JOSE P. RIZAL’S EXILE IN DAPITAN (1892-1896) JOSE P. RIZAL’S EXILE IN DAPITAN (1892-1896)| | Beginning of Exile in Dapitan. The steamer Cebu which brought Rizal to Dapitan carried a letter from Father Pablo Pastells, Superior of the Jesuit Society in the Philippines, to Father Antonio Obach, Jesuit parish priest of Dapitan. In this letter, Father Superior Pastells informed Father Obach that Rizal could live at the parish convent on the following conditions:1. “That Rizal publicly retract his errors concerning religion, and make statements that were clearly pro-Spanish and against revolution. 2. That he perform the church rites and make a general confession of his past life. 3. “That henceforth he conduct himself in an exemplary manner as a Spanish subject and a man of religion. “Rizal did not agree with these conditions. Consequently, he lived in the house of the commandant, Captain Carnicero. The relations between Carnicero (the warden) and Rizal (the prisoner) were warm and friendly. | Wins in Manila Lottery. On September 21, 1892, the sleepy town of Dapitan burst in hectic excitement. The mail boat Butuan was approaching the town, with colored pennants flying in the sea breezes.
Captain Carnicero, thinking that a high Spanish official was coming, hastily dressed in gala uniform, ordered the town folks to gather at the shore, and himself rushed there, bringing a brass band. The mail boat, Butuan, brought no Spanish officials but the happy tidings that the Lottery Ticket No. 9736 jointly owned by Captain Carnicero, Dr. Rizal, and Francisco Equilor (Spanish resident of Dipolog, a neighboring town of Dapitan) won the second prize of P20, 000 in the government-owned Manila Lottery. Rizal’s share of the winning lottery ticket was PHP6, 200. 00. Upon receiving this sum, he gave PHP2, 000. 0 to his father and PHP200. 00 to his friend Basamin Hong Kong, and the rest he invested well by purchasing agricultural lands along the coast of Talisay, about one kilometer away from Dapitan. Rizal’s winning in the Manila Lottery reveals an aspect of his lighter side. He never drank hard liquor and never smoked, but he was a lottery addict. During his first sojourn in Madrid from 1882 to 1885 he always invested at least three pesetas every month in lottery tickets. “This was his only vice,” commented Wenceslao Retana, his first Spanish biographer and former enemy.
Rizal Challenges a Frenchman to a Duel. While Rizal was still debating with Father Pastells by means of exchange of letters, he became involved in a quarrel with a French acquaintance in Dapitan, Mr. Juan Lardet, a businessman. This man purchased many logs from the lands of Rizal. It so happened that some of the logs were of poor quality. Rizal used to cut logs in this area When the commandant heard of the incident, Carnicero told the Frenchman to apologize rather than accept the challenge. “My friend, you have not a Chinaman’s chance in a fight with Rizal on a field of honor.
Rizal is an expert in martial arts, particularly in fencing and pistol shooting. ” Heeding the commandant’s advice, Lardet wrote to Rizal in French, dated Dapitan, March 30, 1893, apologizing for the insulting comment. Rizal, as a gentleman and well-versed in pundonor (Hipic chivalric code) accepted the apology, and good relations between him and the Frenchman were restored. izal’s Encounter with the Friar’s Spy. During the early days of November 1893 Rizal was living peacefully and happily at his house in Talisay, a kilometer away from Dapitan.
His mother, sisters Narcisa and Trinidad, and some nephews were then living with him. His blissful life was then suddenly jolted by a strange incident involving a spy of the friars. This spy with the assumed name of “Pablo Mercado” and posing as a relative, secretly visited Rizal at his house on the night of November 3, 1893. He introduced himself as a friend and relative, showing a photo of Rizal and a pair of buttons with the initials “P. M. ” (Pablo Mercado) as evidences of his kinship with the Rizal family. The truth came out during this investigation. The real name of “Pablo Mercado” was Florencio Namanan.
