RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV

BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

PRESENTING RIZAL’S

EXILE, TRIAL, AND DEATH

GROUP 4:

CARLO C. JOSE

DARYL R. ABUDA

HEART KATE P. CAPIN

LEAHONA O. PORTOLASO

LEAN MARGARETT E. SAREN

PRINCESS JOYCE S. DEDUMO

STANLEY JAHMIR S. EBUE

RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

RIZAL’S EXILE IN DAPITAN

• Jose Rizal’s arrival in Manila on June 26, 1982 had become very sensational among the
Filipinos. His popularity feared the Spaniards, and such paid careful attention to his every
move – all houses where he had been were searched and the Filipinos seen in his company
were suspected.
• As he planned, on July 3, 1892 he founded the La Liga Filipina in the house of Doroteo
Ongjunco in Tondo, Manila.

Four days after the civic organization's foundation, Jose Rizal was arrested by the Spanish
authorities on four grounds:

1. for publishing anti-Catholic and anti-friar books and articles;

2. for having in possession, a bundle of handbills, the Pobres Frailes, in which advocacies
were in violation of the Spanish orders;
3. for dedicating his novel, El Filibusterismo to the three “traitors” (Gomez, Burgos and
Zamora) and for emphasizing on the novel's title page that “the only salvation for the
Philippines was separation from the mother country (referring to Spain)”; and
4. for simply criticizing the religion and aiming for its exclusion from the Filipino culture.
• July 17, 1892 – Rizal, together with his guard Capitan Ricardo Carnicero, arrived in
Dapitan.
• Rizal was given a choice to live in the house of the parish priest, Fr. Antonio Obach or at
Carnicero’s house.
• He could live in the priest’s quarter only if:
✓ He publicly retracted his Masonic and antichurch beliefs
✓ He regularly participates in church rites
✓ He conducts himself as a good Spanish subject and a man of religion
• Rizal made him a bust and composed a poem in his honor A Don Ricardo Carnicero on his
birthday on August 26, 1892.

CAREER AND RIZAL’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN EXILE

Rizal had maximized his stay in Dapitan by devoting much of his time in improving his artistic
and literary skills; doing agricultural and civic projects; engaging in business activities, and
writing letters to his friends in Europe, particularly to Ferdinand Blumentritt and Reinhold Rost.
His careers and achievements in different fields were as follows:

• As a physician • As an educator
• As an engineer • As an agriculturist
• As a businessman • As a linguist
• As an inventor • As a scientist
• As an artist • Partakes in civic works in Dapitan
RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

THE END OF EXILE IN DAPITAN

• When Cuba was under revolution and raging yellow fever epidemic, Rizal wrote to
Governor General Ramon Blanco offering his service as a military doctor.
• Governor General Ramon Blanco – he approved the request of Rizal on July 1, 1896
• At the midnight of that day, he left aboard the streamer Espana.
• The townspeople of Dapitan wept because they considered Rizal as a good son and
neighbor.
• He stayed in Dapitan for four years, thirteen days and a few hours.
• August 6, 1896 – upon arriving in Manila Bay, Rizal was not able to leave immediately
for Spain since the vessel Isla de Luzon already left.
• He was transferred to Spanish cruiser Castilla and stayed there for a month from
August 6 to September 2, 1896.
• August 19, 1896 – the Katipunan plot to overthrow the Spanish rule by means of
revolution, it was discovered by Fr. Mariano Gil after Teodoro Patino’s disclosure of
organization’s secrets.
• At that time, Katipunan was already discovered and the Philippines Revolution was
already raging.
• August 26, 1896 – Bonifacio and Katipunan raised the Cry of Revolution (Sigaw sa
Pagudlawin) in the hills of Balintawak, a few miles North of Manila.
• In the afternoon, Governor General Blanco proclaimed a state of war in the first eight
provinces for rising arms against Spain.
• Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.
• Rizal received letters from Governor General Blanco which absolved him from all the
blame for the raging revolution.
• He transferred to Isla de Panay which was sailing for Barcelona, Spain
• Don Pedro Roxas advised Rizal to stay and take advantage of the protection of British
Law.
RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

RIZAL’S ARREST AND TRIAL

By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full-
blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising. Rizal had earlier volunteered his services
as a doctor in Cuba and was given leave by Governor- General Ramón Blanco to serve in Cuba
to minister to victims of yellow fever. Rizal and Josephine left Dapitan on August 1, 1896, with a
letter of recommendation from Blanco.

Rizal was arrested enroute to Cuba via Spain and was imprisoned in Barcelona on October 6,
1896. He was sent back the same day to Manila to stand trial as he was implicated in the
revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan. During the entire passage,
he was unchained; no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to escape but
refused to do so.

While imprisoned in Fort Santiago, he issued a manifesto disavowing the current revolution in its
present state and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national
identity were prerequisites to freedom. Rizal was tried before a court-martial for rebellion,
sedition and conspiracy, and was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death.
Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office. The friars, led by then-
Archbishop of Manila Bernardino Nozaleda had 'intercalated' Camilo de Polavieja in his stead
as the new Spanish Governor General of the Philippines after pressuring Queen-Regent Maria
Cristina of Spain, thus sealing Rizal's fate.

The trial was opened by Judge Advocate Dominguez who explained the case against Rizal.
After him, Prosecuting Attorney Alcocer arose and delivered a long speech summarizing the
death to the accused. The Spanish spectators applauded noisily charges against Rizal and
urged the court to give the verdict of Alcocer's petition for the sentence of death.

After the prosecuting attorney finished his spirited harangue, Defense Counsel Taviel de
Andrade took the floor and read his eloquent defense of Rizal. He ended his defense with a
noble, but futile, admonition to the members of the military: "The judges cannot be vindictive; the
judges can only be just".

