Course Code and Title: GEHS – Rizal’s Life and Works

Lesson Number: 13

Topic: EL FILIBUSTERISMO

INTRODUCTION
This module provides a discussion of Rizal’s follow-up novel to Noli Me
Tangere, El Filibusterismo. It focuses on Rizal’s ideologies implicit in the novel,
particularly on the continuities and changes in Rizal’s ideas in the context of the novel’s
plot, characters, and events. The module also focuses on the importance of the youth in
nation-building as presented in the novel.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 Analyze the context of Rizal’s 2nd novel El Filibusterismo.
 Compare and contrast the characters, plot, and theme of Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo.
 Discuss the background of the publication of the El Filibusterismo.
 Value the role of the youth in the development and future of society.
 Use current technology to assist and facilitate learning and research.

Pre-Assessment:
Instructions: In not more than 5 sentences. Read Rizal’s dedication of the El
Filibusterismo to the three martyr priests, Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto
Zamora. Based on it, evaluate Rizal’s motivation and intention in writing the novel. (5
points)
"To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30
years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in the Bagumbayan Field on the 28th
of February, 1872."
 "The church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been
imputed to you; the Government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows causes the
belief that there was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by
worshipping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no sense recognizes your culpability. In so
far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite Mutiny is not proved, as you may or may not have
been patriots, and as you may or may not cherished sentiments for justice and liberty, I have the
right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to combat. And while we
wait expectantly upon Spain someday to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for
your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over one who without clear
proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood."
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LESSON PRESENTATION:
‘El Filibusterismo’ is Jose Rizal’s second novel
written as the sequel of his ‘Noli Me Tangere’. Commonly
nicknamed ‘El Fili’ or simply ‘Fili’, the novel was written also in
Spanish. Its commonly known English alternative title is ‘The
Reign of Greed’.

The writing and printing of Fili

Rizal started writing El Filibusterismo in October
1887 in Calamba during his first homecoming. The novel was
thus written against the background of threats and
oppressions he and his family suffered because of the Noli
and the so-called Calamba agrarian trouble. He continued
working on it, making some revisions, in London in 1888.
Rizal then went on to write the novel in Paris, and then in Brussels where distractions
were less and the cost of living was cheaper. Being able to focus on finishing the book,
Rizal had finally completed it by March 29, 1891, in Biarritz.

Jose Alejandrino, Rizal’s roommate in Belgium related that he was the one who
canvassed the printing press for El Fili. He delivered proofs and revisions to F. Meyer
van Loo in Ghent. For his assistance, Rizal gave him the El Fili’s corrected proofs and
the pen used in doing the corrections. Unluckily, these historical souvenirs were either
lost or destroyed during the revolution (Ocampo, p. 111).
Alejandrino, who later became a general in the Philippine revolution, may
have been the first person to read the novel aside from the author. However, the honor
of being called the savior of the Fili had gone to Valentin Ventura—Rizal’s friend who
partially financed the novel’s publication.
Initially, Rizal financed El Fili’s printing by pawning his properties. In a
letter to Jose Basa dated July 9, 1891, he related: “For the past three months I have not
received a single centavo, so I have pawned all that I have to publish this book. I will
continue publishing it as long as I can; and when there is nothing to pawn I will stop …”
Rizal’s next letter to Basa carried the sad news
that the printing had to be suspended for lack of funds, and it
was at this point where Valentin Ventura came into the picture.
Having known Rizal’s predicament, Ventura offered him
financial help. In hindsight, we can assume that Ventura was
bothered by his conscience, hence his generous monetary
assistance for Rizal’s novel. Remember that Ventura was one
of the Filipinos who promised to co-author Rizal’s proposed
first book but ended up contributing nothing.
But even with Ventura’s help, Rizal found it
necessary to fundamentally shorten the novel, erasing 47
whole pages from the 279-page manuscript to save expenses
(Ocampo, p. 111). Thus, the printed El Fili, which came off the
press by the middle of September 1891, turned out comprising only 39 chapters
compared to the 64 of the Noli—contrary to his original plan to make a longer sequel.
For Ventura’s salvific act, Rizal gave him the novel’s original manuscript, a
pen, and an autographed printed copy. In 1925, the Philippine government bought the
El Fili manuscript from Ventura for a large sum of 10, 000 pesos (Zaide, p. 194). It is
now being kept in the National Library.

