Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 151 views

    The Making of R.A. 1425

    Uploaded by

    Reje Cuaresma
    1) The Rizal Law mandates that courses about Jose Rizal be taught in all educational institutions in the Philippines and that students read Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. 2) There was initial strong opposition to the law from the Catholic Church, who claimed it would undermine freedom of religion. Senator Claro Recto was a key proponent while Church groups organized against it. 3) After debate, a compromise was reached where only university students would read the uncensored versions of Rizal's novels, while exemptions could be allowed for other students who felt it threatened their faith. The law was ultimately passed in 1956.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    The Making of R.A. 1425

    Uploaded by

    Reje Cuaresma
    151 views3 pages
    1) The Rizal Law mandates that courses about Jose Rizal be taught in all educational institutions in the Philippines and that students read Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. 2) There was initial strong opposition to the law from the Catholic Church, who claimed it would undermine freedom of religion. Senator Claro Recto was a key proponent while Church groups organized against it. 3) After debate, a compromise was reached where only university students would read the uncensored versions of Rizal's novels, while exemptions could be allowed for other students who felt it threatened their faith. The law was ultimately passed in 1956.

    Original Title

    The Making of R.a. 1425

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    1) The Rizal Law mandates that courses about Jose Rizal be taught in all educational institutions in the Philippines and that students read Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. 2) There was initial strong opposition to the law from the Catholic Church, who claimed it would undermine freedom of religion. Senator Claro Recto was a key proponent while Church groups organized against it. 3) After debate, a compromise was reached where only university students would read the uncensored versions of Rizal's novels, while exemptions could be allowed for other students who felt it threatened their faith. The law was ultimately passed in 1956.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    151 views3 pages

    The Making of R.A. 1425

    Uploaded by

    Reje Cuaresma
    1) The Rizal Law mandates that courses about Jose Rizal be taught in all educational institutions in the Philippines and that students read Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. 2) There was initial strong opposition to the law from the Catholic Church, who claimed it would undermine freedom of religion. Senator Claro Recto was a key proponent while Church groups organized against it. 3) After debate, a compromise was reached where only university students would read the uncensored versions of Rizal's novels, while exemptions could be allowed for other students who felt it threatened their faith. The law was ultimately passed in 1956.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Brief History

