MODULE 6

NOLI ME TANGERE
I. INTRODUCTION

Jose P. Rizal’s (JPR) first novel projects his social construct on the atrocities the
Spaniards were proliferating to his country and to his countrymen. Great connivance
of the church and the state were accentuated in the 63 chapters of the Noli Me
Tangere (NMT). The symbolic representation of the scenes in NMT and its
characters mirrored in the 21st Century Philippine socio-economic-political climate
will be analyzed in this chapter. A comparative analysis of the 19 th Century theme of
the NMT to the present Filipino society will be the centerpiece of the discussion.

NOLI ME TANGERE is Jose P. Rizal’s pioneering novel dedicated to his

countrymen. It is an agitating published material that aimed to call the attention of the
Spaniards. Original transcript was written in the Spanish Language for easier
understanding of the colonizers. The novel exposed several issues like racial
discrimination; gender inequalities; women issues and the different faces of
corruption in the educational system, government policies and church activities
tailored-fit in the Catholic traditions. This made NMT a very controversial novel of his
time.

After the Rizal Law was enacted by the Philippine Congress in June 12, 1956,
students in the elementary, high school and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs)
were required to study this novel as it is mandated in the Rizal Law Republic Act
1425. Hence, it explicitly states in Sec.1 that:
“Courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his
novel Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in
the curricula of all schools, colleges and universities, public or private:
Provided, that in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated
editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their English
translation shall be used as basic texts.”

JPR’s Noli Me Tangere is a satire fictional novel aimed to unfold the Friars’ covered-
up abuses perpetuated at the mantle of Roman Catholic religion. Friars used the
bible teachings to tweak the Indios’ Catholic faith to blind obedience. The Catholic
Church was made a culprit in proliferating the socio-economic-cultural black marks of
the Spanish Government such as: bandala; falla; polo ‘y servicio; tobacco monopoly;
and cedula system. Frailocracy was intimidatingly explicit.

A micro and macro situational analysis of Philippines 2020 will be examined critically
to identify the existing culture on the ground. Do we still submit ourselves to blind
obedience? How does the relationship of Creoles and Indios of Rizal’s time exist in
our present Filipino society? Why do we submit ourselves to the modern Creoles of
the 21st Century? More of these questions will arise as we open the Pandora’s box of
NMT.

II. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

A. Recognize the characters in the Noli Me Tangere and what they represent.
B. Explain the salient points in each chapter of Noli Me Tangere through a Sequential
Summary Story (3S’s).

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C. Identify the symbolic representation practices in Noli Me Tangere based on the
journal article.
D. Examine the issues in the Noli Me Tangere and how the situations in the novel are
different and/or similar to the Filipino society of the 21 st Century through an
illustration of an editorial cartoon.

III. LESSON PROPER

Preliminary Activities

A. GMA News TV 4. (2011, February 2). “Namimilagrong Masira” [Video file].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XSt 4tUBA9s

Guide Questions:
1. Why did GMA entitle the news report, “Namimilagrong Masira”?
2. According to the news report, how does our National Library and Philippine
Government intend to preserve the historical documents of Rizal’s famous
novels?
3. Identify some steps the German and the Philippine government have
committed to undertake together.

B. ABS-CBN News and The Manila Times published online the joint efforts of the
Federal Government of Germany as part of its cultural preservation program, and
the National Library of the Philippines on its project dedicated on preserving the
historical writings of our national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/04/07/11/rizal%E2%80%99s-manuscripts-be-
restored-time-his-150th-birthday

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The Pontifical University of Sto. Tomas (UST) had a joint program with Union
Bank of the Philippines to publish online rare books including Noli Me Tangere. It
is noteworthy that after graduating from Ateneo de Municipal, our national hero
advanced his studies with the Dominican educational system of UST while
continuously studying in Ateneo with the Jesuit friars. His life in UST was
enriching, thus, UST is exhibiting his writings online for more Filipinos to reflect
on it.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2017/05/07/news/top-stories/ust-brings-rare-books-
puts-first-edition-noli-tangere-online/325919/

Guide Questions:

1. Why will UST give open access to its digital library specifically on the great works
of our national hero and other heroes for free?
2. How will the restoration and conservation project promote posterity of our cultural
heritage?
3. What are some of the historical documents that will be showcased in the “Semper
Lumina” (Always the Light) event?

