Touch Rizal Not

ni Jesus Motea Jr.

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The sun and the stars that constantly emit rays of light and beams of hope turned into complete darkness when the Spanish hovered the islands, the tribes, the nation—the Philippines. How can Her sons and daughters stomach the blatant violence, non-stop raping, and the foe itself who trampled underfoot their innate cultures and most importantly, freedom? It pained them for more than 300 years. That is until, a man intervened.

The Spaniards were shape-shifters; they had sheepskins but they were ravenous wolves. They were cunning but they bite. Their guns bite. They can also shape-shift to parasites sucking the precious blood of the turned-out host, the Philippines, until it ran out of life.

Truth be told, their guns do bite. However, an emboldened word is a more powerful weapon that can shut the mouth of these wolves. You add more emboldened words to it and it becomes a trembling voice shaking off the parasites. The man who said to have intervened was the same man who got to bolster his writing skills and made each letter and each word roars. His name is Jose Rizal.

“Dr. Jose P. Rizal chose the road not taken”.

There were two roads during that time. For one, the road where everybody walks on because it felt ‘safe’, however, they were just really being passive since they, in one way or another, had already been used to mayhems. This ‘safe’ was a dangerous zone on the flipped side because they were inviting a beast and were giving in to perverting Her dignity. On the other hand, there was this road where no one has taken, only Rizal then came more.

The prolific writer had become heroic as he scribbled various literary pieces through his mighty "pluma" that fought head-on the Spaniards for the nation's liberty. He emblazoned two revolution-provoking masterpieces: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These well-crafted works of literature by Rizal rattled the Spaniards. They were as if troubled wolves in the night whose claws are out and are preparing to attack on the next day. This figurative predilection did completely happen as Rizal was executed as soon as the books were published, but for the most part, as immediate as Rizal turned tables where the threat (Spaniards) became threatened. The ravenous wolves that were hungry and ready to touch and devour were pacified through his hands—it was the other way around.

“Dr. Jose P. Rizal paved the way to revolution and let others take the road less travelled.”

Post-story:

Dr. Jose P. Rizal is a pure-blooded Filipino and was exalted as the National Hero of the Philippines as he shouldered the grieves and sorrows of his countrymen brought about by the Spaniards' mayhems and turned them to complete freedom.