“I should like to see some of you before I die though it may be very

painful. Let the bravest come over.”

 01
Petition for the Pardon of Rizal
Petition for the Pardon of Rizal
Here is the complete text of the letter sent by the weeping and mourning mother, asking
for the pardon of her son.

"Most Excellent Sir:

"Teodora Alonzo de Rizal, resident of Calamba and native of Sta. Cruz, Manila, to Your
Excellency, with due respect and reverence, has the honor to state:

"That her son Jose Rizal y Mercado having been sentenced to death by the Council of War for the
crime attributed to him of rebellion against the Mother Country, a crime which in conscience and at
most in justice has not been proven in a conclusive manner, whereas the absolute innocence of her
unfortunate son is evident to the one who has the honor to resort to your Excellency; therefore, she is
constrained to entreat your kind heart and upright justice to deign to turn your glance on and consider
the tribulations of an unhappy mother, who in the last years of her life and at the advanced age of
seventy-one, is going to have the greatest and the most poignant sorrows, which is that of witnessing the
death of her unfortunate son-a victim only of fatality and unfortunate circumstances which have
surrounded him.
Petition for the Pardon of Rizal
It takes not only great knowledge but also great courage and equanimity of mind and
spirit to compose a masterpiece of a poem in the midst of physical and mental turmoil agitated
by an impending execution. In the last few days and few moments of Rizal, he allegedly wrote
the 70 verses in 14 stanzas of the "Last Farewell." But he wrote not only "Mi Ultimo Adios"
before meeting the firing squad; he also wrote some letters to his family.“

Of all the many letters and correspondences inked by the members of the Rizal family, it
was the letter of his mother pleading for the life of the hero that was considered to be the most
touching and important. This letter plays a very significant role in history and contemporary
life, for it proved the following:

1. The love of a mother to a son knows no limits and boundaries. A mother could do the most
extreme to save the life of her son.
2. The Rizal family hopes against hope that the Spanish Government could help; after all he
was perceived as a liberal representative of the crown of Spain.
Petition for the Pardon of Rizal
"Most Excellent Sir, my unfortunate son Jose Rizal, suffering with humility and resignation his
banishment by order of the Superior Authority of this Archipelago, appears to me in an evident manner
as innocent of the grave crime imputed to him and for which he has been sentenced to death. It is not my
intention, Most Excellent Sir, either to censure or question in any way the legality of the decision of the
fair court, but on account of unfortunate and fatal circumstances, it has apparently made my unhappy
son responsible for the most infamous of crimes, when in fact he is innocent.

"In view of the above, Most Excellent Sir, I beseech Your Excellency to deign to commiserate with
a poor mother, who in the supreme moment of seeing her beloved son die, addresses herself to Your
Excellency in the name of our God, entreating you with tears of sorrow in her eyes and a broken heart to
deign to grant her unfortunate son pardon from the death penalty imposed upon him.

"This is a grace that she hopes to obtain from the acknowledged kindness of the magnanimous
heart of Your Excellency, which will be eternally recognized by the undersigned and her entire family,
who will elevate prayers to heaven that it may preserve your precious life for the welfare and honor of
our Mother Spain and the consolation of mothers.

"Manila, 28 December 1896"

02 How Rizal Wished to Be Buried
How Rizal Wished to Be Buried
"To My Family,

"I ask you for forgiveness for the pain I caused you, but some day I shall have to die and it is better
that I die now in the plenitude of my conscience.

"Dear parents and brothers: Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my
death. I die resigned, hoping that with my death you will be left in peace. Ah! It is better to die than to
live suffering. Console yourselves.

"I enjoin you to forgive one another the little meanness of life and try to live united in peace and good
harmony. Treat your old parents as you would like to be treated by your children later. Love them very
much in my memory.

"Bury me in the ground. Place a stone and a cross over it. My name, the date of my birth, and the date of
my death. Nothing more. If later you wish to surround my grave with a fence, you can do it. No
anniversaries. I prefer Paang Bundok."

"Have pity on poor Josephine."

How Rizal Wished to Be Buried

This letter was among the documents presented to the Republic of the Philippines by
Spain through her minister of foreign affairs, Martin Artajo, on February 26, 1953. It had no
date, but it must have been written at Fort Santiago shortly before he was led to his execution
in Bagumbayan, Manila."

