If Dr. Jose Rizal were here today

Today is the 126th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dr Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. He would have been 161 years old today, if men were to live longer like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Methuselah, the father of Lamech and grandfather of Noah. I wonder what Dr Rizal would say about today's politics, economy, social and cultural issues. Would Rizal be a rebel, a reformist, a critic or a mellowed bystander? Would he be a Ninoy, a Joma or a Luis Taruc?

Although Dr Jose Rizal never fired any gun, much less killed any Spaniard, he was tried and convicted of treason, like Gat Andres Bonifacio. But the Great Pleibian was often wounded and scarred in many battles against the Spanish forces. But unlike Bonifacio who was tried by a Kangaroo court created, manned and controlled by his political enemies, and neutralized by extra-judicial killing in the mountain of Cavite by his own fellow Filipino Katipuneros, Dr Rizal was given a world class military tribunal and he was even granted the right to be assisted by counsel. He was convicted and sentenced to die a dramatic death witnessed by the public in Bagumbayan, now Luneta. Bonifacio and his brothers were murdered by treacherous killers who even molested his wife thereafter.

Dr Jose Rizal was not a warrior, unlike Bonifacio. He believed that the pen is mightier than the sword. He was Crisostomo Ibarra, a well-dressed ilustrado, educated abroad, refined and a perfect gentleman, lover and globe trotter. He was a commentator, journalist, writer and novelist. His Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo cost him his life. The Spanish friars and military officers hated his guts for exposing and attacking their shenanigans. He lambasted the religious leaders for their profligacy, their lust, greed and thirst for power. His Padre Damaso and Padre Salvi showed the world how the religious leaders abused our poor peasants and exploited our women.

If he were alive today, he would write boldly against the corruption in high places, the abuses of the police and the military, the social injustice against the poor, the voiceless, marginalized sectors, like the indigenous "lumads" and Muslims who were dispossessed of their ancestral domains, the homeless, jobless and hopeless Filipinos who are often exploited,oppressed and hoodwinked and fooled by trapos and political lords and family dynasties. He would denounce  the religious orders who preach charity but who exclude the poor from their exclusive schools and hospitals. He would expose to the international press the summary executions of drug users. He would write about the shenanigans in the country's prisons and jails.

Dr Jose Rizal would have denounce those false prophets who call themselves the messengers of God but are being accused of sexual abuses and trafficking of minors and women. He would attack those religious preachers who use the Bible to extort money from the poor in the guise of Love Offering to the Lord, only to be used in living a life of hedonism and greed. He would lambast those religious leaders who use the teaching of Jesus to finance their high class living in exclusive enclaves and world class condos, while their followers wallow in poverty, destitution and misery. He would attack the priests and nuns who preach charity but are oblivious to the beggars who lay in starvation conditions right in the gates of their hallowed universities.

If Dr Jose Rizal were alive today, he would be a target for murder by the gambling and drug lords. He would be arrested for treason, red-tagged and accused of sedition. Rizal would not live long because his pen is always the cause of his perennial risks and hazards. Like Jesus Christ, Rizal would be a threat to the status quo. He would be eliminated because he would always tell the truth and his summary neutralization would most probably partake of Bonifacio's murder. It is a good thing he did not live long like Methuselah.