    The Rizal Bill became the Republic Act No. 1425, known as the ‘Rizal Law’. The full name of
    the law is “An Act to include in the curricula of all public and private schools, colleges, and
    universities courses on the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me
    Tangere and El Filibusterismo, authorizing the printing and distribution thereof, and for other
    purposes.”
    The Rizal Law’s first section concerns mandating students read Rizal’s novels. The last two
    areas involve making Rizal’s writings accessible to the general public—they require the schools
    to have a sufficient number of copies in their libraries and mandate the publication of the works
    in major Philippine languages.
    Jose P. Laurel, then-senator who co-wrote the law, explained that since Jose Rizal was the
    founder of the country’s nationalism and had significantly contributed to the current condition
    of the nation, it is only fitting that Filipinos, especially the youth, know about and learn to imbibe
    the great ideals for which the hero died.
    Accordingly, the Rizal Law aims to accomplish the following goals:
    1. To rededicate the lives of youth to the ideals of freedom and nationalism, for which our
    heroes lived and died
    2. To pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in shaping the Filipino
    character
    3. To gain an inspiring source of patriotism through studying Rizal’s life, works, and writings.
    No student has yet officially applied for exemption from reading Rizal’s novels thus far.
    Relatedly, former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1994, through Memorandum Order No. 247,
    directed the Secretary of Education, Culture, and Sports and the Chairman of the Commission
    on Higher Education to fully implement the RA 1425 as there had been reports that the law had
    still not been carried out.
    In 1995, CHED Memorandum No. 3 was issued, enforcing strict compliance to Memorandum
    Order No. 247.
    Passage of the Republic Act 1425
    The Rizal Law, officially designated as Republic Act No. 1425, is a Philippine law that
    mandates all educational institutions to offer courses about José Rizal. The Rizal Law, in any
    case, was undoubtedly restricted by the Catholic Church in the Philippines, much appreciated
    to the anti-clerical subjects that were pertinent in Rizal's books Noli Me Tangere and El
    Filibusterismo.
    Senator Claro M. Recto was the leading proponent of the Rizal Bill. He sought to sponsor the
    bill at Congress. However, this was met with stiff opposition from the Catholic Church. During
    the 1955 Senate election, the church charged Recto with being a communist and an anti-
    Catholic. After Recto's election, the Church continued to oppose the bill mandating the reading
    of Rizal's novels Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo, claiming it would violate freedom of
    conscience and religion.
    In the campaign to oppose the Rizal bill, the Catholic Church urged its adherents to write to
    their Congress and senators showing their opposition to the account; later, it organized
    symposiums. In one of these symposiums, Fr. Jesus Cavanna argued that the novels belonged
    to the past and that teaching them would misrepresent current conditions. Radio commentator
    Jesus Paredes also said that Catholics had the right to refuse to read them as it would "endanger
    their salvation.”
    Groups such as Catholic Action of the Philippines, the Congregation of the Mission, the Knights
    of Columbus, and the Catholic Teachers Guild organized opposition to the bill; they were
    countered by Veteranos de la Revolucion (Spirit of 1896), Alagad ni Rizal, the Freemasons, and
    the Knights of Rizal. The Senate Committee on Education sponsored a bill co-written by José P.
    Laurel and Recto, with the only opposition coming from Francisco Soc Rodrigo, Mariano Jesús
    Cuenco, and Decoroso Rosales.
    The Archbishop of Manila, Rufino Santos, protested in a pastoral letter that Catholic students
    would be affected if the compulsory reading of the unexpurgated version were pushed through.
    Arsenio Lacson, Manila's mayor, who supported the bill, walked out of Mass when the priest
    read a circular from the archbishop denouncing the bill.
    Rizal, according to Cuenco," attacked dogmas, beliefs, and practices of the Church. The
    assertion that Rizal limited himself to castigating undeserving priests and refrained from
    criticizing, ridiculing or putting in doubt dogmas of the Catholic Church is gratuitous and
    misleading." Cuenco touched on Rizal's denial of the existence of purgatory, as it was not found
    in the Bible, and that Moses and Jesus Christ did not mention its fact; Cuenco concluded that a
    "majority of the Members of this Chamber, if not all [including] our good friend, the gentleman
    from Sulu" believed in purgatory. [3] The senator from Sulu, Domocao Alonto, attacked Filipinos
    who proclaimed Rizal as "their national hero but seemed to despise what he had written,” saying
    that the Indonesians used Rizal's books as their Bible on their independence movement; Pedro
    López, who hails from Cebu, Cuenco's province, in his support for the bill, reasoned out that it
    was in their province the independence movement started when Lapu-Lapu fought Ferdinand
    Magellan.
    Outside the Senate, the Catholic schools threatened to close down if the bill was passed; Recto
    countered that the schools would be nationalized if that happened. Recto did not believe the
    threat, stating that the schools were too profitable to be closed. The schools gave up the danger
    but threatened to "punish" legislators in favor of the law in future elections. A compromise was
    suggested to use the censored version; Recto, who had supported the required reading of the
    unexpurgated version, declared: "The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the
    schools would blot out from our minds the memory of the national hero. This is not a fight
    against Recto but a fight against Rizal", adding that since Rizal is dead, they are attempting to
    suppress his memory.
    On May 12, 1956, a compromise inserted by Committee on Education chairman Laurel that
    accommodated the objections of the Catholic Church was approved unanimously. The bill
    specified that only college (university) students would have the option of reading unexpurgated
    versions of clerically-contested reading material, such as Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.
    The bill was enacted on June 12, 1956.
    In the end, the bill was nonetheless passed, but with a clause that would allow exemptions
    to students who think that reading the Noli and Fili would ruin their faith.

    You might also like

    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy