Rizal

Understanding Rizal Without Veneration

Quarantined Prophet and Carnival Impresario

By E. San Juan, Jr.

“…but I rejoice more when I contemplate humanity in its immortal march, always progressing in spite of its declines and falls, in spite of its aberrations, because that demonstrates to me its glorious end and tells me that it has been created for a better purpose than to be consumed by flames; it fills me with trust in God, who will not let His work be ruined, in spite of the devil and of all our follies.” Jose Rizal, letter to Fr. Pablo Pastells, Nov. 11, 1892, while in exile in Dapitan

“Ang sagot sa dahas ay dahas, kapag bingi sa katuwiran.” Jose Rizal, “Cuento Tendencioso”

 It seems fortuitous that Rizal’s birthday anniversary would fall just six days after the celebration of Philippine Independence Day - the proclamation of independence from Spanish rule by General Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, in 1898. In 1962 then President Diosdado Macapagal, father of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, decreed the change independence day from July 4 to June 12 to reaffirm the primacy of the Filipinos’ right to national self-determination.

 Either ironical or prescient, Aguinaldo’s proclamation contains the kernel of the contradictions that have plagued the ruling elite’s claim to political legitimacy: Aguinaldo unwittingly mortgaged his leadership to the “protection of the Mighty and Humane North American Nation.” Mighty, yes, but “humane”?  The U.S. genocide of 1.4 million Filipinos is, even today, disputed by apologists of “Manifest Destiny.” But there is no doubt that Aguinaldo’s gratitude to the Americans who brought him back from exile after the Pact of Biak-na-Bato spelled the doom of the ilustrado oligarchy which, despite the demagogic ruses of Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Estrada and their handlers, has proved  utterly bankrupt in its incorrigible corruption, electoral cynicism, and para-military gangster violence.

 And so, sotto voce: Long live Filipino...