Life, Works

and
Writings
of
Jose Rizal
 Laws on Rizal
Republic Act No. 1425 or the Rizal Law passed on
June 12, 1956
Republic Act no. 229 or the Celebration of Rizal
Day on June 9, 1948
Memorandum Order no. 247 by president Fidel
V. Ramos on December 26, 1994
CHED MEMORANDUM no. 3, s. 1995 by
Commisioner Mona Valisno on January 13, 1995
Background and Content of
Republic Act No. 1425,
s. 1956

 Republic Act No.

1425 is known as
the RIZAL LAW.
 The law mandates that all
educational institutions in the
Philippines to offer courses
about Jose Rizal
Full name of the Act :
“ An Act to Include in the
Curricula of all Public and Private
Schools ,Colleges and Universities
Courses on the Life , Works and
Writings of Jose Rizal, Particularly
His Novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, Authorizing the
printing and Distribution Thereof,
and for Other Purposes.”
 The measure was
strongly opposed by
the Roman Catholic
Church in the
Philippines.

due to the anti-clerical themes in

Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo
Controversial
Issues
Surrounding
the Rizal Law
 His law was opposed by the
Catholic Church.

 During the Senate election in

1995, the church charged Recto
with being a Communist and
anti-Catholic.
 After his election, the church
continued to oppose the bill.
The Catholic church claims that
reading Rizal’s Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo
would violate freedom of
conscience and religion.
 In the campaign to oppose
the bill, the Catholic Church
urged its adherens to write to
their congressmen and senators
showing opposition to the bill;
later it organized symposiums
Fr. Jesus Jesus Paredes,
Cavanna: radio announcer :
argued that the said that Catholics
novels belonged to had the right to
the past and that refuse to read
teaching them them as it would “
would misinterpret endanger their
current conditions. salvation.”
Other groups opposing the Bill

Catholic Action of the

Philippines
 Congregation of the Mission
 Knights of Columbus
 Catholic Teachers Guild
Groups Supporting the Bill

 Veteranos de la Revolucion
(Spirit of 1986)
 Alagad ni Rizal
 the Freemasons
 Knights of Rizal
 Senate Committee on
Education : sponsored a
bill co-writen by both
Jose P. Laurel and Claro
M. Recto.

Opposed by : Francisco Soc

Rodrigo, Mariano Jesus Cuenco,
and Decoroso Rosales
 Pastoral Letter of Rufino
Santos, Archbishop of Manila :

“Catholic students would be

affected if compulsory
reading of the unexpurgated
were pushed through.”

Arsenio Lacson, Manila’s mayor and

supporter of the bill, walked out of Mass
when the priest read the circular from the
archbishop denouncing the bill. ”
Rizal, according to Cuenco:
attack(ed) dogmas, beliefs and
practices of the Church.
The assertion that Rizal limited himself
to castigating undeserving priests and
refrained from criticizing , ridiculing or
putting in doubt dogmas of the Catholic
church, is absolutely gratuitious and
misleading.
He touched on Rizal’s denial of
purgatory, as it was not found in the
Bible.
Rizal, according to Domacao
Alonto:
Alonto attacked Filipinos who
proclaimed Rizal as “ their national
hero but seemed to despise what he
has written”, saying that the
Indonesians used Rizal’s books as
their Bible on their independence
movement.
Catholic schools threatened to
close down if the bill was passed.
Support of Claro M. Recto to the Bill
Did not believe the threat , saying the
schools were too profitable to be closed.

He declared : “ The people who

would eliminate the required reading
of Rizal from schools would blot out
from our minds the memory of the
national hero. This is not fight
against Recto but a fight against
Rizal.”
May 12, 1956
A compromise inserted by the Committee
on Education Chairman Laurel that
accommodated the objection of the Catholic
Church which was approved unanimously.
The bill specified that only college
(university) students would have the option
of reading unexpurgated (original text,

not amended or censored by removing potentially offensive material) version

of clerically-contested reading material , such

as Noli Me Tangere an\\d El Filibusterismo.

The bill was enacted on June 12, 1956,

a Flag day.