R.A.

1425:THE RIZAL LAW

Senate Bill No. 438/ House Bill No. 5561

• Proposed by Senator Claro M. Recto

• First known as "Noli/El Fili Bill"
• Filed by the Committee on Education on April 3, 1956
• Sponsored by the then Sen. Jose Laurel, who was the Chairman of the Committee on Education
in the Senate
• An identical copy was filed in Congress by Cong. Jacobo Z. Gonzales on April 19, 1956, and was
called as the House Bill No. 5561
• The original version of Senate Bill No. 438 reads as follows:
“AN ACT TO MAKE NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL FILIBUSTERISMO COMPULSORY, READING MATTER IN
ALL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.”

The Trials of Rizal Bill

• Rizal Bill caused heated disputes in the legislative body (Senate and Congress)
• The measure was strongly opposed by the Catholic Church due to the anti-clerical
themes in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
• The Catholic Church argued that the compulsory nature of the bill was a violation of
religious freedom.
• However, according to Senator Laurel, the object of the measure was to disseminate
the ideas and ideals of the great Filipino patriot through the reading of his works,
particularly “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo”.
• Senator Recto also declared that sole object of the bill was to foster a better
appreciation of Rizal’s times and of the role he played in combating Spanish tyranny
in this country. Denying that the novels had any religious motivations.
• Due to the continued debates on the original draft of the bill, Sen. Jose P. Laurel,
propose on his own name an amendment by substitution.
• The new measure was also debated in the Chamber, but with less heat.

Substitute Bill (Rizal Bill)

"An act to include in the curricula of all Public and Private schools, colleges and universities
courses on the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo, authorizing the printing and distribution thereof, and for other
purposes"

• Senator Lim then proposed the exemption of the students from the requirements of
the bill, on certain conditions, and the Senate seemed headed again for another
lengthy disputation.
• Senator Primicias also presented an additional amendment to the substitute bill
proposed bill by Senator Laurel.

“The board shall promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption of students for reasons of
religious belief stated in a sworn written statement; but not from taking the course.”

• The bill was passed by the Senate on May 17, 1956.

• It was signed into law by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay on June 12, 1956.

Republic No. 1425

"An act to include in the curricula of all Public and Private schools, colleges and universities courses
on the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, authorizing the printing and distribution thereof, and for other purposes"
 Ascendance of the Chinese Mestizos

• The Chinese was believed to have first arrived in the Philippines during the pre-colonial
period as merchants between the coast of China and Manila.
• In 1594, the Spanish Governor Luis Perez Dasmariñas created Binondo as a permanent
settlement for Chinese mestizos who were converted to Catholicism.
• Chinese merchants and traders were free to do their business in Binondo.
• It also became the place of intermarriages between Chinese immigrants and Filipino natives,
thus the emergence of Chinese Mestizos.
• A Chinese Mestizo can be one of the following:
o Any person born of a Chinese father and Indio mother
o A Spanish mestiza who married a Chinese Mestizo
o A child of a Spanish Mestiza and a Chinese Mestizo
• Aside from Binondo, other notable Chinese Mestizo communities were Santa Cruz, Tondo,
and in some parts of Visayas and Northern Luzon.
• From the beginning of the Spanish Colonial period until 1740, the inhabitants of the
Philippines were classified into three:
o Spaniards
o Indios
o Chinese
• As the Chinese mestizo population grew, questions regarding their legal status as the
inhabitants of the country arose.
• It was only on 1741, that their legal status was officially established when the whole
population of the Philippines was reclassified into four according to the tax payment of
tribute.

