The Other Side on the Life of Dr. Jose Rizal

As we honor every December 30th the memory of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, the "Pride of the Malayan Race" on the occassion of his death anniversary; let us pause for a moment and seriously think for a while, as to the veracity of all that is attributed to this great man of many talents. -dinggol.d~~~ (Ilonggo National Global Federation)

Rizal: Undeserved Adjectives?

A radical historian who constantly challenges the status quo of historicity urged yesterday future writers on the life, works and heroism of Dr. Jose Rizal to refrain from further embarrassing him with undeserved adjectives that do not faithfully reflect his true being.

Rizal had never seen a corporate boardroom in his lifetime and therefore not a businessman as portrayed by Dr. Ernesto Sibal in his book, Rizal the Businesssman. He merely hawked farm products in the sidewalks of Dapitan, according to author, professor, newspaper columnist, magazine editor and historian Dr. Frank Grego.

The national hero is not a linguist as portrayed by historians Sofronio Alip and Gregorio Zaide. He had no formal studies in linguistics and dialectics who learned Japanese because of his pursuit for the love of O Sei San in Japan; French to communicate with Nely Buosted and Gertrude Becket whom he wooed in Paris; German for his unrelenting interest to his A las Flores de Heidelberg; and Spanish because of his education in Ateneo and Universitae de Sto. Tomae.

Dr. Grego stressed that Rizal indeed carved a head of a carabao during one of his depressive days but he was not a sculptor as historified by Teodoro Agoncillo. His carving was far beyond compare with those of the Igorots’s and the wood carvers in Paete.

The national hero was not an ophthalmologist as pictured by other historians when he checked the blurring eyes of his mother. He did not undergo any ophthalmic fellowship, for he obtained a mere licentiate and not a doctorate in medicine, Grego emphasized.

“Why do they have to embarrass Rizal with these inaccurate labels in their desperate efforts to justify his proclamation by the Philippine Commission as an American-made National Hero in 1902?” Dr. Grego asked.

(Source: "Ang Pungsod Ilonggo” - INM/INGF Blogspot 12-30-2007)

Addendum:

"Our educators today teach us that the meaning of Rizal’s death was that he sacrificed his life for our country’s freedom. That claim is incomplete if not downright inaccurate and preposterous. At the onset, Rizal NEVER wanted to die. That is why he wrote his “Defensa” with the help of his lawyer, Luis Taviel de Andrade. Nick Joaquín had this to say:

"Rizal’s trial, says (León Mª) Guerrero, presents us with a dilemma. Rizal passionately defended himself from the charge that he was involved in or even sympathized with the Revolution — hardly an attitude we would honor him for. “Was he innocent or guilty?” asks Guerrero. “If innocent, then why is he a hero? If guilty, how can he be a martyr?” 

(Source: Pepe at FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES Blog-12-30-2013)

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