Volume 4, Issue No. 37
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Friday, January 13, 2023
~ Not all Filipinos, let alone non-Filipinos, in multi-cultural, multi-racial Toronto know who Jose Rizal was, his origins, where he was put to death by musketry, and who his executioners were. None of these essential facts merited a mention in a historical marker attached recently to his bust in this city's Earl Bales Park. We do not know why. The Manila-based National Historical Commission which donated the marker was of no help in clarifying things. And neither were the so-called Rizal "knights".
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BUST AT EARL BALES PARK
Who Executed Jose Rizal, Where?
A Marker Omits Crucial Details of His Death
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” - George Orwell
TORONTO - From grade school to adulthood, the fact is drilled into our heads - that the nationalist, writer, and physician Jose Rizal is the Philippines' foremost national hero, not Andres Bonifacio, and neither Emilio Aguinaldo.
Rizal, the romanticist, had inspired the revolution that Bonifacio, the feisty plebeian, and Aguinaldo, the military tactician, had pursued to the end. It is their revolutionary zeal - the latter two, I mean - that appeals strongly to me. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baMKwePlzPo).
But it was Rizal who was martyred at age 35, and that reality had elevated him later on to god-like status in the country's annals. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak87ArSXQPk).
The culprit responsible for Rizal's death by firing squad was the Spanish colonial government, one of the unsparing tentacles of the Spanish Empire which had colonized the islands for over three centuries.
The task of carrying out Rizal's execution on the morning of December 30, 1896, in Bagumbayan, now the Luneta or Rizal Park in Manila, fell on a contingent of Filipino and Spanish soldiers. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgIudvTEGA).
Contrary to what is softly stated in the historical marker at the foot of his bust on Earl Bales Park that Rizal "was charged with inciting dissent", the historical record shows he was convicted by a Spanish court martial and sentenced to die by musketry for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy against Spain.
None of these essential facts is mentioned in the marker. If the purpose is to inform or promote the Philippines in Canada as a country worthy of respect, then that marker is an abject failure.
A reference to the basics would help educate Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike in a segment of Philippine history. Remember that Spain was not the country's sole colonizer, there was the United States too for half a century, and briefly, the Japanese.
Filipinos revolted against Spain leading to the declaration of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898. It was short-lived as the US took possession of the islands, triggering the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), and the eventual colonization by the US. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itOUkyevgSY).
History tells us that the Philipines had its independence two times; one, by the proclamation of its sovereign people in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, freeing the country from Spain's imperial rule; and two, by "gaining" it from exploitative US colonizers on July 4, 1946.
These historical antecedents, I believe, should have been enough to rectify what I see as distortions in the historical marker at Rizal's bust in Earl Bales Park. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gquI4L1gmMQ).
A marker is not just a fancy tombstone, it is essentially a record of the life and times of the person being honored, in this case, Jose Rizal. Add to that, the people who persecuted and prosecuted him during a crucial juncture in Philippine history.
The marker as it now stands misses the significance of a people's struggle. It merely tells a brief, incomplete, and without context, an inaccurate narrative of what Rizal once was. The date and location of his birth are omitted just as his executioners are not mentioned.
Is this an attempt to play down the many atrocities committed by the Spaniards against Filipinos during the years they held sway over the islands?
The National Historical Commission in Manila, which donated the historical marker, did not respond to a request for comment.
Similarly, a Toronto official of the Knights of Rizal, supposedly the patriotic and cultural organization "created to honor and uphold the ideals" of Rizal, also did not reply to questions about the marker. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
Mr. Marquez, you're right that the Marker must include more important and vital facts about Dr. Jose P. Rizal. - Atty. Dante P. Mercado, KOR Brampton
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