The Rise of Middle Class

• The entrepreneurial power of the Chinese mestizos gave way to the emergence of the
Philippine middle class described as “more active and enterprising, more prudent and
pioneering, more oriented to trade and commerce than the Indios” (Bowring, 1963)

The Chinese Mestizo in the Formation of the Filipino Identity

• The significant role that the Chinese mestizos played in the Philippine society was the
formation of the Filipino identity
• This was evident during the latter part of the 19th century when they became clearly
influential in the economy of the Philippines as a Spanish colony. This caused Spaniards to be
concerned with the ability of the Chinese mestizos to cause discord in the society.
• As early as 1827, Manuel Bernaldez Pizarro already observed that the Indio and mestizo
clerics had “dangerous tendencies to revolution”.
• In 1841, Sini- baldo de Mas, in a secret report to the Madrid government, suspected the
Chinese mestizos as a potential nucleus around which the Indio insurrection might be
organized, and predicted that the Chinese mestizos would in time dominate public opinion.
• It was also difficult to separate the Indios from the Chinese mestizos since they identified
themselves with each other socially and culturally.
• Chinese mestizos also shared grievances with the Indios about the harsh conditions under
the Spanish rule.

Influence to Rizal

• Rizal, known as the pride of the Malay race, was a Chinese mestizo, having been descended from
a pure Chinese ancestor and a long line of Chinese mestizos and Chinese mestizas.
• The birth of Filipino consciousness was already indicated in the writings of Paterno and
Sancianco; nurtured by the powerful mind of Jose Rizal, it would bloom.
 • Through his novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Rizal exposed the abuses and
corruption of the Spanish authorities, condemned the oppression of the colonizers, and
criticized the hypocrisy and overbearing attitude of the Spanish friars.

• Many Chinese mestizos participated prominently in the Revolution in many ways.

• The Philippine Revolution of 1896 was the final act of determination on the part of the true
Filipinos - Indios and Chinese mestizos alike - to claim for themselves and for future generations
the incomparable birthright of nationhood.

19th Century Philippines as Rizal’s Context

Agrarian Relations and Friar Lands

Pre- Spanish Era

• Land ownership was communal in the sense that the barangay had right to certain territory.
• The notion of private property was unknown then.
• Individual families had usufruct rights to specific parcels of land as long as they occupied it.

Spanish Era (1521-1898)

• One of the major initial policies of the governorship of Legazpi was to recognize all lands in the
Philippines as part of the public domain regardless of local customs.
• As such, the crown was at liberty to parcel out huge tracts of Philippine lands as rewards to loyal
civilian and military.
• Communal ownership of land gradually and slowly took the backseat
Private ownership of land was introduced

Agrarian-related Policies

• Began as a result of a Royal Order promulgated in December of 1503

• By virtue of this Royal Order, encomiendas were granted to favor Spanish officials and clerics
who were entrusted the responsibility to look after the spiritual and temporal developments
of the natives in a colonized territory.

Encomienda System

• The encomienderos also enjoyed the right to have a share in the tribute (tributo) paid by the
natives.

• The system, however, degenerated into abuse of power by the encomienderos. The tribute soon
became land rents to a few powerful landlords. And the natives who once cultivated the lands in
freedom were transformed into mere share tenants.

• Agrarian-related problems brought many conflicts during this time.

• The major sources of conflict and rebellion were really the harsh Spanish impositions such as:
tributo, polo y servicio, encomienda, etc.
• During the 19th century, several developments occurred that solidified the land tenure system,
and aroused antagonism over its injustices and inequalities.
• The Spanish government issued two Royal Decrees: the Decreto Realenga (1880)

o ordered the caciques and natives to secure legal title for their lands or suffer
forfeiture
 • The Spanish government issued two Royal Decrees: the Maura Law(1894)

o Gave farmers and landholders one year to register their agricultural lands to avoid
declaration of it as a state property

• The Filipino peasants, either ignorant of the processes of the law or of the Spanish-written
instructions, were just slow to respond.
• The caciques were quick to react. They did not only register their own lands but also took
advantage of the ignorance of the peasants lands adjacent to their lands.
• No option was left for those dispossessed because documented titles to the land prevailed over
verbal claims.
• Most Filipino landed peasants become mere tenants in their own lands.

