Rizal and the Propaganda Movement

To prove his point and refute the accusations of prejudiced Spanish writers against his race, Rizal annotated the book,
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, written by the Spaniard Antonio Morga. The book was an unbiased presentation of 16th
century Filipino culture. Rizal through his annotation showed that Filipinos had developed culture even before the coming of
the Spaniards.
While annotating Morgas book, he began writing the sequel to the Noli, the El Filibusterismo. He completed the Fili in July
1891 while he was in Brussels, Belgium. As in the printing of the Noli, Rizal could not published the sequel for the lack of
finances. Fortunately, Valentin Ventura gave him financial assistance and the Fili came out of the printing press on
September 1891.
The El Filibusterismo indicated Spanish colonial policies and attacked the Filipino collaborators of such system. The novel
pictured a society on the brink of a revolution.
To buttress his defense of the natives pride and dignity as people, Rizal wrote three significant essays while abroad: The
Philippines a Century hence, the Indolence of the Filipinos and the Letter to the Women of Malolos. These writings were his
brilliant responses to the vicious attacks against the Indio and his culture.
While in Hongkong, Rizal planned the founding of the Liga Filipina, a civil organization and the establishment of a Filipino
colony in Borneo. The colony was to be under the protectorate of the North Borneo Company, he was granted permission
by the British Governor to establish a settlement on a 190,000 acre property in North Borneo. The colony was to be under
the protectorate of the North Borneo Company, with the "same privileges and conditions at those given in the treaty with
local Bornean rulers".
Governor Eulogio Despujol disapproved the project for obvious and self-serving reasons. He considered the plan impractical
and improper that Filipinos would settle and develop foreign territories while the colony itself badly needed such
developments.