He was a native of Cagayan de Misamis, single and about 30 years old. He was hired by the Recollect friars to a secret mission in Dapitan – to introduce himself to Rizal as a friend and relative, to spy on Rizal’s activities, and to filch certain letters and writings of Rizal, which might incriminate him in the revolutionary movement. Strangely, Commandant Sitges suddenly quashed the investigation and released the spy. He promptly forwarded the transcripts of the investigation together with his official report to Governor General Blanco who, in turn, kept these documents as highly confidential.
Rizal, who was surprised at the turn of events, requested for a copy of the proceedings of the investigation, but Sitges denied his request. As now declassified and preserved at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, these documents contain certain mysterious deletions. As Physician in Dapitan. Rizal practiced medicine in Dapitan. He had many patients, but most of them were poor so that he even game them free medicine. To his friend in Hong Kong, Dr. Marquez, he wrote: “Here the people are so poor that I have even to give medicine gratis. ” He had, however, some rich patients who paid him handsomely for his surgical skill.
CASITAS DE SALUD This small house Rizal use as a hospital ward In August 1893 his mother and sister (Maria) arrived in Dapitan and lived with him for one year and a half. He operated on his mother’s right eye. The operation was successful, but Dona Teodora, ignoring her son’s instructions, removed the bandages from her eyes, thereby causing the wound to be infected. Thus Rizal told Hidalgo, his brother-in-law: “Now I understand very well why a physician should not treat the members of his family. ” Fortunately, the infection was arrested so that Dona Teodora’s sight, thanks to her son’s ophthalmic prowess, was fully restored.
Rizal’s fame as a physician, particularly as an eye specialist, spread far and wide. He had many patients who came from different parts of the Philippines – from Luzon, Bohol, Cebu, Panay, Negros, and Mindanao – and even from Hong Kong. A rich Filipino patient, Don Ignacio Tumarong, was able to see again because of Rizal’s ophthalmic skill; and highly gratified by the restoration of his sight, he paid PHP3,000. Another rich patient, an Englishman, paid P500. Don Florencio Azacarraga, a rich hacendero of Aklan, was also cured of eye ailment, and paid Rizal a cargo of sugar.
As a physician, Rizal became interested in local medicine and in the use of medicinal plants. He studied the medicinal plants of the Philippines and their curative values. To poor patients, who could not afford to buy imported medicine, he prescribed the local medicinal plants. CASA REDONDA This house was Rizal’s clinic Water System for Dapitan. Rizal held the title of expert surveyor (perito agrimensor), which he obtained from the Ateneo. He supplemented his training as a surveyor by his reading of engineering books, so that he came to know about engineering.
In Dapitan, he applied his knowledge of engineering by constructing a system of waterworks in order to furnish clean water to the townspeople. Modern engineers marveled how Rizal could have built such a system of waterworks, for he had inadequate tools and meager materials, and his finances were very limited. Without any aid from the government, he succeeded in giving a good water system to Dapitan. An American engineer, Mr. H. F. Cameron, praised Rizal’s engineering feat in the following words: Another famous and well-known water supply is that of Dapitan, Mindanao, designed and constructed by the Spanish authorities…
This supply comes from a little mountain stream across the river from Dapitan and follows the contour of the country for the whole distance. When one considers that Doctor Rizal had no explosives with which to blast the hard rocks and no resources save his own ingenuity, one cannot help but honor a man, who against adverse conditions, had the courage and tenacity to construct the aqueduct which had for its bottom the fluted tiles from the house roofs, and was covered with concrete made from lime burned from the sea coral.
The length of this aqueduct is several kilometers, and it winds in and out among the rocks and is carried across gullies in bamboo pipes upheld rocks and is carried across gullies in bamboo pipes upheld by rocks or brick piers to the distribution reservoir. WATER SYSTEM-This water stream comes from the hill above which Rizal tap for his waterworks. The famous handmade waterworks of Rizal and consider as one of his masterpieces. Community Projects for Dapitan. When Rizal arrived in Dapitan, he decided to improve it, to the best of his God-given talents, and to awaken the civic consciousness of its people. He wrote to Fr.
