CHAPTER 5

Rizal’s Life: Exile, absence from one’s own country or

home
Trial, examination in the court of law
and Death.
• The basic freedom of Filipinos during Rizal’s time was
suppressed/ pinigilan by the Spanish colonial government.
• Rizal was one of the pioneers of the campaign for
liberal/freedom ideas and reforms.
• The continued circulation of his novels alarmed the Spanish
friars mainly because of what they deemed as radical ideas
espoused in the novel.
• The ideas revealed in the novels were considered too
subversive/mapaghimagsik by the Spanish clergy. With
mounting pressure from the friars, Governor-General
Terrero ordered the immediate investigation of Rizal’s case.
• Rizal was charged with propagating subversive ideas through
his novel Noli Me Tangere.
• Rizal was arrested in Malacanang and later deported to
Dapitan in 1892.
RIZAL AT DAPITAN
• Rizal arrived in Dapitan on board the streamer Cebu on
July 17, 1892.
• Dapitan (now a city within Zamboanga del Norte) was
a remote town in Mindanao which served as a politico-
military outpost of the Spaniards in Mindanao.
• It was headed by Captain Ricardo Carnicero, who
became a friend of Rizal during his exile.
• He gave Rizal the permission to explore the place and
required him to report once a week to his office.
• The quiet place of Dapitan became Rizal’s home from
1892 to 1896.
• Here, he practiced medicine, pursued scientific
studies, and continued his artistic pursuits in sculpture,
and painting, sketching, and writing poetry.
• He established a school for boys and promoted community
development projects. He also found time to study
Malayan Language and other Philippine languages.
• He engaged himself in farming and commerce and even
invented machine for making bricks.
• On September 21, 1892, Rizal won the second prize in a
lottery together with Ricardo Carnicero and another
Spaniard. His share amounted to 6,200 pesos.
• A portion of Rizal’s winnings was used in purchasing land
approximately one kilometer away from Dapitan in a place
known as Talisay.
• He built his house on the seashore of Talisay as well
as a school and a hospital within the area.
• Relative to Rizal’s project to improve and beautify
Dapitan, he made a big relief map of Mindanao in
the plaza and used it to teach geography.
• With this map, which still exists today, he discussed to
the town people the position of Dapitan in relation to
other places of Mindanao.
• Assisted by his pupils, Rizal also constructed a
water system to supply the town with water for
drinking and irrigation.
• He also helped the people in putting up lampposts at
every corner of the town.
RIZAL AS A PHYSICIAN IN DAPITAN
• He rendered free medical services to the poor
townsfolk of Dapitan. Some of his medical tools came
from Europe, which were sent by his friends and
doctors who knew him.
• In his last two years, he became a famed doctor. His
patients came not only from nearby places in
Mindanao, but in areas such as Negros, Cebu,
Luzon, Panay, Bohol and from foreign countries.
• He treated an English man who paid him 500 Pesos.
Don Ignacio Tamorong of Misamis was impressed
of Rizal restoring his eyesight paid him 3,000 Pesos.
• Having heard of Rizal’s fame as an ophthalmologist,
George Taufer who was suffering from an eye ailment
travelled from Hongkong to Dapitan.
• He was accompanied by his adopted daughter, Josephine
Bracken, who eventually fell in love with Rizal.
• They lived as husband and wife in Rizal’s octagonal house
after being denied the sacrament of marriage by Father
Obach, the Parish priest of Dapitan, due to Rizal’s
refusal to retract his statements against the church and to
accept other condition.
• On the eve of June 21, 1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela visited
Rizal and informed him about the founding of the
Katipunan and the planned revolution.
• Rizal objected to it, citing the importance of a well-planned
movement with sufficient arms.
• Meanwhile, Rizal had been sending letters to then
Governor General Ramon Blanco. Twice he sent
letters, one in 1894 and another in 1895.
• He asked for a review of his case. He said that if his
request would not be granted, he would volunteer to
serve as a surgeon under the Spanish army fighting in
the Cuban revolution.
RIZAL DEPARTS TO CUBA
• On July 30, 1896, Rizal’s request to go to Cuba was
approved.
• The next day, he left for Manila on board the
streamer España. And on September 3, 1896, he
boarded the streamer Isla de Panay which would
bring him to Barcelona.
• Upon arriving at the Fort of Barcelona, Governor-
General Despujol told him that there was an order
to ship him back to Manila.
• On November 3, 1896, Rizal arrived in Manila and
was immediately brought to Fort Santiago.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION
• The preliminary investigation of Rizal’s case began on
November, 1896. He was accused of being the main
organizer of the revolution by having proliferated the ideas
of rebellion and of founding illegal organizations.
• Rizal pleaded not guilty and even wrote a manifesto
appealing to the revolutionaries to discontinue the
uprising.
• Rizal lawyer, Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade, tried his best
to save Rizal. However, on December 26, 1896, the trial
ended and the sentence was read.
• Jose Rizal was found guilty and sentenced to death by
firing squad.
• On December 28, 1896, Governor-General Camilo
de Plavieja signed the court decision. He later
decreed that Rizal be executed by firing squad at 7:00
am at December 30.
• Rizal, on his last remaining days, composed his
longest poem, Mi Ultimo Adios, which was about his
farewell to the Filipino people.
• When his mother and sisters visited him on
December 29, 1896, Rizal gave away his remaining
possessions. He handed his gas lamp to his sister
Trinidad and murmured softly in English, “There is
something inside”.
• Eventually, Trinidad and her sister Maria would
extract from the lamp the copy of Rizal’s last poem.
• At 6:30 in the morning of December 30, 1896, Rizal,
in the black suit with his arms tied behind his back,
walked to Bagumbayan.
• The orders were given and shots were fired.
• Comsummatum Est! (It is finished) is the Rizal’s last
word before he died.
• Rizal died offering his life for his country and its
freedom.