REPORTERS

VILLANUEVA, MIKYLLA B.

DAYAWON, HARLYN MAY I.

BUSTARGA, RUBELYN B.
Arrange this jumbled words, with the help of its statement.

1. C O N A A I P – he is the only brother of Rizal and also Rizal’s adviser.

2. VETRESSIL OLDBAU- Rizal’s brother in law, the husband of Olimpia.

3. EOJS OILICEC- also known as “chenggoy”, one of Rizal’s closest

friends.

4. NOD OJSE LVEIAT ED DRANAED- a Spanish lieutenant serves as a body

guard of Rizal.

5. RCEAMLO H. LDE RIPLA- editor of La Solidaridad, he published a

pamphlet entitled “ caiigat cayo” means “Be Slippery as an Eel”.
1. PACIANO
2. SILVESTRE UBALDO
3. JOSE CECILIO
4. DON JOSE TAVIEL DE ANDRADE
5. MARCELO H. DEL PILAR
“ All the alluring beauties of foreign countries and all the
beautiful memories of his sojourn in alien lands could
neither make Rizal for his fatherland nor turn his back to his
own nationality, he remained at heart a true Filipino with an
unquenchable love for the Philippines and an unshockable
determination to die in the land of his birth.”
Because of the publication of the Noli Me Tangere and the
uproar it caused among the friars. Rizal was warned by the
following not to return to the Philippines.
❖Paciano Mercado- Rizal’s adviser only
❖Silvestre Ubaldo – Rizal’s brother in law; husband of
Olimpia.
❖Jose M. Cecilio (Chenggoy)- one of Rizal’s closest friends.
❖and other friends return home.
But he did not heed their warning. He was determined to come back to
the Philippines for the following reasons:
❖ to operates on his mother’s eyes.

❖ to serve his people who had long been oppressed by the Spanish
tyrants.

❖ to find out for himself how the Noli and his other writings were
affecting the Filipinos and Spaniards in the Philippines.

❖ to inquire why Leonor Rivera remained silent.

In a letter to Blumenritt
“ Your advice that I lived in Madrid and continue to write
from there is very benevolent, but I cannot accept it. I
cannot endure the life in Madrid where everything is a
voice in the wilderness. My parents wanted to see me,
and I want to see them also. All my life I desire to live in
my country by the side of my family. Until now I am not
Europeanized like the Filipinos of Madrid; I always like
to return too the country of my birth.”
➢ Rizal left Rome by the train for Marsailles, a French port.
July 3, 1887, he boarded the steamer Djemnah. There were
about 50 passengers including 4 Englishmen, 1 Filipino
(Rizal). Rizal acted as interpreter for his companions.
➢ The steamer was enroute to the Orient via the Suez Canal.
When the ship reached Aden, the weather become rough
and some of Rizal's books got wet.
➢ At Saigon, Vietnam on July 30, he transferred to another
steamer Haiphong, that brought him to Manila.
August 3, 1887- the moon was full and Rizal slept soundly the
whole night. The calm sea, illuminated by the silvery moonlight,
was a significant to him.
Near midnight of August 5, 1887, the Haiphong arrived in Manila.
He stayed in the city to visit his friends. He found Manila same as
when he left it five years.
August 8, two days after his arrival in Manila, he reached
Calamba. His family welcomed hm affectionally, with plentiful
tears of joys.
Writing to Blumentritt of his homecoming,
“I had a pleasant voyage. I found my family enjoying good health
and our happiness was great in seeing each other again. They
shed tears of joy and I had to answer the thousand questions at
the same time.’
After the rejoicing of Rizal’s return, his family became
worried about his safety. Paciano did not leave him to
protect him from any enemy assault. His own father would
not let him go out alone, least something might happen to
him.

In Calamba, Rizal established a medical clinic. His first

patient was his mother, who was almost blind. Rizal
treated her eyes but could not perform any surgical
operation because her mother’s cataract were not yet ripe.
News of the arrival of a great doctor from Germany
spread for and wide. Patients from Manila and other
province flocked to Calamba.

Rizal who came to be called “Doctor Ulliman” because he

came from Germany, threated their ailments and soon he
acquired a lucrative medical practice. His professional
fees were reasonable , even without charge to the poor.
He opened a gymnasium for young folks and introduced
European sports. He tried to interest his townmates in
gymnastics, fencing, and shooting to discourage the cockfights
and gambling.

Rizal suffer one failure- his failure to see Leonor Rivera. With a
heavy heart, Rizal bowed to his parent’s wish.

