TITLE OF THE MODULE

CHAPTER 10: JOSE RIZAL AND PHILIPPINE NATIONALISM:

BAYANI AT KABAYANIHAN

1. INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO CHAPTER 10 WHERE WE CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT NATIONALISM

IN THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL. IN THIS CHAPTER, WE ARE GOING TO EXPLORE
THE CONCEPTS OF “BAYANI” AND “KABAYANIHAN” AND EXPLAIN ITS CHANGING
FORMS AND MEANINGS FROM PRECOLONIAL TO THE PRESENT CONTEXT OF THE
PHILIPPINES. MOREOVER, THESE CONCEPTS WILL BE EXAMINED IN THE LIFE OF
JOSE RIZAL AND IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF PHILIPPINE NATIONALISM.
 Jose Rizal is the most popular Filipino hero of all time, we can see it through the
numerous statues, street names and places established and named after him. Almost
every town of the Philippines has a park or street dedicated to Rizal. There is also a so-
called Rizal law which requires all universities to include a course on the life and works
of Rizal. Moreover, when we ask Filipinos the question “who is our national hero?” all
of them or most of them answer Jose Rizal.

We have a lot of heroes here at phillippines but Jose Rizal is the most well kniwn
Philippine national hero because he fought for freedom in a silent but powerful way. “He
was the most diversely talented person to ever have lived.”…. Rizal fought by writing, which
enlightened many Filipino people. Nobility and Dignity What set Rizal apart from the others
were his methods.
What is the meaning of hero? .” According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, hero is “a person who is admired for great or
brave acts or fine qualities; a person who is greatly admired.” In the Filipino language, the word hero has the closest link to bayani.

why and how Rizal became a bayani?”

 A hero symbolizes goodness. Jose Rizal became the National hero because he fought from freedom
in a silent but powerful way. He expressed his love for the Philippines through his novels, essays, articles
and poems rather than a force of aggression. He was a very amazing person at his time.

Understanding “Bayani” and “Kabayanihan”

 As stated above, bayani is the known Filipino word for hero. Kabayanihan, on the other hand means
heroism. Despite this common knowledge about the stated words, definitions have cultural contexts (Chua,
2018). Therefore, the word hero in the English language does not commensurate to the Filipino word
bayani because the latter is a richer word than hero because it may be rooted in bayan as a place or in
doing something great, not for oneself but for a greater good for community and nation (Ocampo, 2016).
 Let us compare the difference between the two concepts: hero vs bayani. The concept of
heroism came from the Greek culture, which has Hercules as an example. He is strong-willed and a
supernatural character who uses his abilities for the people. This is what our Westernized educational
system taught us: hero was defined as life characters who has extraordinary strength, courage and
intellect. In order to provide us a more localized academic discourse about the Filipino word bayani,
Zeus Salazar being the institution behind the pursuit of Pantayong Pananaw collected various
definitions of bayani from different ethnolinguistic groups. He discovered that it came from the
Austronesian word wani which means “helping and being compassionate with others,” from the
Visayan word bagani which means “fearless warrior”, thereby concluding that bayani may mean
“someone who gives service to the bayan without expecting anything in return.” Moreover,
according to Salazar, the main difference between heroe and bayani is within their individualism. The
latter is preoccupied with his own “persona” or fame apart from the people but the latter’s
configuration of things is always to be with the people, doing the activities/ways of the people and
being humble like the rest of the people (Ibid).
If we are going to dig more on the meaning of bayani, Vito Santos’ Vicassan dictionary defined it as “hero,
patriot (taong makabayan), cooperative endeavor, mutual aid, a person who volunteers or offers free service
or labor to a cooperative endeavor.”
In addition, UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino (2001) listed three meanings of the said word: “
(1)a person considered to possess extraordinary talents or someone who did something noble (dakila),
(2) leading man in a play and
(3) those who had the qualities of gods, extraordinary strength, bravery or ability.”
But before the existence of the above stated definitions, there is an earlier one from the Vocabulario de la
Langua Tagala written by Jesuits Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlucar in 1754. This rare historical book
was edited and made available by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. In this source, bayani means someone
who is brave or valiant, someone who works toward a common task or cooperative endeavor. It is also
important to take note that bayani came from the word bayan which is defined as “the
space between here and the sky,” it is also a town, municipality, pueblo or nation and can
refer to people and citizens (mamamayan) who live in those communities or to those who
originate or come from the same place (kababayan) (Ibid.). This is how complicated the
word bayani is in the pre-colonial context.
 Rizal as “Bayani” and his Portrayal of “Kabayanihan”

