Republic of the Philippines

SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE

Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“The Execution of Gomburza”

Gomburza is an acronym for Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Apolonio Burgos and
Jacinto Zamora. The three Filipino priests who were executed on 17 th of February 1873
by Spanish colonial authorities on trumped-up charges of subversion arising from the
1872 Cavite Mutiny. Their unjust execution enraged and left a profound and bitter effect
on many Filipinos, especially Jose Rizal. To this topic we can clearly know that it
represents the dark side of conqueror’s which is the Spaniards. This portrait gives me
an idea that during the time of colonization of Spaniards was really brutal, because even
priests can be executed. I see that time of Spaniards is really critical in a way that
anyone can be executed if Filipino’s convict a case or even if they are not guilty that can
be convicted if the Spaniards want them to be executed.

It gives us a bright side and dark side at the time of Gomburza. The bright side
was they are still proud to be executed because they believe in their faith. Also, they
know Jose Rizal will be a successful person. They believe that one day this colonization
of Spaniards will end. This is because of Jose Rizal work of El Filibusterismo and
dedicated to the Gomburza priests.

GOMBURZA believe that we Filipino’s will be free on the time they will be
executed. This execution lead the rise of the book that will open our minds and hearts
that this colonization will be at end. On the other hand, dark side, I assume that there is
dark side in this portrait because it can clearly see that Spaniards wants us to be there
colony forever. There is no such thing as forever until there is freedom.
I therefore conclude, that we should never lose our faith and belief. Believing in yourself
and having faith in our God because in the end, even if we fail or succeed in our
decision God is always with there. Doing such things needs you to have a deep
foundation and believe.
 Republic of the Philippines
SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“Burgos Manifesto”

Father José Apolonio Burgos y Garcia was a Filipino Catholic Priest, he was
accused of mutiny by the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19 th
century. He was placed in a mock trial and summarily executed in Manila along with two
other clergymen, Mariano Gómez and Jacinto Zamora, who are collectively known as
the Gomburza.

This manifesto, defending Filipino clergy rights, has been generally accepted by
historians as a Burgos document, beginning with Manuel Artigas y Cuerva in the early
twentieth century. Because the original text was unknown, or rather ignored, all have
made use of the text found in a rare anti-friar pamphlet published in Hong Kong by Jos é
Maria Basa in 1889. This text first published in full with an English translation. While
expressing lingering doubts as to whether it had been interpolated in places by another
hand, relied on Rizal's passing mention that it was genuinely from Burgos. Not only
publish it in a collection of primary documents concerning Fathers Peláez, Mariano
Gómez, Burgos, and the Cavite Mutiny of 1872, but republished it in more systematic
and enlarged edition, which is more centered on Burgos, with minor revisions of
translation and notes and a more extensive introduction. With these publications the
work was generally accepted as a genuine Burgos document.
 However, the doubts as to its total integrity that expressed more strongly in the
second edition of the document to look further for the original work. In the course of
research for a larger study on the Cavite Mutiny, it chanced upon a reference that
alerted to the fact that the original had been an article published in a Madrid newspaper.
This led, with the aid of two Spanish historian friends, to the recovery of the original text,
presented here with a translation.

A further conclusion that may be gathered from this article is that a

consciousness of being "Filipino" had already taken root among the educated classes
the priests and the lawyers even at his time. Indeed, it was perhaps stronger than it
would be in the 1880s. Though limited by social class, there was a sense that all hijos
del pais, all born in the Philippines, considered and called themselves in their manifesto
and otherwise "Los Filipinos," whatever terms the peninsulars might use.
 Republic of the Philippines
SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“Early Filipino Students Activities in Spain”

After the events of 1872, a sort of settled on Filipino nationalist activities in the
Philippines and in Spain. Towards 1880 the tiny trickle of students from Philippinez to
the universities of the Peninsula gradually turned into a steady flow. Most students
came from well- to-do families mostly Creoles and Mestizos. In 1880 Spain teach the
Filipino students about Political, Religious, and Educational. It gave them direction to
their nationalistic aspirations.

They later joined the Propaganda Movement, which advocated for the conversion
of the Philippines from a colony to that of a province of Spain. Likewise, the
propagandists demanded Filipino rights, which can only be made possible through the
expulsion of the abusive friars who denied the Filipinos their political rights. This was
forcefully reiterated in their official organ La Solidaridad. Although Rizal’s Noli Me
Tangere was published in Berlin in 1887, the idea of writing this novel that was meant to
expose the backwardness of Philippine society and its social maladies was conceived in
Spain when he was a medicine student in the Universidad Central de Madrid.