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NOLI ME TANGERE in a nutshell.

Bauer, P. (n.d.) The Social Cancer. Britannica. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Social-Cancer

READING MATERIAL No.1

Constantino, R. (1966). Our task: To make Rizal obsolete. In The Filipinos in the Philippines
and other essays (pp. 137-152). Quezon City: Malaya Books.

OUR TASK: TO MAKE RIZAL OBSOLETE

Prof. Renato Constantino

The validity of Rizal's teachings today, sixty three years after his death, is both a measure of
his greatness and of our lack of greatness as a nation. The importance of Rizal's ideas for
our generation has a two-fold basis -first, their applicability to present day problems, and
second, their inspirational value.
Rizal holds a mirror to our faces and we see ourselves, our vices, our defect, our meanness.
Because the conditions he describes are the very conditions we see around us, and the
characters he portrays are people we continue to meet, we readily respond to his earnest
desire for basic changes in our society and in ourselves. One hand holds a mirror to shame
us and the other points the way to our regeneration. Yet, the truth is that the mirror is not
meant to reveal our image, but the image of the people and the society of Rizal's time. The
fact that Rizal's aim was to depict the society in which he lived, and the fact that we
nevertheless find that he is also speaking about the society in which we live, have given rise
to two school of thoughts about Rizal.

Two Extremes
One group reasons out that because Rizal is still applicable today, he must have possessed
uncanny powers of prophecy. Furthermore, because he is still valid today, Rizal will be valid
for all time. In their sincere reverence for our national hero, they have transformed him into a
demigod whose teachings will constitute the final word, the definitive Bible, on any and all
aspects of Filipino life now and in the future.
The other group pays lip service to Rizal's memory, professes to love our hero by conceding
his greatness, but in reality emasculates his teachings by emphasizing only what it considers
the harmless and non-controversial aspects of his life and works. Some in this group claim
that the conditions Rizal wrote about no longer exist today. Others even go so far as to say
that Rizal's characters in his two novels were pure fiction, without basis in fact.

A "Devitalized" Rizal
Michael Charleston B. Chua, Greatworks readings, DLSU-Manila

Both groups distort the meaning of Rizal for our people, those who want to strain out of the
real Rizal all that is vital and forceful, leaving a sterile, almost meaningless hero, are those
who find the truths he spoke, unpalatable and dangerous even now. A "devitalized" Rizal is
what they would offer our people as a concession to the abiding love which Filipinos feel for
their national hero. Perhaps, if they had their way, some would prefer a "safer" hero. In fact,
there have been attempts to foist upon our people another national hero by means of
propaganda and awards carrying his name.

Such moves will not succeed because, to merit the hero worship of present and future
generations, a man must stand on solid achievements and not on a hollow reputation built
up by high-pressure salesmanship. History will be the ultimate judge of whether a leader will
emerge as a hero or prove to be a mere passing fancy. History enshrines the true heroes
and mercilessly exposes the fakes.

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Some true lovers of Rizal are also guilty of distorting his meaning for us. When they extol
Rizal's prophetic vision and proclaim that his teachings will forever be valid, they fail to view
society as a dynamic system. Without perhaps being conscious of it, they really proceed on
the assumption that the Filipinos as a people will forever remain backward, poor, ignorant
and corrupt. Their static concept of Rizal is a denial of the dynamic implications of his life, his
works, and his death.

Rizal was a product of his times, but unlike lesser mortals, he could stand apart from his
society and describe it clearly and dispassionately. Thus he is the best commentator of
Philippine society during the latter part of the 19th century. That the comments he made on
that period are applicable to ours shows that Philippine society has changed very little from
his time. Rizal's works exposed the defects of Philippine society during that period. He might
as well have been writing about our time, for all around us we see the same backwardness,
the same preponderance of intolerance, the same prevalence of ignorance, the same
display of opportunism and corruption, the same lack of nationalist sentiment, and the same
disunity when we should be working together in pursuit of common national goals. Rizal
never intended that his works should mirror the ills of the Philippines a century hence; but if
they do, it is because, as a people, we have progressed little and learned less from our
colonial past.

