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Felicitas Asuncion C. Elago March 19, 2014

PI 10 W1 - 3R Reaction Paper

The Filipino Veneration for Rizal

Constantino versus Malay

As many of us are conscious of, the disputes over Rizals being Philippines national hero

endure to this day. One of the many valid entries would be the essay by Renato Constantino,

Veneration without Understanding,which emphasized that properly honouring a hero involves

the full understanding and criticism of his actions and even his identity. It is for this reason that

he enumerated and studied the qualities and feats of our national hero. Some of his major themes

included Rizals repudiation of the Revolution, the American sponsorship behind his heroism,

his Ilustrado perception of the society, and even his subtly Spanish upbringing. To these

arguments, Armando Malay created an excellent detail-by-detail rebuttalan essay entitled

Veneration with Understandingwherein his main points showed that Constantino has merely

created his own criteria for a national hero, criterions that Rizal in particular may fail, and

overlooked some historical details that could have weakened, if not deteriorate completely, his

claims.

An Examination of the Literary Debate

I believe that Rizal as Philippines official national hero is just. However, as Constantino

vigorously implored, Rizal is imperfect. He has his weaknesses and limitations that many

Filipinos are unaware of, and it is this ignorance, in my opinion, that strengthened Constantinos

assertions the most. In addition to that, up until now, several details about his life continue to live

in mystery which detractors use against him. Conversely, it is essential to recognize Rizals

humanity to understand his heroism, and thus, he is bound to have committed mistakes. Besides,

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if every hero were to be questioned because of a single imperfection in their lives, who would

remain to be deemed worthy enough? In the same way, if every single decision made by Rizal

was made into a controversy, what would be left of his life to praise? The discovery of

something previously unknown about Rizalsomething negative perhapsshould not be

equated into conspiracies, but simply parts of Rizals life that do not contribute to his hero ism.

After all, there is not much doubt left about who won the literary debate. Malay has won over the

Filipinos by establishing that totality of achievements is a better criterion and by this, Rizal

stands above all others.