Student activism in the 19th century had inculcated a new brand of political
culture in the country that was meant to sweep the repressive political system of the
Spanish colonial government. The ideology of liberalism that the student activists had
imbibed while studying in Europe motivated them to seek for reforms. Young Filipinos
who studied in Spain were surprised to see there the powerless Church in the face of
the government. Newspapers openly attacked the Church, and some professors like
Miguel Morayta, Grand Master of the Masonic Gran Oriente Espanol, took advantage of
their university positions to challenge Catholic doctrine under the pretext of academic
freedom.

      The Ilustrados also saw the better living conditions of the citizens in Spain
compared to the distressing plight of their fellow Filipinos in their mother country. This
ignited their dream for reforms to improve the conditions of the Filipinos who were
denied freedom of expression and equal access to politics and education in contrast to
citizens of Spanish blood. Disillusioned with the hope of change in the government
system, student activism emerged both as a political and cultural revolt against the
status quo largely due to the rampant abuses of the friars and Spanish colonial officials. 
The impact of student activism had proved to be far reaching and culminated in the
Revolution of 1896.
 Republic of the Philippines
SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“Del Pilar”

Marcelo H. del Pilar already knew how to plant the seeds of nationalism, and to
rise and stand up against the abuses of the colonial rulers. Mariano Ponce, narrated
that as a high school student in 1880, del Pilar frequently met with a group of students
in Trozo, Tondo –the birth place of Andres Bonifacio and where Philippine Masonry and
the Katipunan were conceived by their organizers.

In 1882, Del Pilar was a member of the group that founded the first bilingual
newspaper- Tagalog and Spanish- in the Philippines, Diariong Tagalog. Though the
publisher was ostensibly Francisco Calvo Munoz, a peninsular treasury official in the
Philippines, the real moving spirit behind the paper were Del Pilar, who acted as editor
of the Tagalog section, and Basilio Teodoro Moran, the business manager. The
newspaper was funded by several traders from Malolos, Bulacan, from where Del Pilar
had formed around him a group of relatives and associates who shared his nationalistic
interests.
 The regime of Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera had seen a
considerable realization of freedom of the press, and the Diariong Tagalog took full
advantage of this relative liberty to speak out in favor of various reforms, as well as to
promote a moderate gospel of nationalism. One of the notable articles that saw print
was the “El Amor Patrio” of Rizal, translated into eloquent Tagalog by Del Pilar titled
“Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa”.

Del Pilar gave birth to the spiritual, political and nationalistic sense of the word
“kalayaan”. The dictionary made by Tomas Pinpin dated 1610; Buenaventura in 1613,
and Noceda in 1860 did not mention the word “kalayaan or malaya”. It was said that
Padre Mariano Sevilla used the word “kalayaan” in his prayer booklet which means
“kalangitan” or heavens – a condition of a soul that can pass through any prison without
any hindrance. Prosperity was also embedded in the word “kalayaan” for those persons
who had attained glory. (Veneracion: 2012).

But Del Pilar gave the emphatic meaning of the word “kalayaan” in political and
nationalistic sense. Proof of this, the revolutionary newspaper of Katipunan adopted the
name “kalayaan” from the article also of Marcelo H. del Pilar with the same title where
he profoundly explained the meaning and the essence of the word for the freedom of his
country. Of all the forerunners of the revolution, Del Pilar was the one who inspired most
Andres Bonifacio. So intimately was Del Pilar connected with the Katipunan, and so
highly was he regarded by its leaders, that Bonifacio reverently copied the letters of Del
Pilar to his brother-in-law, Deodato Arellano, considering them as sacred relics and,
together with the letters that he himself received, as guides for action. “ He even moved
the second president of Katipunan, Roman Basa to support the secret propagation of La
Solidaridad, and Apolinario Mabini reported that Andres Bonifacio the third president of
Katipunan, collected some funds to support the political program of La Solidaridad.

Without the direction of Del Pilar in Madrid, the Philippine propaganda could
never have done what it did.

Unto the last breath of La Solidaridad, Del Pilar did not forsake his duties to the
newspaper as editor-writer, commentator, management and publisher for seven years
fighting for press freedom as well as the freedom of the country. His influence did not
cease in La Solidaridad, his writings continued its influence in the Katipunan organ
“Kalayaan” his patriotic examples and his revolutionary spirit moved the leaders of the
Katipunan.

