RIZAL’S LIFE AND

WORKS
 Republic Act No.1425

AN ACT TO INCLUDE IN THE CURRICULA OF ALL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS,

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES COURSES ON THE LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS OF JOSE
RIZAL, PARTICULARLY HIS NOVELS NOLI ME TANGERE AND EL FILIBUSTERISMO,
AUTHORIZING THE PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION THEREOF, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

• The first section of the law concerns mandating the students to read Rizal's novels.
• The second section of the law require the schools to have a sufficient number of copies of
unexpurgated edition of the novels in their libraries.
• The third section of the law aims to make Rizal's writings more readily available to the general
public by promoting their printing at an affordable cost, or in some cases, providing them for free.
• The fourth section of the law clarifies it will not change a specific section of the Administrative
Code that prohibits public school teachers from discussing religious doctrines.
• The fifth section of the law authorizes the unallocated funds to be used to implement the act.
• The last section of the law states that the act will immediately take effect.
TIMELINE

APRIL 3, 1956

The committee on Education filled the Senate bill No. 438 (Rizal Bill) 3
lawmakers earned its support, such as Senators Jose P. Laurel and Claro M.
Recto, seeing it as a non-controversial measure.

APRIL 17, 1956

but when on, Senator Jose P. Laurel as Chairman of the Committee on

Education, began his sponsorship of the measure the rumbles of the
gatherings storm sounded an ominous warning. The church charged Recto
with being a communist and anti-Catholic. The Catholic continue on claiming
that Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo as violative to the religious freedom
 AFFIRMATIVE OPPOSITION
INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONS INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONS
• Sen. Jose P. Laurel • Veteranos dela • Francisco Rodrigo •Catholic Action of the
• Sen. Carlos M. Recto Revolucion • Decoroso Rosales Philippines •Congregation of
• Senators Lorenso • Alagad ni Rizal • Jesus Paredes the Mission
Tanada • The Freemasons • Sen. Mariano J. • Knights of Columbus
• Quintin Paredes and • Knights of Rizal Cuenco • Catholic Teachers Guild
• Domocao Alonto of
Mindanao

-He believed that studying the life and works of Jose -The Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are very
Rizal would be instrumental in teaching the youth to damaging to the clerics.
standup for their country, therefore embodying the -The novels constitutes a violation of Philippine
values and ideals of Rizal. constitutional provision.
-He firmly believed that the passing of the bill into -the two novels would violate the freedom of
law will be integral in achieving the noble intent of conscience and religion.
bringing to the Filipinos a sense of nationalism that -One oppositionist to the bill said that Rizal attacked
would help them understand the importance of dogmas, beliefs, and practices of the Church.
sovereignty.
Here are some additional criticisms of the Catholic Church regarding the Rizal Bill:

1. Among the 333 pages of Noli Me Tangere, only 25 passages are nationalistic
while 120 passages are anti- Catholic.
2. One hundred seventy (170) lines from Noli Me Tangere and 50 lines in El
Filibusterismo were offensive to the Catholic doctrine.
3. The bill might divide the nation4
4. Compulsion to read something against one’s faith impairs freedom of speech
and religious freedom.
5. Rizal admitted that he did not only attack the friars who acted deceptively on
the Filipinos but also the Catholic faith itself.
APRIL 19, 1956
This conflict, however, reached the House of Representatives as early as April
19, 1956, when Congressman Jacobo Z. Gonzales introduced another bill, House Bill
No. 5561, which was an identical copy of Senate Bill No. 438.
Senator Laurel creating a substitute bill--- condition imposed that if a student's
beliefs were to be compromised while taking the subject, then they can be granted an
exemption by the university.

MAY 17, 1956

Both Senate Bill No. 438 and House Bill 5561 were approved upon third
reading

JUNE 12, 1956

The bill was signed by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay. The bills becomes the
Republic Act No. 1425 or the Rizal Law
The goal of Rizal Law can usually be summarized in three points:

1. To rededicate the lives of youth to the ideals of freedom and

nationalism, for which our heroes lived and died.
2. To pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in
shaping the Filipino character.
3. To gain an inspiring source of patriotism through the study of Rizal's
life, works, and writings.
 THE TRAILS OF RIZAL LAW
By Dr. Jose B Laurel, Jr.

•As told by Senator Laurel, the aim of the bill was to disseminate the
ideas and ideals of Jose Rizal, known to be a great patriot, by reading his
works, especially the two (2) famous novels, in their original and
uncensored versions, translated in English, Filipino, and native dialects.

•They challenged its compulsive nature to be a violation of religious

freedom. The principal basis of this opposition stemmed from an alleged
Pastoral Letter which branded the novels as heretical and impious,
despite praising Rizal.

