Veneration with

Understanding
By: Armando J. Malay

The conflict between Rizal and Del

Pilar
The wound inflicted by an enemy is
painful, but more painful is the
wound inflicted by a friend

Main Argument of the hometown

detractors of Rizal
Since Rizal did not lead the
Revolution of 1896, -- even
discouraged and disowned it he
could not properly be the national
hero of the Philippines.

Two Minor Themes that have been put forward

by Rizals made in the Philippines critics

That Rizals becoming the national

hero was the result of American
sponsorship
That Rizals Patriotic works including
the writing of his 2 novels, reflected
his meztizo or ilustrado background
and were undertaken precisely to
protect the interest of the illustrado
class.

Main Conclusion which latter day

detractors would foist
Since Rizal, despite the fact that he
is a false hero, continues to be
venerated by Filipinos, then that
veneration is misplaced and that if
his countrymen only understood
Opposite theme: Veneration of Rizal
by the country, and even the world,
is not only deserved but also
understood.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof.

Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896)
Almost always, national heroes of
the world have been revolutionary
leaders.
If you do not lead a revolution,
your chance of emerging as national
hero is nil or very little.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof.

Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896)
Fact: A man becomes a hero or a
national hero, not because he leads a
revolution but because he is admired
for his achievements and noble
qualities, and considered a model or
ideal.
Mahatma Gandhi (India)
Sukarno (Indonesia)

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof.

Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896)
Fact: A man becomes a hero or a
national hero, if he accomplishes
some achievements or achievements
that his people admire so much that
they would place him in higher
regard than any other man of the
country.
The field from which a national hero
would spring is not limited to the
field of revolution.

Dissertation in Fort Santiago c/o Prof.

Renato Constantino (30 Dis 1896)
In Africa: the national hero would be,
not the one who liberated the
country from a colonizing master but
one who invents a vaccine that
would forever banish a debilitating
disease.

Quarrel with Mr.

Constantino
Constantino had set up the criterion
of revolutionary leadership as the
one that would govern the choice of
a national hero.
Since Rizal is continued to be
venerated by his people, then our
veneration of Rizal as our national
hero is misplaced, a veneration
without understanding. (despite
shortcoming)

 Rizal continues to be venerated with

understanding because despite
downgrading by foreigners before
WWII and by critics of his own race
after the masses continue to admire
him for his achievements and noble
qualities and consider him a model or
ideal.

Achievements of Rizal that evoke

great admiration
His sacrifices indeed giving up his life for the country.
His exemplary conduct
His leaving behind as a legacy to his people of a
monumental body of writing
His profound thoughts on patriotism, culture, history,
sciences.
His precepts which light the path even of those who
would sneer at him as being irrelevant to our times
IN SHORT: the achievements of Rizal in all the
fields he chose to put together would be more
than a winning battle or starting a revolution.

 Rizal as the nearest approximation of

a whole man
Men and heroes are not like buttons
that can be classified according to
their size and color, because they did
this or they did not do that.
Totality of achievements is a better
criterion, and by this criterion, Rizal
stands head and shoulders above all.

 Rizal is one of the practitioners of

mendicant policy.
Fact that the propagandists, in
working for certain reforms, chose
Spain as the arena of their struggle
instead of working among their own
people, educating them, helping
them to realize their own condition
and articulating their aspirations.

2 of 7 men at whose feet is now

worshipping
Ho Chiminh (worked in Moscow)
Lenin (went to London)
Fact: many great men and women got their baptism
of fore, as it were in foreign countries, but returned
him as soon as they thought they were ready.
the national hero must work among his own people
(Constantino)
If a man could serve his country better by working
from the outside, then than the one who more honor
to him than the one who elects to stay in his home
country where virtually can do nothing because of
despotism.

Reflections of Interests of the

Ilustrado class
Difference between the characters of a
novel and a play: The heroes in Rizals
novels were not Ibarra, Fathers Damaso and
Salvi, maria Clara but in contradiction, rizal
gave us Elias who is man of the masses;
father Florentino who is a Filipino priest; Juli
and Sisa who sprang from the masses.
Ibarra was drawn as a weak person who
came back to start a revolution to get back
Maria Clara.

Contention that Rizal as the national

hero created by the Americans
Rizal was already honored by the
Philippine Revolutionary Government
when Aguinaldo declared December
30, 1896 as a day of mourning.
As early as 1892, Rizal was already
regarded as a sort of a national hero
and being a honorary president of
the Katipunan.
Veneration of Rizal before execution

 Andres Bonifacio vs Jose Rizal

 A national hero should be one who comes from

the masses are underestimating the intelligence
and the understanding of the masses.
The masses know that Rizal lived and died for all
of us not just for an elite class.
Rizal has fought for the farmers of Calamba,
opened a modern school for boys in Dapitan,
gave medical services for free in places,
established a cooperative, suffered moral and
physical beatings that his family and friends
suffered much abuse etc.
Masses know that Rizal did not do such things
just to preserve the interests of the ilustrado
class.