The

Retraction
 What is Retraction

- According to Cambridge definition,

Retraction is an act to say publicly that
you will not do something you had said you
would do, or to admit that something that
you had said was true is false.
What did Jose Rizal allegedly
retracted?

- He retracted
everything that he
said or wrote
contrary to the
politically and
religiously corrupt
Catholic Church. He
also disavowed being
a Mason and thoughts
opposed to Catholic
belief.

Rizal’s alleged
document of
retraction
Translation of the
text
“I declare myself a Catholic and in this
religion in which I was born and educated I
wish to live and die.
I retract with all my heart whatever in my
words, writings, publications and conduct has
been contrary to my character as son of the
Catholic Church. I believe and I confess
whatever she teaches and I submit to whatever
she demands. I abominate masonry, as the enemy
which is of the Church, and as a Society
prohibited by the Church. The Diocesan Prelate
may, as the Superior Ecclesiastical Authority,
make public this spontaneous manifestation of
mine in order to repair the scandal which my
acts have caused and so that God and people
may pardon me.”
Jose Rizal’s Last Hours at
Dapitan (Dec. 29-30, 1896)
29 December
6:00 AM:  Rizal was read his verdict by
Captain Rafael Dominguez: To be shot the
next day at 7:00 AM at the Luneta de
Bagumbayan (Rizal Park)

7:00 AM:  Rizal was transferred to the

chapel cell adorned by religious images
to convince him to go back to the
Catholic fold.  His first visitors were
Jesuit priests Fathers Miguel Saderra
Mata and Luis Viza.
7:15 AM:  After Fr. Saderra left, Rizal
asked Fr. Viza for the Sacred Heart
statuette which he carved when he was an
Ateneo student.  From his pocket the
statuette appears.

8:00 AM:  Fr. Viza was relieved by Fr.

Antonio Rosell who joined Rizal for
breakfast.  Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade
joins them.

9:00 AM:  Fr. Federico Faura, who once

said that Rizal would lose his head for
writing the Noli Me Tangere, arrived. 
Rizal told him, “Father you are indeed a
prophet.”
10:00 AM:  Fathers José Vilaclara
and Estanislao March visited
Rizal, followed by a Spanish
journalist, Santiago Mataix of El
Heraldo de Madrid, for an
interview.

12:00-3:30 PM:  Rizal’s time alone

in his cell.  He had lunch, wrote
letters and probably wrote his
last poem of 14 stanzas which he
wrote in his flowing handwriting
in a very small piece of paper.
3:00 PM:  According to an account
of the agent of the Cuerpo de
Vigilancia guarding Rizal’s cell,
Rizal signed what seems to be the
document retracting his anti-
Catholic writings and his
membership in masonry.  This event
is a contentious issue among Rizal
experts.
 Rizal’s alcohol burner,
a gift from the Pardo
de Taveras where he hid
First page of the “Mi his last poem.
Ultimo Adios” in
Rizal’s own handwriting
4:00 PM:  Visit of Rizal’s mother,
Teodora Alonso, and his sister
Trinidad.They were also accompanied by
Narcisa, Lucia, Josefa, Maria and son
Mauricio Cruz.  Leoncio Lopez Rizal,
Narcisa’s eleven-year-old son, was not
allowed to enter the cell. After their
visit, Fathers Vilaclara and Estanislao
March returned to the cell followed by
Father Rosell.

6:00 PM: Rizal was visited by the Dean of

the Manila Cathedral, Don Silvino Lopez
Tuñon. Father March left Father Vilaclara
to be with the two.
8:00 PM:  Rizal’s last supper where he
informed Captain Dominguez that he already
forgave those who condemned him.

9:30 PM:  Rizal was visited by the fiscal

of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, Don
Gaspar Cestaño with whom Rizal offered the
best chair of the cell.  According to
accounts, the fiscal left with “a good
impression of Rizal’s intelligence and
noble character.”
Teodora Alonso, the
matriarch of the Rizal
clan, with her daughters
and grandchildren.
30 December
5:30 AM:  Rizal took his last meal.
Rizal also wrote to his family and to
his brother.

