By Raïssa Robles
I realized only recently that Rizal was not just a subject in school but remains politically relevant today.
For instance, the poem he secretly stuffed inside a small lamp condoled with victims of political killings and torture.
I am proud to say that my great grand-uncle was Maximo Viola, the man who financed Rizal’s first novel Noli me Tangere. Rizal gave my maternal grandmother, Petronila Gallego-Lamson, a small wooden sewing kit. She was my grand-uncle’s favorite niece since he had no daughter, only sons, according to my uncle Manuel “Manoling” Gallego Jr.
I dedicate this piece to today’s youth and Rizal:
Why I Write
And what this has to do with Rizal and Marcos
By Raissa Robles
I’ve been writing since I was a kid.
Writing all sorts of stuff.
I’ve written about Sharon and Gabby, earthquakes and volcanoes, pearls and fashion, and even an adventure tale.
But increasingly, I do not know why I feel compelled to write about a puke-inducing period in our history — the Marcos dictatorship. I never was a student activist. I never was a communist. I only joined a street rally once at university to know how it felt like.
I was what you would now call a nerd, drawn to intellectual perambulations on the structure of a novel, on the number of angels that can fit on a pinhead or how the Theory of Relativity reshaped Christianity.
How did I move from poetry to politics?
The transition happened subtly when a good friend, Cris Reyes, showed me the actual papers of a dead and long reviled Philippine President. I saw with my own eyes that there was a continuum in our life as a nation. I saw how we Filipinos have long been ruled by a clique of men and women who saw politics as just a game and a way of making their personal fortunes. I saw how we Filipinos were blind to this and how we thought, and still think, we cannot do anything about it.
So why must I keep writing on the Marcoses.
I stumbled on the answer last month when I visited the Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago.
And I saw what Jose Rizal had once written, which the shrine curators had placed on the wall. Here it is below:
Ferdinand Marcos is unfinished business. Marcos set the gold standard for corruption and continued deception for our present and all future politicians.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is also unfinished business. She is the spawn who thinks, that like Marcos, she to can get away with it. Just give it time and plenty of money. She was handed the presidency as a gift and an honor and chose to despoil it.
We have a lot of unfinished business. That is why as a nation we cannot move forward and progress economically.
We are like a woman who was raped in childhood but has forgotten she was raped by the very man who stays by her side as her “generous benefactor”. I’m not against politicians. Don’t get me wrong. I have encountered politicians who really have the nation’s future at heart but are oftentimes driven to do wrong for political expediency. I have met politicians who are thoroughly evil but quite charming outside. And politicians who really mean well but are inept in the political game. Perhaps, in this manner, I analyse politics in the way I used to examine poetry.
Oftentimes as a political reporter I get caught up in analyzing the itty-bitty bits of the political game – like who is in bed with whom or how will a certain issue play out.
My recent trip to Fort Santiago wrenched me to a larger perspective when I stared at the cell where Jose Rizal spent his last night. The curators did a wonderful depiction of it. See below:
Rizal on his last night at Fort Santiago - PHOTO by Raissa Robles
It shows the aloneness of a man about to die. About to seek infinity.
And yet he has reached out across a century by cramming in tiny handwriting his message to us in poetry. I did not realize how small that piece of paper he wrote on was – somewhat larger than a deck of cards. And how readable his handwriting was.
Rizal crammed his message to the nation in one tiny sheet of paper - PHOTO by Raissa Robles - http://raissarobles.com
I felt sad when I read again –
Mis sueños cuando apenas muchacho adolescente,
Mis sueños cuando joven ya lleno de vigor,
Fueron el verte un dia, Joya del Mar de Oriente,
Secos los negros ojos, alta la tersa frente,
Sin ceño, sin arrugas, sin manchas de rubor.
(My dreams, when I was a young boy,
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see your lovely face, oh gem of the Orient Sea
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on your brow, no tear in your eye)
One particular stanza felt to me like a haunting description of the Marcos holocaust:
Ora por todos cuantos murieron sin ventura,
Por cuantos padecieron tormentos sin igual;
Por nuestras pobres madres que gimen su amargura,
Por huerfanos y viudas, por presos en tortura,
Y ora por ti que veas tu redencion final.
(Pray for all those who have died without gladness,
For all those who have suffered beyond measure;
For our poor mothers who wept so bitterly
For orphans and widows, for prisoners of torture
And for your own final redemption )
I was struck by the bareness of the Shrine. The curators took a minimalist approach to depicting his last night. In one vast room, the only ornament was a shiny wooden floor on which a narrative of Rizal’s last night is etched.
