BIOGRAPHY OF JOSE RIZAL

Jos Rizal (1861-1896) was a national hero of thePhilippinesand the first Asian nationalist. He expressed the growing national consciousness of many Filipinos who opposed Spanish colonial tyranny and aspired to attain democratic rights.Jos Rizal was born in Calamba, Laguna, on June 19, 1861, to a well-to-do family. He studied at the Jesuit Ateneo Municipal in Manila and won many literary honors and prizes. He obtained a bachelorof arts degree with highest honors in 1877. For a time he studied atthe University ofSanto Tomas, and in 1882 he left for Spain to enter the CentralUniversityof Madrid, where he completed his medical and humanistic studies.In Spain, Rizal composed his sociohistorical novelNoli me tangere (1887), which reflected the sufferings of his countrymen under Spanish feudal despotism and their rebellion. His mother had been a victim of gross injustice at the hands of a vindictive Spanishofficialof theguardia civil. Because Rizal satirized the ruling friar caste and severely criticized the iniquitous social structure in the Philippines, his book was banned and its readers punished. He replied to his censors with searing lampoons and diatribes, such as La vision de Fray RodriguezandPor telefono. Writing for the Filipino propaganda newspaperLa Solidaridad,edited by Filipino intellectuals in Spain, Rizal fashioned perceptive historical critiques likeLa indolencia de los Filipinos(The Indolence of the Filipinos) andFilipinas dentro de cien aos(ThePhilippinesa Century Hence) and wrote numerous polemical pieces in response to current events.Of decisive importance to the development of Rizals political thought was the age-old agrarian trouble in his hometown in 1887-1892. The people of Calamba, including Rizals family, who were tenants of an estate owned by the Dominican friars, submitted a memorial to the government on Jan. 8, 1888, listing their complaints and grievances about their exploitation by the religious corporation. After a long court litigation, the tenants lost their case, and Governor Valeriano Weyler, the butcher of Cuba, ordered troops to expel the tenants from their ancestral farms at gunpoint and burn the houses. Among the victims were Rizals father and three sisters, who were later deported.Rizal arrived home on Aug. 5, 1887, but after 6 months he left for Europe in the belief that his presence in thePhilippineswas endangering his relatives. The crisis in Calamba together with the 1888 petition of many Filipinos against rampantabusesby the friars registered a collective impact in Rizals sequel to his first book,El filibusterismo(1891).Rizals primary intention in both books is expressed in a letter to a friend (although this specifically refers to the first book): I have endeavored to answer the calumnies which for centuries had been heaped on us and our country; I havedescribedthe social condition, the life, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our grievances, our griefs; I have unmasked hypocrisy which, under the guise of religion, came to impoverish and to brutalize us. In El filibusterismo,Rizal predicted the outbreak of a mass peasant revolutionby showing how the bourgeois individualist hero of both novels, who is the product of the decadent feudal system, works only for his personal and diabolic interests. Rizal perceived the internal contradictions of the system as the source of social development concretely manifested in the class struggle.Anguished at the plight of his family, Rizal rushed to Hong Kong for the purpose of ultimately going backto Manila. Here he conceived the idea of establishing a Filipino colony in Borneo and draftedthe constitutionof the Liga Filipina (Philippine League), a reformist civic association designed to promote national unity and liberalism. The Liga, founded on July 3, 1892, did not survive, though it inspired Andres Bonifacio, a Manila worker, to organize the first Filipino revolutionary party, the Katipunan, which spearheaded the 1896revolutionagainst Spain. Rizal was arrested and deported to Dapitan, Mindanao, on July 7, 1892.For 4 years Rizal remained in exile in Dapitan, where he practiced ophthalmology, built a school and waterworks, planned town improvements, wrote, and carried out scientific experiments. Then he successfully petitioned the Spanish government to join the Spanish army in Cuba as a surgeon; but on his way to Spain to enlist, the Philippinerevolutionbroke out, and Rizal was returned from Spain, imprisoned, and tried for false charges of treason and complicity with therevolution. His enemies in the government and Church were operating behind the scenes, and he was convicted. The day before he was executed he wrote to a friend: I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. So I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.The day of Rizals execution, Dec. 30, 1896, signifies for many Filipinos the turning point in the long history of Spanish domination and the rise of a revolutionary people desiring freedom, independence, and justice. Rizal still continues to inspire the people, especially the peasants, workers, and intellectuals, by his exemplary selflessness and intense patriotic devotion. His radical humanist outlookformspart of the ideology of national democracy which Filipino nationalists today consider the objective of their revolutionary struggle.

