News of the Profession

Abstract

Throughout the year I96I the Philippine nation celebrated the centenary of the birth of its national hero and patriot, Jose Rizal. In charge of the year long celebration was the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, created by the executive order of the late President Ramon Magsaysay. The multifarious functions and duties of the Centennial Commission aimed at focusing the attention of other nations, as well as the Philippines, on the life, accomplishments, ideas and ideals of the national hero who is fondly referred to by Filipinos as the "pride of the Malay race." Among the major objectives of the centennial year were the promotion of commemorative celebrations throughout the Philippines, the construction of a grand monument in honor of Rizal and the improvement of the existing Rizal monument in the Luneta park in Manila, the issuance of centenary commemorative medals to persons who have contributed to the understanding and propagation of the teachings of Rizal, the encouragement of Rizaliana collections in all schools and in public and private libraries, and the holding of an International Congress on Rizal in Manila in December I96I, to which foreigners known for their interest in Rizal and his works were invited as official guests of the Republic of the Philippines. The International Congress, to quote the Centennial Commission, was assembled to "give the definitive measure of Rizal's contribution by his life, his martyrdom and his ideas to the national heritage, and to relate all this to the experience of other peoples in their struggles for political, economic and social freedom."' The most arduous and comprehensive task of the Centennial Commission was the preparation and publication of the complete works of Rizal in three languages-English, the original Spanish, and Tagalog, the Philippine national language. It is hoped that in subsequent years the Commission will be able to undertake the translation and publication of Rizal's complete works in seven additional Filipino dialects, namely Ilocano, Pampango, Hiligaynon, Pangasinan, Bicol, Samar-Leyte, and Cebuano. In fact, Rizal's principal works have already been translated into these dialects. Pending their publication by the Centennial Commission, they have been serialized in such national vernacular weeklies as Bisaya, Hiligaynon, and Bannawag. Rizal well merits the attention of students of Asian history and ideas. Sun Yat-sen and Mahatma Gandhi are known throughout the world, not only to scholars but to laymen. But quite a few years before either of them had begun his career of writing and political action, Jose Rizal, through his political novels, essays and letters, was expounding the social and political ideas of Western liberalism-the inviolability of human rights, the essential equality of all men and races, the popular basis of political authority, and the advantages of constitutional government. Thus he prepared the ground ideologically not only for the revolt against the Spanish which followed his death, Dr. )Marguerite J. Fisher, one of the official guests of the Philippine government at the International Congress on Rizal, is associate professor of political science in the Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Dr. Luis Montilla, former director of the National Library of the Philippines, is chairman of the Philippine Historical Commission and Executive Director of the Rizal National Centennial Commission. 1 Bulletin of Information on the International Congress on Rizal. Manila, Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, p. 6.