By Glen Andrea Omandam
Historian Ambeth Ocampo urged Philippine schools to teach Dr. Jose Rizal as a “messy and complex historical figure” rather than an idealized national hero, during a lecture titled “RA 1425 @ 70: Rescuing Rizal from the Rizal Course” on July 20 at the Audio-Visual Theater.
“We should actually be learning about the messy, difficult person that he actually was. And that is what makes Rizal important,” Ocampo said.
Ocampo, a public historian who covers the late 19th century Philippines’ art, culture, and historical figures. Ocampo is widely regarded as the foremost expert on Rizal and is known for his extensive work on Rizal’s legacy.
Ocampo said educators and students should return to primary sources rather than rely on censored portrayals of Rizal.
“How come they never taught me a Rizal that laughed, a Rizal that had a bastos streak in his novels?” Ocampo said. “We have to remember what he’s like as a person to make him more interesting to us.”
Ocampo said students leave the Rizal course with “only a superficial and incomplete understanding of the historical figure” despite its intent to cultivate patriotism.
“What’s the name of his dog? What are the names of his girlfriends? So we teach trivial, useless information,” he said.
Moreover, Ocampo said many of Rizal’s works remain unread despite their significance in Philippine history. Ocampo cited Rizal’s two novels that reflect the evolution of his ideas on nationhood.
“The Noli Me Tangere, it was a Tagalog novel. But the El Filibusterismo, it was called a Filipino novel. I like to think that’s not trivial,” he said.
Ocampo said “by the time Rizal wrote the El Filibusterismo, he was already imagining the nation—the Filipino nation.”
Ocampo said the country’s view of the historical figure has detached from the person Rizal really was, 70 years after the implementation of the Rizal Law.
“I hope that after today, your people will rethink, your teachers will rethink it, and realize that the only way to know Rizal is to read him,” Ocampo said.
Sillimanian faculty and students attended the lecture as part of the university’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Rizal Law or RA 1425.
