Rizal

Rizal's state funeral reenacted for 116th martyrdom anniversary
December 30, 2012 2:44pm
Before dawn on Sunday, a funeral procession made its way from the old Rizal home in Binondo, Manila, reenacting Rizal's burial for the first time, 116 years after his martyrdom.

Dressed in 1920s attire, members of the Order of the Knights of Rizal reenacted the transfer of the remains of Rizal from Binondo to the site of the Rizal Monument in commemoration of Rizal’s 116th death anniversary.

Rizal was only given a state funeral 16 years after he was executed in Bagumbayan in 1896. "Matagal ring hindi siya nabigyan ng isang official and state funeral. Napakamakabuluhan para sa atin, kung 'di sa sambayanang Pilipino," Gemma Cruz-Araneta, great-granddaughter of Rizal's sister Maria, said in a report on Balitanghali on Sunday.

A replica of the urn containing Rizal's mortal remains was borne on a military caisson, trooped by six black horses, and accompanied by Knights of Rizal and Members of the Grand Lodge of Masonry.

Rizal family members, soldiers, government employees and officials converged from three assembly points, Plaza Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo; Fort Santiago; and the Manila Hotel.

"This is the centennial commemoration of the transfer of the urn containing the mortal remains of Dr. Rizal. It is a special event not only for the Knights of Rizal who took the lead of leading the transfer but also for all the Filipino people who were there,” Knights of Rizal Supreme Commander Reghis Romero II said in a previous report.

The urn was brought to the Rizal monument in Luneta Park, where a symbolic interment was held.President Benigno Aquino III led the flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremonies shortly after 7 a.m. The rites included a 21-gun salute in tribute to the national hero.

Victor Reyes, a great-grandson of Rizal's sister Saturnina, said dying is not necessary to become a hero.

"Hindi na kailangang mamatay para maging bayani ngayon. Sumunod sa mga batas trapiko, maliliit na bagay kung lahat tayo gagawa ng ganun, magpakabayani tayong lahat," he said on Balitanghali.

Sixteen years

After Rizal's execution, his mother Doña Teodora begged to be given her son's body, Asuncion Lopez Bantug, granddaughter of Rizal's sister Sisa, wrote in her biography "Lolo Jose: An Intimate Portrait of Rizal."

She wrote that Narcisa had ordered a coffin for her brother, but when it was sent to the Luneta after the execution, nobody could tell them where the body had been taken. After searching all over, from the city cemetery at Paang Bundok, where Rizal had expressed a wish to be buried, to several suburban graveyards, Narcisa found her brother's freshly dug grave at the Paco Cemetery.

She asked the guards to place a marble plaque designed by Doroteo Ongjungco with Rizal’s initials in reverse — “RPJ.” "The family feared that a more explicit tombstone might prompt the authorities to remove the body and hide it elsewhere, to prevent any public veneration of the Rizal grave," Bantug wrote.

The remains were exhumed on August 17, 1898, four days after the Mock Battle of Manila when the Americans took over the city. The remains were then brought to Narcisa’s house, where they were washed and cleansed. They were then placed in an ivory urn designed by Romualdo Teodoro de Jesus.

"This urn was venerated in frequent public ceremonies during the 1900s, when Rizal began to be honored as the National Hero of the Philippines," the biography said. The urn stayed in Narcisa's house on Estraude Street in Binondo, Manila until 1912.

On December 29 of that year, the urn was transferred in a procession headed by the Knights of Rizal to the marble hall of the Ayuntamiento de Manila, where it stayed overnight with the Knights on guard.

On the morning of December 30, 1912, the urn was brought in a solemn procession to Rizal's final resting place at the base of the national monument, which was inaugurated on December 30, 1913.— Carmela G. Lapeña/BM, GMA News

Aquino to lead restaging of transfer of Rizal’s bones from Binondo to Luneta
By Erika Sauler, Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:45 am | Sunday, December 30th, 2012