The Royal Decree of 1894 (Maura Law) deprived many Filipino peasants of their own lands through
scheming and treacherous ways of both Spaniards and caciques.

Mortgage system (pacto de retroventa) which is equivalent of today’s mortrage system (sangla) where a
landowner (Chinese mestizos) who has loaned a peasant some money becomes this peasant landlord

Another source of land-related conflict by the late 19th century was the “friar lands”

• The existence of friar-lands in the Philippines can be traced back to the early Spanish colonial
period when Spanish conquistadors were awarded lands in the form of haciendas for their
loyalty to the Spanish crown.
• The Spanish friars belonging to different religious orders the richest landlords, for they owned
the best haciendas.
• The natives, who had been living in these haciendas and cultivating them from generation to
generation became tenants. This system was known as “inquilino”
• In this system, an inquilino, was expected to give personal services to the landlords.
• The inqulinos could also lease the land they were renting from the landlord to a kasama or
sharecropper who would be responsible for cultivating the land.
• The inquilino system functioned as a three-layered system with the landlords on top, the
inquilinos at the middle, and the kasamas at the bottom.
• Gov. Anda, realizing the danger of the friar-owned haciendas to Filipino-Spanish relations
strongly recommended to the Madrid government the sale of the friar states.
• This recommendation was ignored that caused Filipino odium towards the friars persisted
unabated until the end of Spanish rule.
• Rizal, whose family and relatives were tenant of the Dominican Estate of Calamba, tried to
initiate agrarian reform but in vain.
• This ignited the wrath of the Dominican friars, who retaliated by rising the rentals of the lands
leased by his family and other Calamba tenants.
• The story of Cabesang Tales in Rizals’ novel El Filibusterismo, underlines an inevitable reality of
the brewing agrarian conflict during the 19th century that concluded to a peasant revolt, an
integral ingredient of the 1896 separatist revolution.

According to Rizal, the friar ownership of the productive lands contributed to the economic stagnation of
the Philippines during the Spanish period.

Rizal fully understood that the agrarian problems that surfaced during his time was a socio-economic
problem because it affected not only the farmers, or peasants, including their families, but its impact
also generated serious circumstances like economic dislocation, poverty and revolt.

Thus, Rizal knew very well that agrarian conflict could ignite a national revolution.
 The Cavite Mutiny

• On the night of January 20, 1872, a mutiny broke out among 200 Filipino soldiers in the
arsenal of Cavite under the leadership of Sgt. La Madrid.
• This mutiny was brought about by Izquierdo’s abolition of their
exemption from tributes and forced labor, which the soldiers
previously enjoyed.
• The insurgents were expecting support from the bulk of the army
unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
• The news about the mutiny reached authorities in Manila and Gen.
Izquierdo immediately ordered the reinforcement of Spanish troops
in Cavite.
• The Spanish authorities took advantage of the situation by arresting liberal-minded Filipinos.
Nine Filipino priests were deported to Marianas Island together with thirteen lawyers and
businessmen.
• The incident was exaggerated by the Spaniards to implicate Father Jose Burgos, Father
Mariano Gomez, and Father Jacinto Zamora, due to their active involvement in the
campaign for the secularization of parishes. These three were executed by garrote for
alleged complicity in the rebellion.
• The Filipinos deeply resented the execution of the GOMBURZA, owing to their innocence of
the crime for which they were tried. They hailed the three Filipino priests as true martyrs of
the fatherland.
• The execution of GOMBURZA was a blunder on the part of the Spanish government, for the
action severed the ill-feelings of the Filipinos and the event inspired Filipino patriots to call
for reforms and eventually independence.
• Rizal was still very young when the mutiny broke out. He was only 11 years old at that time.
Although at his tender age, Rizal was already cognizant of the deplorable conditions of the
country.
• Originally, his plan was to take up priesthood and become a Jesuit father. When he heard of
the martyrdom of the GOMBURZA, he changed his life to vindicate the victims of Spanish
oppression.

