The Trial and Execution

 November 20, 1896. The preliminary investigation on Rizal began. During the five – day investigation,
Rizal was informed of the charges against him beforeJudge Advocate Colonel Francisco Olive.

2 Kinds of Evidences Endorsed by Colonel Olive to Governor Ramon Blanco:

1. Documentary

- 15 exhibits
2. Testimonial
- by Martin Constantino, Aguedo del Rosario, Jose Reyes, Moises Salvador, Jose
Dizon, Domingo Franco, Deodato Arellano, Pio Valenzeula, Antonio Salazar, Francisco Quison, and
Timoteo Paez.

Rafael Dominguez as the Judge Advocate assigned with the task of deciding what corresponding
action should be done, After a brief review, the records was transmitted to Don Nicolas de la Peña,
Judge Advocate General, for an opinion. Peñas recommendations were as follows:

 Rizal must be immediately sent to trial.

 He must be held in prison under necessary security.

 His properties must be issued with order of attachment, and as indemnity, Rizal had to pay 1 million
pesos.

 Instead of civilian lawyer, only army officer is allowed to defend Rizal.

Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade

 Lawyer of Rizal

 Brother of Lt. Jose Taviel de Andrade who worked as Rizal’s personal body guard in Calamba 1887.
 December 11, 1896: Charges against Rizal were read in the presence of his Spanish counsel.

 December 13, 1896: Rizal’s case was endorsed to Blanco’s successor, Governor Camilo de Polavieja.
 December 15, 1896: Inside his cell at fort Santiago, Rizal wrote the controversial Manifesto addressed
to his countrymen.
 December 26, 1896: ( about 8 o’clock in the morning)

- The court-martial of Rizal commenced

- Hearing was actually moro-moro – a planned trial wherein Rizal, before hearing
his verdict, had already been prejudged.

Military Court

 Remained indifferent to the pleads of Rizal

 He was sentenced to be shot in musketry until death at 7 o’clock in the morning of Dec. 30, 1896 at
Bagumbayan.

December 28, 1896

 The decision of the court martial and ordered the execution or Rizal on December 30th at Bagumbayan
Field (Luneta) by Governor General Camillo de Polavieja
 The Last Hours of Rizal

December 29, 1896. Captain Domiguez read the death sentence to Rizal. He refused to sign the
notification sentence as required by law, saying he was innocent he could not do so.

 While he was inside Fort Santiago, he was visited by Jesuits Father, Fr. Saderra and Father Viza, he
gave Rizal the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which himself carved during his days in Ateneo.
 Fr. Satiago Mataix was able to interview Rizal, he noticed Rizal’s calmness throughout the interview.

 In the afternoon, Rizal read the bible and Imitation of Christ by Kemphis aferwhich he meditated.
 The women in his family visited him in prison cell.
 Later that night he finished writing “Mi Ultimo Adios”

December 30, 1896. He awakened early and wrote the dedication he had promised to Josephine. He
also wrote his last letters to his parents asking for forgiveness for all the sorrows he had caused them.
No one was allowed to enter his prison cell.

6:15 A.M: Luis Taviel de Andrade, his lawyer arrived. He noticed that Rizal was calm.

6:30 A.M: The drum and bugle with the squad army came to an assembly. He came out of his cell,
bound to elbow with the Jesuits.
 The Captain in charge of the execution instructed Rizal where to position himself, to turn his back
against the squad and face the sea. However Rizal requested to face the firing squad.
 He was asked to be shot at the back instead of the head so that may, at the very end, turn his head and
body sidewise and fall with his face upward.
 The military physician, Ruiz y Castillo approached him and asked for Rizal’s wrist and felt his pulse.
Surprisingly he found it normal.
7:30 A.M: Rizal shouted “Consummatum Est!” before the shot ran out. The hero’s life had ended.
In the background could be heard, “Viva Espana! Death to traitors”

 Rizal’s family was not able to take hold of his body. The military secretly buried the body of Rizal at the
Paco cementery.

 Narcisa passed by the unused Paco cemetery and saw through the opend gates and some civil guards.
She saw a freshly turned earth and knew at once that this was her brother’s body.
 With a little amount of money, she asked the gravedigger to place a plaque on with her brother’s initial
reverse.
 That is, R. P. J for Rizal, Protacio Jose

1911: Rizal’s family had possession of the body. Were instituted at the base of the Rizal monument
which was at the center of Luneta.