5:00 AM:  Teary-eyed Josephine Bracken

and Josefa Rizal came.  According to the
testimony of the agent of the Cuerpo de
Vigilancia, Josephine and Rizal were
married.  Josephine was gifted by Rizal
with the classic Thomas á Kempis
book Imitations of Christ in which he
inscribed, “To my dear and unhappy wife,
Josephine, December 30th, 1896, Jose
Rizal.”  They embraced for the last
time.
Josephine Bracken at 18 Rizal’s wedding gift to
his wife
6:00 AM:  Rizal wrote his father, Francisco
Mercado “My beloved Father, Pardon me for
the pain with which I repay you for sorrows
and sacrifices for my education.  I did not
want nor did I prefer it.  Goodbye, Father,
goodbye… Jose Rizal.”  To his mother, he had
only these words, “To my very dear Mother,
Sra. Doña Teodora Alonso 6 o’clock in the
morning, December 30, 1896.  Jose Rizal.”

6:30 AM:  Death march from Fort Santiago to

Bagumbayan begins.  4 soldiers with
bayoneted rifles lead the procession
followed by Rizal, Taviel de Andrade,
Fathers Vilaclara and March and other
soldiers. 
Actual photo of Rizal’s arrival at the
Luneta, 30 December 1896.
Retracing Rizal’s
footsteps in brass at
Fort Santiago.
7:00 AM:  Rizal, after arriving on the
execution site at the Luneta de
Bagumbayan, was checked with his pulse
by Dr. Felipe Ruiz Castillo. Rizal once
wrote, “I wish to show those who deny us
patriotism that we know how to die for
our duty and our convictions.”

7:03 AM:  With the captain shouting

“Fuego!”  Shouts rang out from the guns
of eight indio soldiers.  He falls down,
and dies facing the sky.
RIZAL THE MASON
Freemasonry – is a
fraternal organization that
took root in Europe and
spread all over the world.
Its “basic aims are to
strive for moral
betterment, work for the
welfare of others, and
bring about a universal
league of mankind” (Watson
in Licauco, 2008).
1882 – arrival in Spain; strong
influence of Masonic thought
- Masonic principles like
individual liberty, freedom of speech,
equality, religious tolerance,
separation of Church and State, and
others were also made part of the laws.
(Fajardo, 1996)

1884 - began to write Noli Me

Tangere to expose the political and
religious corruption of Philippine
society
•Later that year, he delivered a speech
at a banquet organized in honor of Juan
Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo,
who had both won gold and silver medals
at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas
Artes.
•Dimasalang – Rizal’s masonic name when
he was anointed under the Gran Oriente
de España. Rizal is said to have been
influenced to join Masonry by
•Miguel Morayta, a history professor at
the Universidad de Madrid who
inffluenced Rizal to join.
 The Trial of Rizal
- Rizal’s trial was held on December 26, 1896 at
8:00 a.m. at the Hall of Banners of the Cuartel
de España in Intramuros
- The prosecution averred that Rizal was the
founder of an illegal and secret organization
with revolution as its primary objective and
which would install Rizal as the head of the
free Philippines
- The military court issued the verdict that found
Rizal guilty and sentenced him to death.
Governor General Camilo Polavieja confirmed the
death sentence and signed the Order of Execution
to be at 7:00 in the morning of December 30,
1896 at Bagumabayan
- The death sentence reached the press which
sensationalized it in leading dailies.
Interestingly and ironically, the order was
issued on Dec. 28 which was the Feast of the
Holy Innocents.
Cuartel de
España

Camilo García
de Polavieja
Documents about the
retraction
- One document regarding the Retraction of Rizal was
discovered by an archdiocesan archivist father named
Manuel Garcia. He discovered the lost “original” (as
it is still disputed if it is legitimate) document on
May 18, 1935.

