Pepe - Rizal Day



He lived and died with his contradictions. Even his novels abound with this clash or perhaps this duality of a restorer and a destroyer. I find Ibarra naïve at the same time I do admit that I am awed by the character of Simoun the jeweler, to the point of wishing that the bomb plot in the house of old Kapitan Tiago had succeeded. But then I am treading upon fiction.

I must say, that is a masterstroke, he directed his life the way he wanted it to be, and yet I also asked now; Did he for a moment, lost control during his trial? The manifesto he wanted to issue, the denial of his involvement, etc. Meanwhile, as he denies and condemns, members of his own family were long ago privy to the separatist movement. Still, can we say that he had no knowledge?

The letters he wrote his friend Blumentritt, consequently reveal his self study approach, to “Germanistik”- indeed one of his many faces as a seducer, to quoting Heine, Schiller, and Goethe. Equally at ease with the French romanticists and the satirists of Spanish literature at that time. And yet in all of this sophistication, he still tried to highlight his orientalism, (which I say is a poor copy compared to Pardo de Tavera and Isabelo de los Reyes).

As his end came, he spoke of a nonviolent approach, but as he formulates those homilies, the country was aflame from a revolution he so inspired.

It is said, that in his last moment, he was calm. As is if saying, “relax in a few minutes this will over”. Indeed it was, at exactly 7:03 AM, curiously his final word was “consummatum est”. A man with a mission? A conscious savior, hero whatever? And who sent him, heaven or hell?

He left laughing, heading towards history, or maybe immortality. To his nemesis, the stamp of “villain” they shall forever carry. And we, those who squander our time in this pursuit of trying to explain his enigma, will continue to be seduced. Our seducer cast a spell upon us, to wander aimlessly in our own endless contradictions. 

 Pepe!!

Pasig. December 30. 2017

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