His betrothed, Leonor Rivera, whom he idealized in the “Maria

Clara” of “Noli Me Tangere” had been persuaded to marry a
young English engineer.
Aside From practicing medicine, attending to his gymnasium, and
taking part in the town’s civic affairs he painted several beautiful
landscapes in Calamba He translated German poems of Von
Wildernath in Tagalog.

Rizal received a letter from Governor General Emilio Torrero

requesting him to come to Malacańang Palace, because the novel
contains subversive ideas.

Rizal attends the Governor’s Request.

When Governor General Terrero informed him of the charge, he
denied it, explaining that he merely exposed the truth, but the
did not advocate subversive ideas.

Gov. Gen. Terrero was pleased by Rizal’s explanation and

curious about his book and he asked the author to have a copy of
the Noli so that he could read it.
Rizal visited the Jesuit fathers to ask for a copy that he sent them,
but they would not part with it. The Jesuits, especially his former
professors
❖ Fr. Francisco Sanchez
❖ Fr. Jose Bech
❖ Fr. Frederico Faura

He had a spiritual discussion with them about the Noli, and

Father Faura ventured an opinion that “ everything in it was the
truth, but you may lose your head for it”.
Rizal found a copy and gave it to General Terrero.
The Governor General, who was a liberal-minded Spanish,
knew that Rizal’s life was in jeopardy because the friars were
powerful.

For security measures Governor General Emilio Torrero

assigned Spanish lieutenant Don Jose Taviel de Andrade as a
body guard of Rizal.

Governor General Terrero read the Noli and found nothing

wrong with it.
The Archbishop of Manila, Msgr. Pedro Payo (Dominican) sent a
copy of the Noli to Father Rector Gregorio Echevarria of the
University of Santo Tomas for examination by a committee of the
faculty composed of Dominican professors.

The report of the Faculty members of UST stated that the Noli was
“heretical, impious ,and scandalous in the religious order ,and
antipatriotic , subversive of public order , injurious to the
government of Spain and its function in the Philippine island in
the political order”
Governor General Terrero was dissatisfied with the report of the
Dominicans. He sent the novel to the Permanent Commission of
Censorship.

The report of this commission was drafted by its head, Fr.

Salvador Font, Augustinian Cura of Tondo. It found the novel to
contain subversive ideas against the church and Spain and
recommended “that the importation, reproduction and
circulation of this pernicious book in the island be absolutely
prohibited”
When the newspaper published Font’s written report of the
censorship commission, Rizal and his friends became apprehensive
and uneasy.

The banning of Noli only serve to make it popular

Thanks to Governor- General Terrero, there were no mass

imprisonment or mass execution for Filipinos. He refused to be
intimidated by the friars who clamored for positive repressive
measures against people caught reading the novel and vindictive
action against its author.
1. Porque no los he des leer? ( Why should I not read them?).
2. Guardaos de ellos. Porque? ( Beware of them. Why?).
3. Y-que me dice usted de la peste?( And what can you tell me of
Plague?).
4. Porque triunfan los impios?(Why do the impious Triumph?).
5. Cree usted que de versa no hay purgatorio?(Do you think there is
really no purgatory?).
6. Hay o no hay infierno?(Is there or is there no hell?).
7. Que le perece austed de esos libelos?(What do you think of this
libels?)
8. Confesion o condenacion?(Confession or Damnation?).
Father Font printed hid report and distributed copies of it in order
to discredit the controversial novel.

Father Jose Rodriguez, Prior of Guadalupe, published a series of

eight pamphlets under the general heading Cuestiones de Sumo
Interes ( Questions of Supreme Interest) to blast the Noli and other
anti-Spanish writings with Eight Pamphlets.

*Copies of anti-Rizal pamphlets written by Fr. Rodriguez were sold

daily in the churches. Many Filipinos were forced to buy them in
order not to displease the friars.
The storm over the Noli reached Spain. It was attacked on the
session hall of the senate of the Spanish Cortes by various
senators, particularly
❖ General Jose de Salamanca on April 1, 1888,
❖ General Luis M. Pando on April 12 and
❖ Sr. Fernando Vida on June 11.

The Spanish academician of Madrid, Vicente Barrantes, who

formerly occupied high government position in the Philippines,
bitterly criticized the Noli in an article published in LA Espańa
Moderna.
Marcelo H. del Pilar, editor of LA Solidaridad, he published a pamphlet
entitled “Caiigat Cayo”. Caiigat Cayo means “BE slippery as an Eel’.

Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, Graciano Lopez, Jaena, Mariano Ponce and other
Filipino reformists inforeign lands rushed to uphold the truths of the novel.

