HERMOSA, Bataan – Hermosa Municipal Mayor Jopet Inton leads Sunday morning, the wreath-laying ceremony at the Hermosa Town Plaza commemorating the martyrdom of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
Inton was joined by Vice Mayor Cris Vitug, members of Hermosa Sangguniang Bayan, executive assistant Rex Jorge, personnel from Hermosa PNP and representatives from different sectors.
Celebrated annually on December 30th in the Philippines since 1898, Rizal Day is a commemorative holiday that commemorates the life of José Rizal – a man many consider to be one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines.
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda – was born on June 19th, 1861. He was a novelist, poet and ophthalmologist, but is really known for being a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary.
For several years he lived in Europe, where he became part of the Propaganda Movement and advocated for reform in the Philippines.
During this time, he wrote his first novel – Noli Me Tangere – a novel that chronicled the cruelties of Spain’s colonial rule in the Philippines. A book that made him a target when he returned briefly to the Philippines.
Rizal would return to Europe and while there would write several more books and articles but eventually, he would travel back to the Philippines in 1892 to further advocate for freedom in the Philippines.
Published accounts stated that these actions resulted in his exile to Dapitan, Mindanao. During his exile, he took on patients and worked as a doctor.
Three years later, he would travel to Cuba to work as an army doctor. However while he was there, Katipunan – a Filipino nationalist society revolted. Although José Rizal wasn’t affiliated with this particular group, he was arrested as a dissident. He was then subsequently convicted of sedition and received a death sentence. On December 30th, 1896 he was executed by firing squad. José Rizal was just thirty years old at the time.
His execution further solidified the opposition to Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, and by 1898 Spanish rule over the country was finished.
In 1898, President Emilio Aguinaldo declared December 30th as a national day of mourning for José Rizal and all other victims of Spanish rule.
Since then, Rizal day is celebrated to this day. –Photos from John Michael Mendoza of Hermosa LGU