By Jose Sison Luzadas
I was in Barcelona, Spain and I took along this award-winning Rizal biography "THE FIRST FILIPINO" by Leon Ma. Guerrero. It is interesting why other writers and historians try to picture Rizal as the “first” OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker)! Well he opened his clinic in Hong Kong. Was he not?
Incidentally, the city of Barcelona is where Rizal wrote his first literary work in Spain, titled "Amor Patrio" (love of country). It appeared in "Diarong Tagalog", then Manila's daily using a pseudonym, "LAONG LAAN”. When he moved to Madrid Rizal joined the freemasonry, he chose an alias,"MAY PAGASA" . ”DIMASALANG” is the pen name when he volunteered as correspondent for La Solidaridad.
The last time Rizal showed up in Barcelona was when he was detained in a Barcelona Jail on his way to Cuba to volunteer his medical services to the Spanish army during the Cuban Revolution on suspicion that he was the mastermind of the disturbances in Manila and the suburbs led by Bonifacio and his Katipuneros. Later, Rizal was escorted in a ship bound for the Philippines to face criminal charges.
While aboard a Cuba-bound ship, a Katipunan disguised in a sailor’s uniform approached and asked Rizal to jump off ship with him where a waiting rescue mission sent by Supremo Andres Bonifacio will pick them up for safety in the territorial waters of British Hong Kong. It was Emilio Jacinto, right-hand man of the Supremo who later became the “Brain of the Katipunan”. It seemed funny to understand why our national hero refused! Yes, why did Rizal spurn such rare opportunity?
TODAY, there are still people who look at Rizal more of an ENIGMA and have reservations calling Rizal a hero. If Rizal is a true patriot they argued, why did he volunteer his services to the enemy? Why did he call Bonifacio’s revolution that was causing disturbances in Manila and suburban towns “absurd”? Again this is quite disturbing to many.
Nick Joaquin thinks that the Philippine Revolution” was made in Spain. Rizal’s fellow “Ilustrados in Europe and the local Ilustrados in the Philippines like Aguinaldo and Mabini have devised a blue print for power and governance once the Spaniards are out in the Philippines. Among others the friar estates will be confiscated and subdivided. There will be a representative form of democratic government to be setup where two political parties take turns running the government apparatus.
Bonifacio entered the picture where the Ilustrados were caught flatfooted. Their planned revolution was sidetracked when a bodeguero from Trozo, Tondo led the revolt of the masses. UP professor Teodoro Agoncillo wrote a book about Andres Bonifacio and his militant organization of proletarian origin titled “THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES”.
With these poor, uneducated peasants stealing the show from the Ilustrados in Pugad Lawin and in the hills of Balara, the majority of the Ilustrados naturally were reluctant to join the peasant revolution that in the words of Agoncillo, “only Bonifacio can speak the language of the masses”.
There was a growing fear among land owning Ilustrados that a socialist peasant leader like a Bonifacio might even confiscate their lands and distribute them to his Katipunan members
Agoncillo opined that it is true that Rizal distanced himself from the Katipunan. e denied being a member and he was used by the Katipunan without his knowledge. But the Spanish authorities and the clergy were not stupid to buy Rizal’s argument that some believed was primarily is to save his skin. His enemies were convinced and believed that while Rizal may not like Bonifacio and his revolution to gain independence, it was Rizal who fed and inspired Bonifacio the idea of the ultimate goal of independence!
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