Deus ex populo: Timeless Counter-hegemonic Characterization and Discourse in Jose Rizals Noli Me Tangere1 Key Terms: Literary Criticism;

Hegemony; Rizaliana; Historical Contextualization; Discourse Analysis ABSTRACT Amidst the official glorification of Jose Rizals writings, a number of scholars tend to focus on the petty details of the national heros life. Substance is sacrificed at the altar of popularization and wanton mass consumption of bogus Rizaliana. His writings are seldom invoked to contextualize the social problems of contemporary society in academic articles, thereby diluting the power of his counterhegemonic thought. This paper analyzes the contribution of Jose Rizals literary masterpiece to the endeavor of building a culture of counter-hegemony through the counter-hegemonic characterization and discourse in his first novel Noli Me Tangere. A contextualized and indigenized Marxist approach was utilized to effectively scrutinize the counter-hegemonic thought in Rizals first novel. Pertinent contemporary events and personages were tackled side-by-side with the national heros musings to emphasize the continuing relevance of his social criticism even in this complex era of globalization. ~~~ In an era of rampant economic globalization and in spite of its being in a quagmire due to the protracted international financial crisis culminating in Americas ascent as the worlds biggest debtor nation and a series of painful social spending cuts from America to European nations such as Greece and Portugal, the United States of America and its allies continue to impose their economic hegemony over the Philippines. This hegemony of Western and/or foreign standards encompass education, culture and even literary criticism in the Philippines. In fact, western-oriented formalist approaches in literary criticism continue to dominate academic discourse in the country, long after critics abroad have abandoned such shallow methodologies. Nevertheless, as the international financial crisis which can be

Published in DALUMAT E-Journal Vol. 2, No. 2 (2011), Numina Publications. http://ejournals.ph/index.php? journal=DALUMAT&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=3164

traced to the implosion of failures of the capitalist system lingers and worsens, an increasing number of people begin to oppose and resist the economic and cultural hegemony of the United States, the leading overtly capitalist country worldwide. In the field of literary criticism, more and more critics are beginning to refrain from using Americanized literary theories particularly formalism and the so-called New Criticism. The calls and endeavors to tilt literary criticism from focusing on form towards emphasizing content are snowballing. The perspective that considers literature as the mirror of society and the inherent contradictions within it (hence it is not an entirely independent entity) is slowly regaining ground in contemporary discourse. The interest of academicians in Marxist-oriented literary criticism has become livelier than ever. But what exactly is Marxism? While esteemed Filipino Marxist critics do exist to expound on Marxism and how it can be utilized in literary criticism, most of them have been residing and/or teaching abroad for decades now. Thus, their discourse is typically linguistically influenced by First World Marxists, which unfortunately renders itself largely inaccessible to most Filipino students who prefer simpler language and contextualized readings suitable to their collective contemporary experience. Unfortunately, distinct homegrown voices of indigenized Marxism are usually relegated to the sidelines of mainstream academe, unread and unrecognized except by a few radical academicians and students, dismissed as redundant by those enthralled with Westernized jargon, or more precisely, what many Filipino students label and deride as nosebleed English.

Class Contradiction and Hegemony: The Oppressed Versus the Oppressors Those who want to understand Marxism and the corresponding Marxist literary theory conceived from its womb are constrained to review a subversive document. The first chapter of the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (18882) clearly illustrates the gist and spirit of

The English version used in this essay was published in 1888. The original manifesto (written in German) was published in 1848.

Marxism with this introductory thesis: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. Simply put, Marxism is an ideology that views the society as having two divisions, two broad social classes that contradict one another: the oppressors and the oppressed, the exploiters and the exploited. It is this simplified worldview that strengthens Marxisms relevance to the socio-cultural realities in Third World countries like the Philippines. Antonio Gramsci, an Italian socialist theorist, introduced the term hegemony in his Prison Notebooks to explain how the oppressors are able to overcome and dominate the oppressed. He points out that through ostensible consent and further forceful persuasion, the oppressed is effectively engulfed by the oppressors led by what Gramsci call as the hegemon. His social analysis provides a philosophical framework within which we can explore the power relations between dominant and minority groups, particularly the means by which the dominant group, or the leading group, secures its power and position (Suarez 2002). It is in this context that non-Marxist works such as Jose Rizals Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo can still be scrutinized using Marxist tools of analysis. Ostensibly, the current article doesnt apply Marx strict proletariat-versus-bourgeoisie (or worker-versus-capitalist) dichotomy, but rather indigenizes Marxism by focusing on the more generic oppressed-versus-oppressor dichotomy which is highly evident in Rizals works. As per Frantz Fanons stretching out of Marxism, the main contradiction in the Philippines is between the wretched of the earth and those who cause and/or impose their wretchedness. Finding strict proletariat-versusbourgeoisie battles in his writings can be problematic because Rizal is not a Marxist. This article is a conscious endeavor aimed at reasserting the necessity of paying attention to homegrown Marxist voices whose main strength is contemporary contextualization of literary writings in its original local setting the oppressed-versus-oppressor dichotomy consistently observed since the time of Spanish colonization

up to these times of neocolonial hegemony a process too complex to be left to Filipino Marxist critics who have been residing abroad in recent years. The endeavor to let a thousand flowers bloom and let a thousand schools of thought contend as the Chinese Marxist theorist and leader Mao Tse Tung had envisioned, will be empty sloganeering at its best, if relatively new and unknown Marxist critics in the Philippines will be always dismissed as redundant (with the well-meaning critics unable to pinpoint what ideas and details of indigenous Marxist analysis are merely echoing the voices of esteemed Marxist critics abroad).

Marxist Reading of Rizals Novels The novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo written by Jose Rizal (who is non-Marxist and did not read any Marxist material) can be analyzed by a Marxist critic through emphasizing the contradictions and relationships between the abusive Spanish authorities of the colonial government in the Philippines; the hypocritical and outrageously immoral Spanish friars and a handful members of the Filipino elite, bureaucrats and mercenaries that serve as subservient and willing instruments of the colonial government on the one hand (Padre Damaso, the alferez (town lieutenant) in Noli Me Tangere, the governor general in El Fili, Fray Salvi, Don Custodio, Seor Pasta, civil guards etc.), and the oppressed, debased and exploited Filipinos on the other (Sisa, Basilio, Crispin, Tales family, the tulisanes, rebels or outlaws who continued the struggle of Commander Pablo and Elias). What makes such reading imperative is the fact that current socio-cultural realities in the country that underwent two People Power revolts in a span of just less than two decades reveal the same social cancers that Rizal has exposed in his acclaimed twin novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The characters in the longplaying script have just assumed new names, so to speak, but the socio-cultural context remains virtually unchanged. Without clear contextualization, Rizals novels would just be relegated to the dustbins of history by young people who are no longer aware and conscious that the socio-economic stratification in Rizals time remains intact and almost unchanged even by more than one hundred years of superficial

political independence from foreign powers, and as a result, the wretched remains wretched and the oppressors continuously enjoy their role as oppressors in the never-ending national saga.

