The challenge to make José Rizal, our national hero, relevant to our present time, is very urgent and intensely needed NOW! In our time characterized by rampant corruption, moral decay, severe economic crisis, lack of nationalism and patriotism, discrimination and other societal ills that afflict our nation and our people, it is the moral responsibility and urgent call to the youth and well-meaning Filipinos to resurrect Rizal and the values he fought and died for.
As Rizal fearlessly fought for his fellowmen against the very unjust and brutal system of the Spaniards through his revolutionary writings, the Filipinos should fearlessly confront now the situation that enslaves and devalues the human dignity of our people. With his exceptional intelligence and intellectual prowess, he equipped himself with education so that he can inspire his people into action and liberation against the unjust system and treatment of the Spaniards to the Filipinos. His ideals reflected in his writings, namely El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere and many more made the Spaniards realized that the prison bars cannot imprison his thoughts and his ideas and are powerful tools to lead Filipinos to uncontrollable revolt. Hence, on December 30, 1896 he was shot to death by firing squad. But he feared none, and he had shown readiness to die so that the national awakening should reverberate and shaken every Filipino to wake up and work for their freedom.
Rizal had succeeded and he was acclaimed National Hero to symbolize that through his fearless ideals, ideas and mighty pen, a people’s revolution can happen. He had challenged a nation and had sent a message from generation to generation that a people abused, discriminated and enslaved has no reason to fear death and should never compromise the much needed courage.
But look what is happening today. If Rizal is only alive in the present time, he will surely be saddened by the present situation in which we are in. How can we expect Rizal to react seeing nationalism dies in many of us? How will Rizal feel seeing many of its graduates leaving the country and serving the foreign lands because the nation is in quagmire of poverty and no fruitful employment opportunity to its working force? As a doctor who specialized in foreign country, Rizal showed love and nationalism by going back to the Philippines and serve his people. Rizal would surely be sad to see plenty of our doctors leaving the country to serve as nurses to foreign hospital abroad while there are many Filipinos in the countrysides who die without seeing a doctor due to poverty.
Added to this, Rizal will surely feel miserable to see many teachers hired for tutors in exchange of green money abroad while there are many Filipino Children who are unschooled. Above all, while Rizal willingly gave his life to detest and protest foreign control and dominion of his country and people, our leaders willingly gives in to foreign-dictated economic policy that impoverished the Filipino People. Rizal explicitly opposed foreigners controlling our resources and enslaving our people. But presently, we anguish in deep pain the effects of anti-people economic policies like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade – World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO) approved and pushed by unscrupulous leaders who lacks the nationalist vision. If he is alive today, he will surely interfere with our leaders and say “Hey, why are you selling for good the country and the people I have died for”? How do we expect Rizal to smile in contentment if he can witness how corruption takes its toll? From the Chalk allowance of the teachers who suffer the cuts, to the multi-billion fertilizer scam who does not reach to the hands of the toiling farmers, to the dilapidated classrooms and lack of chairs, to the murmuring housewives, drivers, urban poor, and lowly income employees who suffer the brunt of skyrocketing of prices as an effect of the skyrocketing price of petroleum products, to the bigger number of school dropouts every year because parents cannot longer afford the extravagant cause of education which is becoming now a commodity, to the restless workers who are flooding the streets in protest because their salaries, wages and just benefits are not religiously given, to the rampant corruption not only of public coffers but corruption of mind and morals, culture of impunity and helplessness amidst upsurge of extra-judicial killings, youths into drugs and vices, politicians getting their positions by vote buying and by employing dirty tactics, and strategies defrauding the electorates and electorates selling their votes for a food in their table, a nation who is economically behind, culturally devastated, socially unresponsive and majority of its leaders do not moderate their greed….These litanies are indicators of our sick value and a sick nation.
If Rizal is only alive today, maybe he will not only be writing his sentiments and challenge Filipinos through his fearless views and mighty pen. I am certain Rizal will lead the sea of people protesting in the street to denounce the evil of deregulation, privatization and liberalization. As he candidly attacked the Spanish Friars who uses religion and their power to grab vast hectares of lands of the Filipinos just to be made as their haciendas and landholdings, Rizal will surely march with the landless farmers in demanding the government of true agrarian reform so that Filipino farmers can feed their very own fellow Filipinos. Rizal will not only write columns and opinions but will surely bring protest placards saying “STOP RICE IMPORTATION, SUPPORT FILIPINO FARMERS”, “STOP GIVING LANDS TO MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS”, NO TO OPEN PIT MINING, PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT FROM GREEDY TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS” and many more…