I felt happy to see children skipping about among the words describing the final moments of Lolo Jose:
Children play around Lolo Jose's shrine - PHOTO by Raissa Robles - http://raissarobles.coma
There was also a delicate marble carving by Rizal of a woman with a torch, perched on a skull. I forget what she stood for but I thought she symbolized Freedom. How hard it is to hold up the torch of freedom. And how deadly oftentimes.
Rizal sculpted this - PHOTO by Raissa Robles - http://raissarobles.com
It was really the first time that it hit me – Rizal was a real person.
And I got to wondering why he is a hero even to Indonesians and Malaysians. Why is he so admired? He never fought a Battle at Besang Pass like someone claimed he did. He never shot a man in cold blood and then boasted about it.
What makes a hero a hero?
A man can be a villain early on and then die a hero. Or vice versa.
In Marcos’ case, I believe what he did in the last phase of his life erased the good of his earlier years. This leader killed and robbed his own people blind.
Rizal never led a country but his ideas helped set up a nation. Compared to Marcos, Rizal was smart but in a different way. I don’t think Rizal ever had the six-pack abs that Marcos constantly bragged about.
In his Ultimo Adios, Rizal never thought he would long be remembered. In fact, he wrote about being forgotten:
Y cuando ya mi tumba de todos olvidada
No tenga cruz ni piedra que marquen su lugar,
Deja que la are el hombre, la esparza con la azada,
Y mis cenizas antes que vuelvan á la nada,
El polvo de tu alfombra que vayan á formar.
(And when my grave is all but forgotten
With neither cross nor stone to mark its place
Let any man plow through it, and scatter with spade
My ashes, before these turn to nothingness
And become but dust carpeting the earth.)
In contrast to Rizal, Marcos was obsessed about being remembered forever as a hero. I learned recently from a Marcos loyalist that his dying wish was to be interred at Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes Cemetery).
It was in their dying that showed the hero from the heel.
Marcos died in bed, probably surrounded by family and aides. He left no last uplifting words for the nation to absorb. He probably just gasped to his family while still lucid that they must get back all that money the widow Corazon had seized.
In contrast, it was Rizal’s death that unwittingly helped ignite revolutions, not just here but elsewhere in Asia.
It was Rizal’s words reverberating across time that continue to inspire us. It was that small gesture of his at the moment of dying, willing his body to turn and face the hail of bullets and the light.
On the morning of his execution, Rizal was done with grieving. He had agonized before in his huge cell when he wrote:
Mi Patria idolatrada, dolor de mis dolores,
Querida Filipinas, oye el postrer adios.
Ahi te dejo todo, mis padres, mis amores.
Voy donde no hay esclavos, verdugos ni opresores,
Donde la fé no mata, donde el que reyna es Dios.My country most adored, despair of my despair,
Beloved Filipinas, hear now my final farewell.
I leave you all: my parents and my beloved
For I go where no slaves are, no executioners nor oppressors,
Where faith does not kill, where God reigns on high.Now what in God’s name are you and I doing about his precious legacy?
Rizalina Ramos-Talag says
Raissa, I wrote this poem in the heat of the Marcos years but kept it private —
afraid — like the rest of the under-privileged audience.
The script is writ — the actor gone.
This was one final reap of the 20-year siege.
One less to contend with — but, alas, he was not alone.
There still lurk corrupt first mates in this ship of greed!
The pages are now just coming off print.
Should history books record a mess like this?
Few names have been spared by the ineligible ink
Generations shall remember, and there shall be no peace.
He whom widows and orphans no place of rest offered
While his hand-picked circle basked in the comfort of kings.
He who promoted laws to enrich his coffers,
While his subjects cowered in terror on the wings.
Does his name deserve to be spoken of even in spite?
Should monuments be torn down to appease a people’s grief?
Didn’t we lower our eyes to acknowledge his power and might
So that he would then knowingly commit treason and deceit?
So there we were, in glamour and in glory, on center stage.
The world spellbound before an eloquent movie script,
Where blue-jeaned Tasadays commercialized “heritage” —
While pageantry and pretense hid behind guts and wit.
Hope was born only to die; salvation was nowhere in sight
For a nation twice robbed and denied its first dawn break.