Deus Ex Populo: Human Figures Building A Culture Against Hegemony Rizals expose of the binary division of social classes (the generic oppressed-versus-oppressor dichotomy) didnt end with a mere revelation of the so-called social cancers of the country. All throughout his novels, Rizals characters and their words form a strong yet slightly disparate counterhegemonic discourses aimed at the tyrannical ruling class of corrupt Spanish bureaucrats, the local proSpanish elite, barbarously violent civil guards and pathetically immoral and hypocritical friars. Rizal described and unmasked both the oppressed and the oppressors but he nonetheless emphasized the Filipino peoples capacity to counter, oppose, resist and even subvert the oppressive foreign hegemony in their own ways and in various levels of forcefulness. Thus a rereading of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo will lead one to find out that Tasios philosophical yet seemingly incoherent rants are as counter-hegemonic as Simouns forceful tirades delivered in a dialogue with the conformist Basilio. In the same manner, rebel Matanglawins character is as effective as the meek Padre Florentinos person in delivering fatal blows against Spanish hegemony through their seemingly different words and deeds. All these characters and their counter-hegemonic discourse expose a breed of the non-passive oppressed, those who in one way or another seemingly perform the role of a savior, a messiah of their fellow oppressed from the shackles of various forms of hegemony be it cultural or political. This writer suggests that the phenomenon of counter-hegemonic characters be called deus ex populo (god out of the people), following the tradition of deus ex machina. Deus ex machina refers to the use of artificial resolution of the conflict in the plot by characters and/or things that seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere. The suggestion to use the term deus ex populo is inspired by such literary tool present in Western literature, but it must be clarified that in the Philippine context, the conflict resolution is not anymore artificial but instead is natural, made flesh, incarnated in the form of human figures who dont appear from nowhere like the gods lowered through a string in Greek plays (hence the term deus ex

machina in standard literary jargon). Instead, what Rizals novels seem to portray are living and powerful, perhaps god-like figures, though not omnipotent at times they experience defeat, may die naturally or even get killed but nevertheless, they remain seemingly immortal for their struggle against hegemony is carried on by other figures, thus its deus and not Deus. That these deus ex populo characters in Rizals novels belong to various social classes from Crisostomo Ibarra of the landlord class to Don Filipo of the bureaucracy, to Pilosopong Tasio of the petty bourgeois intellectuals, to Elias who come from (or at least live like and/or among) the wretched of the earth all the more necessitates the indigenization of Marxism in the Philippines. Traditional Marxism that divides the world in the band of the proletariat and the horde of the bourgeoisie simply has no clear place in the complex characterization of Rizals novels which was written at a time when virtually no Filipino is yet to be fully acquainted with Marxist writings like the classic Communist Manifesto. Thus, Rizals relevance in these times of recurring capitalist crises could best be revealed by adopting an indigenized form of Marxism that emphasizes counter-hegemonic thought in the Gramscian sense, rather than within the context of strictly traditional Marxist proletariat-versus-bourgeoisie dichotomy.

Pyramids to Bury Tyrants The Philippine national hero himself affirms the counter-hegemonic value of his literary masterpiece Noli Me Tangere in a lengthy letter to Vicente Barrantes3 (1890): And twisted like my spirit is that of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who have not yet left their miserable homes, who do not speak any language but their own, and if they would write or express their thoughts, they would leave my Noli Me Tangere very puny indeed and with their volumes, there would be enough to raise pyramids for the corpses of all the tyrants... Rizal argues that if Barrantes considers him as someone with a twisted spirit for exposing abuses of the colonial set-up in his country, majority of Filipinos in the Philippines would in effect be all the more twisted for if they can only write, his own Noli will appear weak (though of course it is strong-worded as gauged from the Spanish colonial governments eventual censure
3

A Spanish politician who criticized Rizals first novel.

of his first novel) in the face of volumes upon volumes of more forceful writings that will precipitate equally fierce revolts enough to raise pyramids for the corpses of all the tyrants. Rizal was being modest when he claimed his novel will appear very puny compared with the common peoples unwritten sentiments, for all throughout his two published novels, many characters many of them neglected if not totally unnoticed by most esteemed and well-published Marxist critics reveal the authors counter-hegemonic stance and discourse. A closer look at these characters, at least those in Noli Me Tangere, may deem Rizals novels good enough to bury todays tyrants. It must be noted that Professor Jose Maria Sisons classic Marxist analysis of Rizals writings titled Rizal the Subversive, indeed gave a broad view on Rizals counter-hegemonic relevance, but unfortunately, it is too short to provide a detailed discourse analysis of the national heros writings. That Prof. Sisons critique didnt include any quotation from Rizals writings is understandable, considering the fact that it was written in the late 1960s, not to provide a full-blown study of Rizals counterhegemonic thought, but rather, to utilize Rizals actual counter-hegemonic stance in strengthening the peoples struggle against the tyranny of reactionaries/conservatives who oppose every radical idea as communist. Thus, this article will supplement, rather than repeat, what Prof. Sison (who has been in exile in The Netherlands since the late 1980s) had outlined in his classic essay. Another internationally-acclaimed Filipino Marxist scholar is Professor Epifanio San Juan, Jr , a long-time resident of the United States and visiting professor to various universities abroad. Like Prof. Sison, Prof. San Juan also contributed to the landmark anthology Rizal: Contrary Essays edited by Prof. Petronilo Daroy and Prof. Dolores S. Feria, with his essay Rizal and The Human Condition. As in his other Rizal-themed articles like the more recent Rizal in the USA: Escaping the Anglo Quarantine, Reinventing Indios Bravos, and the more-than-a-decade old yet equally incisive Introduction to Rizal: Toward a Re-Interpretation, Prof. San Juan contextualized Rizals counter-hegemonic relevance using many foreign references, specifically authors whose works are yet to become accessible and popularized in the Philippines. Thus, while Prof. E. San Juans highly academic and eloquently written essays certainly give delight and provide enlightenment to high-caliber academicians and erudite researchers, a

number of Filipino students who have no access to the writings of Edward Said, Howard Zinn, Benedict Anderson, Karl Marx (especially his Das Kapital), Emile Durkheim, Kierkegaard, Hegel etc., will be left mystified at worst and merely enthralled at best after reading his critique of/on Rizal. Within this context, this article aims to provide an easy-to-read and highly accessible analysis of the national heros first novel to supplement existing references using an indigenized form of Marxism as a framework. While Prof. E. San Juans Toward Rizal (which appeared in another milestone anthology on Rizal titled Himalay, and edited by Prof. Patricia Melendrez-Cruz and Prof. Apolonio Bayani Chua) is written in a relatively more accessible language and while it succeeded in expounding on Rizals counterhegemonic characters, it strictly contextualized Rizals novels within Rizals times, and not liberally within the contemporary setting too as this current article attempts to do. It must be noted that Prof. E. San Juans Toward Rizal was first published in 1983 as a book. For this same reason, the current article is necessary and not redundant. Himalay, probably the thickest and most comprehensive anthology of researches on Jose Rizal (as of this writing, the possible publication of the conference proceedings of the recent International Conference on Jose Rizal held last June 2011 at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City is yet to be accomplished) was published in 1991. Twenty years since Himalays publication, Rizals first novel, especially its characters, need to be reread within these times context. This current article could become a more contemporary companion to Professor Albina Peczon Fernandez Kakaibang Pagbasa sa El Filibusterismo/Different Reading of El Filibusterismo, a contextualized Marxist reading of Rizals second novel which was also included in Himalay.

