Criticism and controversies

Attempts to debunk legends surrounding Rizal, and the tug of war between free thinker and Catholic, have kept his legacy controversial.

Rizal Shrine in Calamba City, Laguna, the ancestral house and birthplace of Jos Rizal, is now a museum housing Rizal memorabilia.

Jos Rizal's original grave at Paco Park in Manila. Slightly renovated and date repainted in English.

National hero status

The confusion over Rizal's real stance on the Philippine Revolution leads to the sometimes bitter question of his ranking as the nation's premier hero. [74][75] But then
again, according to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Section Chief Teodoro Atienza, and Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, there is
no Filipino historical figure, including Rizal, that was officially declared as national hero through law or executive order.[76][77] Although, there were laws and
proclamations honoring Filipino heroes.

Made national hero by colonial Americans

Some[who?] suggest that Jose Rizal was made a legislated national hero by the American forces occupying Philippines. In 1901, the American Governor
GeneralWilliam Howard Taft suggested that the U.S. sponsored Philippine Commission name Rizal a national hero for Filipinos. Jose Rizal was an ideal candidate,
favourable to the American occupiers since he was dead, and non-violent, a favourable quality which, if emulated by Filipinos, would not threaten the American
rule or change the status quo of the occupiers of Philippine islands. Rizal did not advocate independence for Philippines either.[78] Subsequently, the US-sponsored
commission passed Act No. 346 which set the anniversary of Rizals death as a day of observance. [79]

Renato Constantino writes Rizal is a "United States-sponsored hero" who was promoted as the greatest Filipino hero during the American colonial period of the
Philippines after Aguinaldo lost the PhilippineAmerican War. The United States promoted Rizal, who represented peaceful political advocacy (in fact,
repudiation of violent means in general) instead of more radical figures whose ideas could inspire resistance against American rule. Rizal was selected
over Andrs Bonifacio who was viewed "too radical" and Apolinario Mabini who was considered "unregenerate."[80]

Made national hero by Emilio Aguinaldo

On the other hand, numerous sources[81] quote that it was General Emilio Aguinaldo, and not the second Philippine Commission, who first recognized December 30
as "national day of mourning in memory of Rizal and other victims of Spanish tyranny. As per them, the first celebration of Rizal Day was held in Manila on
December 30, 1898, under the sponsorship of the Club Filipino. [82]

The veracity of both claims seems to be justified and hence difficult to ascertain. However, most historians agree that a majority of Filipinos were unaware of Rizal
during his lifetime,[83] as he was a member of the richer elite classes (he was born in an affluent family, had lived abroad for nearly as long as he had lived in the
Philippines) and wrote primarily in an elite language (at that time, Tagalog and Cebuano were the languages of the masses) about ideals as lofty as freedom (the
masses were more concerned about day to day issues like earning money and making a living, something which has not changed much today). [84]

Teodoro Agoncillo opines that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other countries, is not "the leader of its liberation forces". He gives the opinion that
Andrs Bonifacio not replace Rizal as national hero, like some have suggested, but that be honored alongside him. [85]

Constantino's analysis has been criticised for its polemicism and inaccuracies.[86] The historian Rafael Palma, contends that the revolution of Bonifacio is a
consequence wrought by the writings of Rizal and that although the Bonifacio's revolver produced an immediate outcome, the pen of Rizal generated a more
lasting achievement.[87]
References to the Catholic Church
In one recorded fall from grace he succumbed to the temptation of a 'lady of the camellias'. The writer, Maximo Viola, a friend of Rizal's, was alluding to Dumas's
1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man who fell in love with a courtesan. While the affair was on record, there was no account in Viola's letter whether it
was more than one-night and if it was more a business transaction than an amorous affair.[88][89][note 14]

Critiques of books
Others present him as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in "Rizal: the Tagalog Hamlet", said of him, a soul that dreads the revolution although deep
down desires it. He pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair.[90] His critics assert this character flaw is translated into his two novels where he
opposes violence in Noli and appears to advocate it in Fili, contrasting Ibarra's idealism to Simoun's cynicism. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced
when Simoun is struck down in the sequel's final chapters, reaffirming the author's resolute stance, Pure and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be
acceptable.[91]

Many thinkers tend to find the characters of Mara Clara and Ibarra (Noli Me Tngere) poor role models, Mara Clara being too frail, and young Ibarra being too
accepting of circumstances, rather than being courageous and bold.[92]

In El Filibusterismo, Rizal had Father Florentino say: ...our liberty will (not) be secured at the sword's point...we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it.
And when a people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out
like the first dawn.[91] Rizal's attitude to thePhilippine Revolution is also debated, not only based on his own writings, but also due to the varying eyewitness
accounts ofPo Valenzuela, a doctor who in 1895 had consulted Rizal in Dapitan on behalf of Bonifacio and the Katipunan.