116 YEARS AFTER. A brown shrike (lanius cristatus) perches on a book of the statue of national hero Jose Rizal in Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila. The Philippines commemorates on Sunday the martyrdom of Rizal on Dec. 30, 1896, with a reenactment of the transfer of his remains from his sister’s house in Binondo, Manila, to Luneta on Dec. 30, 1912. EDWIN BACASMAS
President Benigno Aquino III leads the nation in commemorating the 116th anniversary of Jose P. Rizal’s martyrdom at ceremonies at Luneta Park this Sunday morning.
The ceremonies include a symbolic interment of a piece of bone from Rizal’s spinal column, which was shattered by a bullet during his execution on Dec. 30, 1896.
Mr. Aquino will lead the centennial commemoration of the reenactment of the transfer of Rizal’s remains from the house of the national hero’s sister, Narcisa, in Binondo, Manila, to his monument at Luneta Park.
“We encourage everybody to participate and feel the historical moment of laying Rizal to his final resting place,” said Reghis Romero II, supreme commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, which spearheads the program together with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
“This is the 100th year of the transfer and decent burial of Rizal and it is significant for all Filipinos to know his sacrifice in bringing liberation to the Filipino people,” Romero said.
The Knights of Rizal and the NHCP will reenact the funeral march from Narcisa’s house in San Fernando Street, corner Juan Luna Street in Binondo to Luneta Park.
Taking the place of Rizal’s remains is the piece of bone from his spine, which will be placed in a replica of the ivory urn that contained the hero’s bones and was buried in a chamber in the base of his monument in 1912 during a memorial service led by the Knights of Rizal and the Masonic Lodge of the Philippines.
The urn will be carried in a motorized caisson and escorted by the Knights of Rizal wearing a copy of their 1912 uniform and marching to the music played at that time.
Around 7,000 students, soldiers, policemen, government employees and Rizal’s descendants have committed to join the procession. They will converge on Luneta at 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. from three assembly points: Plaza Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo, Fort Santiago in Intramuros and the Manila Hotel.
According to Malacañang, Sunday’s celebrations include simultaneous wreath-laying and flag-raising ceremonies at all Rizal shrines in the country.
The focal point of the celebrations is Luneta Park, where President Aquino will hoist the national flag on the Independence flagpole in front of Rizal’s monument.
The public is invited to join the Rizal procession. Those who wish to participate are requested to wear white “to symbolize the purity of Rizal,” according to the Knights of Rizal.
Secret grave
Rizal’s body was dumped in an unmarked grave in the old Paco Cemetery after his execution. Through his sister Narcisa’s persistence, his burial place was found and marked with a marble slab, on which his initials were inscribed in reverse, “RPJ,” to throw off the Spanish authorities who might remove his body to prevent public veneration.
Exhumed in 1898, Rizal’s remains were kept by his family in the Binondo house until Dec. 30, 1912, when they were interred in solemn rites in the base of the monument that now stands to honor his memory in perpetuity.
In an old photo obtained by the Knights of Rizal, Doña Teodora was seen cradling the urn containing her son’s bones. She was said to have shown his remains to visitors while reciting his poem “Mi Ultimo Adios.”
Romero said foreigners would cry even though they didn’t understand Spanish because of the evident anguish of a mother who lost a son.
Doña Teodora died before her son’s remains could be given a proper burial in 1912.
Asuncion Lopez Bantug, granddaughter of Narcisa, provides the most complete details of the finding of Rizal’s grave after his execution and the exhumation of his body two years later in her biography, “Lolo Jose: An Intimate Portrait of Rizal” (Manila: Intramuros Administration, 1982).
Finding the grave
Bantug recounts Narcisa’s search of cemeteries to find Rizal’s grave, failing to find it in the suburban graveyards.
“But my Lola Sisa refused to give up,” Bantug writes. “She continued her round of the graveyards—and was finally rewarded. At the Paco Cemetery, the old city graveyard no longer in use, she noticed Mayor Manuel Luengo and some army officers inspecting a grave. When they left, Lola Sisa hurried to the site. It was a freshly dug grave and could only be that of her brother. She went to the sexton and persuaded him to mark the grave with the small marble slab she carried. The marble slab, designed by family friend Doroteo Ongjungco, was inscribed with three letters, R.P.J.—my Lolo Jose’s initials in reverse. The family feared that a more explicit tombstone might prompt the authorities to remove the body and hide it elsewhere, to prevent any public veneration of the Rizal grave. It is said that a guard was placed at the Paco Cemetery to discourage snoopers.
“Two years later, in the turmoil that followed the American occupation of Manila, his family seized the chance to recover my Lolo Jose’s body unhindered by Church or State. Spain had fallen in the Philippines; American troops took over in Manila on Aug. 13, 1898. Four days later, on Aug. 17, my Lola Sisa, accompanied by her daughter Angelica, sculptor Romualdo Teodoro de Jesus, Higino Francisco and Doroteo Ongjungco, went to the Paco Cemetery and had the grave dug up.” (pp 192-194)
Rizal’s body was found to have been buried without a coffin. The family took the remains to Narcisa’s house and placed them in an ivory urn carved by De Jesus.
That was the urn buried in the Rizal Monument at Luneta in 1912, an event the nation commemorates on Sunday on its 100th anniversary.