The Unknown Poet: Restrained Rebuke of Censorship Chapter 2 of Noli Me Tangere introduces Crisostomo Ibarra, a young man who came back from Europe to seek the truth behind his fathers mysterious incarceration and eventual death. Among the men in the banquet held in honor of Ibarra, only one seemed familiar to him: a poet whose works have for so

long kept alive my love of country.4 It is unfortunate that none of the consulted5 translations provide any clue on the identity of this poet. Ibarra asked the poet to justify why he ceased from writing: They say you stopped writing, but nobody seems to know why. Cunningly, Rizal through the poet exposed and condemned the political hegemony of tyrannical Spaniards in the Philippines by providing this reason: Why? Because one does not write poetry in order to flatter and to lie. Someone I know was brought before a judge for putting a commonplace in rhyme. Well, theyve called me a poet, but theyll never call me a fool. Ibarra further asked And may I know what the commonplace was? It will be quite shocking to those reared in the embrace of democracy to hear the poets answer: Why, that the son of a lion is also a lion. The man barely escaped exile. By highlighting such hypersensitivity of the colonial government to almost any written material, Rizal effectively unmasked Spains political hegemony in the Philippines which was solidified by the lack of press freedom and other basic civil liberties.

Old Repentant Priest: A Friars Conscience In Chapter 9 of Noli Me Tangere, Father Sibyla, a Dominican priest tasked secretly to assess Ibarras plans, converses with a sick and old fellow Dominican, unnamed just like the poet in Chapter 2. The old Dominicans musings are symptomatic of a conscience-stricken friar who desires change of heart among his fellow Spaniards and fears that their hegemonys end is imminent unless reforms are instituted: ...attacks wake us up; we discover our weaknesses, and can improve ourselves. Exaggerated praises only fool us, lull us to sleep...All will go as they went in Europe. The worst part of it is that we are working our own ruin. For example, take this unbridled desire to raise every year, and at our own discretion, the rentals on our lands; it will be our ruin...I fear we are, on the decline. Whom God would destroy, He first makes mad. That is why we should lighten our hand; already the people complain. He criticizes the
4

For the purpose of quoting various passages in Rizals Noli Me Tangere, this paper used Leon Ma. Guerreros English translation (1961), except when stated otherwise. Leon Ma. Guerreros translation was utilized because of its relative popularity (as attested by its continuous reprinting throughout the decades) and linguistic contemporariness. As this is not a translation study, the writer arbitrarily set aside the known criticism of Leon Ma. Guerreros translation put forward by some foreign experts. Leon Ma. Guerreros easy-to-read and eloquent translation makes it suitable for this essays main aim of contextualizing Rizals first novel. 5 English translations by Guerrero, and Lacson-Locsin (1996) and Filipino translation by Antonio & MelendrezCruz (1991).

Churchs greed for higher land rents and hopes that the colonial governments high-handed ways will change. The sick priest doesnt only engages in self-criticism but he also lays down what should be done, declaring that while he wont force his compatriots to change, he would at least strive to change himself and be like a lotus plant, remaining pretty clean amidst a putrid and polluted environment: I have thought it well; let the others do what they will; let us for our part try to keep whatever prestige we have left; and since we shall soon appear before God, let us keep our hands clean... Thus, at the very least, by trying to be a beacon of decency amidst a corrupt hegemony, the old priest manages to be a mouthpiece of Rizals counter-hegemonic discourse. Todays people can only hope that more and more clergymen and bureaucrats will learn to emulate the old Dominicans lotus principle.

Honorable Soldiers: Against the Hegemony of Stereotypes With the stereotypical violence and notorious barbarity of many civil guards during the Spanish hegemony, readers might find it awkward to discover the fact that Rizal included some liberal if not enlightened soldiers like the ageing Lieutenant Guevara who was introduced in Chapter 2, and the friarbashing governor-general6 himself in Noli Me Tangere. Lieutenant Guevara is a mild-mannered soldier who considers Ibarras father as his friend. He dared to publicly chastise Father Damaso, a violator of celibacy and the talkative former parish priest of San Diego (setting of Noli Me Tangere; the microcosm of Philippine society in the novel) who caused the incarceration of Ibarras father and later ordered the exhumation and desecration of his remains. Referring to Father Damaso, Lieutenant Guevara issued this tirade: Well, then, this priest, having returned to his parish and learning what had occurred, first turned his anger upon his unfortunate vicar, and then ordered the corpse of the gentleman in question (Ibarras father) to be dug up, thrown out of the cemetery, and buried I dont know where. The town of San Diego was too cowardly to protest...But His Excellency (the governor-general) heard of it, and because he is a man with a good heart, he asked that the outrage be
6

The commander-in-chief and almost supreme ruler of the Philippines then.

punished... While the ageing lieutenant remains a part of the oppressive status quo, he at least makes sure in his own way that justice is served to whom it is due. During the Spanish hegemony, only the bravest among the brave dare go against friars, for they know that some friars are powerful enough to cause the murder of the highest executive official in the colonial set-up, the governor general himself. Thus, Rizals use of Lieutenant Guevaras character to assail friars for their abuses is another attempt to undermine what Marcelo H. del Pilar has called as frailocracy in his satire La Frailocracia Filipina (1889). Father Damaso represents what is bad and unwanted in Spains hegemony over the Philippines while Lieutenant Guevara stands for what Rizal once hoped to preserve and further develop if had the Philippines been benevolently assimilated and equally treated as a province of Spain. Lieutenant Guevaras commander-in-chief, the man they address as His Excellency, the governor-general himself, made known his displeasure of abusive and irreverent friars through this statement in Chapter 9: ...I know the Father Provincial made a mockery of my order. I ask the transfer of that friar as a punishment, and they go and move him to a much better parish. Typical friars tricks... Alone, the governor-general cant help but express his disappointment with the peoples lack of outrage against frailocracy that seems to overpower him at times: Ah, if these people werent so stupid, theyd soon take the measure of these Reverences! While his statement reeks of disdain for the helplessly subservient Filipinos, his tone also implies his desire for them to rise-up against the abuses of friars so that eventually, with many temporary allies, he will easily be able to get back at the abusive men of the cloth. At the most, Lieutenant Guevara and the friar-bashing governor-general in Noli Me Tangere presaged the current voices of dissent within the ruling class, such as General Francisco Gudani, General Danilo Danny Lim, Navy Lieutenant Nancy Gadian and former Lieutenant and now Senator Antonio Trillanes. At the very least, Rizals characterization of Lieutenant Guevara and the governor-general in Noli Me Tangere battles the hegemony of stereotypical civil guards, while emphasizing the context of his anti-clerical bias. In a letter to his critic Vicente Barrantes (1890), Rizal directly mentioned his apparent penchant for subverting frailocracy as his primary goal is writing Noli Me Tangere: For all its faults (the Noli) has

