Eulogy to Rizal by Claudio V. Tabotabo, MA (January, 2006)

Unfortunately I was not around in his funeral, but if I were there and given a chance to speak before the dead, this is what I will say.

The little bad boy from Calamba Laguna, had a fist fight with his classmates in Binan, pet of the Jesuits at Ateneo and enemy of the friars at UST, he went to Madrid to continue his medical studies, there in the school where he was an alien he fought against the bishop to glorify the academic freedom advanced by Dr. Miguel Morayta, challenged a Spanish writer to a duel, mustered two novels, some essays and poems to open a window where Filipinos can see the Spaniards raping the Filipino girls and beheading the Filipino farmers, but other Filipinos abroad did not like him because of his blatant attack to all that put bad name to his people and that include some compatriots who went to Spain in the name of struggle which in reality they only flirted the beautiful Spanish ladies, disgusted by the cowardice and arrogance of his compatriots abroad, he himself went home to the Philippines where he was not given a conquering hero's welcome like what they gave to Manny Pacquiao, what he got was misery as an exile in Dapitan in the island of Mindanao, and to complete their dislike to the man, they put him into a military court for alleged part in the revolution that was beginning to foster, and finally to complete their evil, they set the man into a firing squad on December 30, 1896 Bagum-bayan (now Luneta).

It's what he gets after his struggle to save the Filipinos from the fang of the conquerors. Rizal did not want Philippine separation from Spain. He only wanted education for the Filipinos that perhaps the first steps of Philippine autonomy. Neither did he advocated for rebellion although it was very clear that he did not oppose bloody revolution unless the Filipinos are prepared. For these reasons Rizal was not a rebel. He was a reformist.

We have this man who combined all the luster of arts and the bravery of a fighter. Without him perhaps until now we are still under the American imperialist regime. It was his poem My Last Farewell which was read in the congress of America when the Philippine Independence was being debated. After the poem was read a unanimous decision to grant Philippine Independence became inevitable. Filipinos can stand by their own governance.

Without Rizal there can be no Bonifacio who crushed the Spanish garrison with his only weapon, a bolo. Without Rizal the memory of the three martyred priests shall be forgotten like an ordinary occurrence in a country because of all the freedom fighters in the Philippines only Rizal remembered them. The novel, El Filibusterismo was dedicated to them. And when the vagrants come back to Luneta at dusk to sleep, or a prostitute while waiting for a prospective customer or when beggars and run-away boys look at the statue, a thought comes to their minds that there was a man who tried to save them from becoming what they are now.

He tried to save the Filipinos by way of education but he was a failure. Filipinos are not educated. More than 100 years after his death what we produced are bunch of functional illiterates with college diplomas from the best schools of the country. It appears that his enemies are the victors...