"Looking back at Rizal-
and to take back the future"
(A Rizal Day Message)
It's been decades passed since the Filipino people hath witnessed the supreme sacrifice made by a man who soon become its country's hero. This man, Dr. Jose Rizal, died as he had lived, whose creativity and knowledge has been furthered the cause of a nation's freedom, and uplifts the dignity and welfare of his countrymen.
That through his works Noli me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, and other numerous works, Rizal's contirbution to the awakening of the Filipino, as well as those of other patriots like Bonifacio, Mabini, and De Los Reyes thought less of their lives and more of their countrymen, that somehow outweighs their shortcomings as recorded in a country's history.
And because of these contributions would say that the story of Rizal's life can provide a nation a source of strength and inspiration to enable in meeting the trying challenges of the present and in the future. For knowing that the problems of the past has been continuing even in this modern era, Rizal's work attests that there's a need for awakening in order to fight and struggle, and to build a nation that can maximise its true potential.
Sounds idealistic indeed, for despite this ever continuing past, those who wished to fight and win the future demands the cooperation of the people, their sacrifice, and their patience. For as one would believe that this kind of future comes a condition of social peace, but that peace is to be based on justice.
For just like Rizal and other patriots, they truly believe that their calls for freedom are a condition of justice and from that justice as a fundamental condition of authority- in which a coloniser or a domestic tyrant denied them as such; that even until the present this problem ever remains with an order thinking that it can be resolved either with force or coercion, including those of laws that harms a person's right, thinking that there will always be public order even without justice-but there can be no peace.
With this would say that like Rizal's determination and dedication the people may able to win the future and to bring its country to its supposed destiny, as opposed to this ever continuing past.
And thus, on this commemorative day, this note ask the people not just to pay tribute, but also to get creative like him, in order that his lofty principles and ideals will ever live in thought and in heart.