The Rizal in All of Us: Rekindling the Memory of Our Heroes

December 30 is a day smothered between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It may seem like any other day filled with celebrating year-end parties, drinking sprees, and reconnecting with relatives we have not seen. However, December 30th of every year also holds its importance as it is Rizal Day, commemorating the death and practically martyrdom of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

But the main issue here is whether the youth of today even remember or even take the time to reflect on the significance of the sacrifices of Rizal and our other national heroes. Would our generations and the generations after even attempt to get to know these people who helped build our nation?

One of Rizal’s underrated works is the "Philippines: A Century Hence" where he predicted the fate of our country a hundred years from when he wrote it. One of his main predictions in this piece was that the Philippines would be an independent state from the Spanish colonizers.

Before becoming a lawyer, I taught as a college instructor teaching mainly social sciences such as Politics and Governance, Philosophy, and Philippine History. One thing I would stress is that one of the “flaws” of Rizal’s legacy was that he was never revered as a freedom fighter like Andres Bonifacio and the men and women behind the Katipunan who swore blood oaths to fight against the foreign aggressor. Rizal was part of the Reform Movement, he was not initially for the independence of the Philippines but to make her a province of Spain along with its sufficient representation of the same before the Spanish Cortez or Legislature. He believed that during his time, Filipinos were not ready for self-reliance and preferred that Filipinos first educate themselves. This is truly far from popular belief and even overlooked in the study of the life and works of Rizal as mandated by Republic Act No. 1425.

Of course, after the failure of the Reform Movement, our heroes took a more direct approach and turned to an armed revolution inspired by the exploits of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and the battle cry of liberté, égalité, fraternité of the French Revolution. Our forefathers were exposed to principles never before taught to them by their colonial masters, equality, democracy, cultural identity, and nationalism. Eventually, Spain could not hold on to the Philippines and gave it up in 1898 to the United States of America under the Treaty of Paris. It can also be noted that the Philippines did not have a representative or delegate during the negotiation of the treaty. So the Philippines was not free at least not for a long time as she was practically placed under new management by the Americans.

It was not until July 4, 1946, after the Second World War, that the Philippines truly gained independence. But we practically had equal rights with the Americans over our natural resources under the Parity Amendment of the 1935 Constitution in return for aid in the rehabilitation of a war-torn young nation. Foreign presence in our country is still evident to this day as we all fall victim to consumerism, especially during the holiday season. Another evident indicator of this is the Philippines' integration in the global market which started during the deregulation and liberalization of our economy by privatizing once state-owned assets and even shares of these companies are owned by a wide variety of foreign corporations. But we all had to follow suit and get with the free-market economy program as with other countries to have foreign aid and have those loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund approved.

Nowadays, how can today’s generation look at ourselves? Are we free? Do we need to rekindle the spirit of 1898? Maybe so. But our adversary is not mainly foreign domination of our popular culture, but the treachery and unscrupulous acts of our own politicians. Graft and corruption are still rampant. The poor have become poorer and sadly even more reliant on the government through these controversial ayuda programs. Legislative pork barrel is even imminent among us as congressmen seek to secure lump sum amounts of the national budget in the guise of giving to our less fortunate countrymen. This has already been declared unconstitutional in the landmark case of Belgica vs. Ochoa. Yet the calls for reform and accountability seem to always fall upon deaf ears.

It is time to look at Rizal and our other heroes as examples of how to deal with today’s struggle. We need not resort to armed struggle nor call for the toppling down of our government as a whole. What we need to do is call for reforms, become active in public forums, debate, discuss, lobby, and practically fight to win back a part of all of us Filipinos, our national identity. It was clear in A Century Hence that the Spaniards would never take away nor trample upon our nationalist principles as long as we continued to strive for education. Today’s fight for freedom is not mainly on the battlefield but in the classroom, social media, and even the courtroom. Our lack of education can lead to more oppression and subjugation, not from a foreign invader but from our politicians, officials who had sworn to protect the Constitution, and the people who promulgated it, but rarely do the same in practice. Even in this technologically advanced age, we must look back at our national heroes and awaken the Rizal in all of us. We must stand up for what is right and protect the principles that our revered heroes fought so hard to achieve in our fight for independence. Our generation and the generations that follow should exert efforts to preserve our history and idolize the historical figures as much as we adore social media personalities and movie stars. We must take back our national identity before it is too late or face the possibility of our culture falling into the depths of obscurity.