Role in the Philippine revolution

Upon the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, Valenzuela surrendered to the Spanish authorities and testified in military court that Rizal had strongly
condemned an armed struggle for independence when Valenzuela asked for his support. Rizal had even refused him entry to his house. Bonifacio, in turn, had
openly denounced him as a coward for his refusal.[note 15]

But years later, Valenzuela testified that Rizal had been favorable to an uprising as long as the Filipinos were well-prepared, and well-supplied with arms. Rizal had
suggested that the Katipunan get wealthy and influential Filipino members of society on their side, or at least ensure they would stay neutral. Rizal had even
suggested his friend Antonio Luna to lead the revolutionary forces since he had studied military science.[note 16] In the event that the Katipunan was discovered
prematurely, they should fight rather than allow themselves to be killed. Valenzuela said to historian Teodoro Agoncillo that he had lied to the Spanish military
authorities about Rizal's true stance toward a revolution in an attempt to exculpate him.[93]

Before his execution, Rizal wrote a proclamation denouncing the revolution. But as noted by historian Floro Quibuyen, his final poem Mi ultimo adios contains a
stanza which equates his coming execution and the rebels then dying in battle as fundamentally the same, as both are dying for their country.[94]

Legacy

Rizal was a contemporary of Gandhi, Tagore and Sun Yat Sen who also advocated liberty through peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. Coinciding
with the appearance of those other leaders, Rizal from an early age had been enunciating in poems, tracts and plays, ideas all his own of modern nationhood as a
practical possibility in Asia. In the Nolihe stated that if European civilization had nothing better to offer, colonialism in Asia was doomed.[note 17]

Government poster from the 1950s

Though popularly mentioned, especially on blogs, there is no evidence to suggest that Gandhi or Nehru may have corresponded with Rizal, neither have they
mentioned him in any of their memoirs or letters. But it was documented by Rizal's biographer, Austin Coates who interviewed Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi that
Rizal was mentioned, specifically in Nehru's prison letters to his daughter Indira.[95][96]
As a political figure, Jos Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andrs Bonifacio,[note 18],
a secret society which would start the Philippine Revolution against Spain that eventually laid the foundation of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio
Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through violent revolution, and would
only support "violent means" as a last resort.[98] Rizal believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government was the restoration of the dignity
of the people,[note 19] saying "Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?" [99] However, through careful examination of his works and
statements, including Mi Ultimo Adios, Rizal reveals himself as a revolutionary. His image as the Tagalog Christ also intensified early reverence to him.

Rizal, through his reading of Morga and other western historians, knew of the genial image of Spain's early relations with his people. [100] In his writings, he showed
the disparity between the early colonialists and those of his day, with the latter's injustices giving rise to Gomburza and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. The
English biographer, Austin Coates, and writer,Benedict Anderson, believe that Rizal gave the Philippine revolution a genuinely national character; and that Rizal's
patriotism and his standing as one of Asia's first intellectuals have inspired others of the importance of a national identity to nation-building. [29][note 20]

The Belgian researcher Jean Paul "JP" Verstraeten authored several books about Jose Rizal: Rizal in Belgium and France,Jose Rizal's Europe, Growing up like
Rizal (published by the National Historical Institute and in teacher's programs all over the Philippines), Reminiscences and Travels of Jose Rizal and Jose Rizal
"Pearl of Unselfishness". He received an award from the president of the Philippines "in recognition of his unwavering support and commitment to promote the
health and education of disadvantaged Filipinos, and his invaluable contribution to engender the teachings and ideals of Dr. Jose Rizal in the Philippines and in
Europe". One of the greatest researchers about Rizal nowadays is Lucien Spittael.

Several titles were bestowed on him: "the First Filipino", "Greatest Man of the Brown Race", among others. The Order of the Knights of Rizal, a civic and patriotic
organization, boasts of dozens of chapters all over the globe [3] [4]. There are some remote-area religious sects who claim him as a sublimation of Christ.[102] In
September 1903, he was canonised as asaint in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, however it was revoked in the 1950s.[103]

Species named after Rizal

Jos Rizal was imprisoned at Fort Santiago and soon after he was banished at Dapitan where he plunged himself into studying of nature. He then able to collect a
number of species of various classes: insects, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles,shells, snakes and plants.

Rizal sent many specimens of animals, insects, and plants for identification to the (Anthropological and Ethnographical Museum of Dresden [104]), Dresden Museum
of Ethnology. It was not in his interest to receive any monetary payment; all he wanted were scientific books, magazines and surgical instruments which he needed
and used in Dapitan.

During his exile, Rizal also secretly sent several specimens of flying dragons to Europe. He believed that they were a new species. The German zoologist Benno
Wandolleck named them Draco rizali after Rizal. However, it has since been discovered that the species had already been described by the Belgian-British
zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1885 as Draco guentheri.[105]

There are three species named after Rizal:

Draco rizali a small lizard, known as a flying dragon

Apogania rizali a very rare kind of beetle with five horns

Rhacophorus rizali a peculiar frog species. Rhacophorus rizali[106]

Historical commemoration

Although his field of action lay in politics, Rizal's real interests lay in the arts and sciences, in literature and in his profession as an ophthalmologist.
Shortly after his death, the Anthropological Society of Berlin met to honor him with a reading of a German translation of his farewell poem and Dr. Rudolf
Virchow delivering the eulogy.[107]

The Rizal Monument now stands near the place where he fell at the Luneta in Bagumbayan, which is now called Rizal Park, a national park in Manila.
The monument, which also contains his remains, was designed by the Swiss Richard Kissling of the William Tell sculpture in Altdorf, Uri.[note 21] The monument
carries the inscription: "I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties
and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves for his country and for others dear to him."[24]
 The Taft Commission in June 1901 approved Act 137 renaming the District of Morong into the Province of Rizal. Today, the wide acceptance of Rizal
is evidenced by the countless towns, streets, and numerous parks in the Philippines named in his honor.