Thoughts on Rizal's Birthday

    Circular No. 41, dated March 27, 1911, of the American Director of the then Bureau of Education _entitled "Celebration of Fiftieth  Anniversary of the Birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal", which stated  the following: 

   "Act No.1982 of the Philippine Legislature provides that the fiftieth anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal shall be celebrated by the Bureau of Education.It is hereby prescribed that to this end,every public school in the Philippine Islands shall fittingly celebrate June 19, 1911." 

   Then there was Executive Order No. 52, dated August 10, 1954, of the President of the Philippines creating the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission "In appreciation of the popular sentiment that the "First Centenary of the birth of Jose Rizal, an event of extraordinary national significance be properly observed." 

   There had been debates on whether Rizal's natal day on June 19, or  his death on December 30 should be made an official holiday. The latter view prevailed, but that did not mean that deaths are more important than births. On the matter of birth,an  English dramatist,    Aaron Hill said: "Our thoughts,our morals, our most fixed belief, are  consequences of the place of our birth." An English author, William Hazlitt, quoted," Features alone do not run in the blood ;vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel _ birth." To put it bluntly, there will be no deaths if there are no births. 

   The foregoing should serve to continually remind us that on the 19th of June, there was born in our country, a great man the first Filipino who imbued his countrymen with a sense of national and racial pride and the consciousness of national unity, " knight-errant of freedom,"a man who may well be, during these trying days in our country's history _ and this is to quote the late Jorge C. Bocobo _"the national conscience rebukes us for our wrongs."  

   "He rebukes the dummy who, traitor as he is, sells his countrymen into economic slavery. 

   "He rebukes the politicians who directly or indirectly buy votes, while he also rebukes the voter who sells his right of free choice.

    "He rebukes the influence peddler who abuses his political power for the sake of lucre. 

   "He rebukes the corrupt public official who betrays his sacred trust.

   "He rebukes the students who are too lazy to think for themselves but would rather be spoon-fed by the professors through lectures copied from trash textbooks. 

   As Republic Act No. 1425_ "An Act to Include in the Curriculum of All Public and Private Schools, Colleges ,and Universities, Courses on the Life ,Works and Writings of Rizal ,let all Filipinos continually drink deep from Rizal's teachings "through the generations of time." 

Reference: Editorial, The FILIPINO Teacher _ June , 1986