A Mirror of the Past

Rizal would be horrified and greatly saddened to learn that we are celebrating his centennial
precisely by extolling his validity for our times. His zeal as a social reformer, his dedicated
efforts to improve his countrymen, all his patriotic labors were directed toward one goal -
reforms. If we revere Rizal, if we wish to honor him, if we want to follow in his footsteps, our
task is clear. That task is to make Rizal obsolete. To do this, we must eradicate the ills of
present- day society so that Rizal's teachings will become what they were meant to be, a
mirror of the past; and the future Philippine society, a realization of Rizal's dream.

Rizal would then be obsolete as a critic of the present although he will forever remain the
courageous and wise commentator of the past whose life and works guided his people to
worthy achievements. In that bright Philippines of the future, Rizal will still be a great hero
because he spurred us to reform ourselves and achieve greatness as a people and not
because, as some of his more fanatical adherents wrongly believe, he is the fountain of all
wisdom for all situations.

Tulisanes in Cadillacs
Why is Rizal our national hero? A hero is he who best understands the society in which he
lives, who knows the problems and aspirations of his people, who by his teachings and his
labors, concretizes these problems and aspirations so that the vague discontent and the
hazy strivings towards something better in the people's minds are crystallized into a clear
pattern of action with definite goals. Rizal is still very much our hero because he crystallized
for his generation as well as for ours most of the great problems of Philippine society.

In page after page of his Noli Me Tangere and his El Filibusterismo we read indictments of
our present society. In chapter XI of El Filibusterismo, Simoun, addressing the friars and the
military and civil functionaries, said, "The evil is not in that there are tulisanes in the
mountains and uninhabited parts --the evil lies in the tulisanes in the towns and cities." when
we consider the widespread corruption in our society today, we can agree with Simoun's
verdict. For after all, what is a tulisan, essentially? He is a man who disregards and is
contemptuous of the law, and who, by fair means or foul, is bent on getting for himself
whatever he desires regardless of the consequences to society of his his anti-social actions.

Today, those who profit from the people's money, those who make of government a milking
cow, those who derive income by dishonest means, the civil functionaries who merely watch

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the clock, the teachers who neglect their duties, the officers of the law who mulct and extort,
the hoardersm the profiteers -these are all tulisanes of the towns and cities.

The evil which Rizal pointed out is compounded in our society because, corrupt as we are,
we do not outlaw these tulisanes, we do not ostracize them. Instead, we admire them as
practical men who know how to live. We fawn upon them because they are not Don
Quixotes, idealists or visionaries but ruthless men whose doctrine is "the Devil takes the
hindmost," and we respect men once they have achieved material success, no matter what
the means. Truly, the tulisanes are not only in the mountains. They are among us, riding
around in Cadillacs.

The Pelaezes of the Present

The techniques of enrichment exposed by Rizal during his day find their counterparts in
present-day society. The incident involving the shrewd Don Timoteo Pelaez in El
Filibusterismo no doubt will seem familiar to many of our "Dons" and "Honorables." Don
Pelaez was able to bribe the authorities into proclaiming a decree which ordered the
destruction of houses of light materials. How did this favor the good Don Timoteo? Simple,
he had just received a shipment of galvanized iron. A hitch developed however. The order
for the destruction of the houses was to take effect a month later. This worried Don Timoteo
because his competitors' shipment might arrive on time. Then it was discovered that the
owners of the houses, inconsiderate wretches, were too poor to buy the galvanized sheets.
But no matter, Don Timoteo's business friends shrewdly suggested that he buy the houses
at a ridiculously low price, have the decree rescinded, and then resell them at an enormous
profit. Whether Don Timoteo followed this excellent advice or not, Rizal does not say; but the
mere fact that the suggestion was made, and made so matter-of-factly, is proof that these
devious business practices were the rule rather than the exception. No one can say we have
run out of Don Timoteos in our time.

