Quotations

from the

Correspondence of Rizal

 

From Bobby Manasan

"I assure you that I have no desire to take part in conspiracies
which seem to me premature and risky. But if the government drives
us to them, that is to say, when no other hope remains to us but seek
our destruction in war, when the Filipinos would prefer to die rather
than endure longer their misery, then I will also become a partisan
of violent means. The choice of peace or destruction is in the hands
of Spain, because it is a clear fact, known to all, that we are
patient, excessively patient and peaceful, mild, unfeeling, etc. But
everything ends in this life; there is nothing eternal in this world
and that refers also to our patience. I cannot believe that you, as
a free man, as a citizen of Europe, would like to advise your good
friend to endure everything and to behave as a pusillanimous man,
without courage. Be assured that I desire the happiness of my
country and so long as i believe that the evil is only in the system
of Spanish government, I will combat everything that may be planned
against Spain. You can be sure of that."

Rizal's letter to Blumentritt, sent from Geneva, dated 19 June 1887 (Rizal's 26th birthday)

The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence, Volume I, Page 105
Published by the National Historical Institute
Manila 1972

 

bobmanasan@hotmail.com wrote

Was Rizal a cowardly pacifist or was he a cunning and premeditating revolucionario at heart? It is likely that at the time Rizal wrote the letter he believed that the Filipinos' gains from Spain outweigh the excesses of its evil administration and he was still hoping that reforms may be instituted to correct them. He also told Blumentritt that his and the Filipinos' patience may run out before the reforms happened. Rizal was a man of peace, who was not beyond becoming "a partisan of violent means" when the circumstances called for it, in his own words.

 

 

valkyrie47no@yahoo.com wrote

Less than two years after he wrote the letter from which the above quote was taken, Rizal wrote to Blumentritt from London in 31 January 1889, "We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means, for right is on our side and therefore we ought not to do any thing wrong. If I have to act villainously in order to make my country happy, I would refuse to do it because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down." Many scholars, teachers and students of Rizal tend to believe that he was against the revolution even when Bonifacio and his katipuneros had started it. Rizal was not against revolution per se and he, in fact wrote Blumentritt "When the Filipinos would prefer to die rather than endure longer their misery, then I will also become a partisan of violent means." Unfortunately Rizal died before he could find the noble and just means that would prevent him from building on sand.

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