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A. Paulita Roa

THE period of exile of Dr. Jose P. Rizal  in Dapitan is thought to be the happiest and most fulfilling time of his life. He opened the first English school in Mindanao there and won a major prize in the national lottery or lotto that enabled him to increase his landholdings in that town. Rizal also had a clinic that brought many patients from afar. It was there that he met the lovely Josephine Bracken who accompanied her adoptive father, Mr. Tauffer to have his eyes examined by Rizal.

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He and Josephine, whom he described in his last poem as “la dulce estranjera” or the sweet foreigner, lived together in Dapitan sans the solemnity of marriage. She called him Joe and both had a loving relationship despite of the fact that his family were against their living arrangement. However, there came a time of intense grief when Josephine gave birth to a still born baby boy. Rizal took the body of his son and buried him in an unmarked grave. He  never told anyone the location of the grave and no one knows where it is to this day.

A few months before the August, 1896 uprising, Don Pio Valenzuela, was sent to talk to Rizal, who was one of his close friends. Andres Bonifacio, who was the Supremo of the Katipunan wanted to consult Rizal on the planned revolt. Rizal was vehemently against it and advised to wait until the group had sufficient arms, financial support from the wealthy Filipino landowners and assistance from a foreign power. Rizal would not support the Katipunan cause without these preequisites. Bonifacio did not heed Rizal’s advice and proceeded with the revolution. The Katipunan suffered numerous losses  that proved how right Rizal was all along and Emilio Aguinaldo later took the leadership from Bonifacio.

The town of Dapitan was under the jurisdiction of the Misamis Province whose capital was Cagayan de Misamis (Cagayan de Oro). Reports on the activities of Rizal were regularly sent to Casa Real. When the Katipuneros rose against Spain, then military governor, Lt. Col. Juan de Prats ordered a more strict watch on Rizal and had all his visitors monitored. We all know from our history books that Rizal was suspected by the Spaniards to be the chief plotter of the revolution. During his trial, he was much surprised to find out that his picture was hung in the secret meeting place of the Katipunan and his name was used as the group’s password. That was how much  Bonifacio held him in high esteem.

The judge of the military court who handed down the death sentence to Rizal was Lt. Col. Jose de Togores, a former military governor of the Misamis Province. Togores and his family stayed in Casa Real in Cagayan from 1890 to 1893. He was a popular and well liked official who loved to celebrate the town fiesta in a colorful and lavish way. It was Togores who set up a bamboo replica of the Eiffel Tower in the town plaza (Gaston Park) and staged bullfights there with local and Spanish matadors in ornate costumes. All the Kagay-anons’ happy memories of the Togores administration was eclipsed by the grim reality that it was he who ordered the execution of Rizal.

Apolinario Mabini acknowledged that it was Rizal through his writings that inspired the revolution. Historian Ambeth Ocampo (1995) wrote that “This quiet  poet and physician did not lift a bolo or fire a gun in 1896, but was sentenced to death for being something more dangerous–Rizal was the living soul of the revolution.”

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