The martyrdom of the three secular priests would resonate among Filipinos; grief and outrage over
their execution would make way for the first stirrings of the Filipino revolution, thus making the first
secular martyrs of a nascent national identity. Jose Rizal would dedicate his second novel, El
Filibusterismo, to the memory of GomBurZa, to what they stood for, and to the symbolic weight their
deaths would henceforth hold.

THE LIFE OF DR. JOSE RIZAL

• José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda

• Dr. Jose Rizal was born on June 19, 1861 in the lakeshore town of Calamba, Laguna.
• Because of his big head, Jose had almost cause the death of his mother?
• Jose Rizal was baptized on June 22, 1861 by the parish priest Father Rufino Collantes. Father
Pedro Casanas stood as his godfather.

Francisco Mercado (FATHER)

• Born in Binan, Laguna on May 11, 1818

• Studied Latin and Philosophy at the College of San Jose in Manila
• A tenant-farmer of the Dominican Estate of Calamba
• A hardy and independent-minded man, who talked less and worked more, and was
strong in body and valiant in spirit.
• Rizal called him “a model of fathers”
• He died in Manila on June 5, 1898, at the age of 80

Teodora Alonso (MOTHER)

• Born in Manila on Nov. 8, 1826

• Was educated at the College of Santa Rosa
 • A remarkable woman, possessing refined culture, literary talent, business ability, and
the fortitude of Spartan women
• She died in Manila on August 16, 1911

• Mercado was The Spanish surname adopted by Domingo Lamco, Rizal’s great grandfather in
1731.

RIZAL'S ANCESTRY (FATHER SIDE)

• Domingo Lamco – a Chinese immigrant from the Fukien city of Changchow. He is Rizal’s
great-great-grandfather. He arrived in Manila about 1690. He married a well-to-do
Chinese Christian girl of Manila named Ines de la Rosa, then assumed Mercado "means
market" as his surname in 1731.

• Francisco Mercado – son of Domingo and Ines, great-grandfather of Rizal. He married a

Chinese-Filipino mestiza, Cirila Bernacha, and was elected gobernadorcillo of Biñan.

• Juan Mercado – one of Francisco’s and Cirila’s sons, grandfather of Rizal. Married Cirila
Alejandro, a Chinese-Filipino mestiza. Like his father, he was elected gobernadorcillo of
Biñan.

• Francisco Mercado – Rizal’s father. The youngest of thirteen children of Juan and Cirila.
At the age of eight he lost his father. He met and fell in love with Teodora Alonso
Realonda in Manila while studying. They got married on June 28, 1848

RIZAL'S ANCESTRY (MOTHER SIDE)

• Lakandula – the last native king of Tondo. He is a believed ancestor of Doña Teodora’s
family

• Eugenio Ursua – Rizal’s great-great-grandfather from his mother’s side. He was of

Japanese ancestry. He married a Filipina named Benigna.

• Regina – the daughter of Eugenio and Benigna married Manuel de Quintos, a Filipino-
Chinese lawyer from Pangasinan.

• One of their daughters married Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a prominent Spanish-Filipino

mestizo of Biñan; their children were: Narcisa, Teodora (Rizal’s mother), Gregorio,
Manual and Jose.

RIZAL'S CHILDHOOD

• Concepcion’s death was considered as the first heartbreak of Dr. Jose Rizal.
• The story of the moth told by Rizal’s mother that left a deep impression on Rizal’s mind about
“death of a martyr”.

JOSE'S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

• Jose’s childhood was full of joy and meaningful memories.

