My Favorite Filipino Hero Is “Jose Rizal”

José Rizal was born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Philippines. While living in Europe, Rizal wrote about the discrimination that accompanied Spain's colonial rule of his country. He returned to the Philippines in 1892, but was exiled due to his desire for reform. Although he supported peaceful change, Rizal was convicted of sedition and executed on December 30, 1896, at age 35.

Early Life

On June 19, 1861, José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born in Calamba in the Philippines' Laguna Province. A brilliant student who became proficient in multiple languages, José Rizal studied medicine in Manila. In 1882, he traveled to Spain to complete his medical degree.

Writing and Reform

While in Europe, José Rizal became part of the Propaganda Movement, connecting with other Filipinos who wanted reform. He also wrote his first novel, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not/The Social Cancer), a work that detailed the dark aspects of Spain's colonial rule in the Philippines, with particular focus on the role of Catholic friars. The book was banned in the Philippines, though copies were smuggled in. Because of this novel, Rizal's return to the Philippines in 1887 was cut short when he was targeted by police.

Rizal returned to Europe and continued to write, releasing his follow-up novel,El Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed) in 1891. He also published articles inLa Solidaridad, a paper aligned with the Propaganda Movement. The reforms Rizal advocated for did not include independence—he called for equal treatment of Filipinos, limiting the power of Spanish friars and representation for the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes (Spain's parliament).

Exile in the Philippines

Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892, feeling he needed to be in the country to effect change. Although the reform society he founded, the Liga Filipino (Philippine League), supported non-violent action, Rizal was still exiled to Dapitan, on the island of Mindanao. During the four years Rizal was in exile, he practiced medicine and took on students.

Execution and Legacy

In 1895, Rizal asked for permission to travel to Cuba as an army doctor. His request was approved, but in August 1896, Katipunan, a nationalist Filipino society founded by Andres Bonifacio, revolted. Though he had no ties to the group, and disapproved of its violent methods, Rizal was arrested shortly thereafter.

After a show trial, Rizal was convicted of sedition and sentenced to death by firing squad. Rizal's public execution was carried out in Manila on December 30, 1896, when he was 35 years old. His execution created more opposition to Spanish rule.

Spain's control of the Philippines ended in 1898, though the country did not gain lasting independence until after World War II. Rizal remains a nationalist icon in the Philippines for helping the country take its first steps toward independence.

Why I choice Jose Rizal as my favorite Filipino Hero?

I choice him because he really love Philippines and Filipino. That why I choice him as my favorite Filipino hero.   Rizal was the greatest Filipino hero that ever lived because he was the most intelligent, most courageous, and most dangerous enemy of the reactionaries and the tyrants; and the main reason why Rizal is our greatest Filipino hero is that he is “a man that honored after death by public worship because of the exceptional service to mankind”. 

Rizal’s leadership was recognized by his countrymen here and abroad, he because as honorary president of the “La Solidaridad”, he organized and became chief of the Indios Bravos, he was chosen as responsible (chief) of the Spanish Filipino Association and Rizal was the founder and moving spirit in the of the Liga Filipina in Manila on July 3, 1892.

 His memory will never perish in his fatherland, and future generations of Spaniards will yet learn to utter his name with respect and reverence. And throughout the Islands the public schools teach the young Filipinos to revere his memory as the greatest of Filipino patriots “Rizal Avenue” one of the longest and most important streets in Manila has been named.  

Now and then some Filipinos who said that Andres Bonifacio deserves to be acknowledged and canonized as our first National hero, and yet Dr. Jose Rizal. Its because that Rizal never held a gun, a rifle or a sword in fighting for the liberty in the battlefield they further assert is that in other countries are soldier-generals, like George Washington of USA as their National hero but people in excising their good sense, independent judgment etc., have not followed the examples of other nations in selecting and acknowledging a military leader being a greatest hero. 

 Who made Rizal the foremost hero of the Philippines? No amount of adulation and canonization by both Filipinos and foreigners could convert Rizal into a great hero if he did not possess in himself that was ‘Palma calls “excellent qualities and merits”. No single person or groups of persons were responsible for making the Civeatest Hero, Rizal himself, his own people and the foreigners all together contributed to make him the greatest hero and martyr of his countrymen.