Melchora Aquino

also known as Tandang Sora

Early Life and Marriage

Aquino was born on January 6, 1812 in Caloocan. Aquino, daughter of a peasant couple, Juan and Valentina Aquino, never attended school. However, she was apparently literate at an early age and talented as a singer. She performed at local events as well as at Mass for her Church.

She was married to Fulgencio Ramos, a cabeza de barrio (village chief), and bore six children. Ramos died when their youngest child was seven and she was left as a single parent for their children.

Involvement in the Revolution

In her native country, Aquino operated a store, which became a refuge for the sick and wounded revolutionaries. She fed, gave medical attention to and encouraged the revolutionaries with motherly advice and prayers. Secret meetings of the Katipuneros (revolutionaries) were also held at her house. Thus she earned the name, "Mother of the Katipunan" or revolution. When the Spaniards learned about her activities and her knowledge to the whereabouts of the Katipuneros, she was asked where Andres Bonifacio was hiding but refused to conquerors steadily. She was then arrested and deported to the Mariana Islands.

After the United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, Aquino, like other exiles, returned to Philippines until her death on March 2, 1919 at the age of 107. Her remains lie in her own backyard (now as Himlayang Philipino Memorial Park, Quezon City).

Antonio Luna

Pharmacist and Great General

Family Background

Antonio Luna was born in Urbiztondo, Binondo, Manila. He was the youngest of seven siblings of Joaquin Luna and Laureana Novicio, both from wealthy families of Badoc, Ilocos Norte. His older brother, Juan Luna, was an accomplished, prize-winning painter who studied in the Madrid Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Education

His early schooling was at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1881. He went on to study literature and chemistry at the University of Santo Tomas, where he won first prize for a paper in chemistry titled Two Fundamental Bodies of Chemistry. On the invitation of his brother Juan, he continued his studies in Spain, obtaining the degree of Licentiate in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona. He pursued further studies and in 1890 obtained the degree of Doctor of Pharmacy from the Universidad Central de Madrid.

Reform Propagandist

In Spain, he contributed to the La Solidaridad periodical, published by the reformist movement of the elite Filipino students in Spain. He wrote a piece titled Impressions which dealt with Spanish customs and idiosyncrasies under the pen-name "Taga-ilog". He was active as researcher in the scientific community in Spain, and wrote a scientific treatise on malaria titled El Hematozoario del Paludismo (Malaria), which was favorably received in the scientific community. He then went to Belgium and France, and worked as assistant to Dr. Latteaux and Dr. Laffen. In recognition of his ability, he was appointed commissioner by the Spanish government to study tropical and communicable diseases. In 1894, he went back to the Philippines and worked in the civil service as a chemist. Like José Rizal and other leaders, he was in favor of reforms rather than independence as goal to be attained. Because of his participation in the reform movement, he was charged with illegal association and was deported to Spain in 1897, where he was imprisoned at the Carcel Modelo in Madrid. On his release, he went to Belgium and studied military tactics and strategy under General Gerard Leman. He returned to the Philippines in 1898.

Philippine-American war and Death

At the outbreak of the Philippine-American War, he was appointed by General Emilio Aguinaldo as Chief of War Operations on September 26, 1898 and assigned the rank of brigadier general. He saw the need for a military school, so that he established a military academy at Malolos and recruited former officers of the 1896 revolution for training. He proved to be a strict disciplinarian and thereby alienated many in the ranks of the soldiers. An example of this occurred during the "Fall of Calumpit" wherein Luna ordered Tomas Mascardo to send troops to beef up his defences. However, Mascardo ignored orders;an angry Luna left the frontlines to confront Mascardo. When he came back, Americans already defeated his defenses by the Bagbag River. He fought gallantly at battles in Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija against the better equipped US forces. In the battle at Caloocan, the Kawit Battalion from Cavite refused to attack when given the order. Because of this, he disarmed them and relieved them of duties.

On June 2, 1899 he received a telegram from Aguinaldo, ordering him to proceed to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija for a conference the next day. When he arrived at the Cabanatuan Catholic Church convent on June 5, the designated venue, Aguinaldo was not there. As he was about to depart, he was shot, then stabbed to death by Aguinaldo's men at the stairs of the convent. He was hurriedly buried in the churchyard, after which Aguinaldo relieved Luna's officers and men from the field.

The demise of Luna, the most brilliant and capable of the Filipino generals, was a decisive factor in the fight against the American forces. Subsequently, Aguinaldo suffered successive, disastrous losses in the field, retreating towards northern Luzon. In less than two years, Aguinaldo was captured in Isabela by American forces led by General Funston, and later made to pledge allegiance to the United States.

