Rizals in 2022

For this year’s commemoration of Rizal’s martyrdom, let us examine the current availability of the surname Rizal in the Philippines. Contrary to most people’s belief, there are still people today who carry the surname “Rizal”. While brothers Paciano and Jose failed to produce descendants who would pass on the surname, there are still 179 people in Calamba City, Laguna, who carry the surname Rizal while there are 293 in the entire Laguna province. Very few people in the Philippines carry it as a last name thus it is safe to say that these very few Rizals today are almost all certainly related.

The descendants of Jose Rizal’s siblings are scattered throughout the world today. Because they’re from the female line, no one carries the surname Rizal. In fact, within the national hero’s immediate family, the last in the family to bear the surname was Emiliana Decena Rizal de Lopez, the only child of Paciano Rizal, who died on June 28, 1964. But, as already mentioned earlier, there are still a few who not only have Rizal as their family name but are also proven to be distantly related to the family of the hero.

We know based on archival documents and snippets from various biographies of the national hero, that among the siblings of Francisco Rizal Mercado (the father of Jose Rizal), at least two went on to settle in Calamba and one, Gabriel Rizal Mercado, who married Valentina de la Cruz, would later become the great-grandfather of two modern-day Mayors of Calamba: Sisenendo and Taciano V. Rizal, and a great-great-great-grandfather of Mayor Rosseller H. Rizal, elected Mayor of Calamba in 2022. Like Jose Rizal’s branch of the family, while the other Rizals also utilized Rizal Mercado as a compound surname during the last years of Spanish rule, they eventually dropped “Mercado” and used Rizal as their sole family name.

Mayors Sisenando and Taciano were the sons of Pelagio Rizal and Romana Vicente; Pelagio’s father was Patricio Rizal, the son of Gabriel Rizal Mercado. Patricio Rizal served as cabeza de barangay in the 1870s, the same time that Francisco was also serving as cabeza. Sisenando V. Rizal, a medical doctor by profession, served Calamba as mayor twice: from 1948 to 1951 and again from 1952 to 1954. His brother Taciano V. Rizal served as mayor from 1960 to 1963, 1964 to 1967, and 1972 to 1975. Tarciano V. Rizal was a high-ranking member of the Hukbong Bayan Laban (HUKBALAHAP), which was founded to fight the Japanese but later repurposed to fight the Philippine Government after World War II. He was known by many aliases, including Commander Mac and Commander Arthur, and was Luis Taruc's hatchet man and was given the assignment to assassinate President Ramon Magsaysay. The jeep Taciano was riding broke down just as the planned killing was about to take place, and when he got to the scene, President Magsaysay had already left. Due to this, he changed his mind and rejoined the government. He later helped President Magsaysay put an end to the movement. Taciano lived a peaceful life to become one of the most, if not the most, beloved mayors of Calamba. Calamba’s current mayor, Rosseller “Ross” H. Rizal, is a descendant of Don Gabriel Rizal Mercado and was elected by a large margin in the 2022 elections. For years, Mayor Ross Rizal and his family erroneously believed that their ancestor was a half-brother of Jose Rizal, until recent research by this author and a few others has proven otherwise.

Jose Rizal’s siblings’ descendants and those who still carry the Rizal surname today continue to serve the people through various capacities, from being elected officials to government workers and consultants. Most are in the private sector and contribute to society as productive men and women.

Happy Rizal Day!