•This led to its first debate on April 23, 1956, headed by Sen. Laurel and supported
by Senator Claro M. Recto, with Senators Mariano J. Cuenco, Francisco Rodrigo,
and Decoroso Rosales leading the opposition.
•Recto noted that the bill' objective was to foster appreciation of Rizal's
times and of the role he played in the eventual combat against Spanish
tyranny. He noted that the novels did not pretend to teach religion or
theology upon their conception, that Rizal aimed to have Filipinos
become aware of their society and instill in them the national dignity,
personal pride, and patriotism.

•Cuenco, Rodrigo, and Rosales with the support of the Catholic church
argued that by compelling someone to read that is against their religious
convictions is no different from requiring someone to salute the flag--.

•Sen. Rodrigo also implored that nationalism and religion, government

and church, must not be in conflict with one another.
•On April 19, 1956, when Cong. Jacobo Z. Gonzales introduce the House
Bill No. 5561 which was identical copy of Senate Bill No. 438. Sen. Laurel
created a substitute bill in place of the original senate bill—amendment
were made-- if a student's beliefs were to be compromised while taking
the subject, then they can be granted an exemption by the university.

•Since then, the bill was to be adjourned– in order to print and

disseminate to the entire congress within 3 days. s. The opponents
sought to use this technicality to deter the bill further-- Both Senate Bill
No. 438 and House Bill 5561 were approved upon third reading on May
17.

•Upon approving the Bill into law, the Boar of National Education (now
called the Commission on Higher Education) shall be responsible in
implementing this Act to the public and private universities and colleges.
 THE RIZAL LAW AND THE CATTHOLIC HIERARCHY
By Renato Constantino

•. Despite the fact that public hearings had already been conducted,
Rodrigo proposed that the education committee hold a closed-door
conference with the Catholic hierarchy to search for a solution to the
dispute.

•Recto said that Father Jesus Cavanna of the Paulist Fathers, who had
written the pastoral letter, had himself testified against the bill during
the public hearing.

•These clerics, many of them foreigners were seeking

conferences with the senators to convince them to oppose the
Rizal Bill.
•A more organized campaign against the bill was launched under the
auspices of the Catholic Action of Manila. Its first activity was a
symposium and open forum in which two announcements were made:
first, that the Sentinel, official organ of Philippine Catholic Action would
henceforth be published daily instead of weekly, and second, that
Filipino Catholics would be urged to write their congressman and
senators asking them to "kill" the Rizal bill.

•Fr. Jesus Cavanna said, that the novels "belong to the past" and it would
be "harmful" to read them because they presented a "false picture" of
the condition in the country at that time. Describing Noli Me Tangere as
an “attack to clergy”, and its object was to put to ridicule the catholic
faith.
•Jesus Paredes, a radio commentator, declared that since some parts of
the novels had been declared "objectionable matter" by the hierarchy,
Catholics had the right to refuse to read them so as not to "endanger
their salvation.“

•Narciso Pimentel, Jr„ another radio commentator, offered the

interesting speculation that the bill was Recto's revenge against the
Catholic voters who, together with Magsaysay, were responsible for his
poor showing in the 1955 senatorial elections.

•In a three-hour speech of Sen. Recto, He said he could understand the

foreign clergy taking such a position, but he found it difficult to
understand how Filipino bishops "who will not be bishops now were it not
for Rizal" could adopt such a stand when Rizal exalted the Filipino clergy
in his novels.
• a threat that Catholic schools would close should the Rizal bill pass,
Recto went on record in favor of the nationalization of all schools. He
contended that nationalization might be just the step needed to foster a
more vibrant nationalism among Filipinos. He did not really believe the
threat. "They are making too much profit which they can ill-afford to give
up," he said.

•Sen. Recto asked, "Is this a new attempt to deliver the State to the
Church?"

•Finally, on May 12, the month-old controversy ended with unanimous

approval of a substitute measure authored by Senator Laurel and based
on the proposals Senators Roseller T. Lim and Emmanuel Pelaez.
 Jose Rizal and the Invention of a National Literature
By Resil B. Mojares
In 1880, Jose Rizal, then a nineteen-year old student, won first prize in a
literary contest in Manila 
- His winning piece, an allegorical essayentitled El Consejo de los Dioses,
narrates a council of the gods in Mt. Olympus to determine who, among
Homer, Virgil and Cervantes, is the better write in terms of art and
virtue 
- Cervantes is judged the winner for the premium he places on social
reform and the rule of season With Cervantes, Rizal says, Truth came
back to occupy its place, announcing a new era to the world, then
corrupted. 
- One imagines Rizal saying that the Philippines itself needed a
Cervantes, when he praised the Spaniard for what he did in a society
ruled by the obscurity of intelligence.
The year, 1880 when Rizal wrote the essay, was also the year the
Propaganda Movement was born 
- A movement that emerged with the events of 1872(the Cavite mutiny and
execution of the priests Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora,
the movement waned in the face of repression but waxed again after 1880
when, under Marcelo del Pilar, La Propaganda was relaunched.
- In the 1880s, however, the propaganda movement was still largely
assimilationalist in its call for colonial reforms, equal rights and local
autonomy.
- In inventing a national literature, the first move is that of asserting
difference, done typically on the basis of a claim to a distinct culture,
history and identity.
- Rizal was the first to attempt to write a national history that would
disengage the country from being treated as a mere appendage to Spain 
- Rizal recognized the importance of local languages as a cultural
- He added that, in literature, writing is an exercise in authority-- and that
Filipinos must be active participants in literature-writing and must exercise
command over it.
However, he also pointed out that literature can only grow through a vital
conversation with the rest of the world. In this perspective, he treated Noli
Me Tangere as a window to his "present time", while ElFilibusterismo is a
glimpse of the "future" that Noli Me Tangere might head towards.