Juan Luna

he was the one who painted the famous "Spolarium"

Early Life

He was born in Badoc, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, the third child of seven children. He is a descendant of the Cala Family of the Philippines. Luna obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1874. He showed artistic promise early on and was encouraged to take up painting and traveled to Rome to study the masters. He settled in Paris and married Maria de la Paz, a prominent Filipina from the Mestizaje family of Pardo de Tavera. In a rage over his suspicion of infidelity on the part of his wife, he mercilessly shot her and her mother to death in September 1892. Tried by a French court and subsequently convicted in 1893, he was sentenced to pay the victims' immediate kin but one franc each for their loss, as the court had deemed the murders a crime of passion. In 1894, Luna returned to the Philippines after an absence of almost 20 years.

His most famous piece, The Spoliarium, for which he won gold prize at the 1884 Madrid Exposition, is currently in the National Museum in Manila.

Upon his return to the Philippines, he was arrested two years later under suspicion of sedition. He was later pardoned. His brother, General Antonio Luna, was an active participant in the insurgent Katipunan movement.

In 1898, after the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War, the fledgling Philippine Republic appointed him as a delegate to the Paris convention and to Washington, D.C. to help gain recognition of Philippine sovereignty and independence.

Luna died of heart failure in Hong Kong on December 7, 1899. He was rushing home from Europe after hearing of his brother’s assassination by members of the Katipunan.

Apolinario Mabini

known as the Sublime Paralytic

In his youth, Mabini studied at a school in Tanauan City, then conducted by a certain Simplicio Avelino. Much later, he transferred to a school conducted by the famous pedagogue, Father Valerio Malabanan. He continued his studies at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and the title Professor of Latin, and at the University of Santo Tomas, where he received his law degree in 1894.

His dream to defend the poor led him to forsake the priesthood, which his mother wanted him to take. Early in 1896, he contracted an illness, probably infantile paralysis, that led to the paralysis of his lower limbs. When the revolution broke out the same year, the Spanish authorities, suspecting that he was somehow involved in the disturbance, arrested him. The fact, however, that he could not move his lower limbs showed the Spaniards that they had made a mistake. He was released and sent to the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

Mabini, it must be noted, was not entirely without nationalistic aspirations, for he was a member of Rizal's La Liga Filipina and worked secretly for the introduction of reforms in the administration of government. In 1898, while vacationing in Los Baños, Laguna, Emilio Aguinaldo sent for him. It took hundreds of men taking turns carrying his hammock to portage Mabini to Kawit. Aguinaldo, upon seeing Mabini's physical condition, must have entertained second thoughts in calling for his help.

Mabini was most active in the revolution in 1898, when he served as the chief adviser for General Aguinaldo. He drafted decrees and crafted the first ever constitution in Asia for the First Philippine Republic, including the framework of the revolutionary government which was implemented in Malolos in 1899.

Apolinario Mabini was appointed prime minister and was also foreign minister of the newly independent dictatorial government of Emilio Aguinaldo on January 2, 1899. Eventually, the government declared the first Philippine republic in appropriate ceremonies on January 23, 1899. Mabini then led the first cabinet of the republic.

Mabini found himself in the center of the most critical period in the new country's history, grappling with problems until then unimagined. Most notable of these were his negotiations with Americans, which began on March 6, 1899. The United States and the new Philippine Republic were embroiled in extremely contentious and eventually violent confrontations. During the negotiations for peace, Americans proffered Mabini autonomy for Aguinaldo's new government, but the talks failed because Mabini’s conditions included a ceasefire, which was rejected. Mabini negotiated once again, seeking for an armistice instead, but the talks failed yet again. Eventually, feeling that the Americans were not negotiating 'bona fide,' he forswore the Americans, rallied the people, and supported war. He resigned from government on May 7, 1899.

Later Life

He also joined the fraternity of Freemasonry.

On December 10, 1899, he was captured by Americans at Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, but was later set free. In 1901, he was exiled to Guam, along with scores of revolutionists Americans referred to as 'insurrectos,' but returned home in 1903, after agreeing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. He took the oath on February 26, 1903 before the Collector of Customs.

On May 13, 1903 Mabini died of cholera in Manila.

Gregorio Del Pilar

youngest Filipino General

Early Life and Education

Born on November 14, 1875 to Fernando H. del Pilar and Felipa Sempio of Barangay San Jose, Bulacan, Bulacan, del Pilar was the nephew of propagandist Marcelo H. del Pilar and Toribio H. del Pilar, who was exiled to Guam for his involvement in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.