served my purposes. If it is not the shiny nickel-plated, perfectly shaped bullet which an academician can fire, and only a rough pebble picked up from a brook, still, it has struck the head of that two-faced Goliath that in the Philippines is called friar-rule and mal-administration. Nonetheless, other characters in both Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are more explicit in their opposition to the whole oppressive colonial system which includes not only the purveyors of frailocracy but also the Spanish officials in the corrupt bureaucracy that makes Spanish hegemony possible and unbearable.

Tasio the Philosopher: The Wise Old Man Against Political and Cultural Hegemony and Official Puppetry Though considered a fool by many for his unorthodox ideas and odd behavior, Tasio or Don Anastasio remains the most vibrant and witty counter-hegemonic character in Rizals two novels. In Chapter 14, his background as a former seminarian who chose a woman over his vocation, and a rich heir who spent much of his wealth on books to escape sorrow brought by his loves early demise, is revealed. Meeting the mayor7 amidst the background of a coming storm, readers will meet Tasio as his witty self in this chapter. The mayor, while casting a mocking glance at the old mans shabby clothes, asked Tasio with a tone of surprise: The storm? Youre thinking of taking a bath! The old man with the shabby clothes cleverly replied while sarcastically looking at the mayor: A bath? Not a bad idea, especially after stumbling across garbage. This statement is enough to disprove that Tasio is a fool. Indeed, how can an old man that calls a submissive mayor garbage be a fool when hes asserting a well-known fact? Through Tasio, Rizal exposes and ridicules the seemingly marionette-like behavior of Filipino officials in the Spanish colonial government. Details of the mayors subservience and impotence as a bogus leader is exposed in Chapter 20, where he presides over a meeting that disregarded the enlightened consensus of those present to comply with the luxurious whims of the parish priest. In the course of their discourse, Tasio passionately lectured against the absurd hegemony of superstitions over science in the era of Spanish colonization, a hegemony which virtually frustrated his
7

In the original, the term that Rizal used is gobernadorcillo, which literally means little governor.

every effort to institute practical scientific reforms: You have there a brace of candles bought from a Chinamans shop. For my part, I have suggested to every mayor this town has had in the last ten years the purchase of a lightning-rod, but everybody laughs it off, and would rather spend the money on fireworks and bell-pealing. You yourself went even further; the very day after I made a suggestion to you, you commissioned a Chinese foundry to cast a bell for St. Barbara, who is supposed to be our patroness in storms, although it has been scientifically established that it is dangerous to ring bells in stormy weather... Tasios words against bureaucratic stupidity and absurdity certainly remains relevant in a time of recent absurdities such as a non-existing 40-kilometer railroad8 that costs $503 million, the 728 million-peso fertilizer fund which was ostensibly used to acquire foliar fertilizer (used for orchids) for distribution in rice-producing districts and non-agricultural areas, billion-dollar mining contracts given to foreign companies despite constitutional barriers against foreign exploitation of the countrys national resources and many more. Tasios cunning counter-hegemonic statements will again surface in Chapter 20 where he condemned the marionette-like behavior of the town mayor (the same one he called garbage in Chapter 14) who presided a meeting that ended in the latters imposition of the parish priests pompous feast day agenda over the popular consensus on a more enlightened proposal, through self-mockery: The fault is ours! You did not protest when you were given a lackey for a leader; and I, woe is me! I had forgotten about it.9 In Chapter 25 of Noli Me Tangeres first edition10, Tasio explains his reason for using hieroglyphics in scribbling his thoughts: I am not writing for this generation but for those yet to come. If this one could read what I have written, it would burn my books...But the generation that deciphers these characters will be a learned generation; it will understand me and say: Not everyone slept during the night of our forefathers! Perhaps, Rizal wants succeeding post-colonial generations to understand and
8 9

The still unfinished North Rail Project from Caloocan City to Calumpit, Bulacan. Curiously, this doesnt appear in Guerreros translation. Thus, for this part, Lacson-Locsins translation was quoted. 10 Rizals original first edition omitted a chapter on Elias and Salome. Later translations and editions reinserted it as the 25th chapter, thus moving the chapter on Tasio and Ibarras conversation and other succeeding chapters to the 26th and so on.

appreciate his hieroglyphic-like statements of counter-hegemony in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. That he chose to diversify his counter-hegemonic discourse through various characters with differing levels of enlightenment and eloquence seems to suggest his desire for future generations with slightly different contexts to still be able to comprehend his novels and use them for their own counter-hegemonic struggles. Rizal accepts that his generation lives in the long dark night of tyranny but persists in keeping awake through scribbling his counter-hegemonic thoughts in the mouths of diverse and at times unlikely figures. After a short discussion on hieroglyphics and migratory swallows, Tasio went on to express his disgust on the ruling colonial system and the colonized mentality that it breeds: They think the Mayor is smart because he has never learned to do anything except serve chocolate to the parish priests...but now he is rich, can trouble the petty dreams of his fellow citizens, and sometimes even talks of justice. Theres a man with brains! the masses think. See he started with nothing and he has become great! Rizal through Tasio condemns the malleability of local elite leaders and the masses skewed pragmatism as the twin causes and effects (and vice-versa) of the long-lasting Spanish hegemony. The philosopher issues a warning to the overly optimistic and politically naive Ibarra: Cave ne cadas. Beware lest you fall! Money talks, and the golden calf has many times ousted God from His altars, even in the days of Moses. Through this statement, Rizal acknowledges that the fight against hegemony cant be won with good intentions, that a particular hegemony may last because of money, which gives tyrants the power to acquire the loyalty of even the stoutest democrat. On the malleability of colonial and neo-colonial governments, Tasio has these truthfully nerveracking thoughts: The Government! The Government you say!....the Government itself sees nothing, hears nothing except what the parish priest or the head of a religious Order makes it see, hear and decide...The government does not plan a better future; it is only an arm...Because of the inertia with which it allows itself to be dragged from failure to failure, it becomes a shadow, loses its identity, and, weak and incapable, entrusts everything to selfish interests... Only the masters have changed but the puppet show remains almost the same. In Rizals time, the government has friars as masters. Presently,

