CHAPTER II

Controversies and Conflicting

views in Ph. History
 Topics:
• Site of the first Mass

• Cavite Mutiny

• Retraction of Rizal

• Cry of Balintawak or Pugad Lawin

 Today’s topics:
Retraction of Rizal Cry of Balintawak / Pugad Lawin
 RETRACTION OF RIZAL
What’s the controversy all about?

Did Dr. Jose Rizal retract his

writings against the catholic
church on the last day of his life
or
was it just forged?
 RETRACTION OF RIZAL
Full Name: Jose Protracio Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda

- He was born on June 19, 1861 in Calamba, Laguna. 3 days

after (June 22, 1861) he was baptized in a Catholic Church.

- His parents are Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso

- They had 11 children and Jose Rizal is the 7th child among
all his siblings.
 RETRACTION OF RIZAL
- Filipino Nationalist during the Spanish Colonial Period of the
Philippines.

- Opthalmologist by profession.

- Identified as a hero of the revolution for his writings that center on

ending colonialism and liberating Filipino minds to contribute to
creating the Filipino nation.

- He wrote his classic novels NOLI ME TANGERE and EL

FILIBUSTERISMO, which condemned the Catholic Church in the
Philippines for promoting Spanish Colonialism.

- His essays vilify not the Catholic religion, but the Friars, the main
agents of injustice in the Philippine society.
 RETRACTION OF RIZAL
Retraction

Public statement made about an earlier statement that withdraws,

cancels, refutes, or reverses the original statement or ceases and desists
from publishing the original statement.

Did Dr. Jose Rizal retract his writings against the

catholic church on the last day of his life
or
was it just forged?
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?

- It is understandable, therefore, that any piece of writing from

Rizal that recants everything he wrote against the friars and
the
catholic church in the Philippines could deal heavy damage to
his image as a prominent Filipino.

- Such document purpotedly exists, allegedly signed by Rizal a

few hours before his execution. This document, referred to as
“the retraction”, declares Rizal’s belief in Catholic Faith, and
retracts everything he wrote against the Catholic church.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
Primary source of the retraction letter

“ I declare myself a Catholic and in this religion in which I was born

and educated I wish to live and die.

“I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings,

publications and conduct has been contrary to my character as a son of
the Catholic Church. I believe and I confess whatever she teaches and I
submit to whatever she demands. I abominate masonry, as the enemy
which is of the Church, and as a society prohibited by the Church. The
Diocesan Prelate may, as the superior Ecclesiastical acts athority, make
public this spontaneous manifestation of mine in order to repair the
scandal which my acts may have caused and so that God and people
may pardon me”

Manila 29 of December of 1896

Jose Rizal
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
4 iterations of the texts of the retractions

1. 1st was published in La Vaz Española and Diario de Manila on the

day of the execution (December 30, 1896).

2. Second text appeared in Barcelona, Spain in the magazined La

Juventud a few months after the execution (February 14, 1897) from an
anonymous who later on revealed as Fr. Vicente Balaguer.

3. The Balaguer Testimony (Doubts on the retraction occured because

only one eyewitness account of the writing of the document exists - by
Jesuit Friar Fr. Vicente Balaguer)

“Rizal woke up several times, confessed 4 times, attended a

mass, received communion, prayed the rosary” all of which
seemed out of character. It was questioned for authenticity.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
4 iterations of the texts of the retractions

4. The testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia

- Another eyewitness account surfaced in 2016 through the research

of Prof. Rene Escalante. In his research, documents of the Cuerpo de
Vigilancia included a report on the last hours of Rizal.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
Primary source: Eyewitness account on the last hour of Rizal

Source: Michael Chua “Retraction ni Jose Rizal: Mga Bagong

Dokumento at pananaw” GMA News Online, published Dec. 29, 2016.

• This account corroborates the existence of the retraction document,

giving it credence. However, nowhere in the acct. was Fr. Balaguer
mentioned. Which makes the friar a mere secondary source to the
writing of the document.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
• The document of the retraction of Dr. Jose Rizal, is being hotly
debated as to its authenticity.

• It was supposed to have been signed by Jose Rizal moments before

his death. There were many witnesses, most of them Jesuits. The
document only surfaced for publuc viewing on May 13, 1935. It was
found by Fr. Manuel Garcia at the Catholic Hierarchy’s archive in
Manila but the original document was never shown to the public,
only reproductions of it.

• However Fr. Pio Pi (Spanish Jesuit) reported that as early as 1907,

the retraction of Rizal was copied verbatim and published in Spain,
and reprinted in Manila. Fr. Garcia, who found the original
document, also copied it verbatim.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
• In both reproductions, there were conflicting versions of the text.
Add to this date of the signing was very clear in the original Spanish
document which Rizal supposedly signed. The date was December
29, 1890.
Note: Rizal died in December 29, 1896.

• Later, another supposedly original document surfaced, it bears the

date”December 29, 189C”. The number “0” was evidently altered to
make it look like a letter “C”. Then still later, another supposedly
original version came up. It has the date “December 29, 1896”. This
time, the “0” became a “6”.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?

• Those who strongly believed the faking of Rizal retraction document,

reported that the forger of Rizal’s signature was Roman Roque, the man
who also forged the signature of Urbano Lacuna, which was used to capture
Aguinaldo.

• The mastermind, they say, in both Lacuna’s and Rizal’s signature forging was
Lazaro Segovia. They were approached by Spanish friars during the final
day of the Filipino - American war to forge Rizal’s signature.
 DID RIZAL RETRACT?
Evidences that Rizal did not retract
• The Retraction letter was just forged / fake. The handwriting was
questionable. The forger admitted that he was paid by the friars.

• Acts and facts did not fit well in the story of the retraction letter. It was not
made in public not unil 1935.
• No efforts were made to save Rizal from his execution even after signing the
retraction letter.

• Rizal’s burial was kept in secret. He was not given a proper burial. His body
was found by his sister in Paco cemetery after 2 days he was executed.

• The record of his burial was not place in the entry of December 30, 1896
rather it was place in a special page.

• There’s no marriage certificate between Jose Rizal and Josephin Bracken. So

there’s no proof that they were married in a catholic church.

• The retraction itself is out of character.

 DID RIZAL RETRACT?

• The retraction of Rizal remains to this day, a controvery, many scholars,

however agree that the document does not tarnish the heroism of Rizal. His
relevance remained solidified to Filipinos and pushed them to continue the
revolution, which eventually resulted in independence in 1898.
- END -