Esteban A, de Ocampo‟s article, “Who made Rizal Our Foremost National Hero, and Why?” has become well-known in depending Jose Rizal‟s being the Philippine‟s foremost hero. Essentially, it denies the claim that Rizal is a made-to-order national hero manufactured by the Americans, chiefly by then Civil Governor William Howard Taft.

1. Continuation..
JOSE RIZAL AND
PHILIPPINE
NATIONALISM:
BAYANI AND
KABAYANIHAN
Discussant:
KIMBERLY VASQUEZ
BSED 3B

2. Esteban A, de Ocampo‟s article, “Who
made Rizal Our Foremost National Hero,
and Why?” has become well-known in
depending Jose Rizal‟s being the
Philippine‟s foremost hero. Essentially, it
denies the claim that Rizal is a made-to-
order national hero manufactured by the
Americans, chiefly by then Civil Governor
William Howard Taft.
Who Made Rizal Our Foremost
Bayani?

3. Ocampo uses as basis the meaning of the term
hero by the Webster‟s New International
Dictionary of the English Language:
 a prominent or central personage taking
admirable part in any remarkable action or
event;
 a person of distinguished valor or enterprise
in danger;
 a man honored after death by public worship,
because of exceptional service to mankind.

4. In 1902, Cong. Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin
delivered a eulogy of Rizal and even recited the hero‟s
last poem at the U.S. House of Representatives to justify
the capacity of the Filipinos for self-government.
 In part, he said: “…So Sir, I say to all those who
denounce Filipino indiscriminately as barbarians and
savages, without possibility of a civilized future, that
this despised race proved itself entitled to their respect
and to the respect of mankind when it furnished to the
world the character of Jose Rizal.” The appeal resulted
in the approval of what is popularly known as the
Philippine Bill of 1902.

5. Using the second quoted meaning of “hero,”
De Ocampo claims that no Filipino has yet
been born who can equal or surpass Rizal as a
“person of distinguished valor/ enterprise in
danger, fortitude in suffering.”
Anchoring on the third quoted definition of
“hero,” De Ocampo proposes that Rizal “is a
man honored after death by public worship,
because of exceptional service to mankind.”

6. The following is De Ocampo’s long justification in part.
 “We can say that even before his execution, Rizal was [the]
already acclaimed by both Filipinos and foreigners as the foremost
leader of his people.”
 Writing from Barcelona to the Great Malayan on March 10, 1889,
M. H. del Pilar said: “Rizal no tiene aun derecho a morir: su
nombre constutuye la mas pura e immaculada bandera de
aspiraciones y Plaridel los suyos no son otra causa ma que
immaculada unos voluntaries que militant bajo esa bandera.”
Fernando Acevedo, who called Rizal his distinguido amigo,
compañero y paisano, wrote Rizal a letter from Zaragoza, Spain
on October 25, 1889: “I see in you the model Filipino; your
application to study and your talents have been placed on a height
which I revere and admire…”

7. Ferdinand Bluementritt
 Napoleon M. Kheil
 Dr. Reinhold Rost
Vicente Barrantes.
Among the foreigners who recognized Rizal as
the leading Filipino of his time were:

8. Prof. Bluementritt told Dr. Maximo Viola in May
1887 that “Rizal was the greatest product of the Philippines
and that his coming to the world was like the appearance of
appearance of a rare comet., whose rare brilliance appears
appears only every other century”.
Napoleon Kheil of Prague, Austria wrote
to Rizal and said “admire en Vd [a] un noble
representante de la España colonial”,

9. Dr. Reinhold Rost, distinguished
Malayologist and librarian of the India office of
London, called Rizal “una peria hombre”
Don Vicente Barrantes had to
admit that Rizal was “the first among
Filipinos..

10. Even before the outbreak of the revolution against Spain in
1896, many instances can be cited to prove that this country
here and abroad recognized Rizal’s leadership.
In the early part of 1889, he was unanimously elected by
the Filipinos in Barcelona and Madrid as honorary
president of La Solidaridad.
 In January 1891, Rizal was again unanimously chosen
Responsible (chief) of the Spanish-Filipino Association.
He was also the founder and moving spirit in the founding
of La Liga Filipina in Manila on July 03, 1892.