recent regimes have businessmen and foreign powers as their masters and backers. In the context of Tasios thoughts, contemporary Filipinos will better be aware how their autocratic leaders have become willing puppets of more powerful forces from above. Tasios remarks explain why every traditional political leader in the Philippines think that granting parity rights to foreigners (what is packaged as globalization and liberalization) and giving all leeway to profit-minded businessmen (disguised as laissez faire economics or deregulation, and under the Noynoy Aquino administration, as the PublicPrivate Partnership or PPP scheme) will solve poverty, while rejecting debt renegotiation, land reform, industrialization and other alternatives offered by modern day Tasios of aboveground social movements, civil society groups and non-government grassroots organizations. Election after election, businessmen and foreign lobbyists replace what Tasio call as a discarded puppet, the exiting marionette regime, in a farce now called as elections. Indeed, even former Chief Justice Reynato Punos denunciation of a government still beholden to oligarchs mirrors Tasios counter-hegemonic musings. Tasio further unmasked the malevolence of tyranny by revealing its tried-and-tested tools of subjugation against people who think of rising up against hegemony: The government is intimidated with threats...and the people cowed with the Governments armed forces...The people do not complain because they have no choice; they do not move because they are in a stupor... Rizal thus clarified that economic and political hegemony is further solidified through arms, through the force of guns, as what todays tyrants know. Slightly contrary to Prof. Jose Ma. Sisons description of Tasio as an idealist cynic in his brilliant essay Rizal The Subversive (1968), Rizals wise old man speaks of the certain redemption of the oppressed, the time when tyrants will be buried, no longer in the pyramids of counter-hegemonic books but in the pits dug by the oppressed: ...you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen how their hearts bleed. But some day you will see and hear! Then woe unto those who draw their strength from ignorance and fanaticism, who take their pleasure in fraud, and who work under the cover of night, confident that all are asleep! When the light of day reveals the monstrous creatures of the night, the reaction will be terrifying. All the forces stifled for centuries, the poisons distilled drop by drop, all the

repressed emotions, will come to light in a great explosion. Who shall then settle the accounts, such accounts as the peoples of the world have presented from time to time in those revolutions that history records in bloodstained pages? Tasios revolutionary prophecy is echoed, answered if not fulfilled by the anarchist rebel Simoun in Rizals El Filibusterismo as he describes his anarchist masterpiece a bomb in a crystalline lamp to Basilio: Quite right, nitroglycerine and yet something rather more than nitroglycerine: the essence of tears, the compound of hatred, injustice and wrongs, the final argument of the weak, force against force, violence to match violence...it will blow to pieces the most dangerous of tyrants...the Philippines will hear the explosion that will finally destroy the rotten structure... Tasios prophecy is enough to forewarn todays tyrants about the consequences of maintaining an oppressive hegemony: the birth of a myriad of Simouns, rebels of all sorts and dissenters of various political persuasions united in the goal of toppling tyranny. Within this context, it is very easy to explain why the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front remain resilient even after successive bloody government antiinsurgency campaigns have been implemented. Bringing out the cunning political scientist within him, Tasio thwarted Ibarras reformist hopes regarding enlightened leaders who might try to institute changes from above, naive do-gooders who fail to enlighten, organize and mobilize the masses and thus never succeed despite their good intentions: The reforms which come from above are annulled below by the vices of all, by, for example, the get-richquick madness, and the ignorance of the people who let everything pass. Abuses cannot be corrected by royal decree if zealous authorities do not watch over its execution, and while freedom of speech against excesses of petty tyrants is not granted. Otherwise plans will stay plans, the abuses will continue... Through this wise observation, Rizal is able to outline the ingredients in cooking up recipes against tyranny and toward good governance: good and zealous executives, enlightened and organized people and freedom of speech to guarantee a healthy exchange of ideas toward achieving an enlightened popular consensus.

Rizal through Tasio particularly emphasized the need for a government that listens and works for and with the people in the battle against colonialism, and perhaps even against neocolonialism and present-day imperialism, a government that rejects foreign intervention and serves the interests of its own people: So long as the government does not deal directly with the people it will not cease to be a ward, and it will live like those idiots who tremble at the sound of their keepers voice and curry his favor... Concluding his conversation with Ibarra, Tasio, ever the realist dreamer, acknowledges the possibility that despite good intentions and zealous toils, the movement for change may still fail, one way or another, but such failure is only temporary for the liberation of the oppressed, the dawn of a new day will certainly come, for the counter-hegemonic deus ex populo, the anti-tyrannical figures live on beyond literal death, through this eloquent declaration: If that were to happen, if the enterprise should fail you would be comforted by the thought that you had done everything in your power. In any case, something would have been gained. The cornerstone would have been laid, the seed would have been sown. After the tempest some grain might perhaps sprout, survive the catastrophe, save the species from annihilation, and serve as grain seed for the children of the perished sower. The example of others can encourage those who only fear to begin. It appears that every time Tasio enters the narrative, a brilliant idea is expounded, as in the case of the original Chapter 29 of Noli Me Tangere. Asked by his good friend, the vice mayor, why he remains gloomier than ever while others celebrate the feast day with gusto, he offers a short lecture against unnecessary opulence. Remaining the same as always, in his coarse-fibered, dark-striped shirt, buttoned up the neck, comfortable shoes, and ash-colored, broad-brimmed felt hat, while others are in their best pompous apparel, Tasio in his usual style grabbed the chance to educate his friend by rebuking official lavishness in the face of the peoples poverty saying: Having a good time doesnt mean making fools of ourselves! Its the same senseless orgy every year. And all for what? Throwing away all the money when there is so much misery and need! But of course! I understand. The orgy, the bacchanal, serves to drown out the general lamentation. This echoes Tasios disdain for a government that buys candles and bells for St. Barbara (the patron saint of those seeking protection against lightning) instead of buying lightning

rods. With Tasios witty commentary, todays circumspect observers will readily understand why governments of poor countries like the Philippines want to maintain an aura of happiness, a faade of festiveness, amidst sprawling hunger and poverty that is, to create an illusion of contentment aimed at minimizing the possibility of the people rising up with arms against government inaction on their destitute situation. Recent readers, just like Rizals critic Vicente Barrantes, might remark that Tasios character is too good to be true, a realist dreamer, a wise old man that speaks his brilliant mind on almost any topic, a seemingly perfect and perfectionist voice of reason and enlightenment. The national hero himself has the answer in a letter to Barrantes (1890): But I have depicted the good beside the bad. I have depicted an Elias and a Tasio, because the Elias and the Tasios exist, exist, exist...only that Your Excellency and your partisans, fearing that the few good men I have portrayed may serve as an example to the bad and redeem them, shout that it is false, poetic, exaggerated, ideal, impossible, improbable... Rizal, after all, wants every Filipino to emulate Elias and Tasio however poetic, ideal and improbable their good characters seem to be. He expects that through his portrayal of Tasio and other good characters, Filipinos would awaken to the fact that theyre capable of transforming themselves and their country. More than one hundred years since Tasio appeared in Rizals narrative, the Philippines still lurk in the dark night of neocolonialism, with few modern-day Tasios to carry on the struggle for freedom till the coming of the dawn.