One-Armed Bandits
Rizal's generation had its own quota of "fixers" and influence peddlers. In Chapter XLIX of
the Noli Me Tangere, Rizal introduces us to the one-armed man, who upon hearing that the
wife of Capitan Tinong had presented the Capitan General with a ring worth P1,000 because
of Tinong's fear that he might be implicated in the case of Ibarra, hurriedly left the gathering
in order to put his vicious plans into operation. Soon after we find Capitan Tinong taken to
Fort Santiago together with other men of position and property.

Rizal hints that the one-armed man was engaged in the nefarious trade of first scheming to
imprison men of means and position and later working for their release for a certain price.
The government employee who purposely enmeshes the citizen in red tape so that he may
"facilitate" or 'expedite" matters for a consideration, is perhaps only a pickpocket edition of
the one-armed man but his crime is of the same nature.

Rizal of course did not foresee the existence of influence peddling and fixing as a thriving
profession today. (So thriving that I am surprised these ladies and gentlemen have not yet
formed an Association of Fixers of the Philippines.) But the fact remains that one more evil in
Rizal's Philippine society is still with us.

Borrowed Defects
One of the tragedies of our country today is that, though formally independent, our people
can understand each other (though imperfectly at that) only by means of a language not
their own. This is the result of centuries of colonial rule, and we are all victims. Rizal
considered our need for a foreign language as our general medium of communication, both
ridiculous and pathetic. He warned strongly about the dangers of a foreign language taking
the place of our own. In chapter VII of El Filibusterismo, Simoun in replying to the arguments
of Basilio, who like other students was working for the adoption of Spanish as a common
language, admonished the young man thus:

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....Spanish will never be the general language of the country, the people will never
talk it, because the conceptions of their brains and the feeling of their hearts can
not be expressed in the language --each people has its own tongue, as it has its
own way of thinking. What are you going to do with Castilian, the few of you
who will speak it? Kill off your originality, subordinate your thoughts to other
brains, and instead of freeing yourself, make yourselves slaves indeed!....he
among you who talks that language understands it, and how many have I not seen
who pretended not to know a single word of it! ...One and all you forget that
while a people preserves its language, it preserves the marks of its liberty, as a
man preserves his independence while he holds to his own way of thinking.
Language is the thought of the people.

Our language problem is still unresolved. The Basilios and Isaganis whose mission was to
propagate the foreign language in order that Filipinos might out-Castilian the Spaniard still
with us, this time pretending that their tongues trip over the long Tagalog words and are at
home only in English.

Without Defenses
When Rizal gave utterance to his views on the national language, he was not speaking as a
chauvinist or a sentimentalist. Being himself a linguist, he could not have been against our
learning of other languages, but only after we had fully mastered our own. It is good to
understand and be understood by other peoples but it is essential that we understand each
other first. Some may think that this insistence on the use of our native tongue is merely
sentimental and therefore an impractical notion. We need only consider a few of the many
evil consequences of our acceptance of a foreign language as our common medium of
communication to realize that Simoun's angry reply to the students was true then and is
even more true today. Many have condemned our thorough Americanization but only a few
realize the large part which our adoption of English has played in this development which we
deplore.

By using a foreign language as our basic means of communication, we lay ourselves open,
without any defenses, to the incursions of a foreign culture. Where the language barrier have
served to temper the flow of this cultural invasion, affording us the opportunity of intelligent,
deliberate, and selective assimilation, the irresistible influx of foreign culture for which our
use of the foreign language has opened the way, has swept aside our native traditions,
manners and values.

We are an uprooted race with very tenuous connections to our past, and consequently we
have lost much of our national pride. We have adopted foreign standards and values which
are perhaps appropriate for a country with a highly developed economy but certainly not for
a struggling one like ours. We assiduously try to be Occidental in thinking and manners and
this has distorted our policies especially toward our Asian neighbors. Needles to say, our
fellow Asians do not have a high regard for us.

Furthermore, because our command of this foreign language is inadequate, we imbibe only
the most banal aspects of its culture. Its cultural achievements are beyond our
comprehension. Instead of processing the best of both cultures as defenders of English like
to claim, the majority of our people are acquainted only with the less edifying aspects of the
foreign culture and have stifled the development of their native culture or influenced its
meager development in a deplorable imitation of the foreign.

