“WAS JOSE RIZAL AN AMERICAN -

SPONSORED HERO?”

Today is the 127th birth anniversary of the national hero, Jose Rizal, a day that will
pass unnoticed because of the ambivalent attitude of many Filipinos toward him.

Rizal has become suspect due to a manifesto addressed to the Filipino people
stating his opposition to the very revolution that made us the first Asians to rebel against a
Western colonial power and established a republic. This revolution, in Rizal’s view, was
premature – a senseless waste of time and human lives. But nothing strikes the Filipino
psyche harder than the idea that Rizal was an American – sponsored hero.

In compulsory Rizal courses all over the Philippines, students are either given the
usual lectures that Rizal is the greatest Filipino - the greatest Malay who ever lived – or that
Rizal’s stature should be reconsidered since he is in a sense a traitor to the revolution
becoming the national hero only because of the Americans who sponsored and encourage
his cult. It is true that the Americans has overemphasized Rizal and pushed other heroes
like Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, and Emilio Aguinaldo to relative obscurity as
second-class heroes. But the thing is that Rizal was already seen as a hero even before his
execution on December 30, 1896.

During his trial, Rizal was asked questions like “Do you have any part in the
revolution?” or “Do you know Andres Bonifacio?” Rizal was implicated in the revolution he
had already denounced simply because of the password of the KKK, or Katipunan,
happened to be “Rizal” and the headquarters and meeting places of the Katipunan had a
picture of Dr. Rizal. Thus, the Spaniards thought the man was behind the revolution.
Andres Bonifacio made Rizal the honorary president of the Katipunan and even attempted
to rescue him from exile in Dapitan so he could lead, or at least inspire, the Filipinos to
revolt.

In 1898 Emilio Aguinaldo declared December 30 an annual “day of national

mourning” in honor of Rizal.

From all these, it is evident that although the Americans encouraged the hero-
worship of Rizal, the man was already considered a hero to the Filipinos long before the
Americans sponsored him as such. In a sense, the Americans simply built on the prevailing
sentiment of the people. The transcripts of the trial of Rizal state that he was “the soul of
the Revolution”. Thus though he might not have been the leader of the revolution – he
might not have believed that the revolution would succeed – Rizal had inspired the
revolution, and for this alone, his detractors should think of a new argument instead of
riding on the prevailing anti-American sentiment to denigrate Jose Rizal. (06/19/88)

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