Mariano, Giecelle Ann L.

BSMT 2B
GEC 109: Life and Works of Rizal

Since I belong to the opposing side of the house, I fully desire to abolish the Republic Act
No. 1425, known as the Rizal Law, wherein it was stated there, it is mandatory for all
educational institutions to offer courses about Jose Rizal. There are certain discrepancies in the
law that I’ve noticed when I searched for the purpose or the main goal of the Rizal Law. It was
vividly indicated there that its goal is to mainly ignite and promote nationalism or patriotism as a
Filipino and to pay tribute to Jose Rizal.
Certain points are criticized because of this. First, if it was for the ignition of the sense of
nationalism in every Filipino, then it is inadequately implemented because it didn’t fulfill the
law’s objectives considering that there exists various of approaches or channels to raise
awareness in nationalism or patriotism like taking advantage of technology for usage of
promotion. Furthermore, through studying Rizal, our sense of patriotism isn’t fully guaranteed to
elevate at some degree. Second, the law propounds to study Rizal’s life and his works where it
turns out to be an additional encumbrance for the students especially those who are not in the
area of social science and the sort. So, if the law wanted to emphasize Rizal’s life and works
then, it probably should have been incorporated to other subjects like history or literature
subjects to avoid the hassle of creating a whole course that needs to be taken in colleges and
universities.
My third point is, our country is being eaten up by the society that focuses on keeping up
with the trends because we are being influenced by other countries. In our generation today,
there aren’t that much Filipinos who fluently speak in our native language. We often speak with
a mix of other language like English. This is caused by the gradual progression of our society
and the external influences from other countries. Considering into account that we reveal Rizal
as a Filipino to promote nationalism or patriotism where in fact, his works are originally written
in Spanish that was just translated and thought over the years.
Lastly, do we really know Rizal? The face of nationalism or patriotism? Rizal belonged
to the elite family in his time, meaning there are many inequities that he didn’t face so his works
are only limited and not suitable for people in different classes. It is also conveyed that the law is
for his tribute as a national here. According to National Commission for Culture and the Arts,
there is no law, executive order or proclamation that has been enacted or issued proclaiming a
Filipino historical figure as a national hero. But there are orders honoring Rizal as a historical
figure. Moreover, there are many figures other than Rizal who fought for us, for our freedom and
they should be properly commemorated too. Personally, I think Rizal alone doesn’t stand the
grounds of him being the face of promoting nationalism or patriotism. We all have the fire of
patriotism. We’ll just have to keep it burning.