RIZAL AND

THE
UNDERSIDE
OF PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
Reynaldo
Ileto
 Introduction
⬗ Philippines appeared transparent and knowable, a natural
consequence of being colonized for some 400 years by Spain and
America
⬗ Hispanization of the Phil. by John Phelan (1959) made us
review drastically the supposed effects of Spanish conquest.
⬗ 1872 - shift in consciousness from blind acceptance of Spain's
presence to an awareness of the causes behind the people's suffering
public execution of 3 reformist priests
⬗ 1872 to 1896 & 1898(revolution) - a nationalist spirit is born in
the struggle for independence
⬗ 1890 - introduction of Rizal: Filipinos had to move forward by being
aware of their origin "usable past" in effect privileged the status of
the illustrados-- liberal-educated elite that viewed itself as among
2
 The power of king
bernardo
⬗ Bernardo del Carpio
- Spanish legendary hero
- King of the Tagalogs hidden or imprisoned
within a sacred mountain
- Haring Bernardo or San Bernardo
⬗ About a boy of enormous strength and limitless
energy who grows up unable to control or focus
these powers

3
 ⬗ Bernardo was separated from his parents
and was brought up by surrogates.
⬗ He served the king of Spain but remains brash
and uncontrolled during his youth.
⬗ He eventually learns to control his powers
and use them more effectively during the
events that lead him to reuniting with his parents.
⬗ Bernardo single-handedly liberated the
Spanish from French domination soon after
knowing of his parents’ identities.
4
 Bernardo represents the
Filipinos
who fell from an original state of wholeness, came
under the domination of surrogates, and remained in
a state of darkness and immaturity until they
recognized their true mother again.

⬗ Bernardo’s story is the imaging if the aspirations

for freedom of the pobres y ignorantes
5
 How does rizal enter the picture?
⬗ We focus on the ending of Bernardo’s story
• Bernardo travels in search of pagan kingdoms to
destroy.
• He challenges a lightning strike and vows to find and
destroy it.
• An angel informs Bernardo that the lightning he is
looking for has hidden in the mountains.
• Bernardo follows the angel and the mountain closes in
on him.
----------------------------------
• A stranger finds Bernardo, and Bernardo reveals to
6
him that he is being punished by God, but he still
 Bernardo
• Bernardo is an
embodiment of
kapanyarihan.
• He was hidden, prevented
by God from leaving the
mountain.
• He committed the sin of
pride in thinking that he was
as powerful as God, which led
to his imprisonment.
• But it is believed that he
is still alive and will one day
rise to save the oppressed.
7 her independence.
Rizal
• Rizal was a key figure
during the revolt against
the Spanish colonization.
• Rizal hid his identity and
wrote under a pseudonym.
• Rizal challenged the
colonizers through his
writings, which led to his
capture, imprisonment, and
death.
• There is a common belief
that Rizal is not dead and
that he will appear again
when the Philippines regains
 THE UNDERSIDE OF
HISPANIZATION
⬗ Rizal 
- "the first Filipino" 
- he figures the rise to dominance of the
principalía class
⬗ The main task of Spanish missionaries and
soldiers(17th century):
- concentrate or resettle people within hearing
distance of the church bells
⬗ Datu, or maguinoó 
8
 ⬗ Prominence a new class of Chinese mestizos (Late
18th century - 19th century)
- increased economic opportunities, such as commerce in
export crops, land speculation, and tax farming
Rizal 
- Tagalog-Chinese stock
- his family was in a position to lease large tracts of
farmland from the Spanish friars to be cultivated by
sharecroppers. 
⬗ Second half of the nineteenth century,
- rise of liberalism in Spain
- the principales viewed the friars as the remaining
obstacles to their rise in power
9
- began the first stirrings of the propaganda movement
 The pattern of Filipino
settlements
⬗ local churches as focal points
of population concentrations
⬗ looking to Vigan, Cebu, Manila,
and other religiopolitical
centers for guidance and
sustenance
⬗ bears comparison with centers
of population in the Indic
States of Southeast Asia
10
 Catholic
churches
⬗ were no doubt imposing structures
dotting the Philippine landscape
⬗ located upon hills, "to achieve a greater
sense of monumentality,"says Reed ;
hilltops were nodes of potency 
⬗ Concentrated sources of God's
kapangyarihan
⬗ Stories of Spanish missionaries and
curates who worked miracles 
⬗ Unlike Cambodian nobility - cannot be
11 regarded as mediators of kapangyarihan.
 (Phelan) Sons of
chieftains
⬗ given a more intensive training
in the Catholic doctrine
⬗ only children close to the
church-convento received
regular instruction, 
⬗ "all sons of the better class,
looked up to by the indios
themselves," 
⬗ could train for the priesthood in
12
 Principales in the nineteenth
century went to schools of higher
learning-the colegios, seminarios,
the University of Santo Tomas
⬗ they further distanced
themselves from the world of
the pobres y ignorantes
⬗ Knowledge they gained-
different order from the lihim
nakarunungan (secret
knowledge)
13
 ⬗ Perhaps it was the specific condition of being
ilustrado that led to this group’s anxiety over a
lost tradition and the attempt to recover it
through historical writing – through Rizal.
⬗ Rizal is also implicated in that “underside” of
ilustrado history which is generally hidden but is
always in play with the dominant threads of
Philippine history.
14 ⬗ Analogy between pueblo society and the
 The Pasyon Interface
⬗ The transplantation of the biblical world to the
Philippines was facilitated by the social appropriation of the
epic story of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
⬗ 1704 – first tagalog rendition of the story
⬗ 1760 – “Pasyon” was already in its fifth edition
⬗ Gaspar Aquino de Belen
o   popular appeal of the pasyon
o   Bilingual native who worked in Jesuit press in Manila
⬗ De Belen, applied Christ’s Passion to real life
o   Symbolizing: Jesus, Mary, Joseph as Indios where their
foreign origins were ignored or forgotten
⬗ After many revisions of the original version, it became
15 problematic
 ⬗ Pasyon Henesis or Pasyon Pilapil
o   Ft. Mariano Pilapil who edited the anonymous
text
⬗ Appearance of few heresies and the profane
use of the pasyon in festivals and gatherings
⬗ Produced and periodically censored by the
church sees “pasyon” as a device for drawing the
native population towards pueblo-center
⬗ Reveals:
o   Virtues of meekness and resignation to
suffering
16 ⬗ Through following Christ’s passion, suggested the
 ⬗ Aral, the fulfillment of conventional Christian duties is
emphasized
⬗ The sinakulo (passion play) was usually staged right in
the local churchyard with the parish priest’s blessing and
the financial backing of the principals. Suggests that the
pasyon was powerful tool in the center’s continual attempt
to dominate and codify its surroundings
⬗ Because of the immense popularity of Pasyon Pilapil
have contributed to the forgetting of their “true” origins by
the masses.
⬗ Pasyon Pilapil / Pasyon Henesis provides a
comprehensive story of mankind from the adventures of
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to glimpses of the
apocalypse.
17
 The Tagalog hail from Sem the
beloved
And those Chinese, from Cham
the Spaniards, from Jafet the
youngest
sons of old, respected Noah
 
