The Death of Jose Rizal

The death of Jose Rizal on December 30, 1896 came right after a kangaroo trial
convicted him on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. December 30 th
is the death anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal. The death of Jose Rizal came right after a
kangaroo trial convicted him on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy.
He was guided to his cell in Fort Santiago where he spent his last 24 hours right after
the conviction. At 6:00 AM of December 29, 1896, Captain Rafael Dominguez read Jose
Rizal’s death sentence and declared that he will be shot at 7:00 AM of the next day in
Bagumbayan.
At 8:00 PM of the same day, Jose Rizal had his last supper and informed Captain
Dominguez that he had forgiven his enemies including the military judges that
condemned him to die. Rizal heard mass at 3:00 in the morning of December 30, 1896,
had confession before taking the Holy Communion. He took his last breakfast at 5:30
AM of December 30, 1896 and even had the time to write two letters one for his family
while the other letter was for his brother Paciano. This was also the time when his wife,
Josephine Bracken and his sister Josefa arrived and bade farewell to Rizal.
Rizal who was dressed in a black suit was a few meters behind his advance guards
while moving to his slaughter place and was accompanied by Lt. Luis Taviel de
Andrade, two Jesuit priests and more soldiers behind him. The atmosphere was just like
any execution by musketry by which the sound of the drums occupied the air. Rizal
looked at the sky while walking and mentioned how beautiful that day was.
Rizal was told to stand on a grassy lawn between two lam posts in the Bagumbayan
field, looking towards the Manila Bay. He requested the firing squad commander to
shoot him facing the firing squad but was ordered to turn his back against the squad of
Filipino soldiers of the Spanish army. A backup force of regular Spanish Army troops
were on standby to shoot the executioners should they fail to obey the orders of the
commander.
Jose Rizal’s execution was carried out when the command “Fuego” was heard and
Rizal made an effort to face the firing squad but his bullet riddled body turned to the
right and his face directed to the morning sun. Rizal exactly died at 7:03 AM and his last
words before he died were those said by Jesus Christ: “consummatum est,” which
means, “It is finished.”
Jose Rizal was secretly buried in Paco Cemetery in Manila but no identification was
placed in his grave. His sister Narcisa tried to look in every grave site and found freshly
turned soil at the Paco cemetery, assuming the burial site as the area where Rizal was
buried. She gave a gift to the site caretaker so as to mark the grave with RPJ — the
initials of Rizal in reverse.