- Another document was published in La Voz Española and

Diaro de Manila on the very day of Rizal’s execution,
Dec. 30, 1896. This is considered as the first text
regarding the document.

- Another version of the retraction was the one from Fr.

Vicente Balaguer who according to him, received the
exact copy with Rizal’s signature.

- The last document about the retraction appeared on El

Imparcial on the day after Rizal’s execution.
However, did Rizal
actually retract?
But what is RETRACTION again?
A statement saying that something you
said or wrote at earlier time is not true
or correct.

HIS WITNESSES
•Baron Fernandez
•Manuel Morato
•Fr. Vicente Balaguer
 Baron Fernandez
Eyewitness
A Spanish orphan who worked for
almost half-century in two historical
secret archives in Madrid and Segovia,
and had an eyewitness account of the
retraction which he discovered in those
repertories of Spain’s dirty secrets.
Fernandez said:
"I have documents stating that before
he faced death, Rizal told his sister
Narcisa to look inside his shoes
because he had left a letter. According
to Fernandez, that letter could only be
a denial of his retraction because
Rizal knew the friars were misleading
the Filipinos and he wanted to set the
record straight".
 Manuel Morato's
"Expose“
A friend of Baron Fernandez,
subsequently bought from Fernandez the
Intellectual Property right to the
valuable manuscripts.

Morato said in his "expose" that the

friars forged the retraction letter and
published in the Clerico- Fascist
newspapers at that time. Morato
confirmed "No, Rizal never retracted
although that fake retraction was
published by friars then and is still
sadly peddled in most school, but that
is not true."
 Francisco Balaguer’s
testimony
- According to a testimony by Father Vicente
Balaguer, a Jesuit missionary who befriended the
hero during his exile in Dapitan, Rizal accepted a
shorter retraction document prepared by the
superior of the Jesuit Society in the Philippines,
Father Pio Pi.

- This "exact" copy had been received by Fr. Balaguer

in the evening immediately preceding Rizal’s
execution

- Rizal then wrote his retraction after making some

modifications in the document. In his retraction,
he disavowed Masonry and religious thoughts that
opposed Catholic belief.
 Father Vicente
Balaguer’s testimony
- The document received by Balaguer may be
an imitation made by someone who can
copy Rizal’s handwriting . This fact is
revealed by Fr. Balaguer himself who, in Padre Pio Pi
his letter to his former superior Fr.
Pio Pi in 1910, in which he said that he
had received "an exact copy of the
retraction written and signed by Rizal.

- “The handwriting of this copy I don’t

know nor do I remember whose it is." He
proceeded: "I even suspect that it might
have been written by Rizal himself. I am
sending it to you that you may. Verify
whether it might be of Rizal himself.“

- Fr. Pi was not able to verify it in his

sworn statement.
Testimony of the Cuerpo
de Vigilancia agent
- “Cuerpo de Vigilencia” are spies from Spain that
guarded Rizal in his prison cell.

- According to the statement of an agent that

guarded his cell, Rizal wrote a paper that he
heard the retracation. Also mentioned were two
Jesuit priests who entered the prison of Rizal-
Father Jose Vilaclara and Father Estanislao
March, and two other men, Juan del Fresno and
Eloy Moure. Here are some parts of the essay
that have been translated into English from
Spanish:

- “Most Illustrious Sir, the agent of the Cuerpo

de Vigilancia stationed in Fort Santiago to
report on the events during the [illegible] day
in prison of the accused Jose Rizal, informs me
on this date of the following:
At 10 and Rizal spoke for a long while with the
Jesuit fathers, March and Vilaclara, regarding
religious matters, it seems. It appears that
these two presented him with a prepared
retraction on his life and deeds that he refused
to sign. They argued about the matter until
12:30 when Rizal ate some poached egg and a
little chicken. Afterwards he asked to leave to
write and wrote for a long time by himself.”