Ever since the holy Jesus
descended
Following upon Moses of ancient
times
He has been king of the Tagalog
Hailing from the line of Sem
 
Christ’s ancestry is identical to
18 ours
Ang mga Tagalog ay kay Sem na
ibig
Ang kang Cham naman silang
mga intsik
Ang mga Kastila sa bunsong kay
Jafet
Na anak ni Nueng amang
matandang giliw
 
Mulan ang manaog si Jesus na
mahal
Halili kay Moses ng naunang
araw
Siang nagiging hari ng
katagalogan
Discendencia ni Sem, ang
 ⬗ The incorporation of the
Tagalog race into the
biblical scheme of history
was to the ilustrados one of
the symptoms of the
ignorance of the common
tao under friar domination.
Rizal sought to rectify this
by establishing a continuity
between his time and that
19 of a flourishing pre-Spanish
 ⬗ The popular acceptance of
the Pasyón Pilapil signifies a
movement away from the
center, away from its
ideological control. One
demonstration of this is in
the meanings that are
generated in the pasyón's
extensive treatment of
Christ's departure from
20
⬗ In the scene where Christ bids farewell, the
fourteen-stanza repetition of the language of pain,
separation, grief and loss, up to the point where
Christ disappears from Mary's sight, creates the
conditions of separation itself. Because of it, it puts
the loob of the audience in a similar state of damay.
This condition of damay induced among the masses
21
 Spain was the center during the centuries of
colonial rule. Spain is textualized so the bonds of
utang na loob between her and her "children" may
be broken. The transition from the old center to the
new (Tagalogs, Filipinos), losses its absolute
uniqueness as Bonifacio speaks:
Let us lowly people, press on, bear
the hardship
head for the hills and forests
use our knives and spears
let us now defend Mother Filipinas.
22
⬗ What made the pasyón
fulfill the role of a social
epic in many lowland
Philippine regions was its
immediate relation with the
world, which explains the
futility of ascribing a core of
meaning to it. This is
evident in the relationship
between the pasyón and
23
 leaders claimed to be
Jesus
One striking feature of
Christ/representatives of
Philippines uprising
God
Figure of Christ
⬗ * model for rebel chiefs to emulate OR * clever device to
attract followers

