Jose Rizal of Today

When one of your slippers/ would fall into the river,/ what would you do?// Dive into the water/ to retrieve it?// Or throw the other/ to complete the pair/ for someone else to use it?//
Honorable members /of the board of judges,/ distinguished guests,/ friends,/ my fellow Filipinos—//
I am sure /you are all familiar with this story,/ a story that happened /more than a century ago,/ so simple yet noble,/ that lingers through the hearts/ and minds of every Filipino.// This is a story of a boy who,/ unlike mythological heroes/ who were born strong and almighty,/ was just an ordinary human/ yet became legendary.//
We all aspire to be great,/ or for the more ambitious,/ powerful.// But have you ever wondered/ how this boy from Calamba,/ who,/ without even aspiring to,/ gained recognition around the world/ and made a mark in history?//
A hundred and fifty years ago,/ in the nineteenth of June to be precise,/ the life of a hero began.// He was a blessing to his family/ especially to his parents.// Little did they know/ that their innocent newborn/ would soon be an extraordinary person/ who would also be a blessing/ to the future generations.//
We remember today/ the legacy of the writer,/ the linguist,/ the anthropologist,/ the journalist,/ the biologist,/ the artist,/ the son,/ the Filipino icon,/ our national hero,/ Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda.//
He was a fighter.// He fought /and died for a nation.// But when he died,/ he left his heart/ and gave his spirit back/ for the people he loved so dearly.//
He is our liberator.// Intelligent that he was,/ at a young age,/ he committed his life on pen and paper.// He peered into the dying hearts/ of the Filipino people through his words/ that burned with wisdom.// Through his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo,/ he unlocked the minds and hearts/ of his people to expose them /to the Spaniard’s colonial plots,/ and brought the Filipinos back/ from the grave of slavery.// The Filipinos... [continues]

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