Our native literature has not developed because we prefer foreign dime novels and comics.
Our native theater was smothered in its infancy by our preference for American movies. On
the other hand, the poor showing of Philippine films in competition with other Asian films may
perhaps be traced to our loss of national individuality so that our films are only Tagalog
versions of American movies, without distinct national flavor. Our native music has not had

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the chance to flower, because we are enamored with rock and roll. Truly, we have bartered
our heritage for a mess of pottage and we are choking on it.

Our Intellectual Captivity

The predicament of our student population whose scholastic life is one of continuous
struggle with the English language is one more case that bears out Rizal's thesis. Those
who are honest among us will have to admit that our inadequate grasp of the nuances of the
language is the greatest obstacle to our acquisition of knowledge. The hordes of semi-
literate professionals that our educational system produces, year in and year out, are
eloquent proof of the need for a change in our medium of instruction. Rizal was against the
adoption of Spanish as the common language of our people. In the words of Simoun, which I
quoted previously, Rizal clearly states his belief that the use of a foreign tongue as our
common language would result in our intellectual captivity. We have not heeded his warning.
Instead our patriotic lawmakers have even imposed 24 units of Spanish on our already
bewildered student population.

The social problems of Rizal's times are still our problems. It is not surprising that the people
of Rizal's novels still live in our midst. Rizal drew them from real life; they are as real today.
The Dona Victorinas who belittle the Filipinos and pretend to be Occidentals, the Capitan
Tiagos who fawn upon and cringe before the powers that be, wining and dining them, and
suffering their contempt so long as their businesses continue to prosper, never giving the
plight of their fellowmen a moment's thought, the Senor Pastas who persist in a life of
compromise and conformism --these are only a few of Rizal's gallery of characters who still
inhabit the world our hero left so many years ago.

Foreigners' Paradise
We exhibit the same attitude toward Westerners which Rizal sought to expose in his works.
In our country today, the foreigner out to make his fortune has the best chance of success.
Many doors of opportunity are open to him. Because we have gotten used to regarding the
white man as our superior, we have accorded him more privileges than he would enjoy
elsewhere.

Rizal must have seen many instances of this same attitude during his time, for many inhibits
in his novels are good examples of this defect in our character. There was the case of the
Spanish tax collector who was accidentally killed by Don Rafael Ibarra. Here was an illiterate
Spaniard who was given a fairly responsible job for which he has not the slightest
qualification simply because he was a Spaniard and must therefore not demean himself with
manual labor. Then there was the case of Don Tiburcio de Espanada who was accepted as
a physician and charged high fees only because he had come from Spain, where,
incidentally, the sum total of his medical experience had consisted in dusting off the benches
and lighting the fires in a hospital. However, as in the case today, too, this lame, toothless
but white man was considered a better marital catch than any better educated native.

Many of the important foreigners in our society today are prototypes of Don Custodio de
Salazar y Sanchez de Monteredondo, a character of Rizal's's El Fibusterismo who was
considered learned and influential in this country, but who was a small and insignificant
person in his native land. The Custodios of today wield great power in the economic, social
and political life of our country, but like Rizal's Don Custodio, it is doubtful if these
personages, had they remained in their homelands, could command a second look in the
side streets of their neighborhood.

A Broken People
In the current move of the nationalist elements to instil the Filipino First ideal among our
people, Rizal's words on the subject are most applicable. those elements in our country who
are still resisting the resurgence of nationalism should read Rizal's The Philippines A
Century Hence and The Indolence of the Filipinos for in these essays he tried to show that

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centuries of systemic brutalization had transformed the proud, free Filipinos into a servile
slave without individuality and pride. Rizal describes our degeneration in these words:
...They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections; --they forgot
their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws in order to learn by heart other
doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from
those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking. Then there
was a falling off, they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed, of
what was distinctly their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign and
incomprehensible, their spirit was broken and they acquiesced.
Rizal did not want us to acquiesce. He sought to instill in his countrymen a sense of pride in
their past so that, proud of what had been, they would want to make the present and the
future worthy of the past. When we try to re-establish our roots, when we try to rediscover
our culture today, we are accomplishing what Rizal wanted his contemporaries to
accomplish.