1.) Apolinario de la Cruz - tagalog Christ; palace-chapel

2.) Buhawi - "Living God"; intensely lit house
3.) Apolinario Valdez - Christ; hub/center of Cabaruan
LOOB - not an inner self
> Kaluluwa (soul) - inner spirit distinct from the body
- refers to nothing
- "inside"
- serves as semantic fxn of permitting discourse about
24
 Apolinario
Loob - enables him to speak of
liwanag (light, knowledge,
energy) in individual persons

Liwanag - fxn of the extent of

control
         - steadying of loob (place
where potency is
concentrated)
             1.) Prayer
             2.) Acts of discipline
25
 platoon of soldiers
- most dramatic & popular
Pagdakip
scene in the sinakulo
- performed in a field on the
outskirts of town
- popular notions:
Ÿ  1. deception (Judas)
Ÿ   2. loyalty (Peter)
Ÿ   3. concentrated power
(escaped the notice of
commentators)
26
 Pasyo soldiers accompany Judas because of
the belief that: → Christ - fierce
n (mabangis)

"He is truly the "Siya ay Corderong

lamb gentle & tunay mahinhi't hindi
refined you may magaslao inyo may
quarrel with Him
quinacaauay Siya at
yet He won't fight
back at you or hindi lalaban sa inyo
anyone else." at canino man”

27
 halus - "is to a certain extent covered by
Benedict the idea of smoothness, the quality of not
being disturbed, spotted, uneven or
Anderson
discolored"
“The treacherous men Jesus demonstrated fully
said His Divinity
Jesus of Nazareth and absolute kapangyarihan
Jesus Christ’s reply was, upon his mysterious
ego sum you are after utterance
It is I, he said, I. they all lost their loob.

With these words And because it was

of Jesus to the idiots
their hearts seemed to be
struck
they drooped and fell over
28
ordained
that Jesus should suffer
he immediately restored
to those traitors
 ⬗ Awit Hero Bernardo Carpio & Pasyon Hero
Jesus Christ & National Hero Jose Rizal

⬗ A STORY-TELLING OF RIZAL’S BOYHOOD

AND SIGNS OF POWER

29
 ⬗ In 1888-1892:
- Rizal’s writings during this period instill to many Filipinos pride in the
precolonial past.
- Rizal wanted these Filipinos to act, helped organized the movement
La Solidaridad.
⬗ 1889: Rizal has been considered as the second Jesus who will liberate
the people from misery.
⬗ In 1892:
- June 1892: Rizal was back in Manila, a week of freedom before his
arrest.
- Armed struggle is initiated by Bonifacio with the founding of the
Katipunan.
- Rizal founded La Liga Filipina, alongside with Bonifacio, a
warehouseman and a great admirer of Rizal.
--- When Rizal was deported to Dapitan, Bonifacio began to
30 organize segments of La Liga into revolutionary Katipunan.
 WHY IS BONIFACIO NOT CONSIDERED AS
NATIONAL HERO?
⬗ Bonifacio was only named “Father of
Revolution”, for without him, Philippine
revolution would not became a reality at a time
when everybody seemed despair without doing
anything about it.
⬗ Rizal’s philosophy of education before Philippine
independence was a fitting rationalization of the
U.S. policy “benevolent assimilation”.
⬗ Rizal represented the aspirations of the emergent
31
 The Meanings of Death
⬗ Context of Philippine rural life: faith healers,
seers, and possessors of powerful anting-
anting
⬗ Rizal
· Strong belief that he would not reach the age
of 30 when he was a just a boy
· Dreams of death
· Preparing himself for death
32 · “Laong Laan (Ever Prepared) is my real
  Peasants of
Laguna
⬗ Rizal as the lord of a kind of
paradise in the heart of Mount
Makiling
“Dying is not an extinction of
self but a passage into a state
of pure, brilliant potency”

33
Why is the
dream of
1890
important?
 Death of Jose Rizal
⬗ Sketch
o    “The Agony in the Garden”
⬗ Notes
o    “This is but the first station”

35
  Trial
⬗ Rizal as “the soul of this
rebellion”
⬗ Dreamed of power, pomp, and
circumstance
⬗ As a superior being whose
sovereign commands are
obeyed without question

