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Lesson 3.4

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305 views2 pages

Lesson 3.4

Uploaded by

lzlie Rbsra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Jose Rizal is an identified as a hero of the revolution for his writing that center on

ending colonialism and liberating Filipino minds to contribute to creating the Filipino nation.
The great volume of Rizal’s lifework was committed to this end, particularly the more
influential one’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, his essays vilify not the Catholic
Religion but the friars the main agent of injustice in the Philippine society.

It is understandable that Rizal wrote those two noble as his weapon against to the
Catholic Church and the friars, weather it will be damaged to his image but before his
execution allegedly signed it referred to as “The Retraction” belief in the Catholic faith and
the retracts and everything he wrote against the church.

The Balaguer Testimony

Doubts on the retraction document abound, especially because only one eyewitness
account of the writing of the document exist– that of the Jesuit friar Fr. Vicente Balaguer.
According to his testimony, Rizal woke up several times, confessed four times, attended a
Mass, received communion and prayed the rosary all of which seemed out of character. But
since it is the only testimony of allegedly a “primary” account that Rizal ever wrote a
retraction document, it has been used to argue the authenticity of the document.

The Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia

Another eyewitness account surfaced in 2016, through the research of Professor Rene
R. Escalante. In his research document of the Cuerpo De Vigilancia included a report on the
last hour of Rizal, written by Federico Moreno. The report details the statement of the Cuerpo
De Vigilancia to Moreno.
Primary Resource: Eyewitness Account of the last hour of Rizal

• Source: Michael Charleston Chua, “Retraction ni Jose Rizal: Mga Bagong Dokumento
at Pananaw, “GMA News Online, published 29,December 2016
• Most illustrious Sir, the agent of the Cuerpo De Vigilancia stationed in fort Santiago
to report to the events during the [illegible] day in prison of the accused Jose Rizal,
informs me on this dates of the following.
• At 7:30 yesterday morning, Jose Rizal entered death row accompanied by his counsel
, Senior Taviel de Andrade , and the Jesuit priest Vilaclara.
• At the urgings of the former and moments after the entering, he was served a light
breakfast. At approximately 9, the assistant of the Plaza, Senior Maure, asked Rizal if
he wanted anything. He replied at that the moment he only a prater book, which has
brought to him shortly by Father March.
• Senior Andrade left death row at 10 and Rizal spoke for a long while with the Jesuit
fathers, March and Vilaclara, regarding religious matters, it seems. It appears that
these two presented him with a prepared retraction to his life and deeds that he refused
to sigh. They argued about the matter until 12:30 when Rizal ate some poached egg
and a little chicken. Afterward he asked to leave to write and wrote for a long time by
himself.
• At 3 in the afternoon, Father March entered the chapel and Rizal handed him what he
had written. Immediately the chief of the firing squad, Senior Del Frenso and the
assistant of the Plaza, Senior Maure, were informed. They entered death row and
together with Rizal signed the document that the accused had written.
• At 5 this morning of the 30th , the lover of Rizal arrived at the prison dressed in
mourning. Only the former entered the chapel, followed by the military chaplain
whose name I cannot ascertain. Donning his formal clothes and aided by the soldier of
the artillery, the nuptials of Rizal and the woman who had been his lover were
performed at the point of death (in articulo mortis) after embracing him she left,
flooded with tears.

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