In The Indolence of the Filipinos, Rizal rebuked his countrymen for their lack of nationalist
sentiment by stating that "A man in the Philippines is only an individual. he is not a member
of a nation." Many Filipinos today, like the Filipinos Rizal was referring to, are working
merely for their own interests, hardly taking into consideration the common good. Little men
preoccupied with the pursuit of their petty personal goals, their apathy towards national
questions spring from their circumscribed perspective and from their fear of arousing the
powers that be.

Like the people of Cabesang Tales' town, many of our compatriots would rather be on the
safe side, protecting their own interests, even though this would mean acquiescing to some
injustice perpetrated on their fellowmen. Conditioned to submission, resigned to foreign
domination, their timidity, their vacillation dissipates the efforts of their more resolute
countrymen to regain for all Filipinos the control of our national life.

Basilios in Our Midst

Rizal's Basilio is the prototype of these weak men. Basilio forgot his past, the murder of his
brother Crispin, and the death of Sisa, his mother. These personal misfortunes were not
enough to motivate him to work so that others would not be victims of the injustices his
family has endured. He refused to join Simoun, not so much from disapproval of the latter's
methods as from a personal indifference toward what he termed "political questions." His
rationalization and this is a common one today, was that he was a man of science and
therefore it was not his job to concern himself with anything more determined than the
healing of the sick.

Instead of making him more determined to defend his fellowmen from oppression, Basilio's
personal experience with cruelty and injustice turned him into a timid man who wanted only
to be left in peace in his little corner of the earth, enjoying a modicum of success. Only when
this personal ambition was thwarted by his imprisonment after the incident of the
pasquinades did Basilio decide to join Simoun. And even then, his aim was to avenge
himself and not to help his fellowmen.

From Asocial to Anti-Social Behaviour

If we read Rizal carefully, we will soon realize that his dream for our country can be attained
only by a dedicated, hard working, socially responsible citizenry. It is tragic, therefore, that
there are so very many Basilios among us today. Basilio was essentially good. He was hard
working, did no one any harm. In an already stable and prosperous country, such citizens as
Basilio might be desirable; but in Rizal's Philippines as well as in ours, where so many
reforms are still needed, we should have men with social conscience who will consider it
their obligation to do more than just obey the laws.

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The Basilios will never move mountains. Instead, their desire for the fulfilment of their
personal ambitions will make them temporize with tyranny, compromise with oppression,
cross the street to avoid seeing injustice, look the other way to ignore corruption. Our
students, our professionals today, often exhibits the qualities of Basilio. At best, they try to
do their jobs competently but are indifferent to the issues and the problems that face our
country.

Those who start like Basilio but who do not possess his essential goodness degenerate from
asocial individualism to definitely anti-social behavior in pursuit of their individualistic goals.
They may hoard essential commodities and sell them at exorbitant prices, unmindful of the
misery they are bringing to their countrymen. They may become dummies for foreign
interests, corrupt government officials, servile mouthpieces of alien groups, ten percenters,
influence peddlers, and cynical racketeers whom our corrupt society rewards with material
wealth and
even prestige.

A Nation of Rizals
Rizal was never like Basilio. He too suffered injustice early in life when he saw his mother
unjustly imprisoned; but far from making him timid and afraid; it spurred him to work for
justice and freedom, not for his family but for all Filipinos. Not only his death, but more
importantly, his whole life gave evidence of his constant preoccupation with the problems of
his country, his involvement in the movement against oppression, ignorance, poverty and
degradation. Rizal's personal goals were always in accordance with what he considered to
be the in best interest of the country. It is in this sense that we can say we need a nation of
Rizals. But we do not need a hero to die for our country. We need a nation of heroes who
will live and work with patriotic dedication to realize Rizal's dream.

As long as we can still marvel at the contemporaneousness of Rizal, at his "timeliness," we

must admit that many years after he has presented the problems, we have not yet taken the
basic steps towards their solution. When a new generation of Filipinos will be able to read
Rizal as a mirror of our past and not as a reproach to our social present, only then can we
say that we have truly honored Rizal because we have made him obsolete by completing his
work.