36
 ⬗ Governor-General
o Rizal as “the great agitator of the Philippines
who is not only personally convinced that he is
called to be the chose vessel of a kind of
redemption of his race, but who is considered by
the masses of the native population to be a
superhuman being”
⬗ Judge advocate general
o The idol of the ignorant rabble and even of
more important but equally uncultured individuals
who saw this professional agitator a superhuman
37 being worthy to be called the supremo
  Manuel Alhama
⬗ Rizal tried to look serene,
composed
⬗ Rizal’s impending execution
quickly spread
⬗ Rizal refused to be brought
to the execution site in a
military wagon
38
 ⬗ Lakarin
o “We are walking the way to Calvary. Now,
Christ’s passion is better understood. Mine is very
little. He suffered a great deal more. He was nailed
to a Cross; the bullets will nail me to the cross
formed by the bones on my back.”
⬗ Serenity and self-control
⬗ Final words
o “Father, I forgive everyone from the bottom of
my heart.”
39
⬗ Dawn breaking in the east
 ⬗ Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell)
o    Written on the eve of his death
o    Repeating the extended Paalam scene in the
pasyon
o    Parents, relatives, beloved, Motherland
Filipinas
⬗ Francisco Laksamana (Katipunan veteran,
1911):
o    In 1896, when Rizal met his death, it is the
turn of the people to go willing to their deaths
40
 ⬗ December 1897 (Mahalagang Kasulatan)
o    “The word named Jose Rizal, sent down by
heaven to the land of Filipinas, in order to spend his
whole life, from childhood, striving to spread
throughout this vast Archipelago, the notion that
righteousness must be fought for wholeheartedly.”
⬗ La Independencia and El Heraldo de la
Revolution (late 1898 and early 1899)
o    Descriptions of the commemoration of Rizal’s
death in various towns
⬗ Batangas: “which made them recall the desert of
sorrows traversed by the Christ of our pueblo.”
41
 Rizal’s Death as Re-enactment
of the Passion Story
⬗ Miguel de Unamano calls Rizal “the Tagalog
Christ suffering in the garden of Gethsemane”.
“Is Rizal’s death simply a re-enactment of the
passion story, although in different scale, the
expression of modern anticolonial sentiments in the
Christian idiom of self-sacrifice and salvation?”
⬗ Christ in the pasyón relates more to the halus
satria of Javanese mythology than to Spanish
models.
42
 ⬗ The signs Rizal shed looked equally to the past.
 He fell lifeless at Bagumbayan and entered
the realm of pure potency.
 He had arisen or would soon arise from his
garce and he had gone to Bernardo Carpio’s
cave.
 He had gone to Mount Banahaw to join
another martyr Fr. Jose Burgos.
 Rizal’s spirit could be reached for cured and
43 advices.
 Rizal’s Death as Central Events
of the Revolution
⬗ Death in the Battle – personal loyalty to leaders
or plain fanaticism.
 Speaks of the revolution as the pasyón if
Inang Bayan (mother country) in which all of
her sons participate; Rizal was the model of
this behavior.
 Veterans of Katipunan were known as “men
of anting-anting”. Like other relics of the war,
they were sediments of a powerful time and
44 Rizal was the prime source of this power.
 Problem of the Early Southeast
Asia
⬗ Landscape was highly decentered, with many
small states and regional identities existing in
isolation and in endemic conflict among
themselves.
⬗ Problem: How to extend social ties and create
more complex identities.
⬗ Unification was made possible when Hinduized
men made a correspondence between their
superior spiritual property and atman by
45
participating in the god Shiva’s sakti.
 ⬗ Not only did the pre-Spanish chiefs attributed
their prowess to divine forces but also many
rebel leaders.
⬗ Rizal as “center”
 He is a product of colonial order who heralded
the birth of modern Southeast Asian
nationalism.
 Signs he scattered like gestures, works, even
his absences and his death generated
46 meanings that linked narratives of the
 ⬗ In a country without a tradition of hierarchy, Rizal
became the necessary center, the “ancestors”
being the source of kapangyarihan for leaders of
peasant movements against both foreign and
local oppressors.
 Lantayug proclaimed himself as reincarnation
of Rizal
 Flor Intrencherado claim as emperor of the
Philippines and his powers were derived from
Rizal and Fr. Jose Burgos and the holy ghost
Indeed, so much of what undergirds present
historical writing will have to be brought to light
47 and challenged be imagined that these peasant
48