The Rizal Bill of 1956: Horacio dela Costa and the Bishops
By John N. Shumacher
- Horacio de la Costa was asked to draft for the Church a pastoral letter on
the writings of Jose Rizal being included in the reading curriculum of
students in the Philippines
- There are five (5) known versions of Horacio de la Costa's pastoral letter:
the original draft (Draft A), the carbon copies of their predecessors but few
handwritten changes, perhaps made while meeting with his critics(Draft
B), the first revision, which has considerable number of further changes
(Draft C), the abridged version (Draft D),and the copy of the "Statement",
where De la Costa underlined everything that was omitted by the Catholic
church (Draft E).
- Draft A painted Jose Rizal as a true patriot and a compassionate Filipino
who devoted his time to "dispel the ignorance of his people, raise their
moral standards, and combat the injustices and inequality under which
they labored.“ However, he also noted that Rizal was also a flawed
individual---.
- Archbishop (Abp.) Rufino J. Santos commissioned Father (Fr.) Jesus
Cavanna to draft a new "Statement." Beginning with a few positive
paragraphs from De la Costa, the "Statement" then absolutely condemned
the novels and forbade their reading, a prohibition that proved quite
- He then received a copy of this "Statement" and highlighted everything
that has been changed. (Draft E)
- There, he deliberately added in the translation the phrase "rituals and
superstitions" in the passage from Rizal's correspondence with Ferdinand
Blumentritt, where it originally stated,

"I wanted to hit the friars, but since the friars use religion not only as a
shield, but also as a weapon, protection, citadel, fortress, armor, etc., I
as therefore forced to attack their false and superstitious religion in
order to combat the enemy who hid behind this religion.... Why should I
not attack this religion with all my strength, if it is the prime cause of our
sufferings and our tears? The responsibility lies on those who misuse
its name. Christ did the same with the religion of his country, which the
Pharisees had so misused.“
 Hard to Imagine
By Benedict Anderson

- Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were written originally in Spanish.

Thus, when needed to be translated, the known translators at that time,
such as Leon Ma. Guerrero, only had to work with what they had because
both novels became inaccessible.
- it came the competition for translating the novels, where Guerrero enters
the scene. Leon Ma. Guerrero was then an ambassador to the court of St.
James, whose translations were prized among many. But he did not submit
his work later due to the low cash prize, instead giving it to The Manila
Times for publication. Since then, as Doreen Fernandez noted, Guerrero's
translation became "the only translation anybody reads now."
- By analyzing Guerrero's translations, word-for-word with the original
manuscripts, it is clear that it has been distorted in interesting ways.
These perceived "distortions" were, in his own words, an "attempt" to
make the novel "palatable to a new generation of English-speaking
Filipinos, and give it, beyond them, a wider audience among other English-
speaking peoples on the centenary of Rizal's book. In his own new version,
he tried to give "the reader 'the ease of original composition,' the Noli as
Rizal might have written it if he had been writing in English for the present
generation of Filipinos.“
 The Introduction
By Caroline Hau

- Studying Rizal’s Life and woks mean the lawmakers had to confront the
dangers in reading Rizal. First, to be read means that these will be read in
different ways; and second, different ways of reading are ideological in
nature, thus it can be political. His writings can be interpreted in different
ways, depending on the context being picked up as it was being read.

- This debate stemmed from the Catholic church's insistence that Rizal's
harsh criticisms at friar abuses, simony (i.e. the act of paying the
church to do sacred roles and/or things, such as sacraments), and
other practices were the rants of a heretic. As they defended, Rizal's
actions and novels must stay in the past because it talks about the
past. As written by Teodoro Locsin, Sr.,
ACTIVITY 2: ESSAY

1. How can you say that literature can share and/or express HISTORY and
VALUES? Explain your answer in no more than

2. Differentiate nationalism from patriotism.

3. Why did Reynaldo Ileto conclude that the phenomenon of the Filipinos
falling in love with familiar story plots in TV shows or movies was caused by
the Spaniards’ introduction of the awit?