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In
the eyes of an older generation of Filipinos
"He"
was an American Idol!
by Sir Joe Luzadas,
KGOR
When
we celebrate Dr. Jose Rizal’s birthday on June 19th, let us take a
moment to refresh our knowledge in history to give one appreciative look
at “one rare breed” of American who like Ferdinand Blumentritt has a
great deal of respect and admiration to our national hero and his
countrymen.
 No
American soldier-politician assigned as governor-general in the
Philippines
who struck the chord of true friendship, respect and understanding in the
heart of Filipinos than this
New York
native. Looking back three centuries earlier under
Spain
and fifty years with
America
, no appointed Spanish or American official after tour of duty has ever
opted to remain in the islands for personal and sentimental reasons.
Moreover,
no Spanish or American official has bequeathed a personal WISH to have his
mortal remains buried in the Philippine soil. Was it a political ploy when
this American father while his newborn son was being christened he
chose “Francisco Jr.” instead of Francis so that it sounds more of a
“Filipino”? His sincerity is unquestionable as he considered himself a
“Filipino” long before Congress of the
Philippines
passed an Act making him a Filipino citizen!
Governor-General
Francis
Burton
Harrison
is well remembered for
having inaugurated a policy, "
PHILIPPINES
FOR FILIPINOS" that brought the exhilarated inhabitants
recognition of their native pride and sense of belonging! Although he died
in
Flemington
,
New Jersey
in 1957, in compliance with his will,
Burton
was buried at the
Manila
Cemetery
, a driving distance to the Paco cemetery where Dr. Rizal was originally
buried.
Reprinted
below is the speech of Francis
Burton
Harrison
’s that was
delivered at the University of the
Philippines
when he dedicated the building honoring Dr. Jose Rizal.
“I
think no man can read Rizal's novels without feeling his powerful impulse
of sympathy for and understanding of the people of this country. We can be
moved not only by his profound reading of human nature, but we can also be
inspired to emulate, if we may, the high level of talent for which his
name will ever be famous in the history of literature. Here in the
Philippines
I would, if I could, arouse you to more earnest devotion to a literary
career. You have natural advantages second to no country in the world.
Your history is replete with incidents and romance and your present
latter-day development is a true inspiration to the youth of the world in
all countries.
To
this land of lofty mountains, of clear water running to the sea, the
sunsets across Mariveles Mountain, the dawn over Mount Arayat, the blue
haze upon the rice-fields in the evening-all the familiar scenes and
sounds of a life animate by the sun and made happy by the richness of
nature. As I remembered the deep tender lights of the coconut groves and
the busy industry of our daily life, I said to myself, 'There
is a country which could inspire any man to literary efforts with all its
wealth of romance.'
When
I recall the history of the Philippine Islands, the coming of the
Christians with the sword and flaming cross, the coming of the
Mohammedans, with the crescent and the crooked creese ( kris?) and their
cry in many a hard fought battle, the enterprise of the Spaniard in
spiritual teachings as well as in material investments, the shouts of
Legaspi's sailors across Manila Bay, the guns of Dewey so many generations
later, the efforts of our country to establish here our principles of
democracy, it seems to me that any young man or woman born upon this soil
and inspired by ideas has an opportunity to take a place in the very
foremost ranks of literature and history and show to the world not only
what has been done here in education but what the world may expect of the
Filipino people when they take their rank as an independent member of the
brotherhood of nations.
In
my opinion Rizal's greatest services to the cause of the human race were
those scientific impulses which he gave to the world of his duty, and the
martyrdom which he suffered was but another example of the determination
of organized society in every age to eliminate those that by the pure
processes of reason have arrived at new theories for the conduct and
welfare of mankind. From the day of Socrates, who was put to death by the
citizens of
Athens
for teaching the young men to think for themselves, down to that morning
in December, 1896, when Rizal was done to death by the firing-squad at
Bagumbayan, the pages of history have run red with the murder of men of
science. In Europe of the Middle Ages the names of Roger Bacon, Giordano
Bruno, Galileo, Agrippa, Campanella, Kepler, Lavoisier, of Priestly, and
many others of less distinction in the annals of history have shown what
struggles the human mind has been called upon to endure and to what stress
the human body has been put in the efforts of science to liberate the
human mind....
Bearing
all these things in mind, it seems to me that we can justly appreciate
Rizal's love of science and his final martyrdom as the greatest
contribution to the freedom of thought ever given by any one man to the
Filipino people. This hall which we are about to dedicate, reserved as it
is to be for the study of science, is the most fitting monument to the
name of Rizal that could be devised. Here he alive to-day I have no doubt
he would feel an infinitely greater inspiration in the thought that his
name was to be attached to this great edifice and that his memory was to
be preserved by the study of young Filipinos, men and women, in the
natural sciences than he would be in that splendid statue erected down
there on the Bagumbayan to perpetuate the memory of his patriotic
death.
Now,
my friends, in dedicating this edifice to progress, I believe that it will
stand for progress as long as the Filipino people themselves remain
progressive and as long as you will fight the battle for liberty of
thought and of reason, and, I believe, also, that Dr. Rizal, if he has any
conscious knowledge in those ethereal spaces to which his soul has been
summoned, will summon the youth of his beloved country to dare all, to
endure all, and, if needs be, to suffered all that he himself had dared,
endured, or suffered in order that science may not perish from the face of
the earth.”
Francis
Burton
Harrison
Former
American Governor-general of the
Philippines
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