Rizal was buried not in a humble place in Paang Bundok, as he wished, but in the
cemetery of Paco. On December 30, 1912, the Commission on the Rizal Monument, created by
virtue of Act no. 243, transferred his remains to the base of the monument erected on the
Luneta, very near to the place where he was shot.
How Rizal Wished to Be Buried

This letter was among the documents presented to the Republic of the Philippines by
Spain through her minister of foreign affairs, Martin Artajo, on February 26, 1953. It had no
date, but it must have been written at Fort Santiago shortly before he was led to his execution
in Bagumbayan, Manila."

Rizal was buried not in a humble place in Paang Bundok, as he wished, but in the
cemetery of Paco. On December 30, 1912, the Commission on the Rizal Monument, created by
virtue of Act no. 243, transferred his remains to the base of the monument erected on the
Luneta, very near to the place where he was shot.
 03
Rizal’s Last Words to his Brother Paciano
Rizal’s Last Words to his Brother Paciano

This letter was received by Paciano in Cavite in January 1897 as he joined the revolution
after the death sentence of his brother was signed by Governor General Camilio Polavieja on
December 28, 1896.
 Rizal’s Last Words to his Brother Paciano
"My dear brother.
"It has been four years and a half that we have not seen each other or have we addressed one another
in writing or orally. I do not believe this is due to lack of affection either on my part or yours but because
knowing each other so well, we had no need of words to understand each other.
"Now that I am going to die, it is to you I dedicate my last words to tell you how much I regret to
leave you alone in life bearing all the weight of the family and of our old parents.
"I think of how you have worked to enable me to have a career. I believe that I have tried not to waste
my time. My brother: if the fruit has been bitter, it is not my fault; it is the fault of circumstances. I know
that you have suffered much because of me: I am sorry.
"I assure you, brother, that I die innocent of this crime of rebellion. If my former writings had been
able to contribute towards it, I should not deny absolutely, but then I believe I expiated my past with my
exile.
"Tell our father that I remember him, but how? I remember my whole childhood, his tenderness, his
love. Ask him to forgive me for the pain I caused him unwillingly.

"Your brother.
- Jose Rizal
04 Rizal's Last Words to His Parents
 Rizal's Last Words to His Parents

This letter was penned by Rizal at around 6:00 am on December 30, 1896. It contained the
last words to his parents, asking for forgiveness for the pain he had caused them.

"My Most Loved Father,

"Forgive me for the pain with which I pay you for struggles and toils to give me an education. I did
not want this nor did I expect it. Farewell, Father, farewell!

"To my very beloved Mother, Mrs. Teodora Alonzo

"At 6 o'clock in the morning of the 30th of December 1896.

- Jose Rizal
 05
The Execution
The Execution

After hearing Rizal in his own defense, the court martial found him guilty as charged and
condemned him to death. The decision was signed by Jose Togores, president of the court, and
Braulio Rodriguez Nuñez, Ricardo Muñoz, Fermin Perez Rodriguez, Manuel Reguera, Manuel
Diaz Escribano, and Santiago Izquierdo. Also on the same day the judgment was endorsed to
Polavieja who referred it to the Judge Advocate General. Peña adopted Alcocer's arguments
wholesale and found Rizal guilty as a principal by induction through his propaganda activities.
He recommended that Rizal be executed by firing squad at the place and time designated by the
Governor General. On the 28th of December, Polavieja approved the recommendation and
ordered Rizal to be shot at seven o'clock in the morning of the 30th of December on the field of
Bagumbayan."

December 30, 1896, the day that dawned over Fort Santiago, was one of the balmiest in
Philippine history. The day of Rizal's execution. On this day there was restlessness. A sense of
calm yet a feeling of change were in the air; there was a sense a tragedy that embraced the
anticipated public execution. The execution area was surrounded by the largest crowd. Everyone
was curious about witnessing the execution of the most influential Filipino, Jose Rizal.
The Execution

Rizal was facing execution for speaking out against Spanish political and economic
domination in the Philippines. He had also committed the unpardonable sin of criticizing the
Catholic Church. The Spanish believed that he had fomented revolution and was guilty of
sedition.

Finally the condemned man marched toward the lawn. What Rizal realized as he marched
to his execution was his appearance, his bearing and his final words would create a new
revolutionary consciousness. He was aware that his execution would lay the foundation for a new
Philippines.

