Pen is Mightier than the Sword

     Who would have not known Jose P. Rizal? The Philippine National hero who had written the famous novels Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and its sequel, El Filibusterismo (The Greediness). Jose Rizal had proven that pen is mightier than the sword through these two novels tackling issues and problems on the government and the society. These two novels somehow contributed to the Philippine independence, a long tyranny from Spanish regime. 

     Noli Me Tangere was written based on an except from a Bible verse on the book of John 20:13-17 wherein a leper was made to wear a note announcing his leprosy so that people he met would avoid and stop bothering him. Noli Me Tangere depicts the social cancer Philippines have been had even up to now. The novel discusses the Philippine culture under the Spanish influence, the vices and habits of the Filipino people, and the powerful Roman Catholic church, more powerful than those in the government positions during those times. Jose Rizal was 26 years old when it was first published in 1887. Every character from that novel represented the every facet of the Philippine society, from every Filipino home to its neighborhood to gatherings to education to the church and the government.

     Three years after, El Filibusterismo, a sequel of Noli Me Tangere was published. Rizal dedicated the book in honor of the three Filipino martyr priests,  GOMBURZA, (Fathers Gomez, Burgos, & Zamora). El Filibusterismo depicts the political and educational situation of the Filipino from the Spanish regime, making the Filipino reader clamor for real independence and democracy.

      These two novels somehow influenced and helped ignite the Filipinos' emotions and cravings for freedom that made a spark on Filipino revolution but Rizal remained on what he believed as a peaceful  means of acquiring freedom and asking direct representation of the Filipino to Spanish government, through his pen, through his writings.
     Today, June 19, 2011, marks the 150th birthday of the Philippine national hero who paved the way for the Philippine independence along with hundreds of Filipino who shed their blood for the freedom we Filipinos are enjoying now.