Local history enthusiast and heritage guide Albino “Ka Bino” Guerrero introduces Dr. Jose P. Rizal, the country’s national hero, to street children during yesterday’s celebration of Rizal Day. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO).
At past noon on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Library and Museum along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City, mats were laid for a bunch of street kids who were about to hear the story of the country’s national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, for the first time.
As around 50 children brought in by the city’s Task Force on Street Children stepped inside Sinulog Hall of the museum, staff and volunteers of Cebu City’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (Chac) eagerly waited for them.
“Who is Dr. Jose Rizal and what do we celebrate today?” Albino “Ka Bino” Guerrero, a local history enthusiast and heritage guide, asked the children in Cebuano before the storytelling session began.
“I don’t know him!” 11-year old Kristina snapped back, while 12-year old Sheila chimed in, “He’s a man!”
And so it became quite clear on that hot sunny afternoon that the country’s most revered hero needed a warm reintroduction.
Rizal, the hero who had said, “The youth is the hope of our future,” is either forgotten or not at all known to many young Filipinos who grew up in the streets with no formal education.
As the country commemorated the 120th anniversary of Rizal’s martyrdom, the volunteers’ task began by explaining to Cebu’s street children that Rizal is widely considered as one of the Philippines’ greatest heroes, was best known for his novels “Noli Me Tangere” and its sequel “El Filibusterismo” as well as other poems and essays.
A prolific writer, his social commentaries during the Spanish colonization inspired both peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries.
On December 30, 1896, Rizal was executed by the Spanish colonial government at Bagumbayan (now known as Luneta or Rizal Park), Manila, for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine revolution broke out, inspired in part by his writings.
He was only 35 years old.
“The children are the future. We need to tell them about our heroes,” Guerrero told Cebu Daily News in an interview after his 25-minute introduction on the life of Rizal.
The talk was brief to keep the audience of 7 to 13-year-old street kids interested.
Many of them had started to run around and play because in their world full of tough challenges to survive, a lecture on Rizal couldn’t much matter.
When CDN asked Kristina and Sheila why they did not know who Rizal was, “Ambot! (We don’t know),” was all they said.
CDN’s Cris Evert Lato Ruffolo read Eugene Evasco’s “Rizaldy,” a story about a boy born on December 30, Rizal Day, and how he discovered that his name (Rizaldy) was significantly related to an important point in Philippine history.
After the storytelling session, the children were treated with food, games, drawing activities and prizes.
CHAC plans to regularly introduce Philippine heroes to children through various activities.
Rizal Day celebration
Earlier in the day, Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, in a speech during the 120th anniversary celebration of the martyrdom of Rizal, noted that more than a hundred years after the death and sacrifice of Rizal, Philippine society continued to face the same problems needing to be solved.
“We are now breathing the air of freedom and democracy thanks to Dr. Jose P. Rizal and the other heroes. But we have very serious challenges and problems in our midst. There is very serious political and social imbalance that too many have too little while too few have too much of the good things in life,” Labella said.
Labella also pointed to the country’s deeply rooted culture of corruption, cybersex and cyberpornography, and the proliferation of illegal drugs, among others, as challenges that need to be addressed.
“These are the challenges that we have to face in order that the death of our beloved hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, would not be in vain,” Labella added in his speech.
The acting mayor led a floral offering at the foot of Rizal’s monument at Plaza Sugbo beside City Hall.
City Hall department heads and employees, members of the Knights of Columbus, Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts of the Philippines and public school teachers attended the ceremony.
Dr. Warfe Ingracia, chapter commander of the order of the Knights of Rizal, in a speech pointed to the great influence Rizal’s parents and uncles had on the hero for inculcating in him a deep sense of patriotism and nationalism at a very young age.
“We Filipinos love peace, for we have chosen to magnify a man of peace above the name of war … The reason why Jose Rizal is our national hero is because Filipinos really value peace over war … Rizal believed that the pen is mightier than the sword,” said Ingracia.
Before ending his speech, Ingracia delivered a moving Cebuano version of “Mi Ultimo Adios,” a poem written by Rizal on the eve of his execution by firing squad on December 30, 1896.