SELF-REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Which is a superior novel-Noli or El Fili?
2. Which is better: Rizal’s diplomatic reform or Bonifacio’s
impulsive revolts?

Filibustero and Gomburza

The ‘Filibusterismo’ in the novel’s title is derived from the simpler term
‘filibustero’. Rizal defined the word (‘filibustero’) to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt who
encountered but did not fully comprehend the word in the ‘Noli’. Rizal thus explained in
a letter:
“The word filibustero is little known in the
Philippines …I heard it for the first time in 1872 when the
tragic executions [of the Gomburza] took place. I still
remember the panic that this word created. Our father
forbade us to utter it, as well as the words Cavite, Burgos
(one of the executed priests), etc. The Manila newspapers
and the Spaniards apply this word to one whom they want
to make a revolutionary suspect. The Filipinos belonging to
the educated class fear the reach of the word. It … means
a dangerous patriot who will soon be hanged or well, a
presumptuous man.”
The word ‘filibustero’ thus contextually means subversive, dissident,
revolutionary, seditious, insurrectionary, and treasonous. Fittingly, Rizal dedicated the
book to the memory of the Gomburza, the three Filipino patriotic priests who were
accused of being ‘filibustero’ and thus executed. In his dedication, Rizal fearlessly
declared his conviction that the Spanish officials’ treatment of the priests’ case was
unjust “as [their] complicity in the Cavite Mutiny is not proved”.
The dedication partly reads: “To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano
Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35
years old). Executed in the Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872 … I have
the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to
combat…”
Rizal however made mistakes in indicating the ages of the priests and the
date of their execution. During their martyrdom on the 17th (not 28th) of February 1872,
Gomez was then 73 (not 85), Burgos was 35 (not 30) and Zamora was 37 (not 35). Like
many other students today (especially men), Rizal was perhaps not that good at
memorizing historical details like dates and ages.
The foreword of the Fili was nonetheless addressed “To The Filipino People and Their
Government”. The original manuscript also includes a “warning” and an “inscription” on
the title page written by the author’s friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt.

Themes of Fili
Indeed a continuation of the Noli, the El
Filibusterismo exposes the real pictures of Filipino society at
the hands of the Spanish authorities. Socio-political issues
mentioned in the Noli are also dealt with in its sequel: the
abuses and hypocrisy of the members of the Spanish Catholic
clergy, superstitions disguising as religious faith, the need for
reform in the education system, the exploitation and corruption
of government officials, and the pretenses of some social-
climbing Filipinos, and Spaniards.
What makes El Fili essentially different from its
prequel is that it offers various means of attaining social
reform and somewhat hinted the author believed was ideal.
Some dialogues and incidents seem to suggest the apparent improbability of any radical
socio-political change. The main character’s persistence to push through with the
rebellion, on the other hand, seems to suggest that independence is attainable through
revolution. However, the closing chapters rather insinuate that freedom must be
attained without bloodshed as the story ends with the failure of Simoun’s planned
uprising.
The novel’s ending, some scholars explain, however, should not be
interpreted as Rizal’s categorical stand against the revolution. At best, Rizal can be said
to be against the unprepared and disorganized rebellion of uneducated people, which
could have a slim chance of victory. It is important to note that Rizal once commented
that an upright, patriotic, and selfless individual like Noli’s Elias would be a viable
revolutionary leader. Rizal was said to have confessed that he seriously regretted
having killed Elias instead of Ibarra. These seem to prove that Rizal, though practically
promoting the attainment of reforms peacefully, also advocated the idea of armed
revolution under some conditions. Intelligent as he was, what Rizal would never
subscribe to is the “useless spilling of blood,” but not the uprising per se.