 Now, let us go back to our discussion on Rizal being a bayani. There is no law that supported the
popular statement that we Filipinos always hear from our old folks—“Rizal as the Philippine National Hero.”
We were taught during our childhood that we have our “Pambansang Bayani” and that is Jose Rizal.
Moreover, we are also bombarded with information that he is the greatest in the ranking of Filipino heroes.
Rizal being at the top, seconded by Bonifacio and the others.
 It is the National Historical Commission of the Philippines who set the criteria for heroes since it is the
agency which is in charge of our historical matters. According to them, if a person is being admired and
appreciated even after 50 years of his ideas and ideals, the person can be considered a hero. In 1965, there is
a so-called agency National Heroes Commission which released a criteria and definition of a hero and was
approved by the committee led by Director Carlos Quirino of the National Library. Hero, according to them
is defined as “an admirable leader towering over his peers, who is serving a noble cause, possessing
exceptional talent, distinguished valor and/or hold enterprise, exercising a determinative influence over the
spiritual life of his people in a particular remarkable event.” In a more specific manner, the Commission
came up with characteristics that a person should possessed to be considered a hero.
1. Motives and methods employed in the attainment of the ideal (i.e. welfare of the country)

 In attaining the ideal, did the person sacrifice purely and exclusively for the country’s welfare or were there
ulterior/selfish motives in pursuing those sacrifices? Were the methods in attaining his/her ideals morally
valid?

2. The moral character of the person

 Did he do any immoral thing that tainted his/her personal character? If there was, did it affect his work,
society or ideals?

3. The influence of the person to his age or epoch and the succeeding eras

 Given all these criteria, the truth is that these standards were very stringent and being considered a
“hero” requires intense scrutiny of one’s personal life. Given this, we can say that it really aimed to confer the
title to someone deserving as the word “hero” is mostly misused nowadays.
 As time goes by, the definition of hero is becoming more complex in the Philippine society,
far from the known precolonial concept of bayani who is from the bayan and with the
bayan in pursuing ideals. In 1993, the then-President Fidel V. Ramos issued Executive
Order 75 which created the National Heroes Committee which aimed to “study, evaluate,
and explicitly recommend Filipino national personages as national heroes in due
recognition to their sterling character and remarkable achievements for the country.” It was
attended by reknown historians like Onofre D. Corpuz, Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil, Dr.
Samuel K. Tan, Dr. Marcelino Foronda, Dr. Alfredo Lagmay, Dr. Bernardita Churchill and
others. This body accepted Dr. Corpuz’s definition of a hero—“heroes are those who have a
concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom; heroes are
those who define and contribute to a system of life and freedom and order for a nation.” He
even added that it is one’s nationalism which makes someone a hero. Thereby saying that
someone can be a hero if he identifies himself in the Philippine nation (national identity)
and would be willing to sacrifice for its benefit. They also added that heroes are those
people who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation
 In 1995, another meeting among historians was conducted, the Committee decided to adapt another
criteria which states that “a hero is part of the people’s expression.” It places the importance of the
people’s acceptance and acclamation of a person to be a hero. These historians realized that the
participation of the people, especially of the youth in validating a person’s achievements and virtues is
important for they are the ones who will judge whether the person’s ideals were worthy to be praised and
imitated. They even argued that “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 person a hero.” Understanding the historical
condition/context was deemed important this time. Moreover, they also emphasized that heroes should not
be legislated, acclamation of their ideals is enough to legitimize their contributions in our history and
society. Proclaiming them as national heroes confirms the public veneration of their great contributions to
this country (De Viana et al., 2018).
  In the academe, there are two institutionalized historians who have conflicting views on Rizal being a
bayani, they are Gregorio Zaide and Zeus Salazar. The heroism of Jose Rizal for Zaide is undeniable given the
fact that he died because of the two known published books (Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo) that
portrayed the real experiences of the Filipinos during the Spanish colonization. According to him, these
published books, ultimately Noli Me Tangere inspired the Filipinos to resist the colonization of the Spaniards.
It even ignited the Katipunan leaders like Bonifacio to create the said secret society. He even argued that Jose
Rizal is at the top of all the national heroes because of the weight of his contribution in attaining freedom
from Spanish colonization. On the other hand, based on the idea of Salazar regarding the local definitions of
bayani and the above-discussed dichotomy between “hero” and bayani, Jose Rizal and other ilustrados who
were distinguished for their talents and contribution to the people can be classified as heroes because of their
separation from most of the bayan and their Western education. Moreover, Andres Bonifacio and other
ordinary Katipunan members who fought with other kababayans remained culturally part of the bayan are
classified as bayani. This idea is also supported by the known historian Xiao Chua (2018).
 As we can see from our assessed facts about the words bayani and kabayanihan, we can say that
our most famous Filipino hero, Jose Rizal can be acclaimed as our bayani in the right context. Yes, he
may be educated in a Western nation that made him apart from the bayan in pursuing his ideals, but we
cannot eradicate the fact that he directly experienced what it meant to be an indio in his bayan—
thereby sharing experiences with those of his kababayans that made him write novels that discusses
the abuses done by the Spaniards to Filipinos.

In the most general sense, what is common among the cultural meanings of the words bayani
and hero is that, they both talk about a person who pursue unselfish ideals for his people/community.
Undeniably, it embodies the life and works of Jose Rizal, thereby saying that he is qualified for both
words—hero and bayani.