalizing opportunity. Even
the expansion of an educated middle class did not necessarily result in a transformation of the pattern of
power. Most middle-class aspirants for political leadership adjusted to the values and the practices of the
existing power elite.

Filipino leaders quickly and skillfully utilized the opportunities for self-government that the Americans
opened to them. The Filipino political genius was best reflected in an extralegal institution—the political
party. The first party, the Federal Party, was U.S.-backed and stressed cooperation with the overlords,
even to the point of statehood for the Philippines. But when openly nationalist appeals were allowed in
the 1907 election, the Nacionalista Party, advocating independence, won overwhelmingly. The Federalists
survived with a new name, Progressives, and a new platform, ultimate independence after social reform.
But neither the Progressives nor their successors in the 1920s, the Democrats, ever gained more than one-
third of the seats in the legislature. The Nacionalista Party under the leadership of Manuel
Quezon and Sergio Osmeña dominated Philippine politics from 1907 until independence.

More significant than the competition between the Nacionalistas and their opposition was the continuing
rivalry between Quezon and Osmeña. In fact, understanding this personality conflict provides more
insight into the realities of prewar Philippine politics than any examination of policy or ideology.
In 1933 the U.S. Congress passed the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, which set a date for Philippine
independence. The act was a fulfillment of the vague pledge in the Jones Act; it was also responsive to
the demands of a series of “independence missions” sent to Washington by the Philippine legislature. But
this unprecedented transfer of sovereignty was decided upon in the dark days of the Great Depression of
the 1930s—and with the help of some incongruous allies. The Depression had caused American farm
interests to look desperately for relief, and those who suffered real or imaginary hurt from the competition
of Philippine products sought to exclude those products. They had already failed in a direct attempt
to amend the tariff on Philippine imports but found that the respectable cloak of the advocacy of
independence increased the effectiveness of their efforts. Tied to independence was the end of free entry
into American markets of Philippine sugar, coconut oil, rope, and other less important items. That those
economic interests were able to accomplish what they did is partly explainable by the fact that their
political clout was great compared with that of the small group of American traders and investors in the
Philippines.

The Philippine legislature rejected the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, apparently as a result of the Osmeña-
Quezon feud, much to the displeasure of American officialdom. But, when Quezon came to Washington
the following year to work for a new bill, the same alliance of forces in the U.S. Congress obliged by
producing the almost identical Tydings-McDuffie Act. Endorsed by Quezon and accepted with alacrity by
the Manila legislature, it provided for a 10-year commonwealth during which the U.S. would retain
jurisdiction over defense and foreign affairs. Filipinos were to draft their own constitution, subject to the
approval of the U.S. president.

A constitutional convention was quickly elected and a constitution (which bore a strong resemblance to
its U.S. model) framed and approved by plebiscite and by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. The last governor-
general, Frank Murphy, became the first high commissioner, with more of a diplomatic than a governing
role. The commonwealth was inaugurated on November 15, 1935. The Nacionalista Party patched up its
internal quarrels and nominated Quezon for president and Osmeña for vice president. They were elected
overwhelmingly.

Manuel Quezon, first president of the Philippine Commonwealth.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The commonwealth period was intended to be devoted to preparation for economic and political
independence and perfection of democratic institutions. But even before the tragic events of World War
II, the transition did not run smoothly.

World War II

Japanese aggression in China prompted much attention to military preparedness. Nearly one-fourth of the
national budget was devoted to defense. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, retiring as army chief of staff in
Washington, was called by President Quezon to direct plans and preparations. Meanwhile, agrarian unrest
festered, and leftist political activity grew. Quezon pushed significant reform legislation through
the National Assembly, but implementation was feeble, despite the rapid accumulation of power in his
hands.

