Our Native Hero

The Retraction of Rizal

One of the most intriguing of all was the issues of Jose Rizal was his alleged retraction which was all about his reversion to the
Catholic Faith and all other issues linked to it such as his marriage to Josephine Bracken. That issue was claimed to be true by the
Roman Catholic defenders but asserted to be deceptive by anti-retractonists. They claim that the retraction document is a forgery, bu
handwriting experts concluded a long time ago that it is genuine. Rafael Palma’s opus on Rizal, titled “Biografia de Rizal” is so anti
Catholic that the Church successfully opposed its publication using government funds. In an article authored by Romberto Poulo
Rizal’s affiliation in Masonry was accounted to have caused drastic change to his religious ideas. It was in the moment Rizal set foo
on European soil when he was exposed to a great deal of distinctions between what was happening to his country, the
discriminations, abuses, partialities, injustices, and some other things made to cause sufferings   to his countrymen, and what was th
actual scene of the European nations. He observed that Europe was a lot more different compared to the Philippines in terms of way
of life, attitudes towards Roman Catholicism, and most importantly, the freedom all the citizens enjoy

The exact copy had been received by Fr. Balaguer in the evening immediately preceding Rizal's execution. Jose Rizal with the
addition of the names of the witnesses taken from the texts of the retraction in the Manila newspapers. Fr. Pi's copy of Rizal's
retraction has the same text as that of Fr. Balaguer's "exact" copy but follows the paragraphing of the texts of Rizal's retraction in the
Manila newspapers. In order to marry Josephine, Rizal wrote with the help of a priest a form of retraction to be approved by the
Bishop of Cebu. This incident was revealed by Fr. Antonio Obach to his friend Prof. Austin Craig who wrote down in 1912 what the
priest had told him; "The document (the retraction), inclosed with the priest's letter, was ready for the mail when Rizal came hurrying
I to reclaim it." Rizal realized (perhaps, rather late) that he had written and given to a priest what the friars had been trying by al
means to get from him.

Surely whether Rizal died a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino.  It is because of what he
did and what he was that we revere Rizal. Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal: the hero who courted death “to prove to those who
deny our patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our beliefs” 

The Rizal Retraction and other

cases
Posted on September 19, 2012

THE RIZAL RETRACTION AND OTHER CASES

by Peter Jaynul V. Uckung

      The flow of history is as inexorable as the tidal flow of an angry ocean. But ever so often in our collective
recollection, it is remembered that sometimes the skilful use of forgery can redirect the flow of history itself
      In the Philippines today, forgery is usually resorted to redirect the flow of money from the rightfu
beneficiary to the unworthy pockets of invisible people

      That money is usually the target of forgery is known and practiced all over the world, but forgery in the
hands of the wily, has power to effect a redirection of events and undoing of history. It has the power to
obscure or beliee an occurrence or create an event that did not actually transpire.  It also has the power to
enslave and destroy

      In October 1600, the Muslim Ottoman Army and a Christian army,  led by Austrians, with Hungarian
French, Maltese and German troops were battling it out for territory called Kanizsa. The Ottoman army was
outgunned and outmanned, but the Ottoman commander, Tiryaki Hasan Pasha was a clever man. He knew
that the Hungarians were not too happy to be allied with the Austrians. So he sent fake letters, designed them
to be captured by the Austrians. The letters contained Hungarian alliance with Ottoman forces. The Austrian
upon reading the fake letters signed by a reliable source (obviously forged) decided to kill all Hungarian
soldiers.

    The Hungarians revolted and the Christian army disintegrated from within. Thus, did the Ottomans won
the battle, by issuing forged communication

      During World War II, the British, to protect the secrecy of the Allied plan to invade Sicily in 1943
launched operation Mincemeat. This was a deception campaign to mislead German Intelligence about the rea
target of the start of the Allied Invasion of Europe

      A series of seemingly genuine secret documents, with forged signatures, were attached to a British corpse
dressed in military uniforms. It was left to float somewhere in a beach in Spain, where plenty of German
agents were sure to get hold of it

      The body with the fake documents was found eventually and its documents seen by German agents. The
documents identified Sardinia and Corsica as the targets of the Allied invasion. The Germans believed it, and
was caught with their pants down when allied forces hit the beaches of the real target, which was Sicily

      This kind of deception was also used by the British against the Germans in North Africa. They placed a
map of British minefields, then attached them to a corpse. The minefields were non-existent but the Germans
saw the map and considered it true. Thus, they rerouted their tanks to areas with soft sand where they bogged
down.

      In 1944, a Japanese sea plane crashed near Cebu. According to Japanese military officials who were
captured, and later released, they were accompanying Gen. Koga, Commander in Chief of the Japanese
Combined Fleet. Gen. Koga died in the crash. A little later, Filipino fisherman recovered some Japanese
documents. They delivered the documents to US Intelligence. The documents revealed that Leyte was lightly
defended. As a result, the Americans shifted their invasion target to Leyte instead of Cotabato Bay in
Mindanao.  