The First Democrat and Dissenter: Paragon of Service in a Corrupt Bureaucracy Long before Don Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Taada, Jose Diokno, Jovito Salonga, Teofisto Guingona and Aquilino Nene Pimentel, the Philippines have Don Filipo Lino in Rizals Noli Me Tangere. Don Filipo is introduced in Chapter 14 as the liberal vice-mayor (teniente mayor) of San Diego. Don Filipos democratic credentials will be in full blossom in Chapter 20, where, in a town meeting, he leads the so-called liberals in San Diego in pushing for an enlightened budget plan for their annual feast day celebrations. Following Tasios cunning stratagem, Don Filipo sacrificed his amor

propio (love for self) by superficially presenting and urging the approval of a luxurious budget plan (the usual agenda pushed by conservatives in and the parish priest of San Diego) which go against his and his allies actual enlightened stance a lean budget that minimizes expenses for trivialities and allots savings for the construction of San Diegos school house. Tasio theorized that since the conservatives share a permanent collective loathing for Don Filipo, the leader of their ideological enemies, they would be foolish enough to instantly reject any proposal voiced out by the vice-mayor, even if it resembles their own plan. While repressing a smile, Don Filipo began his speech: We have 3,500 pesos at our disposal. Now then, with that amount, we can put on a fiesta that will eclipse in magnificence all that have been seen so far, whether in our province or in neighboring ones. Rizal sarcastically scoffed at the official pomposity of the clergy-led Spanish hegemony in a land of sprawling hunger and poverty, a defect that seems to afflict even recent civilian-led Philippine administrations. It is tempting to imagine how Don Filipo might react with lampposts acquired at a whopping 202,777 pesos each or instant noodles bought for 22 pesos each, to mention just two of the most outrageously corrupt deals consummated in the Philippines in recent years. Don Filipo continued his charade by lampooning the official pomposity of the colonial government buttressed by brainwashed conservatives: Mr. Secretary, put down 200 pesos for the stage. I propose that the Tondo comedy troupe be contracted for performances on seven consecutive nights...at 200 pesos each make 1,400...I propose also a great fireworks display...We want firecrackers and colossal rockets...200 super-firecrackers at two pesos each and 200 rockets at the same price...I propose...that every day 200 fried chickens, 100 stuffed capons, and fifty roast pigs be thrown into the lake... In Chapter 24 of Noli Me Tangere, Don Filipo bitterly confronts the alferez or lieutenant in charge of San Diego for a draconian move done by foolish civil guards: Your soldiers arrested her. They marched her through the town because of something having to do with her sons... While highlighting the Spanish hegemonys high-handedness, Don Filipos lament over Sisas illegal arrest also evokes memories of human rights advocates and civil libertarians like Senators Jose Diokno and Lorenzo Taada who fought the Marcos dictatorship with all the words, courage and wisdom that they can muster. In the

same chapter, Don Filipo balked at the civil guards arbitrary search and de-facto gate-crashing at the party sponsored by Crisostomo Ibarra. The civil guards rudely interrupted the party to look for a certain Elias whom they describe as of ill repute, e.g. a subversive, whose written description they carry with him. Don Filipo condemned their arrogance and suggested that their haste might become an unnecessary waste thus: Now, look here, that description would fit nine-tenths of the natives. You might be making a mistake. Daring to go against the powerful military establishment then and now is a sure sign of counterhegemonic thought. Standing by the peoples right to uninterrupted entertainment against the authorities foolish might, Don Filipo proved his mettle again in Chapter 40 of Noli Me Tangeres original edition. Forced by Fray Salvi to eject Crisostomo Ibarra (who has been excommunicated for attempting to kill Fray Damaso) from one of the seats in the street theater, Don Filipo calmly stood his ground: I am sorry, I cannot oblige your Reverence. Mr. Ibarra is one of the most generous contributors to the festivities, and he has a right to be here so long as he does not disturb the public order...I am extremely sorry but I cannot throw anybody out. Later, two soldiers came to stop the show because our C.O. and his wife have had a fight, and they cant get to sleep, to which Don Filipo said: Tell your C.O. that we have a permit from the Provincial Governor, and that nobody here can countermand it, not even the Mayor himself, who is my only superior. Here, Rizal through Don Filipo asserts civilian supremacy over the abusive and capricious military, a concept that remains relevant in these times of increasing military encroachment in the supposedly civilian-dominated democratic forms of governance.

Not Your Ordinary Young Man: An Enlightened Neighborhood Leader When Don Filipos luxurious plan for the feast day was defeated, a young neighborhood leader stood up to articulate the genuine proposals of the liberals which boil down to cost-cutting measures to save money for the construction of a school house in San Diego. The young man began to lay down his proposal thus: My plan, gentleman can be reduced to this: we must think up new entertainments that are out of the common run...and we must see to it that the money that has been raised does not leave our town

or is spent vainly on fireworks, but employed in something useful to all. Through the young mans words, Rizal is echoing his stance against the cultural hegemony of Spaniards that kept Filipinos drunken with the potent potion of absurdist, romanticist and/or fantastic tales in the form of Western-themed moro-moros11. Hes against filling the minds of the masses with fantastic stories about kings of Bohemia and Granada...princesses who go into battle...or else wandering forlorn in mountain and vale as if under the spell of a sorcerer. The national hero through the young neighborhood leaders words voiced out his desired entertainment for the people: Would it not be a thousand times better to present a picture of our own customs and traditions, so that we may thus understand and correct our vices and defects, and extol our virtues? To fulfill this aim, the young man offered to facilitate the smooth conduct of the comedy The Mayors Election and a play based on the indigenous tale of Maria Makiling. On their face value, these plays seem to be more concrete in the sense that they mirror Philippine society better than tiresome moromoros. Thus, at the very least, these entertainment provides more opportunities for Filipinos to understand and correct their vices and defects and extol their virtues. Rizal through the young neighborhood leader tries to emphasize the need to nurture Philippine culture, the compelling necessity of forming an enlightened and independent Filipino identity. He knows that Filipinos are different from Spaniards, thus they must preserve their culture through promoting and nurturing it even during traditional feast days (which is part of the Spanish colonizations legacy). But the young neighborhood leader, which of course is just one incarnation of Rizals brilliant mind, didnt stop at promoting Philippine culture and shunning Westernized entertainment. Like enlightened non-government agencies in the Philippines today, the young man also advocates the rectification of the governments fiscal priorities. Instead of pompous feast days and much fleeting entertainment, he aired these progressive proposals: A fifth part of the money raised could be utilized to award prizes: for instance, to the best schoolboy, to the best herdsman, farmer, fisherman, and so on...With the remainder of the money, we can begin a small building to serve as a school, for we should
11

A moro-moro is a play that narrates the battles between believers of Islam and Christianity.

