JOSE Rizal, for all intents and purposes, is still officially not declared a national hero. The debate is still on and the question remains unanswered today and remains a paradox, some even say it’s just utter nonsense.
Today is Rizal Day, a national holiday commemorating the life and works of Rizal.
This day also commemorates the anniversary of Rizal’s 1896 execution at Bagumbayan, presently Rizal Park, or more popularly known as the Luneta Park.
The irony there is that most natives assume that Rizal is the national hero but as of today the recommendations of the Philippine National Heroes Committee created in 1995 as to who will be our national hero or heroes was never acted upon and is somewhere in a filing cabinet in the Department of Education, or worst thrown into the dustbin.
So officially we are just commemorating the day Rizal was executed. But who’s complaining? Any day and a long weekend at that off from work is always welcome, never mind that he is not yet officially declared as national hero, at best only implied…
But what is a “national hero” or “heroes”?
From that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
A national hero of the Philippines is a Filipino who has been recognized as a hero for his or her role in the history of the country. Loosely, the term may refer to all Filipino historical figures recognized as heroes, but the term more strictly refers to those officially designated as such. In 1995 the Philippine National Heroes Committee officially recommended several people for the designation, but this was not acted upon. Currently, no one has ever been officially recognized as a Philippine national hero.
The reformist writer Jose Rizal, today generally considered the greatest Filipino hero and often given as the Philippine national hero, has never been explicitly proclaimed as the (or even a) national hero by the Philippine government. Besides Rizal, the only other Filipinos currently given implied recognition as national heroes are revolutionary Andres Bonifacio and Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. While other historical figures are commemorated in public municipal or provincial holidays, Rizal, Bonifacio and Aquino are commemorated in public nationwide (national) holidays and thus are implied to be national heroes”.
The National Heroes Committee recommended the following nine individuals to be recognized as national heroes on Nov. 15, 1995 and they are: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H Del Pilar, Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang.
Their report was submitted to the Department of Education, Culture and Sports on Nov. 22 of that year. However, no action was taken afterwards. It was speculated that any action might cause a number of requests for proclamation or trigger debates that revolve around the controversies about the concerned historical figures.
If you noticed the name Ninoy Aquino was nowhere to be found in that list considering that at that time the whole country was inflicted with mass yellow hysteria, it was also speculated that the committee in charge at the Department of Education, Culture and Sports stalled and played safe for fear of the wrath of the then “living saint” a.k.a. President Cory Aquino.
They left it to the next president to decide and up to this time the issue is still unresolved.
So the tag national hero is a misnomer as nobody has been officially declared one yet.
And what about Jose Rizal? We were made to believe he is our national hero; it seems officially he’s not. Where did that notion come from that he is?
There is a suggestion that Rizal was an American-made hero and it comes from claims that American Governor General William Howard Taft had initially suggested the naming of a Filipino national hero, with Rizal as the preferred candidate due to his less radical and militant leanings relative to other possible candidates. There is enough evidence on record to support these claims.
Pathetic, even someone who is supposedly our national hero is just the creation of our American colonizers. So this makes Jose Rizal as American as apple pie and not as Filipino as buko pie./PN
