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Rizal plaque unveiled in Hong Kong
Alejandro R. Roces/philstar ; 1-1-05

Today is the 108th anniversary of Jose Rizal’s execution and in Hong Kong his death anniversary will be commemorated with its Antiquities Advisory Board placing a commemorative plaque on the place where Rizal resided in Hong Kong.

The place where he stayed was known as Rednaxela Terrace. (Rednaxela is Alexander spelled backwards.) Rizal lived there with his family from December 1891 to June 1892. This is the second plaque for Rizal in Hong Kong. Years ago, they installed a similar plaque at the site of the clinic where Rizal practiced as an ophthalmologist.

We have to commend Hong Kong for marking the places where our national hero stayed while in Hong Kong. They seem to be conscious of our national hero and our history. They have even placed a marker where the very first Filipino flag was sewn. This was the flag that General Emilio Aguinaldo displayed when he declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898. Aguinaldo also lived in exile in Hong Kong.

Because it was December 30, 1896 that Rizal was executed by Spanish musketry in Bagumbayan, now known as the Luneta, other historical events pertaining to Rizal were done on that day. Two classic examples are: his remains were moved to the cornerstone of the monument erected in his honor near the spot where he was executed in 1912. And on December 30, 1913, that monument was unveiled.
Rizal had a sense of humor when he was living in exile in Dapitan; he was in close touch with the people exercising his medical profession. One day he was called because a coconut fell on a cockfighter who who was fighting his gamecock under a coconut tree.

By the time Rizal arrived, the man was dead. This is the way Rizal recorded the event in his diary. A coconut fell on the head of a cockfighter. He died instantly. This means that if Isaac Newton had been a Filipino, the law of gravity would not have been discovered.
In his biography of Rizal entitled, The First Filipino, author Leon Maria Guerrero noted that Rizal was the first person to call the natives of his country Filipino. Before that we were referred to as indios. Indios originally referred to the natives of India, later it was applied to the native tribes of America and in time it became the Spanish name for all indigenous people. Spaniards born in Spain called themselves peninsulares while those born in the Philippines were classified as insulares. Contact with Spain had to be through the galleon trade. That meant the galleon trade which meant Manila to Mexico and then Spain. Not till the Suez Canal opened did Filipinos have direct contact with Spain. Now the world is a global village. International travel is done by plane.

We still find it difficult to accept that Rizal was tried, sentenced and executed at Christmas time. On December 24, 1896, the Spanish Military Governor of Manila appointed the members of the Court Martial that would try him. Two days later, he was sentenced to death. We can only conclude that his trial took place right on Christmas day. And he was executed on December 30.

The blood of the martyrs – Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jacinto Zamora, Jose Burgos and Jose Rizal – were the seeds that made us a nation.