not expect God himself to come down and build for us. The young leader justified his suggestion by revealing a sad truth that certainly cemented the role of San Diego as the microcosm of the Philippines, then and now: It is depressing that, while we have a first-class cockpit, our children must learn their lessons in, of all places, what is practically the stable of the parish priest. A witty columnist in the present times might parody this to expose the current state of the country: It is depressing that, while we have a multi-billion peso airport whose ceiling collapsed during its inauguration and millions of pesos to fertilize Metro Manila and other urban areas, our children must learn their lessons in, of all places, what is practically the shade of an old mango tree. Rizals call for prioritizing education in the preparation of the countrys budget is like a voice in the wilderness then, since as revealed by historians, all throughout Spanish rule, schools remained mostly privately run by religious orders catering to Spaniards, mestizos and elite indios the colonial government just doesnt care about public education. That Rizal chose to voice-out progressive reforms in a time of a stubbornly conservative hegemony proves Noli Me Tangeres counter-hegemonic relevance. Rizals young neighborhood leader is the epitome of todays Filipino radicals who advocate out-of-the-box thinking, the outright rejection of failed capitalist globalization (in the face of Americas and Europes recent debt crises) and the reassertion of economic self-reliance and political democratization as two basic sweeping reforms necessary to jumpstart the Philippines march to genuine progress.

Maria Clara: A Closet Patriot In an essay entitled Maria Clara: Paragon or Caricature, Salvador Lopez (1968) initially praised Maria Clara by declaring that No other character in Philippine literature has had a more pervasive influence on the thought-life of the Filipino people than this famous heroine of Rizal. But, after analyzing Rizals supposed agenda in creating Maria Clara, Lopez gave a quite iconoclastic verdict: Maria Clara was the forerunner in fiction of that woman who, in 1896, betrayed the secret of the Katipunan to the priest of Tondo. You find in her the same feebleness, the same helplessness, the same

fear none of the qualities that were possessed by Princess Urduja of ancient Pangasinan or by Tandang Sora of the Revolution or by Teodora Alonzo, Rizals own brave and gallant mother. Chapter 23 of Noli Me Tangere might redeem the image of Maria Clara and bolster opinion on her being a paragon of patriotism, at least a closet one. Superficially, Maria Clara doesnt have the modern-day womans bravura. She doesnt seem so idealistically patriotic like her fianc, Crisostomo Ibarra (who always talk about his dreams for his motherland), but deep inside her, a strong love for her motherland thrives. She just cant find the right words to say it, so she just have to say I love my country in a song, as a song goes. Asked by her friends and their mothers to sing, Maria Clara immediately gave in, singing her love for the Philippines: Sweet are the hours in ones own country/Where all is friendly underneath the sun/Sweet are the breezes from native rice fields/Death less bitter, and love more sweetly won!/It is sweet there for the babe to waken/In his mothers bosom; without guile/To seek her kisses and embrace her/While their eyes meet in a smile./Sweet is death for ones own country/Where all is dear neath the sun above,/Bitter the wind for those who have not/Country, Mother and one true Love! Rizals choice of Maria Clara to deliver his dulcet song for his motherland sweeter and more melodious than any of Ibarras grandiose statements cant be a mere coincidence. Through Maria Claras song, Rizal is able to strike a blow at the patriarchal set-up in Spanish colonies where women are always relegated to the sidelines, confined in kitchens and bedrooms, hindered from participating in political activities such as nationalist advocacies. By choosing Maria Clara as the vocalist of his song for his greatest love, Rizal emphasized the pro-active and potent role of women in any self-respecting society: the propagator of patriotism and other great loves in the hearts and minds of children who will later become leaders of their countries. This seemingly feminist perspective of Rizal is echoed in his letter To the Young Women of Malolos (1889): Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you, women, because you are the first to influence the consciousness of man...Awaken and prepare the will of your children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clear procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must teach your children...Open your childrens eyes so that they may jealously

guard their honor, love their fellow men and their native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them they must prefer dying with honor to living in dishonor... He went further to mention the women of Sparta as good models in raising patriotic children.

Incarnation of the Prophet of Fire: Elias the Perfect Rebel Elias is as enigmatic as his namesake, the prophet Elijah (see the Bible, 1 Kings 17-21). Just like the prophet, Elias the rebel suddenly appears in the most unexpected situations. Now you see him, now you dont. But the similarity between the prophet and the rebel goes beyond their enigmatic entrance and exit in the narrative. They both stand against tyranny in different times yet similar situations. Elias rebelled against Spanish hegemony after his family fell prey to a litany of grave injustices, while Prophet Elijah preached against the blood-thirsty and land-grabbing cabal of the evil King Ahab and her more malevolent wife, Queen Jezebel. The prophet Elijah is known as the prophet of fire for having the power to summon fire from heaven, while Elias, through his perfect altruism, keeps the fire of nationalism and freedom alive in the hearts of many patriots. In what would have been Noli Me Tangeres twenty-fifth chapter (which Rizal deleted to cut printing costs), Rizal provided Elias own justification for his passionate conviction to continue fighting for justice even at the expense of dismissing his special friend and eventually foregoing a married life: ...you know my cruel past and you know that my misfortunes are not of my own making. If it were not for the tragic destiny that sometimes makes me regret my father and mother ever loved each other, if it were not because I do not want my children to suffer what my sister and I suffered, and what I still suffer, you would have been my wife in the eyes of God many months ago... Like the Old Testament prophet, Elias assumes the role of a hand of God, not the God of greed but the God of justice, as he explains how he was able to save Ibarra from the enormous time capsule repository (derrick) in Chapter 33 of the original edition: ...I do believe in Him (God). I have felt his hand upon me more than once. When everything was falling to pieces today, threatening annihilation to anyone in the pit, I held the villain beside me; he was struck down, and I am whole and safe...in exposing

the criminal to the same danger which he prepared for others...I did not kill him, I let the hand of God strike him down. In Chapter 49 of the original edition, Elias reappeared as the voice of the oppressed in a heated dialogue with Crisostomo Ibarra. He enumerated radical reforms demanded by rebels in the mountains led by Commander Pablo, the very changes that common folks desire for themselves, starting with a shockingly timely proposition: ...more respect for human dignity, greater security for the individual, less strength in the armed forces, less privileges for an organization which so easily abuses them... With Elias statement, the various reports of the United Nations, especially the one written by UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Philip Alston, on the dismal state of human rights in the Philippines and recent revelations of Navy Lieutenant Nancy Gadian on military corruption and American intervention easily come to mind. Elias indicts the Spanish-led colonial government for solely using the force of arms in subduing the rebellion instead of eradicating its roots: Its a bad doctor, sir, who only seeks to correct and suppress symptoms without trying to determine the cause of the illness, or knowing it, fears to go after it... Rizals words are equally instructive to current saber-rattling and war-freak Philippine policy makers that insist on failed brutal insurgency campaigns characterized by extrajudicial killings and abductions of suspected dissenters and their families, while neglecting poverty in the provinces, an act that in fact work to the rebels advantage far from decimating the rebellion. Rizal through Elias also preached against militarization as a method of imposing hegemony: It paralyzes communication because everybody is afraid of being harassed for petty causes. It is concerned with appearances rather than with fundamentals...A man is tied and beaten up because he has forgotten his identity card, no matter if he is a decent person with a good reputation. The officers think it is their first duty to exact a salute, willing or unwilling, even at night, and they are imitated in this by their subordinates, who use it as an excuse although an excuse is never lacking to man-handle and fleece the peasants. The sanctity of the home does not exist for them...There is no security for the individual... Such climate of fear, of state-sponsored terrorism, approximates the recent experiences of people in some