11. A year after Rizal’s execution, Gen. Emilio
Aguinaldo and the other revolutionary chiefs
exiled to Hong Kong held a commemorative
program there on December 29, 1897 on the
occasion of the first anniversary of the hero’s
execution and martyrdom
In his opening address of the congress assembled
in Malolos, Bulacan on September 15, 1898. Pres.
Aguinaldo invoked the spirits of the departed
heroes of the fatherland [primarily Rizal].

12. December 20, 1898 at the revolutionary capital
of Malolos. Pres. Aguinaldo issued the first
official proclamation making December 30 of
that year “Rizal Day”
 The same proclamation ordered the hoisting of
the Filipino flag at half-most “from noon on
December 30 1898” and the closing of “all office
of the government” during the whole day of 30
December.

13.  The Filipinos were not alone in grieving
the untimely death of their hero and idol
for the intellectual and scientific circles of
the world felt keenly the loss of Rizal, who
was their esteemed colleague and friend.
Dr. Camilo Osias and Wenceslao Retaña
spoke of the Universal homage accorded
immediately after his death.

14.  Among the scientific necrological services held especially to honor
Rizal, the one sponsored by the Anthropological Society of Berlin
on November 20, 1897 at the initiative of Dr. Rudolph Virchow, its
president, was the most important and significant. Dr. Ed Seler
recited the German translation of Rizal’s “My Last Farewell” on
that occasion. The newspapers, magazines and some other
periodicals throughout the civilized world – in Germany, Austria,
France, Holland, London, the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao,
Singapore, Switzerland, and Latin American countries – published
accounts of Rizal’s martyrdom to render homage to his greatness.
(De Ocampo,n.d)

15.  De Ocampo also comments that Andres
Bonifacio and not Jose Rizal, deserve to
be acknowledged as the Philippine’s first
national hero.
 De Ocampo explains that “our people in
exercising their good sense, independent
judgement and unusual discernment
have not followed the examples of
(many) other nations in selecting and
acknowledging a military leader for their
greatness hero” (De Ocampo, nd).

16. He then quotes Rafael Palma’s comment
specifically on the “Rizal versus
Bonifacio debate” Palma said in part.
Whereas generally the heroes of
accidental nations are warriors and
generals who serve their cause with the
sword, distilling blood and tears, the
hero of the Filipinos served his cause
with the pen, demonstrating that the pen
is a mighty as the sword to redeem a
people from their political slavery

17. As a conclusion, De Ocampo writes
Who made Rizal the foremost hero of the
Philippines? The answer is no single person or groups
of persons were responsible for making the Greatest
Malayan the No.1 Hero of his people. Rizal himself, his
own people and the foreigners all together contributed
to make him the greatest hero and martyr of his people.
No amount of adulation and canonization by both
Filipinos and foreigners could convert Rizal into a
great hero if he did not possess in himself what Palma
calls “excellent qualities and merits (De Ocampo n.d).

18. Directly answering the opinion that Rizal was an “American-
made hero”. Contemporary non-Filipino historian Norman Owen
in Quora.com explains, thus:
“But many Filipinos had already made Rizal a national hero;
even before the American arrived. The Katipunan itself
venerated Rizal, and Reynaldo Ilteto’s research reveals how
deeply this veneration – verging on worship – had penetrated the
peasantry, especially in the Tagalog region. So it could be argued
that what the Americans were doing was simply confirming
officially a decision the Filipino people had already made
unofficially, that Rizal was the greatest Filipino, and the one who
most completely embodied the national dream. (Owen, n.d.)

19. Professor Owen, a non-Filipino who has passion in studying
Filipino history, is appropriate here as a conclusion. He wrote,
thus:
“I have to say that as an outsider who has studied Philippine
history for nearly 50 years I find Rizal to be far and away the
most admirable Filipino worthiest to be the national hero (if we
must single out one of many) He is/was perhaps the country’s
greatest novelist and among its greatest essayist historians, and
poets, and he dedicated his life - and eventually his death to the
welfare of “Filipinos” at a time when many of his countrymen
were scarcely aware of the “nation” as such. He had his flaws –
who doesn’t? – but his combination of intelligence/creativity and
patriotism has rarely been equaled in any country. the
Philippines should be proud of him.” (Owen, n.d)

20. THANK YOU ;)