FILIPINO

MGA   BAYANI NG PILIPINAS

Philippine Heroes - Francisco Baltazar Balagtas y Dela Cruz (1788-1862)

National hero Francisco Baltazar, the great orator and poet hails from the province of Bulacan. He was born on April 2, 1788 in Panginay, Bigaa, Bulacan. His parents were Juan Baltazar and Juana dela Cruz. He worked as a houseboy for a rich family in Tondo, Manila when he was only 11 years old. He went to school during his off hours. He went on to finish high school. He continued his college education at the Colegio de San Jose and graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Theology. He became a great a writer and poet. It was Dr. Mariano Pilapil who taught him how to write and Joseng Sisiw was his mentor in poetry. Joseng Sisiw once refused to edit Francisco's poem because he did not have any chick to pay him. A dejected Francisco edited his own piece and to his surprise many liked it even better than mentor's works. It was to be the road to his greatness, besting even his mentor Joseng Sisiw. A pretty maiden by the name of Asuncion Rivera captured the heart of Francisco. Asuncion had many suitors. One of them, Mariano Capule a wealthy and influential man was so obsessed with her that he ordered Franscisco jailed. While Francisco was in jail Capule and Asuncion got married. While in prison, Francisco wrote his greatest masterpiece, Florante at Laura. This piece was written in Tagalog. The book vividly and artistically illustrated the true state of the country at the hands of its Spanish colonizers. He was released from prison in 1840 and found himself in Bataan. He met Juana Tiambeng, courted and married her in July 22,1842. They had 11 offspring. He got involved in another controversy and landed in jail anew. He took his incarceration as an inspiration and produced more literary innuendoes and poems against the Spanish rule in the country. Francisco Baltazar who was also known as Francisco Balagtas died on February 20, 1862 at the age of 74. It was from Francisco Baltazar that the name Balagtasan was derived to honor his excellence and greatness in the field of poetry. LAPU-LAPU There was great resistance of the local people. In the battle that took place that day, the locals with their leader Lapu Lapu succeeded in forcing the Spaniards to retreat to their ships, after their leader, Magellan, was killed by the spears of the Lapu Lapu warriors. Lapu Lapu became the first Filipino hero.    Philippine Heroes - Francisco Dagohoy Very few knew Francisco Dagohoy. Francisco was an ordinary man who fought against the Spaniards for his countrymen. Francisco hailed from Bohol. He had a brother who was a policeman. One day, their parish priest, Padre Morales, asked his brother to arrest a man. His brother chased the man. Unfortunately the man fought back and killed the policeman. They brought the dead body of his brother to the church for the vigil. Padre Morales refused to hold the wake inside the church unless they have money to pay for it. Francisco got angry with the inconsiderate priest. This led him to take action against Padre Morales. Francisco organize a group composed of angry countrymen who were victims of the abuses of the friars and the Spaniards. The group lasted for more than 80 years. They defended the oppressed and those maltreated by the friars. One of the first things they did was to get Father Morales out of their church. The group became a pain in the neck for the Spaniards. They ran after them but could not get them. Dagohoy's group went to the mountains to avoid the prying eyes of the enemies. In the year 1828, the Spaniards attacked Dagohoy's group unexpectedly. They brought with them heavy mortars. The group suffered many casualties, which eventually paralyzed their operation. Francisco Dagohoy likewise died in the attack. Dagohoy's rebellion was considered as the longest running rebellion in the history of the Philippine revolution. It started in the year 1744 and lasted until 1829. Dr Jose Rizal - National Hero of the Philippines Dr Jose Protacio Rizal was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna on 19th June 1861. The second son and the seventh among the eleven children of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso. With his mother as his first teacher, he began his early education at home and continued it in Binan, Laguna. He entered a Jesuit-run Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1872 and obtained a bachelor's degree with highest honors in 1876. He studied medicine at the University of Santo Tomas but had to stop because he felt that the Filipino students were being descriminated by their Dominican tutors. He went to Madrid at Universidad Central de Madrid and in 1885 at the age of 24, he finished his course in Philosophy and Letters with a grade of "Excellent". He took graduate studies in Paris, France & Heidelberg, Germany. He also studied painting, sculpture, he learned to read and write in at least 10 languages. Rizal was a prolific writer and was anti-violence. He rather fight using his pen than his might. Rizal's two books "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not) which he wrote while he was in Berlin, Germany in 1887 and "El Filibusterismo" (The Rebel) in Ghent, Belgiun in 1891 exposed the cruelties of the Spanish friars in the Philippines, the defects of the Spanish administration and the vices of the clergy, these books told about the oppression of the Spanish colonial rule. These two books made Rizal as a marked man to the Spanish friars. In 1892 when Rizal returned to the Philippines, he formed La Liga Filipina , an non violent reform society of patriotic citizen and a forum for Filipinos to express their hopes for reform, to promote progress through commerce, industry and agriculture and freedom from the oppressive Spanish colonial administration. On July 6, 1892, he was imprisoned in Fort Santiago, on the charge of fomenting unrest against Spain, he was exiled to Dapitan, in northwestern Mindanao. He remained in exile for four years, while he was in politcal exile in Dapitan, he practice medicine, he established a school for boys, promoted community development projects, he applied his knowledge in engineering by constructing a system of waterworks in order to furnish clean water to the towns people. In Dapitan he also met, fell in love and lived with Josephine Bracken.