Did America Choose Our National Hero?
Ask any Filipino who the national hero is, and you'll hear one name: José Rizal. But no Philippine law or proclamation has ever officially declared him — or anyone — the national hero. So how did it become "fact"?
It was an American idea
Historian Renato Constantino and others trace the push to the early years of American rule. In 1901, Governor-General William Howard Taft is said to have suggested to the Philippine Commission that Filipinos be given a national hero. Soon after, the U.S.-controlled commission made December 30 — the anniversary of Rizal's execution by Spain — a day of national observance.
Why Rizal?
The Philippines had just fought a war against the United States. A hero who inspired armed resistance was the last thing the new colonial government wanted. As historians later described the thinking, the other candidates were passed over:
Andrés Bonifacio — founder of the Katipunan, seen as too radical
Emilio Aguinaldo — the general who had led the fight against the U.S., seen as too militant
Apolinario Mabini — who refused for years to swear allegiance to the U.S.
Rizal was a reformist, a writer and a doctor who had called for change through education and reform. He had been executed by Spain, not America. He was, in short, the safest choice.
"A United States-sponsored hero"
In his landmark 1969 essay Veneration Without Understanding, Constantino called Rizal "a United States-sponsored hero." His point wasn't that Rizal didn't deserve honor. It was that Filipinos were taught to venerate him without understanding why the colonizer needed them to.
The nuance
Rizal was a hero to Filipinos before the Americans arrived. Aguinaldo's revolutionary government declared December 30 a day of mourning in 1898. America didn't invent Rizal's heroism — it institutionalized it, because doing so served colonial interests.
Still unresolved
In 1995, a National Heroes Committee recommended several figures — including Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo, Mabini, Gabriela Silang and others — to be proclaimed national heroes. No law followed. To this day, the title is tradition, not law.
So, should Bonifacio share the title? That's a conversation worth having.
Sources
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