https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Rizal_Law The Controversy of
RA 1425
Senator Claro M. Recto was the main proponent of the Rizal Bill. He sought to sponsor
the bill at Congress. However, this was met with stiff opposition from the Catholic
Church. During the 1955 Senate election, the church charged Recto with being a
communist and an anti-Catholic. After Recto's election, the Church continued to
oppose the bill mandating the reading of Rizal's novels Noli Me Tángere and El
Filibusterismo, claiming it would violate freedom of conscience and religion.[1]
In the campaign to oppose the Rizal bill, the Catholic Church urged its adherents to
write to their congressmen and senators showing their opposition to the bill; later, it
organized symposiums. In one of these symposiums, Fr. Jesus Cavanna argued that
the novels belonged to the past and that teaching them would misrepresent current
conditions. Radio commentator Jesus Paredes also said that Catholics had the right
to refuse to read them as it would "endanger their salvation". [1]
Groups such as Catholic Action of the Philippines, the Congregation of the Mission,
the Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Teachers Guild organized opposition to the
bill; they were countered by Veteranos de la Revolucion (Spirit of 1896), Alagad in
Rizal, the Freemasons, and the Knights of Rizal. The Senate Committee on Education
sponsored a bill co-written by both José P. Laurel and Recto, with the only opposition
coming from Francisco Soc Rodrigo, Mariano Jesús Cuenco, and Decoroso Rosales.
[2][3]
The Archbishop of Manila, Rufino Santos, protested in a pastoral letter that Catholic
students would be affected if compulsory reading of the unexpurgated version were
pushed through.[4] Arsenio Lacson, Manila's mayor, who supported the bill, walked out
of Mass when the priest read a circular from the archbishop denouncing the bill. [5]
Rizal, according to Cuenco, "attack[ed] dogmas, beliefs and practices of the Church.
The assertion that Rizal limited himself to castigating undeserving priests and refrained
from criticizing, ridiculing or putting in doubt dogmas of the Catholic Church, is
absolutely gratuitous and misleading." Cuenco touched on Rizal's denial of the
existence of purgatory, as it was not found in the Bible, and that Moses and Jesus
Christ did not mention its existence; Cuenco concluded that a "majority of the Members
of this Chamber, if not all [including] our good friend, the gentleman from Sulu"
believed in purgatory.[3] The senator from Sulu, Domocao Alonto, attacked Filipinos
who proclaimed Rizal as "their national hero but seemed to despise what he had
written", saying that the Indonesians used Rizal's books as their Bible on their
independence
movement; Pedro López, who hails from Cebu, Cuenco's province, in his support for
the bill, reasoned out that it was in their province the independence movement started,
when Lapu-Lapu fought Ferdinand Magellan.[4]
Outside the Senate, the Catholic schools threatened to close down if the bill was
passed; Recto countered that if that happened, the schools would be nationalized.
Recto did not believe the threat, stating that the schools were too profitable to be
closed.[1] The schools gave up the threat, but threatened to "punish" legislators in favor
of the law in future elections. A compromise was suggested, to use the expurgated
version; Recto, who had supported the required reading of the unexpurgated version,
declared: "The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the schools would
blot out from our minds the memory of the national hero. This is not a fight against
Recto but a fight against Rizal", adding that since Rizal is dead, they are attempting to
suppress his memory.[6] On May 12, 1956, a compromise inserted by Committee on
Education chairman Laurel that accommodated the objections of the Catholic Church
was approved unanimously. The bill specified that only college (university) students
would have the option of reading unexpurgated versions of clerically-contested reading
material, such as Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.[1][4][6] The bill was enacted on
June 12, 1956,[4] Flag Day.
The Noli and Fili were required readings for college students.
Section 2 mandated that the students were to read the novels as they were written in
Spanish, although a provision ordered that the Board of National Education create rules
on how these should be applied. [3] The last two sections were focused on making Rizal's
works accessible to the general public: the second section mandated the schools to
have "an adequate number" of copies in their libraries, while the third ordered the board
to publish the works in major Philippine languages.[3]
After the bill was enacted into law, there were no recorded instances of students
applying for exemption from reading the novels, and there is no known procedure for
such exemptions.[6] In 1994, President Fidel V. Ramos ordered the Department of
Education, Culture and Sports to fully implement the law as there had been reports
that it has still not been fully implemented.[7] The debate during the enactment of the
Rizal Law has been compared to the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive
Health Act of 2012 (RH Law) debate in 2011.[8] Akbayan representative Kaka Bag-ao,
one of the proponents of the RH bill, said, quoting the Catholic hierarchy, that "More
than 50 years ago, they said the Rizal Law violates the Catholic's right to conscience
and religion, interestingly, the same line of reasoning they use to oppose the RH bill." [9]
References[edit
]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Abinales, Patricio N.; Amoroso, Donna J. (2005). State and society in the
Philippines. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-7425-1024-1. 2. ^ Cruz-
Araneta, Gemma (2010-12-29). "Legislating Rizal, 1". Manila Bulletin. Archived from the
original on December 30, 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Pangalangan, Raul
(2010-12-31). "The intense debate on the Rizal
Law". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2011-01-03. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 4. ^ Jump
up to:a b c d Cruz-Araneta, Gemma (2010-12-29). "Legislating Rizal, 2". Manila Bulletin.
Retrieved 2011-05-24. 5. ^ Rodis, Rodel (2010-01-07). "Global Networking : The Rizal bill".
Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Retrieved 2011-06-12. 6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ocampo, Ambeth (2007-05-04). "The fight over the Rizal Law".
Philippine Daily
Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 7. ^ "Mr. Ramos leads Rizal Day
rites". Manila Standard. 1994-12-29. Retrieved 2011-06-19. 8. ^ Mendez, Christina (2011-05-23). "JPE, Joker
confident of compromise on RH bill". Philippine Star.
Retrieved 2011-05-24. 9. ^ "Jose Rizal: new symbol of reproductive health rights?". ABS-CBNnews.com. 2011-
06-01. Archived
from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