• His father built him a small nipa hut.
 • He was also served as Aya to attend him.
• Jose also enjoyed doing some drawings about animals.
• He had a pony that he used in visiting some sceneries in his place.
• He is used to mold clays and made little animals-like.
• He liked to have a night walk together with his dog Uzman.
• He considered his trip to Antipolo to be one of his happiest moments.
• His first trip in Manila was when they visited his sister Saturnina.
• His first grief was when his younger sister Concha died.
• Jose also witnessed the brutal actions of the Guardia Civil to some innocent people.
This gave him the idea to offer his life in the service of his countrymen.
• Manuel is the uncle of Rizal who encouraged him to train his frail body.
• Uncle Jose Alberto- gave wise direction in the studies of Jose
• Uncle Gregorio- instilled into the mind of Jose the love for education
• Uncle Manuel Alberto- seeing Jose was frail in nature, concerned himself with the
physical development of his nephew. He also taught Jose the love for open air and
the admiration for the beauty of nature.
• His mother Dona Teodora was Jose Rizal’s first non-formal teacher. On her lap, Jose
learned prayers and the alphabet at the age of three.

Jose’s private tutor

• Maestro Celestino was Jose’s first private tutor

• Maestro Lucas Padua was the second private tutor
• Maestro Leon Monroy became the hero’s tutor in Spanish and Latin

RIZAL'S EARLY EDUCATION

• Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz was Jose’s first formal teacher.

• Five months after Don Leon died, Jose was sent to a private school in Biñan.
• June 1869- Jose went to Biñan with his brother Paciano
• Carromata- the mode of transportation
• Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz- formal teacher
• Rizal described him as tall, thin, long-necked, sharp-nosed, with a body slightly bent forward.
• Juancho was the old painter that gave Rizal and his friend Jose Guevarra free painting lessons in
Biñan
• Jose surpassed his classmates in Spanish, Latin and other subjects
• His older classmates were jealous and squealed to the teacher whenever he had fights
• December 17, 1870 – Jose left Biñan
• Talim – the steamer that Jose rode
• Arturo Camps – a Frenchman and a friend of Don Francisco, he took care of Jose during the trip

BOYHOOD INFLUENCES OF DR. JOSE RIZAL

HERIDETARY

• Malayan: love for freedom, desire to travel, indomitable courage

• Chinese: serious nature, frugality, patience, love for children
• Spanish: elegance of bearing, sensitivity to insult, gallantry to ladies
• Father: profound sense of self-respect, love for work, independent thinking
• Mother: religious nature, spirit of self-sacrifice, passion for arts and literature

ENVIROMENTAL

• Calamba, Rizal Family Garden – stimulated inborn artistic and literary talents
• Religious atmosphere of his home – fortified his religious nature
• Paciano – love for freedom and justice
• Sisters – courtesy and kindness to women
• Aya(Yaya)– interest in folklore and legends
• Uncle Jose Alberto- gave wise direction in the studies of Jose
• Uncle Gregorio- instilled into the mind of Jose the love for education
• Uncle Manuel Alberto- seeing Jose was frail in nature, concerned himself with the physical
development of his nephew. He also taught Jose the love for open air and the admiration for the
beauty of nature.
• Padre Leoncio Lopez (parish priest) – love for scholarship and intellectual honesty
• Spanish abuses and cruelties – awakened his spirit of patriotism.
o Brutal acts of the Guardia Civil
o Unjust torture of innocent Filipinos
o Execution of GomBurZa (1872)

AID OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE

• God endowed Rizal with the versatile gifts of a genius, the vibrant spirit of a nationalist, the
valiant heart to sacrifice for a noble cause.

SORROWS OF YOUNG JOSE

• death of Concha (1965)

• imprisonment of his mother (1871-74) – strengthened his spirit to resist the blows of adversities

INJUSTICE TO THE HERO’S MOTHER

• Jose Alberto’s wife connived with the Spanish lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and filed a case
against Rizal’s mother
• Antonio Vivencio del Rosario – gobernadorcillo of Calamba, helped the lieutenant arrest Doña
Teodora