The Japanese attack of the Philippines on December 8, 1941, came at a time when the U.S. military
buildup had hardly begun. Their advance was rapid; before Christmas, Manila was declared an “open
city,” while Quezon and Osmeña were evacuated to MacArthur’s headquarters on Corregidor Island.
Despite a desire, at one point, to return to Manila in order to surrender, Quezon was persuaded to leave
the Philippines in March 1942 on a U.S. submarine; he was never to return. Osmeña also went. Filipino
and American forces, under Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, surrendered in May. An Executive
Commission made up of more than 30 members of the old Filipino political elite had been cooperating
with Japanese military authorities in Manila since January.

The Executive Commission lasted until September 1943, when it was superseded by an “independent
Philippine Republic.” The president, chosen by the Japanese, was José Laurel, former associate justice of
the commonwealth Supreme Court and the only Filipino to hold an honorary degree from Tokyo Imperial
University. More than half of the commonwealth Senate and more than one-third of the House served at
one time in the Japanese-sponsored regime. Yet collaboration with Japan was neither as willing nor as
widespread as elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Even before the fall of Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese in April 1942, guerrilla units were forming
throughout the Philippines. Most were led by middle-class officers and were enthusiastically pro-United
States; in central Luzon, however, a major force was the Hukbalahap, which, under communist
leadership, capitalized on earlier agrarian unrest. Though in a number of instances collaborators secretly
assisted guerrillas, many guerrillas in the hills were bitter against those who appeared to benefit from the
occupation. The differences between the two groups became an important factor in early postwar politics.

Soon after the U.S. landings on Leyte in October 1944, commanded by MacArthur, civil government was
returned to the commonwealth, at least in name. Sergio Osmeña, who had become president in exile on
the death of Quezon in August, had few resources to deal with the problems at hand, however. Osmeña’s
role was complicated by the fact that MacArthur chose to lionize Manuel A. Roxas, a leading collaborator
who had also been in contact with U.S. military intelligence. As president of the Senate, Roxas became,
in effect, MacArthur’s candidate for president. Roxas was nominated in January 1946 in a separate
convention of the “liberal wing” of the Nacionalista Party, as it was first called. Thus was born the
Philippines’ second major political party, the Liberals.

Osmeña, though he had the advantages of incumbency, was old and tired and did not fully use the
political tools he possessed. In April Roxas was elected by a narrow margin. The following month he was
inaugurated as the last chief executive of the commonwealth, and on July 4, 1946, when the Republic of
the Philippines was proclaimed, he became its first president.

Rizal dedicated the new book to the three priests, Gomez, Burgos and Zamora, who were executed
because of their supposed participation in the first revolutionary campaign of modern Philippine
nationalism, the mutiny of Cavite
Rizal's Masterpiece: El Filibusterismo. l Filibusterismo was written in dedication to the three martyred
priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, whose deaths left an indelible mark
in his mind. Like Noli Me Tangere, Fili aims at enlightening the society, at bringing the Filipinos closer
to the truth.

Senator Claro M. Recto was the main proponent of the Rizal Bill. He sought to sponsor the bill at
Congress. However, this was met with stiff opposition from the Catholic Church. During the 1955 Senate
election, the church charged Recto with being a communist and an anti-Catholic. After Recto's election,
the Church continued to oppose the bill mandating the reading of Rizal's novels Noli Me Tángere and El
Filibusterismo, claiming it would violate freedom of conscience and religion. A republic act as drastic as
the Rizal Law, which requires the study of Rizal’s life and works—something that does not need to be
required in the first place—can only be born out of the fact that Rizal and his works were not given a high
priority in the educational system of the country prior to the release of this act.Rizal Law. Jump to
navigation Jump to search. Republic Act No. 1425, known as the Rizal Law, mandates all educational
institutions in the Philippines to offer courses about José Rizal. The measure was strongly opposed by the
Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines due to the anti-clerical themes in Noli Me Tángere and El
Filibusterismo . Senator Claro M. Recto was the main proponent of the Rizal Bill. He sought to sponsor
the bill at Congress. However, this was met with stiff opposition from the Catholic Church