"Our national hero’s older brother fought with arms."
"Our national hero’s older brother fought with arms."
This is not about the prolific national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, who needs no introduction. This piece is about the other hero who also happened to be a Rizal and the older brother of the great author of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. This is about the little-known but equally patriotic General Paciano Rizal.
While Dr. Rizal is considered by some as a reformist, or someone who wanted to have changes in Spain’s treatment of the Filipinos without necessarily fighting for independence, Gen. Paciano is seen as more radical. He was a revolutionary through and through.
Paciano was the mentor of his younger brother Jose. In modern activist parlance, he was Jose’s political officer (PO). So much so that when Jose left for Europe, patriotism was already deeply ingrained in him. Paciano was Jose’s primary but quiet financier, supporter, and co-conspirator in the latter’s journey to greatness. He was perhaps the biggest influence in Jose’s life. While Jose operated aboveground and in a high profile manner, Paciano chose to be unseen, like he was underground. This is not to say that the older Rizal was a passive hero.
Born on March 9, 1851 in Calamba, Laguna, Paciano grew up witnessing the grave abuses committed by Spanish friars against Filipinos. Eventually, he became a member of La Juventud Liberal, the youth wing of the Comite de Reformadores, the group that was working for secularization at a time when Spain had a new and more liberal Constitution. The group wanted such liberalization to also reach the Philippines.
Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (GomBurZa) were the leaders of the Comite de Reformadores. Paciano worked under Fr. Burgos who was also his teacher and friend. The execution of GomBurZa after being implicated in the Cavite Mutiny in 1872 had a deep and lasting impact on Paciano.
He joined and actively supported the propaganda movement. He supported the movement’s newspaper, Diariong Tagalog by soliciting and collecting funds for it. When the Katipunan was organized, Paciano became a Katipunero. In November, 1896 he was arrested by the Guardia Civil together with Manuel Hidalgo, his brother-in-law for being directors of the Katipunan and for involvement in revolutionary activities.
On December 29, 1896, as the Cavite groups Magdiwang and Magdalo were having their first meeting for unification, Paciano arrived with Josephine Bracken. They informed the group that his brother Jose was sentenced by the Spanish authorities, and was to be executed the following morning at Bagumbayan. By then, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and Supremo Andres Bonifacio already knew this and have already made a plan to rescue the younger Rizal. However, Paciano said that Jose disapproved of such because it was doomed to fail stressing that there was no longer any Katipunan left in Manila.
Katipuneros and those suspected to be sympathetic to the organization have been arrested left and right, while those who managed to evade arrest have fled Manila to escape. Paciano emphasized that Jose did not want for more to die, something that was sure to happen if Aguinaldo and Bonifacio were to attempt to rescue Jose. Thus, the plan was aborted.
Paciano joined Gen. Aguinaldo’s revolutionary forces in January 1897, or right after Jose’s execution. He was appointed Brigadier General and elected Secretary of Finance in the Departmental Government of Central Luzon. Paciano was a veteran of several battles, never wavering in the struggle for the country’s independence.
When the Pact of Biak-na-Bato was finalized in December 1897 and Gen. Aguinaldo left for exile to Hong Kong with key leaders of the revolution, Gen. Paciano Rizal chose to be left behind, departed from Biak-na-Bato, and went back to Laguna to continue fighting the Spanish colonizers. There are accounts saying that at some point, Gen. Rizal also left for Hong Kong to meet with the other leaders.
In May, 1898 when Gen. Aguinaldo returned to resume the revolution, Gen. Rizal rejoined his comrades and again went to command battles against the remaining Spanish forces. When the Philippine-American war broke out in February 1899, Gen. Rizal led the Filipino forces in Laguna. The warrior Rizal never stopped until he was captured by the Americans in 1900.
After the revolution, Gen. Paciano Rizal led a quiet life and became a farmer in his home province, Laguna. He declined an offer of a government position by American Governor Howard Taft. Paciano was never married but had a daughter with Severina Decena. He passed away on April 13, 1930 in Los Baños, Laguna due to tuberculosis. He was 79 years old.
It has been said that Paciano never liked being photographed to the point that his only surviving picture was taken surreptitiously.
Unlike his younger brother Jose whose image is readily recognized by Filipinos, Paciano’s face is largely unknown. In fact, General Paciano Rizal, the hero, is generally unknown especially to the younger generations of Filipinos. Many roads, big and small, in various places in the country are named after Jose. I have yet to find one named after Gen. Paciano. Virtually all plazas in all towns and cities have monuments or busts of Dr. Jose. I know only one of Gen. Paciano’s and this is in his home province. All references to Rizal, the hero, are meant for Jose, not his older brother.
Hopefully, Gen. Paciano Rizal, the revolutionary and hero will also get the recognition, respect, and honor he very well deserves. All Filipinos should know who he was and what he did. We should all know that we have two great Rizals —doctor and author Jose, and the revolutionary General Paciano. The first fought with his pen, and the other, with arms.
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