From Dream to Reality

We are still backward, ignorant and to a great extent, unfree. That is why Rizal can still
speak to us with the same sense of urgency and immediacy that he produced among his
contemporaries. When he is no longer valid, we shall have become a truly great nation and
Rizal will no longer be read for the social truths that he reveal. But to make him obsolete
does not mean to forget him. On the contrary, only when we have realized Rizal's dream can
we really appreciate his greatness because only then will we realize the great value of his
ideals.

When Rizal becomes obsolete, our society will no longer be infected with Dona Victorinas,
because the triumph of nationalism will make us proud of our race. There will no longer be
any Basilio because each and everyone will consider his manhood to be concerned only with
personal, material success. We shall have no more Simouns motivated by personal revenge.
Philippine society will frown on the Pasta and the other fawning and obsequious minor
officials whose only interest is to retain their sinecures. A reorientation of our ways and our
thoughts along nationalist lines will fulfill the dreams of Rizal and at the same time make
them obsolete as goals because the dream has become a reality.

READING MATERIAL No.2

Choa, S. (1999). Representational Practice in Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere". Philippine Studies,
47(4), 550-557. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42634342

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Recommended Reading Materials
Alcober, N. (2017, May 7). UST brings out rare books, puts up first-edition Noli Me Tangere
online. The Manila Times. Retrieved from
https://www.manilatimes.net/2017/05/07/news/top-stories/ust-brings-rare-books-puts-first-
edition-noli-tangere-online/325919/

Almario, V. (2008). Si Rizal Nobelista. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.

Anderson, B. (2003). Forms of Consciousness in Noli me tangere. Philippine Studies, 51(4),

505-529. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42633670
Caroline S. Hau, “Introduction” in Necessary Fictions: Philippine Literature and the Nation,
19401980. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000

Bauer, P. (n.d.) The Social Cancer. Britannica. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Social-Cancer

Choa, S. (1999). Representational Practice in Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere". Philippine Studies,

47(4), 550-557. Retrieved August 11, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42634342

Chua, M. (2018, April 28). Noli Me Tangere is also about our faults. The Manila Times.
Retrieved from www.manilatimes.net/2018/04/28/opinion/analysis/noli-me-tangere-is-also-
about-our-faults/395476/

Daroy, P. (1968) Rizal contrary essays. Quezon City: Guro Books.

Ocampo, A. (2020, January 24). The Binondo of Rizal’s ‘Noli’. The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Retrieved from www.opinion.inquirer.net/126854/the-binondo-of-rizals-noli

Testa-de Ocampo, A. (2011). The Afterlives of the Noli me tángere. Philippine Studies,
59(4), 495-527. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42634694

IV. ACTIVITIES
Class Activity (Pre-assigned)
A. Each student will read the assigned chapter of NMT based on his class number
in the official class list. Then, creates a short 5-10 sentence-story by answering
the following salient points:
1. Who are the main characters and how did they contribute to the title of the NMT
chapter?
2. Why do you think JPR entitled your chapter as such?
3. Is there a resemblance of the scene in the present Filipino society? Why? Why
not?
B. Game: “Sequential Summary Story (3S’s)”
A 1-minute talk time is given per student to present the summarized chapter story
in a sequential order following the student’s official class number.

Group Activity
After reading the 8-page Journal Article, complete the chart below by identifying 5-
10 Symbolic Representation you have read in “Representational Practice in
Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere”. Think of its similar image in our country on this 21 st
Century.

SYMBOLIC NOLI ME TANGERE PHILLIPINES 2020

REPRESENTATION

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V. ASSESSMENT
Individual Evaluation: Choose only one. (60 points)
A. Think of the three (3) striking socio-economic-political-cultural issues presented in
the Noli Me Tangere that are still evident in Philippines 2020. How do you think
these problems can be solved? Present your answer in an editorial cartoon
illustrated in a short bond paper on a “landscape lay-out”. Use the rubric below as
your guide in answering.

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B. Write an essay discussing the idea of freedom and how is the lack of freedom
portrayed on NMT in comparison to the present time using 800-1000 words.

C. Draw the family tree of Crisostomo Ibarra. Then, discuss the changes of each
generation focusing on the Creoles in the Philippines using 800-1000 words.

