“Rizal and Aquino”

Jose Rizal and Benigno Aquino III are both great men known for their dignity and love of country. Through comparison, Jose Rizal was proponent of institutional reforms through his writings, while Benigno Aquino III used his family’s legacy to won in the national election and be elected as president of the Republic to cry out the need for change. Both of them used peaceful means instead of violent revolutions to attain their purpose.

Through Rizal’s perspective, during the Spanish occupation, the Filipinos started to lose their own identity. They were forced to praise and admire the things that were foreign and incomprehensible. The Filipinos endured this kind of life, but sad to say, they would only be repaid with insults and abuses. They were highly discriminated, they were treated as slaves and puppets, and they were robbed of their human rights. Rizal, who cared so much for his countrymen, did not bear this sight, so wrote his two famous novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, even if he knew that this was a sure danger to his life.

Like Rizal, Aquino saw the Philippines now as a divided country. Corruption, politics, war, hunger, religion and other things have become such a huge problem. He believed that these social issues would only generate hate and perpetuate a feeling of distrust among the people and government. Aquino, like Rizal, also loved his country so much, that he decided to run as the country’s President to pursue reformation.
While Rizal tried to awaken the lethargic spirits of the abused Filipinos through his symbolisms in his novels, Aquino voiced out the cries of injustice through his propaganda “Patungo sa tuwid na landas”. He sought after clean and honest government thus he makes sure that all corrupt officials are reprimanded and punished accordingly.

In essence, both Rizal and Aquino pursued reformation for our country. They aspire for a change from worse to better. They both want to have a clean and just government so that all Filipinos would have a better future.