"At the cleared grass area where the firing squad assembled, Rizal made his way to the execution
spot. As the firing squad lined up, people noticed that the Spaniards and other Europeans had left the grass
area. The soldiers appeared unusually nervous. They checked their guns a number of times, they adjusted
their uniforms and their eyes scanned the crowd. Finally the firing squad was ready to face the young
Philippine nationalist."
The Execution

Then the shots were fired, and Jose Rizal fell to his death. But he made one final gesture. He
turned to face the firing squad as if to say "I am innocent." In a letter to his German friend
Ferdinand Blumentritt, Rizal remarked that he was innocent of the charges against him but would
accept execution for a larger purpose. His death pricked the last strand of human reservation for
patience, that every Filipino native soul, whether living or yet unborn, had moral, political, and
national struggle to die for. It was the death of Rizal that turned many formerly apolitical Filipinos
into nationalists. No longer was there tacit public acceptance of European rule. There was a rising
Asian political consciousness and the Philippines was in the forefront of the movement, and Rizal
was its leader.

But Rizal was only one of the many Filipinos who were executed by the Spanish
government. As other victims were taken from the torture chambers at Fort Santiago to be
executed for speaking out, there was an increased appreciation of Rizal's legacy. Rizal had
criticized the Spanish for their insensitive treatment of the Filipino, and his voice had the most
dramatic impact upon the resurgent Philippine nationalism. As a result his execution was a
special one and it inflamed the Filipino people against Spanish rule.
The Execution

From the day of Socrates, who was put to death by the citizens of Athens for teaching the
young men to think for themselves. down to that morning in December 30, 1896, when Rizal was
done to death by the firing squad at Bagumbayan, the pages of history have run red with the
murder of men of science."
06 Letters to Be Opened after His Death
Letters to Be Opened after His Death

On June 20, 1892, Rizal wrote two beautiful letters packed with fate, one to his relatives and
friends, the other to his countrymen He sealed them and on the envelope of each wrote: "To be
opened after my death." He left these letters with his friend Dr. Lorenzo Marques of Macao.
Letters to Be Opened after His Death
The first letter:

"Parents, Brother, Sisters, and Friends,

"The love which I have always professed for you was what dictated this step, which the future alone
will be able to say was or was not wise. Destiny judges acts by their consequences; but whether these be
favorable or unfavorable, it will always be said that my duty has commanded me, and if I perish in obeying
it, it will not matter. "I know that you have had to suffer much, but I do not regret. what I have done, and if
now I had to commence again I would do the same as I have done, because it was my duty. I am going
willingly to expose myself to danger, not as an expiation for my faults (for in this matter I do not think I
have committed any) but to crown my work and to attest with my example what I have always preached.

"A man ought to die for his duty and his convictions. I hold to all the ideas which I have published
concerning the state and future of my country, and I shall die willingly for her, and even more willingly for
to procure justice and tranquility for you all.

"I risk my life with gladness to save so many innocent, so many nephews and nieces, so many
children who suffer for me.
Letters to Be Opened after His Death

"What am I? A single man, nearly without a family, and sufficiently disillusioned about life. I have
been deceived many times, while the future which lies before me is dark, and would be darker if it were not
illumined by the light, the dawn of my country. Meanwhile there are many persons who, full of hopes and
dreams, may perhaps be wholly happy when I am dead; for I hope my enemies will be satisfied and will no
longer persecute so many innocent. Their hatred with respect to me is justifiable to a certain point, but not
with respect to my parents and relatives.

"If fortune should go against me, they will all know that I die happy, thinking that with my death I
have secured for them. the end of all their misery. They will then be able to return to our country and be
happy in it.

"Until the last instant of my life, I will be thinking of you and will be hoping that you may have all
good fortune and happiness.

- Jose Rizal
Letters to Be Opened after His Death

The second letter:

"To the Filipinos:

"The step which I have taken or which I am about to take is very hazardous, no doubt, and I need not
say that I have thought much about it. I know that almost everybody is against it; but I know also that
almost nobody knows what is going on in my heart. I cannot live knowing that many are suffering unjust
persecutions on my account; I cannot live seeing my brother, sisters, and their numerous families pursued
like criminals; I prefer to face death, and I gladly give my life to free so many innocents from such unjust
persecution. I know that at present, the future of my country to some extent gravitates about me; that if I
die, many will exult, and that therefore many are longing for my destruction. But what shall I do? I have
duties to my conscience above all, I have obligations to the families which suffer, to my old parents, whose
sighs pierce to my heart; I know that I alone, even with my death, am able to make them happy, permitting
them to return to their native land and to the tranquility of their home. I have only my parents, but my
country has many sons beside myself who are able to take my place and are already taking my place
successfully.
Letters to Be Opened after His Death

"I desire, furthermore, to let those who deny our patriotism see that we know how to die for our duty
and for our convictions. What matters death if one dies for what he loves, for his motherland, and the beings
he adores?