VI. SUMMARY
Writing Noli Me Tangere (NMT) was an extra challenge for JPR since it was his first
novel and it was written outside his motherland when he was 23 years old. He
experienced financial and psycho-social dilemma while in the process of its
preparation, production and publication. His journey on scribbling NMT began before
the end of 1884. He almost finished half of NMT in Madrid, Spain. Then, he continued
writing the next part of the novel in Paris, Spain in 1885 and finally completing its
entirety in Germany on February 21, 1887. Approximately, he finished his first novel in
three (3) years. The cold reality that he had no funds for its publication was immediately
answered by his friend Dr. Maximo Viola who gave him enough money to print the first
2,000 copies of NMT.

Noli Me Tangere is interpreted in Filipino as “huwag mo akong salingin” which has a

Latin translation “touch me not”. In JPR’s letter to Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo he
informed the later that the title of his first novel was based on the Gospel of St. Luke

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(supposedly St. John) 20:13-17. This gospel described a conversation of Jesus to his
mother Mary telling her not to hold on to him because he will be in a journey. Also in
JPR’s letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, he categorically admitted that his work was the
first bravest novel to talk about the life of the Tagalog people in the Philippines. He
confidently said that his countrymen’s history for the past decade is reflected in his
writing…. “Dito’y sinagot ko ang mga sinulat laban sa amin, ang mga paglibak sa
aming lahi.” (Dela Cruz & Zulueta, 1995)

JPR’s motivation and goals in writing NMT is clearly written in the dedication part, To
My Motherland (Sa Aking Inang-Bayan). He is saddened that his country has a social
cancer. He wished to find solution to this deadly societal illness because the sought-
after solution will also make him free of the deadly disease. Thus, the NMT is a novel
based on the Tagalog grass-root experiences which depicted the nation-wide joined
atrocities of the CHURCH (represented by the friars running the Roman Catholic
Religion) and the STATE (represented by the Spaniards manipulating the Spanish
Government) in a colonized Philippines. Henceforth, it is noteworthy to ask, How can
we negate the Social Cancer of the present time? Let us continue to be reminded of
what Jose Rizal warned us: “The slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow.”

VII. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

ABS-CBN News. (2011, April 7). Rizal’s manuscripts to be restored in time for his 150th
birthday. ABS-CBN News Lifestyle. Retrieved from
https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/04/07/11/rizal%E2%80%99s-manuscripts-be-restored-
time-his-150th-birthday

Alcober, N. (2017, May 7). UST brings out rare books, puts up first-edition Noli Me Tangere
online. The Manila Times. Retrieved from https://www.manilatimes.net/2017/05/07/news/top-
stories/ust-brings-rare-books-puts-first-edition-noli-tangere-online/325919/

Almario, V. (2008). Si Rizal Nobelista. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.

Anderson, B. (2003). Forms of Consciousness in Noli me tangere. Philippine Studies, 51(4),

505-529. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42633670

Bauer, P. (n.d.) The Social Cancer. Britannica. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Social-Cancer

Choa, S. (1999). Representational Practice in Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere". Philippine Studies,

47(4), 550-557. Retrieved August 11, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42634342

Chua, M. (2018, April 28). Noli Me Tangere is also about our faults. The Manila Times.
Retrieved from www.manilatimes.net/2018/04/28/opinion/analysis/noli-me-tangere-is-also-
about-our-faults/395476/

Constantino, R. (1966). Our task: To make Rizal obsolete. In The Filipinos in the Philippines
and other essays (pp. 137-152). Quezon City: Malaya Books.

Daroy, P. (1968) Rizal contrary essays. Quezon City: Guro Books.

GMA News. (2011, May 2). SONA - Noli, El Fili original copies undergoing decay [Video
file].Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XSt4tUBA9s
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Hau, C. S. (2000). Introduction in Necessary Fictions: Philippine Literature and the Nation,
19401980. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Ocampo, A. (2020, January 24). The Binondo of Rizal’s ‘Noli’. The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Retrieved from www.opinion.inquirer.net/126854/the-binondo-of-rizals-noli

Testa-de Ocampo, A. (2011). The Afterlives of the Noli me tángere. Philippine Studies,
59(4), 495-527. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/42634694

Vergara, W.W. (2015, January 2). Noli Me Tangere 1961 [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBJW1NRCD1g

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