quino leads rites marking 116th anniversary of Rizal martyrdom
By:
December 30, 2012 8:51 AM

President Aquino is assisted by AFP chief Jessie Dellosa and NHCP chair Ma. Serena Diokno in wreath-laying rites at Rizal Park. MALACANANG PHOTO BUREAU

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno S. Aquino III led the commemoration of the anniversary of Jose Rizal's martyrdom at Luneta Park Sunday morning, including the symbolic interment of the national hero.
The nation reenacted the transfer of the hero's remains from the house of his sister Narcisa in Binondo, Manila, to his monument at Luneta, formerly Bagumbayan field where Rizal was executed by Spanish forces 116 years ago.
A bone fragment from his spinal column was used for the reenactment.
Aquino was also assisted by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Jessie Dellosa and National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) chairperson Dr. Maria Serena Diokno in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Rizal monument.
The commemoration of Rizal’s martyrdom is also being held at the Calamba Rizal Shrine in Laguna and at the Rizal Shrine in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte.

Rizal’s martyrdom remembered
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:34 pm | Sunday, December 30th, 2012
MANILA, Philippines—In solemn rites, President Benigno Aquino on Sunday morning laid a wreath at the monument of Jose P. Rizal, capping the 116th anniversary of his martyrdom and centennial of the transfer of his remains from Binondo to Luneta Park.
The President said the double celebration challenged Filipinos “to forge unity in the face of differences.”
As “Bayan Ko” played, the President, Dr. Maria Serena Diokno of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, and Armed Forces Chief General Jessie Dellosa walked from a platform to the monument, as two ceremonial elements in gray uniform carried the wreath.
Standing before the monument, Aquino gave a salute as a cackle of gunfire filled the air. Rizal’s descendants, Amelia Garcia Yulo, Victor Reyes, Malou Villaroman, Marlene Jacinto and Gemma Cruz-Araneta, among others, stood close by.
Shortly after, a funeral dirge was played.
Minutes earlier at around 7 a.m., as a large crowd gathered around Rizal Park, the President hoisted the flag on the Independence flagpole in front of Rizal’s monument, which was simultaneously held in Rizal shrines across the country.
Joining him were Vice President Jejomar Binay Jr., Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, Diokno, Dellosa, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Reghis Romero II, supreme commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal; and Santiago Gabionza Jr., grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines.
Sunday’s commemoration of Rizal Day was doubly significant because it coincided with the 100th anniversary of the transfer of Rizal’s remains from his sister’s home in Binondo to the Luneta Park, where they were interred at the base of the monument on December 30, 1912.
“This year, we’re marking the 100th year of the interment of our national hero’s remains at the Rizal Park where Filipinos can freely honor his important contribution to the shaping of our country,” the President said in a statement posted on the government website.
“For his memory’s sake, we continue to respond to the challenge of the times: how to weave unity in spite of differences? How to inflame concern for others and flag? We hope that we will be more determined in paddling toward the same direction to achieve the full potential of our National Language,” he added.
Before dawn Sunday, in a reenactment of the funeral march from Narcisa’s house, an urn containing a piece of a bone from Rizal’s spine was transported on a motorized caisson and escorted by the Knights of Rizal from Binondo to Luneta.
The bone was part of Rizal’s spinal column which was shattered by a bullet during his execution on December 30, 1896.
After his execution, Rizal’s remains were clandestinely interred in Paco Park. After exhumation in 1898, these were kept by the Rizal family until December 30, 1912, when these were interred in the foundations of the monument.
“Rizal‘s devotion to truth, justice, and the civic virtues impelled him to deplore and expose the abuses of colonialism, resulting in his incarceration and eventual execution. It was through the gift of language and the written word that our national identity was formed: as the late Leon Ma. Guerrero described him, he was, indeed, the First Filipino,” Secretary Edwin Lacierda, presidential spokesperson, said in a statement.

"President Benigno S. Aquino III, assisted by Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Jessie Dellosa, troops the line during the observance of the 116th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal on Sunday (December 30) at the Rizal National Monument, Rizal Park, Manila. The commemoration of Rizal’s martyrdom is also being held simultaneously at the Calamba Rizal Shrine in Laguna and at the Rizal Shrine in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Noerte. (Photo by Robert Viñas/Malacanang Photo Bureau)"