Pastells: “I want to do all that I can for this town. ” Aside from constructing the town’s first water system, he spent many months draining the marshes in order to get rid of malaria that infested Dapitan. As a European-trained physician, he knew that the mosquitoes, which thrive in swampy places, spread malaria. He to equip the town with its lighting system used the P500, which an English patient paid him. This lighting system consisted of coconut oil lamps placed in the dark streets of Dapitan. Electric lighting was unknown then in the Philippines. It was not until 1894 when Manila saw the first electric lights.
Anther community project of Rizal was the beautification of Dapitan. With the help of his former Jesuit teacher and friend, Father Sanchez, he remodeled the town plaza in order to enhance its beauty. He jokingly remarked that he would make it nicely so that it could “rival the best in Europe. ” In front of the church, Rizal and Father Sanchez made a huge relief map of Mindanao out of earth, stones and grass. This map still adorns the town plaza of Dapitan. RELIEF MAP OF MINDANAO-One of Rizal’s masterpieces is the map of Mindanao which he perfectly and accurately made without copying from an original map as there aren’t any maps at the time.
ST. JAMES CHURCH The famous Dapitan church where Rizal used to attend mass regularly. Rizal as Teacher. Since boyhood Rizal knew the value of good education. During his travels abroad he observed the education system of modern nations. He himself planned to establish a modern college in Hong Kong for Filipino boys so that he could train them in modern pedagogical concepts, which were then unknown in the Philippines. CASA QUDRADA This house was Rizal’s workshop with his students His exile to Dapitan gave him the opportunity to put into practice his education ideas.
In 1893 he established a school, which existed, until the end of his exile in July, 1896. It began with three pupils and in the course of time the enrolment increased to 16 and later to 21. In his letter to Blumentritt on March 13, Rizal said that he had 16 pupils in his school and that these pupils did not pay any tuition. Instead of charging them tuition fees, he made them work in his garden, fields, and construction projects in the community. Rizal taught his boys reading, writing, languages (Spanish and English), geography, history, mathematics (arithmetic and geometry), ndustrial work, nature study, morals and gymnastics. He trained them how to collect specimens of plants and animals, to love work, and to “behave-like men. ” During the recess the pupils built fires in the garden to drive away the insects, pruned the fruit trees, and manure the soil. Outside the class hours, Rizal encouraged them to play games in order to strengthen their bodies. They had gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, stone-throwing, swimming, arnis (native fencing), and boating. Rizal let’s his pupils read these books way back his time. “Hymn to Talisay. Rizal conducted his school at his home in Talisay, near Dapitan, where he had his farm and hospital. His favorite rendezvous with his boys was under a talisay tree, after which the place was named. In honor of Talisay, he wrote a poem entitled “Himno A Talisay” for his pupils to sing. Contribution to science. Rizal found Mindanao a rich virgin field for collecting specimens. With his baroto (sailboat) and accompanied by his pupils, he explored the jungles and coasts, seeking specimens of insects, birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, shells, and plants. He sent these specimens to the museum of Europe, especially the Dresden Museum.
In payment for these valuable specimens, the European scientist sent him scientific books and surgical instruments. During his four-year exile in Dapitan, Rizal built up a rich collection of oncology, which consisted of 346 shells representing 203 species. He discovered some rare specimens who were named in his honor by the scientists. Among these was Draco rizali (a flying dragon), Apogonia rizali (a small beetle), and Rhacophorus rizali (a rare frog). Rizal also conducted anthropological, ethnographical, archaeological, geological and geographical studies, as revealed by his voluminous correspondence with his scientist friends in Europe.