      On October 17, 1944 the invasion of Leyte went underway. Leyte was lightly defended as the Koga papers
have indicated. But it was during the invasion of Leyte when the Japanese navy launched their last offensive
strike against the US fleet, with the objective of obliterating it once and for all. They nearly succeeded. After
this near-tragic event, the Koga papers were considered by some military strategists as spurious and could
have been manufactured by the Japanese to mislead the American navy into thinking that Leyte was a
defenceless island. That Leyte was a trap. And the Americans nearly fell into it

       In recent memory, there was an incident in which the forging of documents served to negate the existence
of an independent Philippines

     In 1901, the Americans managed to capture a Filipino messenger, Cecilio Segismundo who carried with
him documents from Aguinaldo. The American then faked some documents complete with forged signature
telling Aguinaldo that some Filipino officers were sending him guerrillas with American prisoners. With the
help of a Spanish traitor, Lazaro Segovia, the Americans assembled a company of pro-American Filipino
soldiers, the Macabebe scouts. These were the soldiers who penetrated the camp of Aguinaldo, disguised as
soldiers of the Philippine Republic. They managed to capture Aguinaldo. With the president captured, his
generals began to surrender, and the Republic began to fall.

      The document of the retraction of Jose Rizal, too, is being hotly debated as to its authenticity

      It was supposed to have been signed by Jose Rizal moments before his death. There were many witnesses
most of them Jesuits. The document only surfaced for public viewing on May 13, 1935. It was found by Fr
Manuel A. Gracia at the Catholic hierarchy’s archive in Manila. But the original document was never shown to
the public, only reproductions of it

      However, Fr. Pio Pi, a Spanish Jesuit, reported   that as early as 1907, the retraction of Rizal was copied
verbatim and published in Spain, and reprinted in Manila. Fr. Gracia, who found the original document, also
copied it verbatim

      In both reproductions, there were conflicting versions of the text. Add to this the date of the signing was
very clear in the original Spanish document which Rizal supposedly signed. The date was “December 29
1890.”

      Later, another supposedly original document surfaced, it bears the date “December 29, 189C”. The number
“0” was evidently altered to make it look like a letter C. Then still later, another supposedly original version
came up. It has the date “December 29, 1896”. This time, the “0” became a “6”

      So which is which?

      Those who strongly believed the faking of the Rizal retraction document, reported that the forger of Rizal’s
signature was Roman Roque, the man who also forged the signature of Urbano Lacuna, which was used to
capture Aguinaldo. The mastermind, they say, in both Lacuna’s and Rizal’s signature forging was Lazaro
Segovia. They were approached by Spanish friars during the final day of the Filipino-American war to forge
Rizal’s signature

      This story was revealed by Antonio K. Abad, who heard the tale from Roman Roque himself, them being
neighbours.
      To this day, the retraction issue is still raging like a wild fire in the forest of the night

      Others would like to believe that the purported retraction of Rizal was invented by the friars to deflect the
heroism of Rizal which was centered on the friar abuses

      Incidentally, Fr. Pio Pi, who copied verbatim Rizal’s retraction, also figured prominently during the
revolution. It was him, Andres Bonifacio reported, who had intimated to Aguinaldo the cessation of agitation
in exchange of pardon

      There are also not a few people who believe that the autobiography of Josephine Bracken, written on
February 22, 1897 is also forged and forged badly. The document supposedly written by Josephine hersel
supported the fact that they were married under the Catholic rites. But upon closer look, there is a glaring
difference between the penmanship of the document, and other letters written by Josephine to Rizal

      Surely, we must put the question of retraction to rest, though Rizal is a hero, whether he retracted or not
we must investigate if he really did a turn-around. If he did not, and the documents were forgeries, then
somebody has to pay for trying to deceive a nation.

Retraction ni Jose Rizal: Mga

bagong dokumento at pananaw
Published December 29, 2016 7:05pm

By XIAO CHUA

There seems to be no end to the debate whether Rizal retracted his writings against the Catholic Church on
the very last day of his life. Will a new independent testimony settle the debate finally?

Ayon sa ilan, si Jose Rizal, na pinaslang ng mga kolonyalistang Espanyol 120 years ago, December 30, 1896,
ay naging bayani dahil sa kanyang mga sinulat upang wasakin ang ideya ng kolonyalismo at palayain ang isip
natin upang mabuo ang bansa—ang Noli Me Tangere at El Filibusterismo at ang kanyang mga sanaysay sa La
Solidaridad, na kumuwestiyon sa mga paniniwalang nakabubulag sa atin, lalo na ang pagsunod sa kagustuhan
ng mga prayle bilang sugo ng Diyos.

Ngunit, ilang oras bago siya barilin, pinirmahan daw ni Rizal ang isang dokumento na nagsasabing siya raw ay
isang Katoliko at binabawi niya lahat ng kanyang mga sinulat laban sa simbahan. Nakilala ang dokumento
bilang ang retraktasyon, “The Retraction.” Dahil sa kanyang pagbabalik-loob sa simbahan, ikinasal sila ni
Josephine Bracken, ang kanyang huling pag-ibig.