“At 3 in the afternoon, Father March entered the

chapel and Rizal handed him what he had written.
Immediately the chief of the firing squad, Señor
del Fresno and the Assistant of the Plaza, Señor
Maure, were informed. They entered death row and
together with Rizal signed the document that the
accused had written. It seems this was the
retraction.”
 RAFAEL PALMA
•A Filipino politician, Rizalian,
reporter, writer, educator and a famous
mason in Philippines.
•Fourth President of the University of
the Philippines, The “Builder
President” 
•Writer in La Independencia, under the
names Dapit Hapon, Hapon, Robert Paul
and R.P. Villa
•He made a critical examination of
Rizal’s alleged retraction
Palma's coetaneous acts
which undermine the belief
that Rizal retracted:
1.The Documents of retraction were kept
secret, only copies of it were furnished
to the newspapers, but, with the
exception of one person, nobody saw the
original.
2.When the family of Rizal asked for the
original of the said document or a copy
of the alleged retraction letter,
the petition was denied.
3.Rizal's burial was kept secret.
No masses were said for his soul or
funeral held by Catholics
He was not buried in a Catholic
Cemetery in Paco but just in the
ground
No record was written in the
book of burials in the
interment named under Rizal
CONCLUSION
It is still unclear to us whether or
not the Rizal really retracted in the
last hours of life. If it is proven
that he did, then the perception of the
people for him would change and might
not consider him as a hero; let alone
as a national hero because he took back
all of what he did that made him a hero
in the first place.
RELEVANCE
Even though it would be easy to say
he retracted all that he wrote about
the Church, it still did not change the
fact that his writings began the wheels
of change in Philippine colonial
society during the Spanish period—a
change that led to our independence.
The retraction is just one aspect of
the life, works, and writings of Rizal.
 Sources
Chua C.B. (2012, December 25). THE LAST DAYS OF JOSÉ RIZAL: A Timeline of His Last Arrest,
Incarceration, Execution and the Journey of His Remains. It’s Xiaotime. Retrieved from
https://xiaochua.net/2012/12/25/the-last-days-of-jose-rizal-a-timeline-of-his-last-arrest-
incarceration-
execution-and-the-journey-of-his-remains/

Ferrer, A.V. (2012, April 8) Did Jose Rizal Retract? The Wanderland. Retrieved from
https://puchikamalucho.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/did-jose-rizal-retract/
Uckung, P.J.V. (2012, September 19). The Rizal Retraction and Other Cases. Retrieved from, 2018
from National Historic Commission of the Philippines Website http://nhcp.gov.ph/the-rizal-
retraction-and-other-cases/

Rizal the Mason n.d. Retrieved from Filipinas Heritage Library website
http://filipinaslibrary-org-ph.afi.ph/filipiniana-library/filipiniana/70-features/160-rizal-the-mason
Bocobo, Jorge. “Rizal's Apostasy Was World Ecumenism.” Retrieved from
http://www.glphils.org/famous-masons/frizal.htm

Licauco, Jaime. (August 4, 2008) “Illuminati, Freemasonry, anti-Christ, New World Order.” Retrieved
from
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20080804-
152626/Illuminati-Freemasonry-anti-Christ-New-World-Order
 Sources
Zafra, Nicolas. (1951). The Historicity of Rizal’s Retraction. Philippines: San
Jose Seminary.

Fajardo, Reynold S. Dimasalang: The Masonic Life of Dr. Jose Rizal. Rev. Ed.
Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33rd and
Last Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry of the Republic of the Philippines, 1996.

Ricardo R. Pascual, Rizal Beyond the Grave, Revised Edition (Manila: Luzon
Publishing Corp., 1950).

Frank C. Laubach, Rizal: Man and Martyr (Manila: Community Publishers,

1936).

Leon Ma. Guerrero, The First Filipino (Manila: National Heroes Commission,
1963).

Eugene A. Hessel: Rizal’s Retraction: A Note on the Debate (Manila: The

Siliman Journal, 1965)
Thank You!