There was no limit to his scientific versatility. Linguistic Studies. A born linguist, Rizal continued his studies of languages. N Dapitan he learned the Bisayan, Subanun, and Malay languages. He wrote a Tagalog grammar, made a comparative study of the Bisayan and Malayan languages, and studied the Bisayan (Cebuan) and Subanun languages. On April 5, 1896, his last year of exile in Dapitan, he wrote to Blumentritt: “I know already Bisayan and I speak it quite well; it is necessary, however, to know other dialects of the Philippines. By this time, Rizal could rank with the world’s great linguist. He knew 22 languages, as follows: Tagalog, Ilokano, Bisayan, Subanun, Spanish, Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Arabic, Malay, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish, and Russian. Artistic Works in Dapitan. Rizal continued his artistic pursuits in Dapitan. He contributed his painting skill to the Sisters of Charity who were preparing the sanctuary of the Holy Virgin in their private chapel. For the sake of economy, the head of the image was “procured from abroad. The sisters made the vestments concealing all the rest of the figure except the feet, which rested upon a globe encircled by a snake in whose mouth is an apple. Rizal modeled the right foot of the image, the apple, and the serpent’s head. He also designed the exquisite curtain, which was painted in oil by an artist Sister under his direction. Rizal made sketches of persons and things that attracted him in Dapitan. He drew, for instance, the three rate species of animal life – the dragon, the frog, and the beetle – which he had discovered. He had sketches of the numerous fishes he caught in Dapitan waters.
One day in 1894 some of his pupils secretly went to Dapitan in a boat from Talisay; a puppy of Syria (Rizal’s dog tried to follow and was devoured by a crocodile. Rizal reprimanded them, telling them that had they not disobeyed his advice not to go to town without his permission the puppy would not have died and the mother-dog would have been spared the sorrow of losing an offspring. To stress the moral of the incident; he modeled a statuette representing the mother-dog killing the crocodile, by way of avenging her lost puppy, and called it “The Mother’s Revenge. Other sculptural works of Rizal in Dapitan were a bust of Father Guerrico (one of his Ateneo professors), a statue of a girl called “The Dapitan Girl,” woodcarving of Josephine Bracken (his wife), and a bust of St. Paul, which he gave to Father Pastells. Dapitan girl The triumph of science over death Rizal as Farmer. In Dapitan Rizal devoted much of his time to agriculture. He bought 16 hectares of land in Talisay, where he built his home, school, and hospital, and planted cacao, coffee, sugarcane, coconuts and fruit trees. “My land,” he wrote to his sister Trinidad, “is half an hour from the sea.
It is very poetic and very picturesque. If you and our parents come I will build a big house we can all live in. ” Later, he acquired more lands until his total holdings reached 70 hectares, containing 6,000 hemp plants, 1,000 coconut trees, and numerous fruit trees, sugarcane, corn, coffee and cacao. On his farms, Rizal introduced modern methods of agriculture, which he had observed in Europe and America. His pupils helped him in the daily farm labor. He encouraged the Dapitan farmers to discard their primitive system of tillage and adopt the modern agricultural methods.
He imported agricultural machinery from the United States. Rizal dreamed of establishing an agricultural colony in the Sitio of Ponot near Sindangan Bay, where there was plenty of water and good port facilities. He believed that this place would be ideal to raise cacao, coffee, coconuts, and cattle. He invited his relatives and friends, especially those in Calamba, to come to his projected agricultural colony. “We will establish a new Kalamba,” he wrote to Hidalgo, his brother-in-law. Unfortunately this colony did not materialize, like his previous Borneo colonization, because he could not get the support of the government.
Rizal emphasized the impact of Sindangan Bay in his point of interest. Rizal as Businessman. Aside from farming, Rizal engaged in business. In partnership with Ramon Carreon, a Dapitan merchant, he made profitable business ventures in fishing, copra, and hemp industries. He invited his relatives, particularly Saturnina and Hidalgo to come to Mindanao, for there “is vast and ample field of business” in the island. He particularly told Saturnina that in Dapitan she could profitably engage in the textile, jewelry, and hemp business.
In a letter to Hidalgo, dated January 19, 1893, he expressed his plan to improve the fishing industry of Dapitan. He said that the two has a good beach like Calamba and there is abundant fish in the sea; however, the fishing folks, using primitive methods of fishing, were able only to catch small fishes. Accordingly, he instructed Hidalgo to help him buy a big net for trawl fishing (puklutan) and to send him two good Calamaba fishermen who could teach the Dapitan folks better methods of fishing. The most profitable business venture of Rizal in Dapitan was in the hemp industry.
