Recapturing the Philippine dream of a principled nation

Restoring Philippine confidence will not be easy. To move toward a vision of a positive Philippine future will require Filipinos with a patriotic call to excellence like our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, to provide the roadmap. The Philippines must be urged to restore itself by investing in its own people. Our sovereignty is a gift of God. It must therefore always uphold the moral law.

Re-discovering Dr. Jose P. Rizal as a teacher

I have written five articles about Rizal in 1997 and incorporated these in the book I authored entitled, Half a Millennium of Philippine History.

It was a characteristic of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal to foresee the future. Filipinas Dentro Cien Años (The Philippines Within a Century) is a series of four articles in La Solidaridad. Given a century, a reasonable amount of time for matters to develop, what would become of the Philippines? For our hero, this was not a mere political forecast. He believed that the Philippines would prosper eventually if children and their parents can be helped to help themselves by selfless leaders. Rizal yearned for the Filipinos to be liberated to develop true independence and march with dignity with the other free countries of the world. He foresaw the UNMDG 2000-2015 and its extension in UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030. His solution – a social revolution through quality education of the youth.

 Rizal innovates boarding school in Dapitan

Dr. Jose Rizal was right to put to action his belief that teenagers’ national consciousness can be excited by community service. Although his longest essay, Sobre La Indolencia de los Filipino in La Solidaridad concerns the laziness of the Filipinos, he attributes this to several factors: the political disorder, poor education, as well as the tropical climate. All of these weakened the enthusiasm of the Filipinos for work. Strange to say, the same factors still exist at the end of the century.

Exiled in Dapitan, Rizal was more free to experiment his innovative “hands-on” school program. Who were his students? Sixteen selected high school boys who were accommodated near his house. They were taught to earn a living by learning and helping in his medical clinic as well as his horticulture and stock farm. Academic lessons were done in the afternoon without charge. Field trips to mountains, caves and seashore became actual botany and zoology lessons. The dictum “sound body, sound mind” was practiced when he taught the boys boxing, swimming, wrestling and native fencing. Rizal’s Dapitan high school class is indeed a model of the ideal boarding school.

Rizal taught Dapitan folks applied engineering to improve the community

Applying his knowledge as a land surveyor (perito agrimensor), he planned new street layouts and constructed them through the cooperative labor of the people. With a limited knowledge of engineering, he conceived the idea of providing the town with a water system which was completed in 1895 through the help of his pupils and the townspeople. A stream from the mountain several kilometers away supplied the water. A dam and aqueduct pipes and foundations were built out of discarded roof tiles, bricks, gin bottles, and stones. The mortar they used was made out of burned seashells and corals.

A decade later, H.F. Cameron, a distinguished American engineer, commented about the waterworks: “When one considers that Dr. Rizal had no dynamites with which to blast the hard rocks, and no resources except his own ingenuity, one cannot help but render homage to this man…” Recalling what he learned in Belgium and Baden-Baden, Germany, he invented a wooden machine for making bricks, manufacturing at least 6,000 bricks a day. He also introduced a hemp-stripping machine to improve the abaca industry, thus increasing the output of the abaca planters.

Ever conscious of public welfare, Rizal also drained the marshes to minimize the dangers of malaria. He likewise set about providing the town with a lighting system, which consisted of coconut oil lamps placed in dark streets.

Rizal gives lessons on how to become business entrepreneurs

Rizal’s exile in Dapitan lasted four self-fulfilling years. He made a giant relief map of Mindanao showing the townspeople the location of Dapitan. Here, he gave all his best as a doctor, teacher, developer, and scientist. Devoid of any political ambition, he served the community.

In spite of the abundance of fish in the sea, the people of Dapitan and the surrounding areas did not have enough fish because the fishermen did not know how to make and use the fishing nets. Rizal requested his brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo to buy a big net for trawl fishing and to send him two good Calamba fishermen who could teach the Dapitan people better fishing methods. The nets came but the fishermen could not. Rizal trained the local fishermen in the use of the new fishing gear and then taught them net weaving.

Rizal observed that the Filipinos in Dapitan did not engage in business. Setting an example of self-help to curb the Chinese control of domestic trade, he promoted the establishment of a Dapitan farmers cooperative association, managed by the people themselves to improve farm products, promote cooperative marketing and extend protection to its members. He was more than ever fully convinced that community improvement was an impetus to national governance, respect and integrity. Trade was lucrative.

Issues that must be faced to end the national discontent

The 31st ASEAN Summit concluded without anyone upholding the universal human rights, except the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It was a final challenge to President Duterte who chaired it to courageously face what is morally right among the brotherhood of nations.

For an economy that needs a lot of innovation, young Filipinos must pursue careers in science and engineering but few of them excel in math and science. Many middle class families feel the burdens of life weighing them down due to job insecurities and escalating taxes. Corporate financial scandals have caused business leaders to fall low in public esteem with the endo system oppressing the lowest paid worker. Mistrust of government is an all-time high. It is difficult for government to perform effectively in observing human rights and basic public service. To move forward requires the Rizalian form of leadership.