Father Sanchez, Rizal’s favorites teacher in Ateneo, defended and praised it in

public.

Don Segismundo Moret, former Minister of the Crown; Dr. Miguel Morayta ,
historian and statesman and Professor Blumenritt, scholar and educator, read
and liked the novel.
Rev. Vicente Garcia, writing under the pen name Justo Desiderio
Magalang, wrote a defense of the Noli. He blasted the argument of
Fr. Rodriguez as follows:
❖ Rizal cannot be an “ignorant man”, because he was a graduate of
Spanish Universities and was a recipient of scholastic honors.

❖ Rizal does not attack the Church and Spain, because what Rizal
attacked in the Noli were the bad Spanish officials and not Spain,
and the corrupt friars and not the church.

❖ Father Rodriguez said hat those who read the Noli commit a
mortal sin; since he (father Rodriguez) had read the novel,
therefore he also commit a mortal sin.
Rizal, himself defended his novel against Barrantes attack, he
exposed Barrantes ignorance of Phillipines affair and mental
dishonestly which is unworthy of an academician.

All copies of Noli were sold out and the price per copy soared to
great amount.

*According to Rizal, in a letter to Fernando Canon from Geneva,

June 13 1887, the price he set per copy was five pesetas (equivalent
to one peso), but the price later rose to $50 per copy.
While the storm over the Noli was raging in fury, Rizal was not
molested in Calamba. This is due to Governor General Terrero’s
generosity in assigning a body guard to him.

Lt. Andrade became a great admirer of Rizal. Years later, he

wrote of Rizal.
“Rizal was refined, educated and gentlemen. The hobbies
that most interested to him were hunting, fencing, shooting,
painting, and hiking… I remember well our excursion to
Mount Makiling, not so much for beautiful view… as for the
rumors and pernicious effects that result from it. There was
one who believed and reported to Manila that Rizal and I, at
the top of the mountain, hoisted the German flag and
proclaimed its sovereignty over the Philippines. I imagined
that such nonsense emanated from the friars of Calamba,
but did not take the trouble to make inquiries about the
matter”
What marred Rizal’s happy days in Calamba with Lt. Andrade
were the death of his older sister because of child birth,

And the groundless tales circulated by his enemies that he was

“a Germany spy, an agent of Bismarck, a Protestant, a Mason, a
witch, a soul beyond salvation, etc.”
Governor General Terrero, ordered a government investigation of
the friars rstates to remedy what ever iniquities might have been
presents in connection with land taxes and with tenant relations.

One of the friars estates affected was the Calamba Hacienda

which the Dominican Order. In compliance with the governor
general’s orders, the Civil Governor of Laguna Province directed
to the municipal authorities of Calamba investigate the agrarian
conditions of their locality.
After a through study in Calamba, Rizal wrote down his findings
which the tenants and three of the officials of the hacienda. The
were following:

❖ The Hacienda of the Dominican Order comprised not only the

lands around the Calamba, but also the town of Calamba.

❖ The profit of Dominican Order continually increased because of

the arbitrary increase of the rentals paid by the tenants.
❖ The Hacienda owner never contributed a single centavo for
the celebration of the town fiesta, for the education of the
children, and for the improvement of the agriculture.

❖ Tenants who had spent much labor in clearing the lands were
dispossessed of said lands for flimsy reason.

❖ High rates of interest were charge the tenants for delayed

payment of rentals, and when the rentals could not paid, the
hacienda management confiscated their carabaos, tools, and
home.
Rizal’s exposure to the deplorable conditions of tenancy in Calamba
infuriated further his enemies. The friars exerted pressure on
Malacañang Palace to eliminate Rizal.

They asked Governor General Terrero to deport Rizal but the refused
because there was no valid charge against Rizal incourt. Anonymous
threats against Rizal’s life were received by his parents. The alarmed
parents, relatives and friends advised him to leave the Philippines for
his life was in danger.

Governor General Terrero summoned Rizal and advised him to leave

the Philippines for his own good.
Rizal had to go but he was not running like coward from a fight.
He was compelled to leave in Calamba for two reasons:

❖ His presence in Calamba was jeopardizing the safety and

happiness of his family and friends.

❖ He could fight better his enemies and serve his country’s

cause with greater efficacy by writing in foreign countries.
Before Rizal left Calamba in 1988 his friend from Lipa requested
him to wrote a poem in commemoration of the town’s elevation
to a villa (city), by virtue of the Becerra Law of 1988. He wrote a
poem this was the Himno Al Trabajo (Hymn to Labor). He
finished it and sent to Lipa before his departure from Calamba.