Incidentally, his admonition fell on deaf ears. The Spanish army officers who were trying Rizal
were both vindictive and unjust. When Lt. Taviel de Andrade took his seat, the court asked Rizal
whether he had anything to say. Rizal then read a supplement to his defense which he wrote in
his prison cell. In his supplementary defense, he further proved his innocence by twelve points:

1. He could not be guilty of rebellion, for he advised Dr. Pio Valenzuela in Dapitan not to rise in
revolution.

2. He did not correspond with the radical, revolutionary elements.

3. The revolutionists used his name without his knowledge. If he were guilty, he could have
escaped in Singapore.
RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

4. If he had a hand in the revolution, he could have escaped in a Moro vinta and would not have
built a home, a hospital, and bought lands in Dapitan.

5. If he were the chief of the revolution, why was he not consulted by the revolutionists?

6. It was true he wrote the by-laws of the Liga Filipina, society. but this is only. a civic
association - not a revolutionary

7. The Liga Filipina did not live long, for after the first meeting he was banished to Dapitan and it
died out.

8. If the Liga was reorganized nine months later, he did not know about it.

9. The Liga did not serve the purpose of the revolutionists, otherwise they would not have
supplanted it with the Katipunan.

10. If it were true that there were some bitter comments in Rizal's letters, it was because they
were written in 1890 when his family was being persecuted, being dispossessed of houses,
warehouses, lands, etc. and his brother and all his brothers-in-law were deported.

11. His life in Dapitan had been exemplary as the politico-military commanders and missionary
priests could attest.

12. It was not true that the revolution was inspired by his one speech at the house of Doroteo
Ongjunco, as alleged by witnesses whom he would like to confront. His friends knew his
opposition to armed rebellion. Why did the Katipu- nan send an emissary to Dapitan who was
unknown to him? Because those who knew him were aware that he would never sanction any
violent movement.

The military court, prejudiced as it was, remained indifferent to Rizal's pleading. The president,
Lt. Col. Togores Arjona, considered the trial over and ordered the hall cleared. After a short
deliberation, the military court unanimously voted for the sentence of death.

On the same day (December 26th), the court decision was submitted to Governor General
Polavieja. Immediately, Polavieja sought the opinion of Judge Advocate General Nicolas de la
Peña on the court decision. The latter affirmed the death verdict.

Polavieja Signs Rizal's Execution. On December 28th, Polavieja approved the decision of the
court-martial and ordered Rizal to be shot at 7:00 o'clock in the morning of December 30 at
Bagumbayan Field (Luneta). His decree on this matter runs as follows:
RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

Manila, December 28, 1896

Conformably to the foregoing opinion. I approve the sentence dictated by the Court Martial in
the present case, by virtue of which the death penalty is imposed on the accused Jose Rizal
Mercado, which shall be executed by shooting him at 7:00 o'clock in the morning of the 30th of
this month in the field of Bagumbayan.

For compliance and the rest that may correspond, let this be returned to the Judge Advocate,
Captain Don Rafael Dominguez.

Camilo G. de Polavieja

For signing the fatal document ordering the execution of Dr. Rizal, Governor General Polavieja
won the eternal odium of the Filipino people. He and other Spanish officials who were
responsible for the death of Rizal will evermore remain as obnoxious villains in Philippine
history.
RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS GROUP IV
BSA 1ST YEAR (SET B)

THE DEATH OF JOSE RIZAL

The death of Jose Rizal on December 30, 1896 came right after a kangaroo trial convicted him
on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy.

December 30th is the death anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal. The death of Jose Rizal came right
after a kangaroo trial convicted him on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy.
He was guided to his cell in Fort Santiago where he spent his last 24 hours right after the
conviction.

8:00 AM of December 29, 1896, Captain Rafael Dominguez read Jose Rizal’s death sentence
and declared that he will be shot at 7:00 AM of the next day in Bagumbayan.

8:00 PM of the same day, Jose Rizal had his last supper and informed Captain Dominguez that
he had forgiven his enemies including the military judges that condemned him to die.

3:00 AM in the morning of December 30, 1896, Rizal heard mass and had confession before
taking the Holy Communion.

5:30 AM of December 30, 1896 He took his last breakfast and even had the time to write two
letters one for his family while the other letter was for his brother Paciano. This was also the
time when his wife, Josephine Bracken and his sister Josefa arrived and bade farewell to Rizal.

Rizal who was dressed in a black suit was a few meters behind his advance guards while
moving to his slaughter place and was accompanied by Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade, two Jesuit
priests and more soldiers behind him. The atmosphere was just like any execution by musketry
by which the sound of the drums occupied the air. Rizal looked at the sky while walking and
mentioned how beautiful that day was.

Rizal was told to stand on a grassy lawn between two lamp posts in the Bagumbayan field,
looking towards the Manila Bay. He requested the firing squad commander to shoot him facing
the firing squad but was ordered to turn his back against the squad of Filipino soldiers of the
Spanish army. A backup force of regular Spanish Army troops was on standby to shoot the
executioners should they fail to obey the orders of the commander.

Jose Rizal’s execution was carried out when the command “Fuego” was heard and Rizal made
an effort to face the firing squad but his bullet riddled body turned to the right and his face
directed to the morning sun. Rizal exactly died at 7:03 AM and his last words before he died
were those said by Jesus Christ: “consummatum est,” which means, “It is finished.”

Jose Rizal was secretly buried in Paco Cemetery in Manila but no identification was placed in
his grave. His sister Narcisa tried to look in every grave site and found freshly turned soil at the
Paco cemetery, assuming the burial site as the area where Rizal was buried. She gave a gift to
the site caretaker so as to mark the grave with RPJ — the initials of Rizal in reverse.