"If I supposed that I was the only fulcrum for the policy of the Philippines, and if I were convinced
that my fellow countrymen would utilize my services, perhaps I should hesitate to take this step; but there
are still others who can, with advantage, take my place.

"I have always loved my poor Motherland, and am sure I shall love her to the last moment even
though perhaps men are unjust to me, and my future, my life, my joys, all have been sacrificed for my love
of her. Whatever my fate may be, I shall die blessing her and longing for the dawn of her redemption.

"Publish these letters after my death.

- Jose Rizal
 07
The Last Farewell
The Last Farewell

Just after Rizal became aware of his sentence to death but before his transfer to the chapel,
he wrote the famous poem "My Last Farewell." It was written on a small sheet of note paper,
folded lengthwise into a narrow strip and then doubled and wedged inside the tank of a little
alcohol lamp on which his cooking in the cell had been done. At the farewell to his sister Trinidad
while in the chapel, he said: "I have nothing to give you as a souvenir except the cooking lamp
Mrs. Tavera gave me while I was in Paris." And then so the guard might not understand he said in
a low tone in English. "There is something inside." The lamp was taken with his other belongings
from the fort and it was not until the night of the second day after his death that it was deemed
safe to investigate. Then when the verses were found they were immediately copied and the copy
without comment mailed to Hong Kong. There they were published."

Did Rizal write "Mi Ultimo Adios" on the eve of his execution, or did he begin writing it
when he felt the certainty of a death sentence for him, a certainty that might have come to his
consciousness weeks or even months before that night? A popular painting shows Rizal writing at
his desk, with an oil lamp providing the only light. Actually the oil lamp was an oil burner to heat
or keep food warm.
The Last Farewell
The food warmer could not have provided that much light without a glass cover to disperse
the light in a room, but it provided space for Rizal to hide the poem in the oil burner. It is more
likely that he had drafted the poem sometime before then, and wrote the finishing touches on the
eve of his death. Rizal's friend, Mariano Ponce, gave the title "Mi Ultimo Adios" as it originally
had none. In his article "Wife of Dr. Jose Rizal," Prof. Isagani Medina wrote that according to
Santiago V. Alvarez's memoirs, "Bonifacio asked if he could borrow a copy of that poem, so that
he could translate it into Tagalog."

After the execution of Rizal, Josephine, with Paciano and Trinidad Rizal, crossed the tightly
guarded enemy lines towards Cavite. At the time of their arrival, the Magdiwang and Magdalo
factions were meeting at the Casa Hacienda of Imus, according to Artemio Ricarte. However
Santiago V. Alvarez said that the Rizals came at past one o'clock in the afternoon of December 30,
1896 at San Francisco de Malabon (Now General Trias). Andres Bonifacio, the Katipunan
Supremo, received the Rizals himself at the house of Mrs. Estefania Potente where he was staying.

In fact it was at this time that Bonifacio asked if he could keep for some time a copy of
Rizal's poem "Mi Ultimo Adios" in Spanish, so that he could translate it into Tagalog with the
assistance of Diego Mojica, a poet and a writer in Tagalog, at the same time President of the
Popular Council Mapagtiis and Local Cavite.
 The Last Farewell
To whom then is Rizal bequeathing his last testament with its now redundant title "My Last
Farewell"? This poem may be conceived as a radical testimony to Rizal's stand against Spanish
colonial hegemony and the dogmatic authority of the church. "Mi Ultimo Adios" may be read as
Rizal's symbolic act of bloodletting that dissolves the sorceress Mother Spain in the figure of the
terrestrial mother: the body is finally freed from the nightmare of the colonized ego.

There may be lingering doubts that Rizal was a Filipino patriot. He was loyal to Spain to the
end, but Spain was not his "Patria Adorada." The first stanza of "Mi Ultimo Adios" leaves no
doubt which country Rizal meant by "Patria Adorada." The Philippines (Filipinas) was his "Patria
Adorada," the Pearl of the Orient Sea and his Lost Eden.

Rizal was hip because he was cool even in the face of death. He had total commitment to his
struggle. He could not betray his patriotism and nationalism even if it meant death. He was not
like many of us who would flee the country for safer grounds when events demand that we take a
stand and fight for it. In his "Datos para Mi Defensa" notes he would use in his trial, he wrote: "I
was so far from thinking that I was doing wrong that I never wanted to accept the protection of
another nation; twice I was offered German nationality, once the English, and I have never
accepted." What could be more hip than that?