"Goyong", as he was casually known, studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he finished his Bachelor’s degree in 1896, at the age of 20. When the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule broke out in August under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, del Pilar joined the insurgency. He distinguished himself as a field commander while fighting Spanish garrisons in Bulacan.

Boy General

He later joined General Emilio Aguinaldo, who had gained control of the movement, in Hong Kong after the truce at Biak-na-Bato. During the Spanish American War, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines and established the government of the First Philippine Republic. He appointed del Pilar section leader of the revolutionary forces in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. On June 1, del Pilar landed in Bulacan with rifles purchased in Hong Kong, quickly laying siege on the Spanish forces in the province. When the Spaniards surrendered to del Pilar, he brought his men to Caloocan, Manila to support the other troops battling the Spaniards there.

When the Philippine-American War broke-out on February 1899, del Pilar led his troops to a short victory over Major Franklin Bell in the first phase of the Battle of Quingua on April 23, 1899, in which his forces repelled a cavalry charge and killed the highly respected Colonel John M. Stotsenburg, after whom Clark Air Base was originally named (Fort Stotsenburg).

Death

On December 2, 1899, del Pilar led 60 Filipino soldiers of Aguinaldo's rear guard in the Battle of Tirad Pass against the "Texas Regiment", the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the United States led by Peyton C. March. A delaying action to cover Aguinaldo's retreat, the five-hour standoff resulted in del Pilar's death due to a shot to the neck (at the height or end of the fighting, depending on eyewitness accounts). Del Pilar's body was later despoiled and looted by the victorious Americans soldiers.

Del Pilar's body lay unburied for days, exposed to the elements. While retracing the trail, an American officer, Lt. Dennis P. Quinlan, gave the body a traditional U.S. military burial. Upon del Pilar's tombstone, Quinlan inscribed, "An Officer and a Gentleman".

In 1930, del Pilar's body was exhumed and was identified by the gold tooth and braces he had installed while in exile in Hong Kong.

Emilio Jacinto

known as the Brain of Katipunan

Biography

Jacinto was fluent in both Spanish and Tagalog, but preferred to speak in Spanish. He attended San Juan de Letran College, and later transferred to the University of Santo Tomas to study law. He did not finish college and, at the age of 20, joined the secret society called Katipunan. He became the advisor on fiscal matters and secretary to Andrés Bonifacio.

Jacinto also wrote for the Katipunan newspaper called Kalayaan, which translates to Freedom in Filipino. He wrote in the newspaper under the pen name Dimasilaw, and used the alias Pingkian in the Katipunan. Emilio Jacinto was also the author of the Kartilya ng Katipunan.

After Bonifacio's death, Jacinto continued fighting the Spaniards, though he never joined the forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo. He contracted malaria and died on April 16, 1899, in Majayjay, Laguna, at the age of 23. His remains were later transferred to the Manila North Cemetery.

Andres Bonifacio

known as the Father of Katipunan

Early Life

Bonifacio was born to a Tagalog father by the name of Santiago Bonifacio, and a Spanish mestiza mother, Catalina de Castro of Zambales, in Tondo, Manila. His father was a cabeza de barangay (a leading barangay official). His mother died of tuberculosis in 1881 and his father followed suit a year after. According to popular anecdote, he peddled canes and fans to support his family.

He worked as a clerk and sales agent for Fleming and Company, a British trading firm, then transferred to Fressell and Company, a German firm, both in Manila. He married twice - his first wife was a woman named Monica, who died of leprosy, and Gregoria de Jesus, daughter of a wealthy family in Binondo. They were married in Binondo Church, despite her parents' objections.

Bonifacio, though projected by detractors as being illiterate, was in fact highly literate. He was taught Spanish since childhood owing to her mother's ancestry. He was also a fervent reader - his favorites were books on the French Revolution, The Lives of the Presidents of the United States of America, Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables' (which he translated into Tagalog), and Jose Rizal's 'Noli me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo'. Furthermore, the title 'bodeguero' would have the modern equivalent of a warehouse/inventory keeper, a job that would require adequate to above-average intelligence. He also wrote various revolutionary articles, manifestos, and poems, the most famous being 'Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa'.

He was a Freemason. He also joined Rizal's La Liga Filipina (Spanish "The Philippine League"), a society that called for reforms in Spanish rule. However, the Liga was disbanded shortly after Rizal was arrested and deported to the town of Dapitan in Mindanao a day after the group's only meeting.