BIOGRAPHY OF GRACIANO LOPEZ JAENA

Graciano Lpez y Jaena(December 18, 1856 - January 20, 1896)Jaena was born to in Jaro, Iloilo to Placido Lpez and Maria Jacoba Jaena. His parents were poor, as his mother was a seamstress and his father a general repairman. His father, however, had been to school and his mother was quite religious. At the age of six, young Graciano was placed under the watch of Father Francisco Jayme who noted his intellectual promise, especially his gift of speech.His mother, feeling that the priesthood was the most noble of occupations and sent him to the Seminario de San Vicente Ferrer in Jaro which had been opened under the brief liberal administration of Governor General Carlos de la Torre. Here again, his talents were noted. While studying at this seminary, Lpez Jaena served as a secretary to an uncle, Claudio Lpez who was honorary vice consul of Portugal in Iloilo. He even took charge of some minor matters that were brought to that office.Despite his mother's desires, it was Gracianos ambition to be a physician and he finally convinced his mother that this was the better course of action. He sought enrollment at the University of Santo Thomas but was denied admission because the required Bachelor of Arts degree was not offered at the seminary in Jaro. However he was directed to the San Juan de Dios Hospital as an apprentice. Unfortunately, financial backing ran out and his poor parents could not afford to keep him in Manila. He returned to Iloilo and practiced medicine in outlying communities with such knowledge as he had.During this time his visits with the poor and the common people began to stir deep feelings about the injustices that were common. At the age of 18 he had the audacity to write the story "Fray Botod" which depicted a fat and lecherous priest. Botods false piety "always [had] the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are." This naturally incurred the fury of the friars who knew that the story depicted them. Although it was not published a copy circulated in the region but the Friars could not prove that Lpez Jaena was the author. However he got into trouble for refusing to testify that certain prisoners died of natural causes when it was obvious that they had died at the hands of the mayor of Pototan. Lpez Jaena continued to agitate for justice and finally left for Spain when threats were made on his life.Lpez Jaena sailed for Spain. There he was to become a leading literary and oratorical spokesman for the cause of Filipino freedom. Historians regard Lpez Jaena, along with Marcelo H. del Pilar and Jos Rizal, as the triumvirate of Filipino propagandists. Of these three Lpez Jaena was the first to arrive and may be said the Genesis of the Propaganda movement.He pursued his medical studies at the school of medicine at the University of Valencia but did not finish the course. Once Rizal reproached Lopz Jaena for not finishing his medical studies. Graciano replied, "On the shoulders of slaves should not rest a doctor's cape." Rizal countermanded, "The shoulders do not honor the doctor's cape, but the doctor's cape honors the shoulders."He then moved to the field of journalism. It must be said that Lpez Jaena had his faults. Often careless and, indeed, lazy, he perhaps enjoyed the caf life of Barcelona and Madrid a bit too much. However, his friends would forgive him these indiscretions due to his appeal with words and oratory. Mariano Ponce who was another of the Filipino propagandists in Spain observed, "... a deafening ovation followed the close of the peroration, the ladies waved their kerchiefs wildly, and the men applauded frantically as they stood up from their seats in order to embrace the speaker." Rizal noted, "His great love is politics and literature. I do not know for sure whether he loves politics in order to deliver speeches or he loves literature to be a politician."In addition he is remembered for his literary contributions to the propaganda movement. He founded the fortnightly newspaper, La Solidaridad (Solidarity). When the publication office moved from Barcelona to Madrid the editorship went to Marcelo H. del Pilar.Unfortunately, Lpez Jaena died of tuberculosis on January 20, 1896. His death was followed on July 4th by Marcelo H. del Pilar and on December 30th of Jos Rizal by firing squad, thus ending the great triumvirate of propagandists. He died in poverty just shy of his fortieth birthday and two and a half years before the declaration of independence from Spain by Emilio Aguinaldo.

BIOGRAPHY OF MARCELO H. DEL PILAR

Marcelo H. Del Pilar was a Filipino writer, journalist and propagandist best known for his meticulous and liberal writings against the tyrannical government and Church officials in the Philippines during the 19th century Spanish occupation.Del Pilar, along with fellow patriots Jose Rizal and Graciano Lopez Jaena, formed the triumvirate of the La Solidaridad, a newspaper who advocates the Filipino cause in the Spanish parliament. Del Pilar was born on August 30, 1850 in Cupang, Bulacan, Bulacan, the land of the brave and Filipino poets. Del Pilar came from the family of Gatmaitan, one of the richest families in town. His father Don Julin Hilario del Pilar served as a gobernadorcillo (municipal mayor.) Thus, their illustrious and privileged class gave Del Pilar the opportunity to pursue higher education.Early in his childhood, Del Pilar already displayed a high degree of intellect. He was good at playing musical instruments such as the violin, piano and flute. Hence, he took and finished his Bachelor of Arts degree in Colegio de San Jose.In 1881, he obtained his law degree in the University of Santo Tomas. Previously, he had disputes over some of the friars because of his nationalistic and liberal ideas that were against the abusive nature of the friars. Del Pilar often stages movements for the overthrow of the friars in the Philippines.Early in his writing career, Del Pilar sough for the separation of the state and the Church - a stance that perhaps influenced the future constitutions of the Philippines.Del Pilar would often denounce both the Church and the government in his speeches done in front of busy crowds in flee markets, cockpit arenas and town plazas. He depicts the abusive friars who seemingly hold powers quite similar to that of the governor general.On the other hand, he took note of the government's failure in delivering prosperity in the archipelago that was first promised by the blood compact between Spanish explorer and first Spanish Governor-General Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Datu Sikatuna of Bohol.Moreover, Del Pilar sailed to Spain due to the tensions arising between him and the corporation of the friars. While in Spain, he succeeded Lopez-Jaena as the editor-in-chief of the La Solidaridad.Under his tutelage, the newspaper pushed for drastic reforms such as the expulsion of the polo (community service) and the automatic sale of local products to the government. Del Pilar also advocates the recognition of the Philippines as a province of Spain, hoping that this move will foster equality among the indios and the Spanish meztizos.Hence, the last issues of the La Solidaridad, no longer pushed equality through peaceful means. In one issue, Del Pilar seemingly issues his support over the possibility of an armed conflict.Shortly, Del Pilar died in Barcelona on July 4, 1896 - just around one month before the Cry of Pugad Lawin, signaling the start of an armed revolution.