At one time, he shipped 150 bales of hemp to a foreign firm in Manila at huge profit for himself and his business partner. He purchased hemp in Dapitan at) 7 and 4 reales per picul and sold it in Manila at P10 and 4 reales, giving him a profit of P3 per picul. In his letter to Blumentritt on July 31, 1894, he said: “To kill time and to help also the people of this town, I have become a merchant. I buy abaca and ship it to Manila. Luck was with me this month. I made a profit of P2000 in one stroke. ” On May 14, 1893, Rizal formed a business partnership with Ramon Carreon (Dapitan businessman () in lime manufacturing.
Their lime burner had a monthly capacity of more than 4000 bags of lime. To break the Chinese monopoly on business in Dapitan, Rizal organized on January 1, 1895 the Cooperative Association of Dapitan Farmers. According to its constitution, which he had drafted, its purposes were “to improve the farm products, obtain better outlets for them, collect funds for their purchases, and help the producers and workers by establishing a store wherein they can buy prime commodities at moderate prices. ” Rizal’s Inventive Ability. One little knows fact about Rizal was that he was also an inventor.
It should be remembered that in 1887, while practicing medicine in Calamba, he invented a cigarette lighter, which he sent as a gift to Blumentritt. He called it “sulpuklan. ” This unique cigarette lighter was made of wood. “Its mechanism,” said Rizal, “is based on the principle of compressed air. ” During his exile in Dapitan, he invited a machine for making bricks. This machine could manufacture about 6, 000 bricks daily. Thus Rizal wrote to Blumentritt on November 20, 1895: “I have made a wooden machine for making bricks, and I believe it could make more or less 6,000 bricks a day…
When I was in Belgium, I saw the making of bricks out-of-doors without kilns, and during my visit to Baden I saw also a mount of bricks on the ground. I suppose in Bohemia they make bricks on the by means of a different method; if this is so, please inform me how the bricks are baked such that not much heat is wasted”. “My Retreat”. In February 1895, Dona Teodora, with her eyesight fully restored, returned to Manila. During her long stay in Dapitan, she saw how busy her talented son was and regretted that he had neglected the Muses. She requested him to write poetry again.
In response to her request, Rizal wrote a beautiful poem about his serene life as an exile in Dapitan and sent it to her on October 22,1895. This poem was “Mi Retiro”(My Retreat), which is acclaimed by literary critics as one of the best ever penned by Rizal. Rizal and Josephine Bracken. In the silent hours of the night after the day’s hard work, Rizal was often sad. He missed his family and relatives, his good friends in foreign lands, the exhilarating life in the cities of Europe, and his happy days in Calamba. The death of Leonora Rivera on August 28, 1893 left a poignant void in his heart.
He needed somebody to cheer him up in his lonely exile. In God’s own time, this “somebody” came to Dapitan, like a sunbeam to dispel his melancholy mood. She was Josephine Bracken, an Irish girl of sweet eighteen, “slender, a chestnut blond, with blue eyes, dressed with elegant simplicity, with an atmosphere of light gayety. ” She was born in Hong Kong on October 3, 1876 of Irish parents – James Bracken, a corporal in the British garrison, and Elizabeth Jane MacBride. Her mother died in childbirth, and Mr. George Taufer, who later became blind, adopted her.
No ophthalmic specialist in Hong Kong could cure Mr. Taufer’s blindness so that he, accompanied by his adopted daughter Josephine went to Manila to seek the services of the famous ophthalmic surgeon, Dr. Rizal. They heard in the city that a Filipino companion, Manuela Orlac, in Dapitan, where they proceeded – accompanied Dr. Rizal. They presented to Rizal a card of introduction by Julio Llorente, his friend and schoolmate. Rizal and Josephine fell in love with each other at first sight. After a whirlwind romance of one month, they agreed to marry.