After the La Liga was disbanded, Bonifacio realized the futility of peaceful struggle even for mere reforms. He then founded the underground organization that in the coming years would grow and send shock to the Spanish colonial rule and would drastically change the course of Philippine history and would give pride to every Filipino - the Katipunan. With his wife Gregoria de Jesus and his uncle one day in a humble hut in Manila, Bonifacio resolved to change history with just a single pistol in hand for a start.

Controversy

Some historians, like Renato Constantino, see him as a champion of the masses who was slighted by ambitious members of the upper class. Others like Gregorio Zaide, favor Aguinaldo and company over him. Glenn Anthony May goes as far as saying that his role as a national hero was largely invented. Also, until now, there is debate whether he should be considered the first Philippine President instead of Aguinaldo and the national hero instead of Rizal.

Some analytical historians like Alejo Villanueva claim that what happened at Tejeros, Cavite was actually a coup de etat to wrest power from Bonifacio by the bourgeois or upper class represented by Aguinaldo. (Aguinaldo and members of his class enjoyed more privilege status even before the revolution. They would not allow a victorious president Bonifacio ordering land and wealth distribution as his first decree.) Hence, the Tejeros Convention was a farce intended to lure Bonifacio to the Caviteño territory. The presidential election wasn't a national election at all. Participation in the election primarily came from Caviteños. The other provinces in revolt, such as Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Laguna, and Batangas, were not participants. Bonifacio, who was too fueled with idealism, was too naive to understand maneuvering politicians. Had Bonifacio been able to get back to Manila he could have charged Aguinaldo and other Caviteño officers with treason and Philippine history would have taken a very different track. Bonifacio was not allowed to get out of Cavite. He was summarily tried then executed promptly at a mountain in Maragondon, Cavite for treason.

Jose Rizal

Philippine's National Hero

The seventh of eleven children born to a middle class family in the town of Calamba, Laguna, Rizal attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree sobresaliente. He enrolled in the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and then traveled alone to Madrid, Spain, where he studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. Rizal was a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These are social commentaries on the Philippines that formed the nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred the militancy of armed revolutionaries against 333 years of Spanish rule.

As a political figure, Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of institutional reforms by peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. The general consensus among Rizal scholars, however, attributed his martyred death as the catalyst that precipitated the Philippine Revolution.

Family

José Rizal's parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandra II (1818-1898) and Teodora Morales Alonso Realonda y Quintos (1827-1911), were prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children namely: Saturnina (1850-1913), Paciano (1851-1930), Narcisa (1852-1939), Olympia (1855-1887), Lucia (1857-1919), Maria (1859-1945), José Protasio (1861-1896), Concepcion (1862-1865), Josefa (1865-1945), Trinidad (1868-1951) and Soledad (1870-1929).

Rizal was a 6th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co, a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines from Jinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century. Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley native of Luzon. To free his descendants from the anti-Chinese animosity of the Spanish authorities, Lam-co changed the family surname to the Spanish surname "Mercado" (market) to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. In 1849, Governor-General Narciso Claveria ordered all Filipino families to choose new surnames from a list of Spanish family names. José's father Francisco adopted the surname "Rizal" (originally Ricial, the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, "a friend of the family". However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name "Rizal Mercado" as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname "Mercado". Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, José dropped the last three names that make up his full name, at the advice of his brother, Paciano Rizal Mercado, and the Rizal Mercado family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, Rizal writes: "My family never paid much attention, but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!" This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links with Filipino priests who were sentenced to death as subversives. From early childhood, José and Paciano were already advancing unheard-of political ideas of freedom and individual rights which infuriated the authorities. Despite the name change, Jose, as "Rizal" soon distinguishes himself in poetry writing contests, impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing essays that are critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his El Filibusterismo, this second surname had become so well known that, as he writes to another friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name..." José became the focal point by which the family became known, at least from the point of view of colonial authorities.

Aside from indigenous Filipino and Chinese ancestry, recent genealogical research has found that José had traces of Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. His maternal great-great-grandfather (Teodora's great-grandfather) was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers, who married a Filipina named Benigna. These two gave birth to Regina Ursua who married a Sangley mestizo from Pangasinán named Atty. Manuel de Quintos, Teodora's grandfather. Their daughter Brígida de Quintos married a Spanish mestizo named Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, the father of Teodora. Austin Craig mentions Lakandula, Rajah of Tondo at the time of the Spanish incursion, also as an ancestor.

