After the long Age of Revolts spanning three centuries, there

came about a turning point in Philippine history that ushered into a new age The Age of Reform Movement

 In this new age, the Filipinos changed

their method of carrying out change in society from regionalistic violent means that was characteristic of the preceding Age of Revolts to centralized peaceful means using the power of the pen.

This is a new age principally because the actors and their mode of thinking were so different from those of the preceding age. This is the age of Jose Rizal,

Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and other reformist.

The historic turning point that ushered into the Age of Reform

Movement in the late 19th century was the so-called GOMBURZA incident the execution and martyrdom of the three nationalist Filipino priests in 1872.

Let us go where the leaves never move without the will of God.

These were the last words of a martyr Filipino priest Fr. Mariano Gomez, the eldest and aged 84 during the execution.

The Spaniard unjustly executed the three priest due to allegation that

they were agitators in the 1872 Cavite revolt. The youngest and most brilliant of the three had so much influence on Jose Rizal Fr. Jose Burgos

Two groups had contributed largely to the development of the 19th

century reform movement led by Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and others. One was the nationalist Filipino clergy. The other one was a group of liberals known as Creoles.

 The 19th century reform movement

was led by the patriotic and educated members of the Filipino upper class. Their political strategy to fulfill the centuries-old Filipino aspiration for freedom, prosperity, justice, and peace was to make the Philippines a province of Spain.

 The 19th century reform movement did

not advocate independence. The reformists worked for the assimilation of the Philippines into Spain as a Spanish province. Knowing the danger of working for change within the Philippines, they did it in Spain

 Highly educated Filipinos based in

Spain led the 19th century reform movement. They had absorbed the spirit of age in Europe at that time the European Enlightenment marked by liberal ideas and practices. They were called ilustrados.

The 19th century reformists were

called ilustrados or enlightened ones. They worked for freedom and taught their countrymen that they belonged to a one body of people or nation. To disseminate the ideas, they had the newspaper named La Solidaridad.

The

mass media outfit for propagating the ideology of the 19th century reform movement was the newspaper La Solidaridad. It was founded in Spain in 1889. The first editor was Graciano Lopez Jaena.

There is an inspiration for better

life in the PhilippinesWe are asking for assimilation; we demand that those Islands be Hispanized. This was an excerpt from an editorial of La Solidaridad by the second and last editor, who was Marcelo H. del Pilar

Because the Spaniards were very

cruel to the Filipinos who worked for social change, the 19th century reformist hid their identities while writing in the La Solidaridad by using pen names. Marcelo H. del Pilar used the pen name Plaridel.

Jose Rizal was the leading 19th

century reformist. Like his colleagues, he used pen names for security reason while writing in the La Solidaridad. The other pen name he used aside from Laong Laan was Dimas Alang.

Mariano Ponce was one of the 19th

century reformists. As a writer in the La Solidaridad, he used pen names to hide and protect himself from the harassment of the Spanish authorities. The pen names he used were the following: Kalipulako, Tikbalang and Naning

Antonio Luna was one of the

leading 19th century reformists. While writing in the La Solidaridad he made use of the pen name Taga-Ilog.

Another reformist who wrote in the

La Solidaridad was Jose Ma. Panganiban. Like his fellow reformists, he used a pen name to hide and protect himself from the brutality of the Spanish authorities. His pen name was Jomapa.

The 19th century reformists were

educated members of the Filipino upper class. They were called ilustrados. Marcelo H. del Pilar was a lawyer and journalist.

Jose Rizal was a leading writer in

the Reform Movements newspaper La Solidaridad. His first published article in this newspaper dealt with a certain group of people who must have been close to his heart. The article was entitled The Filipino Farmers.

The 19th century reformists based

in Spain used all possible means to work out for reform for the fatherland. They formed a liberal and anti-clerical organization the kind of which was then prevalent in Spain. The organization was called Masonry or Freemasonry

One of the 19th century reformists

was known for his extraordinary eloquence that even the Spaniards themselves greatly admired the way he spoke their own language. He was the patriotic orator of the reform movement Graciano Lopez Jaena.

The famous article Ang Lupang

Tinubuan that appeared in one of the issues of La Solidaridad was written by a great 19th century reformist from Camarines Norte who died so young at age 27 in Spain because of tuberculosis. He was Jose Ma. Panganiban

The tale Fray Botod describes a

friar named Botod, who is portrayed as immoral, abusive, and ignorant. The Spanish friars were so furious at this tale and its author because they were the ones alluded to by Botod. The author was Graciano Lopez Jaena.

The great 19th century reformist

Marcelo H. del Pilar founded a nationalistic newspaper. It was the first bilingual newspaper to come out in the Philippines. The name of the newspaper was Diariong Tagalog.

Thou shalt worship and love the

friars above all.This is the 1st commandments in the Ten Commandments of the Friars, a satire aimed at ridiculing the abusive Spanish friars during the Spanish period. Marcelo H. del Pilar wrote this satire.

Jose Rizal proposed the unique

project of establishing a Filipino settlement (colony) in Sabah. He submitted the proposal to Spanish Governor General Eulogio Despujol but was not acted upon.

Rizal dreamed of establishing a

college outside the Philippines. He envisioned to establish it in Japan.

Noli Me Tangere is the first famous

book by Jose Rizal. Written when he was 26 years old, it was published in Berlin, Germany in 1887. It is about Filipino life during Rizals time. Noli is considered as more of a socio-historical novel.

Noli Me Tangere was written in

three places: one-half of the book was written in Spain; one-fourth in France; and the remaining onefourth in Germany. The words Noli Me Tangere are Latin words.