Comparing Noli vs. El Fili

Rizal wrote the El Filibusterismo about four years
after the Noli. The experiences he had in those four years
spelled a lot of differences in the way he treated his two novels.
In depicting the social conditions in the country,
both novels employ satires and caricatures. El Fili however is
more serious as there are less humor and more bitterness in
the treatment of situations.
In the Noli, the author reveals the cruelty and
exploitation suffered by the natives at the hands of colonizers.
In El Fili, Rizal depicts society at the brink of rebellion as the
natives’ minds have been awakened and revolutionary forces
have been formed.
 Generally, El Fili presents a gloomier depiction of the country under the
Spanish regime. More radical and revolutionary, the novel has less idealism and
romance than the Noli. The El Fili manifests Rizal’s more mature and less hopeful
attitude toward the socio-political situation in the country. The grimmer outlook and
more tragic mood can be attributed to the persecutions and sufferings the author and
his family experienced from the Spanish friars and officials in the years he was writing
the novel.
Notwithstanding the sufferings caused by the Spaniards to the Rizal
family, the Fili, its author claimed, is not a matter of revenge. Jose wrote to Blumentritt:
“I have not written in it [Fili] any idea of vengeance against my enemies, but only for the
good of those who suffer, for the rights of Tagalogs …”
Some of Rizal’s friends like Blumentritt and Graciano Lopez Jaena
expressed that Fili was more superior to Noli. Rizal himself once believed in the
superiority of the Fili. When its printing had to be stopped for lack of funds, he wrote to
Basa: “It is a pity because it seems to me that this second part [the Fili] is more
important than the first [the Noli].”
After the Fili was published nonetheless, Rizal appeared to have a change
of heart. In his October 13, 1891 letter to Marcelo Del Pilar, he said: I appreciate what
you say about my work and I value your opinion highly that considered my
Filibusterismo inferior to the Noli. I, too frankly, without irony or words with a double
meaning, share your opinion. For me, the Filibusterismo as a novel is inferior to the
Noli… You are the first one to tell me the truth and I agree with you. This flatters me as
it proves that I still know how to judge myself. “
As regards his friends who told him that Fili was better, Rizal explained in
the same letter: “Blumentritt, all those in Paris and Barcelona, for their benevolence
towards me say it [the Fili] is superior. I attribute it only to their benevolence.”

SUMMARY:
To counter Noli Me Tangere’s hopeful and romantic atmosphere, Rizal
followed it up with El Filibusterismo. Rizal started writing El Filibusterismo in 1888 and
finished it in 1889. But just like the fate of Noli Me Tangere, Rizal also had difficulties in
the publication of El Filibusterismo due to the expensive printing costs. Rizal had to
move to Ghent to look for cheaper ways of printing the book but still found it too costly.
Fortunately, his friend Valentin Ventura offered him financial assistance which led to the
novel’s publication in September 1891. El Filibusteriso was much shorter with only 39
chapters compared to Noli Me Tangere which has 64 chapters, Rizal gave Valentin
Ventura the original manuscript of El Filibusterismo as a token of gratitude for his
contributions to the publication of the novel.
Rizal used his first novel, Noli Me Tangere, to expose to the Filipinos the
abusive ways of the Spanish authorities and friars. Through the characters and plot of
the novel, Rizal was able to bring to light the corruption of the Spaniards. Through the
different characters in the novel, Rizal provided insights regarding the condition of
Philippine society under Spanish colonial rule. It was also through the experience of
these characters that Rizal was able to direct readers into recognizing the ills that
plagued the country. At the end of the novel, Rizal challenged the youth, in the
character of Basilio, to recognize their role in society-as the catalyst for social change.

APPLICATION:
Instructions: Create a Graphic Organizer: Compare and contrast, and show
continuities and /or changes in Rizal’s ideas expressed in the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo.

ACTIVITY/EVALUATION:
Instructions: Through the characters and plots of Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, provide an analysis discussing which political ideology Jose Rizal was
trying to present: (a) reform through non-violent means; (b) reform through revolution;
(c) nationalism and patriotism (10 points)
a. ________________________________________________________________
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b. ________________________________________________________________
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 c. ________________________________________________________________
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ASSIGNMENT: 13
Instructions: Write a reflection paper about the role of the youth in nation-building.
(Chapter 24 or 39 of El Filibusterismo)

GRADING RUBRIC:
For a ten-point essay:
9 –10 Used many details thoroughly and expertly; applied integrated concepts;
made connections between facts and ideas.
7–8 Used many details to illustrate the topic; clearly understood the topic well.
5–6 Used some details to illustrate the topic; understood topic
3–4 Used one or two details, alluded to details vaguely; followed directions had a
basic knowledge of the topic.
1–2 Used no historical details, made factual errors; thinking not justified, no evidence
that knowledge was acquired.
0– No attempt to answer the question was made.

References

 Galicia, R. D. (2019). The Life and Works of Jose Rizal. 2nd Edition.
Mandaluyong City: Azes Publishing Corporation.
 Manebog, J. D. (2019). Life and Works of Rizal. Manila: Mutya Publishing. Inc.
 Clemente, J. E. (2019). The Life and Works of Rizal. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc.