J0014
Ever relevant
Philippine Daily Inquirer 5:31 am | Monday, June 20th, 2011
Crowned with the words Republika ng Pilipinas
and accompanied by a large number 1, Jose
Rizals unmistakable profile graces the Philippine
one-peso coin. This isnt a coincidence. The one-
peso coin is the workhorse of Philippine currency
and as such it is fuel that drives everyday Filipino
commerce, Rizal being exchanged from one
hand to another countless times in a day.
That Rizal has retained his place on the
Philippine peso instead of being replaced by
another, later heroic figure, speaks to Rizals
continued popularityand ultimately his
relevance after 150 years. Some might say it is a
position Rizal holds by default. After all, are not
all Filipino schoolchildren taught the minute
details of Rizals life and death in our
classrooms? Is not an admiration of Rizal
basically required by our schools?
The truth is that it is virtually impossible to study
Rizals life and not be amazed, impossible to look
upon the man and not find a hero. School
introduced us to Rizalwe did the rest. For, in a
country of 7,101 opinions, Rizal is one of the very
few topics in which, more often than not, Filipinos
will find themselves agreeing heartily.
The numbers bear this out. In the First Quarter
2011 survey conducted by the Social Weather
Stations, a staggering 75 percent named Rizal as
a genuine Filipino hero.
This is one reason why we find Rizals figure
standing motionless in almost every public school
in the country. With Rizal, we generally agree. But
there is another aspect to this general consensus,
this idea of heroes. Rizal represents what we to
this day consider the ideal in the Filipino.
From Calamba to the world, Rizal represented
the best we had to offer. He was well-educated
and well-traveled. He was an intellectual first and
a romantic always, both a servant and a patriot.
Columnist Conrado de Quiros got it right when he
wrote: The guy was the original serve the
people person. Probably more remarkable than
Source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/6719/ever-relevant
01 Handout 1
that Rizal was a certifiable genius was that he put
that genius to work for his country.
What made Rizal stand apart from other good
men was that he had every opportunity to change
his mind, to avoid the harsh fate of a subversive.
He could have merely been mediocre, or selfish,
or even craven. He could have been just like
anyone else. But Rizal chose the difficult path. He
understood that his manifold gifts meant a
necessary sacrifice, his well-rounded life meant a
singular purpose and his many travels meant an
eventual, inexorable journey home. He could
have chosen to live and flee instead of to love and
die.
Each time Rizal tried to exceland he did so
routinely, writing, painting, treating the sick,
philosophizing, loving, becoming the first true-
blue Malay Renaissance manhe did not merely
raise himself, he swung at the foundations of
Spanish rule, De Quiros wrote. And its not as
though Rizal himself was oblivious to the
significance of what he was doing. And knowing
the fate that awaited him, Rizal came home
anyway.
This then is why Rizal remains our heroic ideal.
Here was a Filipino given nearly everything we
dream ofcomfort, talent, intelligence,
achievementand allowed everything we seek
education, travels, friends and loversand
instead of staying away and keeping all he had,
he chose to essentially give it all up not because
of what it did for him but for what it did for all
Filipinos everywhere. He could have said no
when asked to make a fateful choice. Knowing all
this, Rizal still said yes.
He said it with his actions early on that morning in
Bagumbayanfollowed by what sounded like a
clap of thunderand in the process taught us to
say it as well. We who know of his story say yes
as well, because as we grow older, we
understand that we make the same choices when
we remember him. It is not because he is on our
coins or stands vigil in front of our schools. Jose
Rizal is ever heroic and always relevant because
we say so, then, now and always.
*Property of STI
Page 1 of 1