Noli

Me Tangere, intensively mirrors the age-old problems of the Filipino people during Rizals time. The Spaniards considered the book subversive. In English, the Latin words Noli Me Tangere mean Do Not Touch Me.

A Spanish priest, in his pamplet,

Caingat Cayo (Beware) branded Jose Rizals Noli as an evil book, and accused Rizal as an enemy of Spain and the Catholic religion. The Spanish priest was Fr. Jose Rodriguez.

Marcelo H. del Pilar circulated

another pamplet, Caiigat Cayo (Be slippery as an eel), to defend Rizal and the Noli.

Del Pilar used the pen name

Dolores Manapat when he wrote Caiingat Cayo.

Aside from Marcelo H. del Pilar

who used a pseudonym, Fr. Vicente Garcia, a Filipino priest from Batangas who used the pseudonym V. Caraig had also defended Rizal and the Noli against the false accusation of the Spaniards.

Little things can be said to become

great if they help in the attainment of something great. Maximo Viola, in his own good way, helped Jose Rizal financially for the printing of his great novel Noli Me Tangere.

El Filibusterismo is the second

famous book of Jose Rizal. It was published in Ghent, Belgium in 1891, about four years after the publication of the Noli Me Tangere. El Filibusterismo is considered as more of a political novel.

Jose

Rizal started writing his second novel, El Filibusterismo, in England and continued writing it in Belgium. His Austrian friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, once asked him what the word filbusterismo means A dangerous patriot who will be executed.

Valentin

Ventura extended financial assistance to Jose Rizal for the printing of El Filbusterismo.

The year before Jose Rizal was

arrested and subsequently thrown in exile to Dapitan, he was so fortunate to have his second novel published. He dedicated this novel to GOMBURZA.

In an essay, Jose Rizal wrote about

the concept of indolence, which the Filipinos were accused of. To Rizal, Filipino indolence existed but not by human nature as the Spaniards claimed but as a result of oppressive forces. The essay is entitled The Indolence of the Filipinos.

Rizal mentioned the following as

among the causes of Filipino indolence: general atmosphere of lack of freedom; oppressive government policies; lack of promotion of industry and agriculture; the influence of religious hermits; and also severity of climate.

Rizal did not limit his intellect on

matters within his native land. His mind went beyond the national frontier to embrace international relations. Thus, he was able to make prediction on the future of the Philippines in an essay entitled The Philippines A Century Hence

Rizal made a forecast on the

Philippines in an essay published in La Solidaridad. He cited the possibility of a certain country coming over to control the Philippines after, if ever, she obtains independence. Rizal was referring to the United States.

To unite the whole archipelago into one compact, vigorous and homogenous body. This is one objective of the society founded by Jose Rizal on July 3, 1892, shortly before he was arrested and exiled to Dapitan. The name of the society is La Liga Filipina.

The Noli Me Tangere made the

Spaniards angry at Jose Rizal. Then Rizal published El Filibusterismo. Later, he founded the La Liga Filipina. At this point, the Spaniards exploded their fury. Rizal was arrested and exiled to Dapitan to four years.

In Dapitan, Rizal was forced to live in exile for several years. Here he did not love an idle life. With his medical skill, he helped the poor folks. He also taught the young boys. He even beautified the plaza. And so on. Dapitan is in Mindanao.

The 19th century reformists had exhausted all peaceful means to attain their goal. But the Spanish authorities played a deaf ear to them. La Solidaridad closed shop in 1895 after serving as the main propaganda channel for about 7 years.

When the 19th century reform

movement was nearing its end, one of its leaders shifted his political strategy from assimilation to revolution. In a letter to Andres Bonifacio, Marcelo H. del Pilar endorsed the revolutionary Katipunan.

During his prolonged exile at Dapitan, Jose Rizal was informed of the Katipunans plan to rescue him, but he opposed the plan. Rizal had a different strategy on how to get out of Dapitan. This was to request the authorities that he be allowed to be a volunteer doctor in a Spanish colony

Rizal opposed the Katipunans plan for his escape from exile of Dapitan. He had another plan, which was to request the Spanish governor general that he be enlisted as a military doctor in the Spanish colony of Cuba

Time came when Rizals request to be a volunteer military physician in Cuba was granted. Rizal left Dapitan. But while in Manila, he missed the ship bound for Spain by one day. Rizal had to wait to get the next trip for 1 month.

It so happened that while Rizal was in Manila waiting for the next trip bound for Spain for his eventual trip to Cuba to work as a volunteer military doctor, the Katipunan revolution broke out! What did Rizal do next? He went ahead on his trip according to plan.

When the Katipunan revolution flared up in August 1896, Rizal went ahead on his assignment as a volunteer military doctor in Cuba. But before reaching Spain he was arrested, sent back home, and then detained at Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila.

Rizal was tried by a biased military court, which eventually convicted him of the crime of treason with complicity in the revolution. He was given a death sentence. Few days before his trial, Rizal wrote a controversial manifesto condemning the revolution as absurd.

Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio were the most towering figures in the struggle for change during the Spanish period. While the revolutionist Andres Bonifacio was born in 1863, the reformist was born in 1861.

Rizal lived a dramatic life, not only in the affairs of society but also of the heart. He and Josephine Bracken, an Irish girl, met, fell in love, and lived like married couple (because no priest wanted to marry them) while Rizal was in Dapitan living as an exile.

Rizal

was a great intellectual patriot. He gave the best of his mind for the love of the fatherland. He penned his last poem, Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell), and breathed his last in the early morning of December 30, 1896.