When a modern-day Rizal’s blood drenched corruption in its plight
The awakening was abrupt; each man’s freedom was at stake!
A martyr’s fall was a sacrifice so a nation could go on.
We live so future generations could see better days.
No more muffled voices; speak — and when the listening is done
There will be time for the mending of ways.
Let the crew stay behind where they can corrupt no more.
They have prostituted the nation enough.
To give justice to “birth and burial” and “spousal chore” . . .
Will the real Mrs. Marcos please stand up. . .?
(From the Outside looking in on a Nation on Trial)
Thank you for being the voice of Filipinos all over the world.
Keep up your good work.
raissa says
Thank you for sharing this.
Don’t lose hope.
Let THEM lose hope. Not us. Not you.
timmi says
greetings, raisa, blogger from animal kingdom, phyllum chordata, class mammalia, order primate of the genus homo sapiens. I’m an arborist from planet earth and help to collect and maintain plant species that have value and potential. my only gripe with dr jose rizal is he was stingy with DNA. hindi siya nag-iwan ng semelya. all that smart genes gone. sayang. marcos on the other hand left a dynasty behind. you write good, raisa.
raissa says
he did have a bro and plenty of sisters. Maybe you could trace his genes from there.
jorgebernas says
Thank you so much Raissa, l’ ve learn more about our hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. He was really a GREAT Leader. L just hope & pray that his writtings / Books will last no end coz it will be so much helpfull for the new generation to come. He was so unselfish and dedicate his very own life for his beloved Country and Countrymen…
once again thank you & more power to you my idol raissa…
Gerardo Barrica says
I believe the best dna Rizal left is with Raissa. He has passed on the spirit that the Dr. had. Now we only have to extend these wonderful ideas Raissa has written as an inspiration of Rizal.
No wonder some cults chose him as a spiritual leader and was even called as the Pilipino Christ.
itsmeDOCNOEH_JR says
Raisa thanks for lighting up the fire again in the hearts of us Filipinos. Like you, I have long-admired our national hero but really when you said that what struck was that Rizal was a real person, is really something that most of us Filipinos entirely overlooked. Thank you for reminding us who the real hero is and who the real heel is coz sometimes this lines are often blurred and since Filipinos are all to myopic, get confused and interchange one from the other.
Rizal was, and forever is my hero not because he fought in all those wars but because I know he must have wrestled with the idea of surrender and despair and it could have easily chose the easy way out (like some other ‘hero’ did right?) but he didn’t and stood his ground and fought a good fight and came out victorious at the end.
Hey Raisa, maybe you can write an article about the parallelism of the heroism of Rizal and Ninoy, that would surely be a blast (and if you have already written one, maybe you can repost it so we could read it). Thanks
ROMAN RAMA GUERRERO says
And, if I may also suggest, the parallelism of the patterns set by Aguinaldo then revived by Marcos all the way to GMA. I am referring to the act of Aguinaldo and his fellow Dons who signed the Declaration of Philippine Independence while assuming dictatorial powers then mutilated the flag by omitting its 4th color yellow in order to “commemorate the flag of the United Sates of North America as manifestation of our profound gratitude towards this great nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and continues lending us”(cf. Last paragraph Declaration of Philippine Independence).
That is what the tri-colored flag – now in the flag provision (sec. 1; art. XVI) of the 1987 Constitution – commemorates while the 4-colored actual flag we now have which was publicly waved and acknowledged by the people commemorates the birth of the First Philippine Republic. By this act, Aguinaldo and his fellow Dons injected the character traits very much seen among our Philippine presidents today, namely: (1) misjudgment – on the US disinterested protection which actually was predatory protection; (2) double speak – as in publicly waving a 4-colored flag to commemorate our country’s independence when documenting a 3-colored one to commemorate the tri-colored US flag; and (3) Sip-sip mentality – dependence upon the US for economic, political, military and even socio-cultural policies and decisions.
Aguinaldo et. als’ mutilation of the flag had for its beginnings the termination of his political (CEO) rival in (Bonifacio) and Antonio Luna, his Commander in Chief rival. Marcos revived Aguinaldo’s dictatorship to the hilt including those undesirable character traits as he also terminated his political/commander in chief rival in Ninoy; then passed this on to GMA whose political rival FPJ also died so suddenly(?).
Could Marcos be behind the insertion of the now risky and dangerous Sec 4(3); Art. VII to PNoy by the onset of his 3rd year in offices? Well, the pattern in there.