Filipino Rebellion After Rizal's Execution

The Philippine independence struggle turned more violent after Rizal's death. It was led first by Andres
Bonifacio and later by Emilio Aguinaldo. Emilio Aguinaldo was a peasant worker and an idealist young
firebrand. Rizal's death filled the rebels with new determination, but the Katipunan was becoming
divided between supporters of Bonifacio, who revealed himself to be an increasingly ineffective leader,
and its rising star, Aguinaldo. At a convention held at Tejeros, the Katipunan's headquarters in March
1897, delegates elected Aguinaldo president and demoted Bonifacio to the post of director of the
interior. Bonifacio withdrew with his supporters and formed his own government. After fighting broke
out between Bonifacio's and Aguinaldo's troops, Bonifacio was arrested, tried, and on May 10, 1897,
executed by order of Aguinaldo.

Aguinaldo He extracted some concessions from the Spaniards in 1897 and declared Philippines
independence on June, 12, 1898 from the balcony of his home in Cavite and established himself as
president of an ill-fated provisional Philippine Republic after Filipinos drove the Spanish from most of
the archipelago. Through their revolutionary proclamation, Filipinos claim that the Philippines was the
first democratic republic in Asia. In one battle unarmed rebels on the island of Negros tricked the
Spanish into retreating by launching an attack with “cannons” made rolled-up palm-leaf mats painted
black and “bayonet rifles” constructed from bamboo.

As 1897 wore on, Aguinaldo himself suffered reverses at the hands of Spanish troops, being forced from
Cavite in June and retreating to Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan Province. The futility of the struggle was
becoming apparent on both sides. Although Spanish troops were able to defeat insurgents on the
battlefield, they could not suppress guerrilla activity. In August armistice negotiations were opened
between Aguinaldo and a new Spanish governor.

After three years of bloodshed, most of it Filipino, a Spanish-Filipino peace pact was signed in Hong
Kong in December, 1897. According to the agreement the Spanish governor of the Philippines would pay
Aguinaldo the equivalent of US$800,000, and the rebel leader and his government would go into exile.
Aguinaldo established himself in Hong Kong, and the Spanish bought themselves time. Within the year,
however, their more than three centuries of rule in the islands would come to an abrupt and
unexpected end. *

According to Lonely Planet: “Predictably, the pact's demands satisfied nobody. Promises of reform by
the Spanish were broken, as were promises by the Filipinos to stop their revolutionary plotting. The
Filipino cause attracted huge support from the Japanese, who tried unsuccessfully to send money and
two boatloads of weapons to the exiled revolutionaries in Hong Kong.

When the Spanish-American War broke out in April 1898, Spain’s fleet was easily defeated at Manila.
Aguinaldo returned, and his 12,000 troops kept the Spanish forces bottled up in Manila until U.S. troops
landed. The Spanish cause was doomed, but the Americans did nothing to accommodate the inclusion of
Aguinaldo in the succession. Fighting between American and Filipino troops broke out almost as soon as
the Spanish had been defeated. Aguinaldo issued a declaration of independence on June 12, 1898.
However, the Treaty of Paris, on December 10, 1898, by the United States and Spain, ceded the
Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States, recognized Cuban independence, and gave
US$20 million to Spain. A revolutionary congress convened at Malolos, north of Manila, promulgated a
constitution on January 21, 1899, and inaugurated Aguinaldo as president of the new republic two days
later. Hostilities broke out in February 1899, and by March 1901 Aguinaldo had been captured and his
forces defeated. Despite Aguinaldo’s call to his compatriots to lay down their arms, insurgent resistance
continued until 1903. The Moros, suspicious of both the Christian Filipino insurgents and the Americans,
remained largely neutral, but eventually their own armed resistance had to be subjugated, and Moro
territory was placed under U.S. military rule until 1914. *
The making of the La Liga Filipina was the solution that Rizal thought of to stop the oppression of the
Filipinos against the Spaniards. This aims to protect the Filipino people, to avoid the abuse of the
Spaniards and most especially to unite the Filipinos. Rizal hopes that in creating the La Liga Filipina, it
would put a stop to the abusive Spanish rule.

In the time that the La Liga Filipina was already created, he was already thrown in Dapitan because of
some charges such as the one responsible for the two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo,
which was obviously against the Spanish rule and was also blamed being the leader of the Katipunan.