Education

Rizal first studied under the tutelage of Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna. He was sent to Manila and enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1877 and graduated as one of the nine students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor's degree, and at the same time at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Philosophy and Letters where he studied Philosophy and Letters. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he decided to study medicine specializing in ophthalmology at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery but did not complete the program claiming discrimination made by the Spanish Dominican friars against the Filipino students.

Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Europe: Madrid in May 1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. His education continued at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg where he earned a second doctorate. In Berlin, he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the anthropological society on the orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He left Heidelberg a poem, "A las flores del Heidelberg," which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and the unification of common values between East and West.

Rizal's multifacetedness was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Meyer, as "stupendous". Documented studies show him to be a polymath with the ability to master various skills and subjects. He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He was a Freemason.

Writings

José Rizal's most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These writings angered both the Spaniards and the hispanicized Filipinos due to their insulting symbolism. They are highly critical of Spanish friars and the atrocities committed in the name of the Church. Rizal's first critic was Ferdinand Blumentritt, a Sudetan-German professor and historian whose first reaction was of misgiving. Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him however from writing the preface of El Filibusterismo after he had translated Noli me Tangere into German. Noli was published in Berlin (1887) and Fili in Ghent (1891) with funds borrowed largely from Rizal's friends. As Blumentritt had warned, these led to Rizal's prosecution as the inciter of revolution and eventually, to a military trial and execution. The intended consequence of teaching the natives where they stood brought about an adverse reaction, as the Philippine Revolution of 1896 took off virulently thereafter. As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed essays, allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona. The core of his writings centers on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines is battling, in Rizal's own words, "a double-faced Goliath"--corrupt friars and bad government. His commentaries reiterate the following agenda:

- That the Philippines be a province of Spain
- Representation in the Cortes
- Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars--Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans--in parishes and remote sitios
- Freedom of assembly and speech
- Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)

The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms even if they were more openly endorsed by Spanish intellectuals like Morayta, Unamuno, Margall and others.

Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was disbanded by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novels.

Persecution

Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by a reference to his parents and promptly apologized after being challenged to a duel. Aware that Rizal was a better swordsman, he issued an apology, became an admirer, and wrote Rizal's first European biography. Memory as a ten-year old of his mother's treatment at the hands of the civil authorities, with the approval of the Church prelates, hurt so much as to explain his reaction to Retana. The incident stemmed from an accusation that Rizal's mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin when she claimed she only intervened to help. Without a hearing she was ordered to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871, and made to walk the ten miles (16 km) from Calamba. She was released after two and a half years of appeals to the highest court.

After writing Noli me Tangere, among the numerous other poems, plays and tracts he had already written, he gained further notoriety with the Spaniards. Against the advice of relatives and friends, he came back to the Philippines to aid his family which was in dispute with the Dominican landlords. In 1887, he wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba and later that year led them to speak out against friar attempts to raise rent. They initiated a litigation which resulted in the Dominicans evicting them from their homes, including the Rizal family. Eventually, General Valeriano Weyler had the buildings on the farm torn down.

In 1896 while Rizal was in prison in Fort Santiago, his brother Paciano was tortured by Spaniards trying to extract evidence of Jose's complicity in the revolution. Two officers took turns applying pins under Paciano's fingernails; with his hands bound behind him and raised several feet, he was dropped repeatedly until he lost consciousness.

Last Days

By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising and leading to the first proclamation of a democratic republic in Asia. To dissociate himself, Rizal volunteered and was given leave by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Blanco later was to present his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.

Before he left Dapitan, he issued a manifesto disavowing the revolution and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom. Rizal was arrested en route, imprisoned in Barcelona, and sent back to Manila to stand trial. He was implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan and was to be tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. During the entire passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so. Rizal was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Governor General Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office, and the friars had intercalated Polavieja in his stead, sealing Rizal's fate.

His poem, undated and believed to be written on the day before his execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove and later handed to his family with his few remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests. Within hearing of the Spanish guards he reminded his sisters in English, "There is something inside it," referring to the alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his execution, thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was followed by another, "Look in my shoes," in which another item was secreted. Exhumation of his remains in August, 1898, under American rule, revealed he had been uncoffined, his burial not on sanctified ground granted the 'confessed' faithful, and whatever was in his shoes had disintegrated.

In his letter to his family he wrote: "Treat our aged parents as you would wish to be treated...Love them greatly in memory of me.30 December 1896."

In his final letter, to the Sudeten-German professor Ferdinand Blumentritt - Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. He had to reassure him that he had not turned revolutionary as he once considered being, and that he shared his ideals to the very end. He also bequeathed a book personally bound by him in Dapitan to his 'best and dearest friend.' When Blumentritt received it he broke down and wept.