But Father Obach, the priest of Dapitan, refused to marry then without the permission of the Bishop of Cebu. When Mr. Taufer heard of their projected marriage, he flared up in violent rage. Unable to endure the thought of losing Josephine, he tried to commit suicide by cutting off his throat with a razor. Rizal, however, grabbed his wrists and prevented him from killing himself. To avoid a tragedy, Josephine went with Taufer to Manila by the first available steamer. The blind man went away uncured because his ailment was venereal in nature, hence incurable. Mr.
Taufer returned alone to Hong Kong. Josephine stayed in Manila with Rizal’s family. Later she returned to Dapitan. Since no priest would marry them, Rizal and Josephine held hands together and married themselves before the eyes of God. They lived as man and wife. Of course, Father Obach was scandalized, and many unsavory tales were circulated by gossips in Dapitan. Rizal and Josephine lived happily in Dapitan. In several letters to his family, Rizal praised Josephine and revealed his new happiness. He was no longer lonely. Dapitan had become for him a heaven of bliss.
In the early part of 1896 Rizal was extremely happy because Josephine was expecting a baby. Unfortunately, he played a prank on her, frightening her so that she prematurely gave birth to an eight-month baby boy, who lived only for three hours. This lost son of Rizal was named “Francisco” honor of Don Francisco (he hero’s father) and was buried in Dapitan. Rizal and the Katipunan. While Rizal was mourning the loss of his son, ominous clouds of revolution gradually darkened the Philippines skies. Andres Bonifacio, the “Great Plebeian” was sowing the seeds of an armed uprising.
The secret revolution society, called Katipunan, which he founded on July 7, 1892, was gaining more and more adherents. In a secret meeting of the Katipunan at a little river called Bitukang Manok, near the town of Pasig, on May 2,1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela was named emissary to Dapitan, in order to inform Rizal of plan of Katipunan to launch a revolution for freedom’s sake. Dr. Valenzuela arrived in Dapitan in the evening of June 21, 1896. Rizal, ever a hospitable host, welcomed him. After supper, the two had heart-to-heart talk in the garden. Valenzuela told him of the Katipunan plan and the necessity of his support.
Rizal objected to Bonifacio’s audacious project to plunge the country in bloody revolution. He was of the sincere belief that it was premature, for two reasons: (1) the people are not ready for revolution, and (2) arms and funds must first be collected before raising the cry of revolution. He also disapproved the other plan of the Katipunan to rescue him because he had given his word of honor to the Spanish authorities and he did not want to break it. Rizal and the Katipunan. While Rizal was mourning the loss of his son, ominous clouds of revolution gradually darkened the Philippines skies.
Andres Bonifacio, the “Great Plebeian” was sowing the seeds of an armed uprising. The secret revolution society, called Katipunan, which he founded on July 7, 1892, was gaining more and more adherents. In a secret meeting of the Katipunan at a little river called Bitukang Manok, near the town of Pasig, on May 2,1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela was named emissary to Dapitan, in order to inform Rizal of plan of Katipunan to launch a revolution for freedom’s sake. Dr. Valenzuela arrived in Dapitan in the evening of June 21, 1896. Rizal, ever a hospitable host, welcomed him.
After supper, the two had heart-to-heart talk in the garden. Valenzuela told him of the Katipunan plan and the necessity of his support. Rizal objected to Bonifacio’s audacious project to plunge the country in bloody revolution. He was of the sincere belief that it was premature, for two reasons: (1) the people are not ready for revolution, and (2) arms and funds must first be collected before raising the cry of revolution. He also disapproved the other plan of the Katipunan to rescue him because he had given his word of honor to the Spanish authorities and he did not want to break it.
The grand betrayal Unknown to Rizal, there was an orchestrated grand betrayal set by man who had given his word of honor. Just after the streamer departed Port Said, Rizal heard of his impending arrest from a fellow passenger. He would be arrested by order of Governor General Blanco and would be send to a prison in Ceuta in the Spanish Morroco. He was dumbfounded at the news and too late to realized that he was fallen to a trap. He immediately wrote his best friend Blumentritt to inform him of his present situation so that anything that would happen to him his friend was forewarned.