Visayan regions, Southern and Central Luzon where the notorious General Jovito Palparan has been assigned to kill all suspected communists. Soldiers demanding cedulas (resident certificates), counting the plates of every house, summoning civilians and forcing them to sign documents stating their alleged surrender, beating people who dont know where the communists are, killing peasants and claiming afterwards that they are rebels anyway...Its as if Rizals era has been duplicated all over the country during the dark years of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. In the face of government-imposed atrocities, Elias offers the necessary solution: It is true that by ourselves we are nothing. But take up the cause of the people, join them, do not turn a deaf ear to their voice, give an example to the rest, give us an idea of what it is to have a country. Retorting to Ibarras naive insistence that building schoolhouses will be enough to stop atrocities and gain freedom, Elias sounded like a liberation theologian long before liberation theology was born in Latin America in advocating a revolution sanctioned by God as the ultimate end of every failed reformist struggle: Neither can freedom be won without a fight! Without freedom, there can be no light...the struggle begins in the field of ideas, but will end in the blood-stained arena of action. I hear the voice of God: woe to those who would resist Him, history has not been written for them. Mixing revolutionary fervor with idealistic hope, Elias speaks of a coming dawn of a new day: Our people slept for centuries but one day the lightning struck, and, even as it killed Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, it called our nation to life. Since then, new aspirations work on our minds, and these aspirations, now scattered, will one day unite under the guidance of God. God has not failed other peoples; He will not fail ours, their cause is the cause of freedom. Unfortunately, Elias whom Adrian Cristobal calls as the ethics of revolution, died without seeing the dawn. In his final moments, he still zealously proclaims the certainty of the dawns advent and enjoins citizens to love what it will bring, at least for the sake of those who died fighting for it: I die without seeing the sun rise on my country. You who see the dawn, welcome it, and do not forget those who fell during the night. It is interesting to note how both Tasio and Elias refers to the days of Spanish hegemony as the night, and speaks of the coming of a new day that will replace it. Elias literally died in

Noli Me Tangere but his zeal, the fire of his conviction remains alive in the likes of Matanglawin in El Filibusterismo, Mando Plaridel in Amado V. Hernandez Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey), Hassim and his sundry band of rebels in Carlos Bulosans The Power of the People, and even in the persons of present-day rebels who share his passion for freedom.

Commander Pablo: Principled Champion of the Oppressed Rizals Noli Me Tangere is quite revolutionary in its way of portraying rebels in a somewhat positive light. Prior to the Katipunan-led revolution in 1896, rebels are mostly ragtag bandits and outlaws in the eyes of many. When Rizal included Elias in his first novel, he tried to justify the existence of rebels in relation to the existence of injustices wrought by the Spanish-led colonial government. He shattered the myth that those in the mountains are bandits and outlaws, but rather, freedom fighters who are struggling for a just cause. Such apparent positive view of rebels is further enriched by Rizals inclusion of an old man affectionately called Old Pablo or Commander Pablo by his followers, in his social narrative. In Chapter 45 of the Noli Me Tangeres original edition, Elias embarked on a long journey to reach the clandestine headquarters of Commander Pablo. The old man, wounded, explains why they have retreated from a fight: I had to flee to avoid the shedding of innocent blood. My enemies were afraid to face me themselves, and only sent against me poor wretches who had never done me the slightest injury...I shall not harm the innocent. Do you see this wound? I received it rather than kill a poor municipal policeman who was only doing his duty. Rizal stresses the civility of rebels as compared with the wanton brutality of the dreaded Spanish-led civil guards. He also implies that even the policemen, soldiers and civil guards working as mercenaries of the oppressive hegemony are also victims of the much hated Spanish-led colonial government. Commander Pablo rationalizes his rebellion as a logical result of injustices that his family has suffered under the colonial government and maintains that theirs is a just struggle which will not purposely shed innocent blood. Far from being a vengeance-driven rebel, Commander Pablo expresses a relatively clear view of the contradiction between the haves and the have nots: You say he is rich? The rich think only of

becoming richer, they are blinded by pride and pomp; and since as a rule they have a good life, especially when they have powerful friends, none of them troubles himself with the unfortunate... He issues a scathing rebuke against rich Filipinos who, most of the times, wittingly or unwittingly side with the oppressors in order to protect their relatively modest privileges in a colonial and even in a neocolonial system. In Commander Pablos view, the rich remains an enemy unless, they, like him (a formerly rich man), suffer as the unfortunate majority have had and be in solidarity with their struggle towards economic and political justice. Commander Pablos leniency-cum-sympathy on the servants of the ruling system is seemingly reflected in the New People Armys penchant for raids without a gunshot, which not only enable them to save bullets for future operations, but also cultivate a disciplined image of the rebels, at least in the minds of the oppressed masses whose interests they intend to serve.

Encapsulating an Ocean of Counter-Hegemonic Thought All throughout Rizals Noli Me Tangere, a diverse array of characters can be found mouthing the authors counter-hegemonic discourse, in various levels of eloquence, perspective and forcefulness. From the expectedly harsh commentaries of rebels such as Elias and Commander Pablo to the surprisingly antiestablishment rhetoric of the very people in power like the friar-bashing governor-general, the ageing Lieutenant Guevara, the liberal vice-mayor Don Filipo and a reflective old Dominican priest, and numerous witty statements of Rizals wise old man Tasio, readers will realize that Rizals first novel did not only expose the socio-political realities of the Philippines under Spanish hegemony, but also revealed timeless counter-hegemonic discourse which freedom fighters from America to Zimbabwe can utilize to gain insights in their own just struggles for freedom, human rights, justice and democracy. This paper tried its best to give readers an introductory view of Rizals ocean of counterhegemonic thought, but it is impossible to completely discuss even Noli Me Tangeres wide array of counter-hegemonic characterization and discourse. To do so might require a book or two, much more if El Filibusterismo will be read in the same light. Suffice it to say that, at the very least, this paper might

help cement Rizals recognized role as a herald of democracy, a champion against tyranny, a great expounder of counter-hegemonic thought, a man these troubled times badly need.

References: Cristobal, Adrian. Elias: The Ethics of Revolution Rizal: Contrary Essays. Daroy and Dolores S. Feria (eds.). Quezon City: Guro Books, 1968. Petronilo

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Cuddon, J.A. at C.E. Preston. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

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