Republic of the Philippines

SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“Noli Me Tangere”

This novel NOLI ME TANGERE is a Latin words meaning in English is

Touch Me Not and in Tagalog means Huwag Mo Akong Salingin/Hawakan. Jose Rizal,
our national hero is the writer of this novel , where in ,this novel was written during his
time , where in , the exact year was 1884,he was in Madrid taking up medicine when he
write this novel. This novel was written to remind us the bad things that Jose Rizal
experienced during his time by the Spanish. From the very start of this novel, the first
plan of our national hero is ,to write this novel with the help of his countryman that is
also suffering to the hands of the Spanish, but suddenly he failed to do it with the help of
his countryman, because his countryman lose their Hopei fulfilling their dreams to have
freedom in the hands of the Spanish colonies. Jose Rizal, did not give up, because he
continue to write this novel without the help of his countryman, and he decided to write it
by himself.
 Jose Rizal’s novel NOLI ME TANGERE is definitely a work of a brilliant
literature. It occurs to me that this piece of work by Dr. Rizal is precisely a social and
political satire. Dr. Rizal to the most basic irreducible unit of the society or the family is
worth to be notice in the passages of the novel.

As my conclusion to this reaction paper for the novel NOLI ME TANGERE,

I must admit that Dr. J. Rizal was indeed successful if not triumphant in his aim to
influence and educate his readers to realize the current socio-political scenario of their
times. In his novel, Rizal was able to tackle and to attack the weakness and cancer of
society, both old and new. Because of this writing, many were moved and raised their
consciousness to a level that was not been realized by the colonial masters. Thus
redirecting the course of history and even started a revolution for the cause of
nationhood identity. I might say, as form of an opinion, that the NOLI ME TANGERE can
be considered as a Bible of the true situation of the society. Like the Holy Bible of the
Christians, NOLI ME TANGERE depict stories and passages that exist even today,
much less that it lays down the problem and the rotten system of our modern Philippine
Society.
 Republic of the Philippines
SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Magallanes Campus
Magallanes , Sorsogon

Name : Jadelyn Andes Jimeno Subject : Life and Works of Rizal

Course & Year : BSED – II 2nd Semester 2019 – 2020

REACTION PAPER

“Why was Rizal Hero a Creole”

Creole was a half-blooded and purity of blood like a person who has a French
and Spanish ancestor. Or like in Rizal’s novels before 19th century creoles are not
Spaniards but a Filipinos though they have strain of being Spaniards. Therefore, Rizal
was called hero a creole because he was a creole of Spanish, Native and Chinese
descent.

In Rizal’s novel – Noli Me Tangere, it seen that an attempt is made to ally the
Creoles with the Indios. Rizal was making an ironic comment on the alliance between
the Creole and the Indios. He makes Elias die to save Ibarra the Creole and it’s Ibarra,
not Elias who becomes the revolutionary”. The funny thing here is that Ibarra never
wanted to be a revolutionary: all he wanted was to educate and empower the masses.
Unfortunately, the innovations that Ibarra tried to present did not endear him to
Peninsulares. It did the opposite. Resentment against him and other Creoles amassed
and at the end things turned violent and Ibarra was made to cast off all his innocence
and dreams and become an entirely different person.
 Therefore I conclude that, Jose Rizal was the one who lead the Filipinos to start
a revolution against the Spanish government to attain freedom and to gain control of the
country, therefore in his novel Crisostomo Ibarra is the protagonist while the Spaniards
involved there are considered as antagonists, moreover the fact is Rizal truly proud of
being a Filipino and by his dedication he proved that it’s better to fight freedom in a
silent but powerful way. Rizal's choice of a Creole hero played a role in treatment of
Rizal's position in the Revolution. Rizal's battle was not the battle of the Indios but the
battle of the Creoles. It could be said that the novels might have talked of a past failed
rebellion. But they could also be prophetic warnings: if you do not have the courage to
destroy your humanity and become ruthless in your annihilation of those who stand
against you; if you cannot not love; if you cannot truly hate and kill to create love and life
you are most obviously doomed to failure. On Rizal's novel entitled “Noli me Tangere”
and “El Filibusterismo” he used the character of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra a.k.a Simoun,
A creole, as his hero which explained “why was Rizal Hero a Creole”. Because Rizal
himself was also a creole of Spanish, Native and Chinese descent. Perhaps, he chose a
creole to be his protagonist and it was all about revolutions, he was writing about an
actual movement and he wrote to give rise about it.