THE WRITING AND PRINTING OF

FILI
“El Filibusterismo” is the second novel
written by Jose Rizal and the sequel of his
first novel Noli Me Tangere. (English: The
Reign of Greed)

- It took three years to finish this novel.

- It consist of 28 chapters
•In October 1887, he began writing it in
Calamba.
•1888 in London, he made some changes in the
plot and revised the chapter already written.
•He continues writing it in Paris, Madrid, and
Biarritz.
•March 29, 1981, Rizal finished the manuscript
in Biarritz.
• Rizal left Paris for Brussels.
• Rizal left Brussels for Ghent on the date of
July 5, 1981.
• Reasons (Ghent):
- The cost of living is lower
- Price of printing is much cheaper than
Brussels.
-To escape enticing attraction of Petite
Suzzane.
• Owing to his funds, Rizal lived in a cheap
boarding house with Jose Alejandrino as his
room-mate.
SUZZANE JACOBY GEN. JOSE ALEJANDRINO
• Rizal searched for a printing shop that could give
him a lowest quotation for publishing his novel
• He did find a publication- F. Meyer Van Loo
Press, No. 66 Viandeeren Street
- who was willing to print his book in installment
basis.
• He pawned his jewels in order to pay the down
payment
• Rizal became desperate running because his
funds are running low.
• He received money from Basa and P200 from
Rodriguez Arias for the copies of Morga’s
Sucesos sold in manila but these funds were also
used up.

•Valentin Ventura
(The Savior of Fili)
-Rizal’s friend learned of
Rizal’s predicament and
immediately offered him
a necessary funds
- with his financial aid,
the printing of El Fili was resumed.
• FILIBUSTERO
- The novel’s title was came from the word
“filibustero”. It can be rendered in modern terms
as “sedition,” which is speech or conduct that
incites people to rebel against the authority of a
state. Or contextually means as revolutionary.
Rizal explained:

“The word filibustero is little known in the Philippines

…I heard it for the first time in 1872 when the tragic
executions [of the Gomburza] took place. I still
remember the panic that this word created. Our father
forbade us to utter it, as well as the words Cavite,
Burgos (one of the executed priests), etc. The Manila
newspapers and the Spaniards apply this word to one
whom they want to make a revolutionary suspect. The
Filipinos belonging to the educated class fear the reach
of the word. It … means a dangerous patriot who will
soon be hanged or well, a presumptuous man.”
•STORY OF THE GOMBURZA
- Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto
Zamora are the ones who headed the
secularization movement which
alleviated the plight of Filipino
priests by insisting on the prior
right of the native secular clergy
to assignment in parishes over
that of the friars newly arrived
from Spain.

- The three priest earned the ire of

the Spanish and were called filibusteros.
• EXECUTION OF GOMBURZA
•On February 17, 1872, at Bagumbayan (Luzon) three
Native Catholic priests, was publicly executed, by
garrote. The Spaniards charged the priests with
treason and sedition in connection with the uprising
of the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.

•DEDICATION OF EL FILIBUSTERISMO
-Rizal dedicated El Filibusterismo to the three
martyred priest in Cavite munity. The execution of
the three priest was significant in the title of the
novel.