Ambeth Ocampo brings Rizal lecture to Antique, visits province’s heritage sites

Historian Professor Ambeth Ocampo delivered a special lecture in Antique on September 7, Monday, examining how Jose Rizal has been taught, remembered, and understood 70 years after the enactment of the Rizal Law.

Titled “R.A. 1425 @ 70: Rescuing Rizal from the Rizal Course,” the lecture was held at Cinema 3, Robinsons Place Antique in San Jose de Buenavista. It brought together students, teachers, local historians, public officials, and members of the community.

The event was organized by the Antique Visual Artists Association and the family of Vicente Rendon Gella, with Senator Loren Legarda as its major sponsor, allowing the lecture to be opened to the public free of charge. An open forum and book signing with Ocampo were also held after the lecture.

In her message, Legarda said the lecture offered an opportunity to examine whether the Rizal Law has truly succeeded in bringing Filipinos closer to Rizal and his ideas.

“‘Rescuing Rizal from the Rizal Course’ suggests that seventy years after Republic Act No. 1425 was enacted, the law meant to bring Rizal to every Filipino student may be the very thing holding him at arm’s length. That is a serious claim, and it deserves an honest hearing,” Legarda said.

She urged students to go beyond summaries, comic adaptations, and abridged translations prepared merely for examinations.

“Balikan ninyo ang buong nobela. Basahin ninyo ang mga liham niya. Doon ninyo makikilala ang tunay na Rizal, at doon din ninyo mahahanap ang mga tanong na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa natin nasasagot,” she said.

The lecture complemented Legarda’s Senate Resolution No. 539, which directs the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts to inquire into the implementation of Republic Act No. 1425.

The proposed inquiry seeks to determine which editions and translations of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are being used by students, whether the novels are taught in full or only in fragments, and whether the law’s mandates to translate Rizal’s works into Philippine languages and distribute them free of charge have been fulfilled.

“Seventy years is long enough to wait for an accounting,” Legarda said. “A law can require a course. Only a good teacher, a good translation, and a reader willing to sit with a difficult book can make a hero legible.”

The lecture also highlighted Antique’s direct historical connection to Rizal through Vicente “Tikong” Rendon Gella. Born in Pandan in 1856, Gella studied with Rizal at the University of Santo Tomas, lived with him at Casa Tomasina, joined him in El Compañerismo, and was among the few who saw him off when he secretly sailed for Spain in 1882.

Gella was also the brother of Legarda’s great-grandfather, Ariston Rendon Gella, one of the framers of the Malolos Constitution.

“Rizal, in my family’s memory, was somebody’s classmate and housemate before he was anybody’s assignment,” Legarda said.

During his four-day visit to Antique, Ocampo toured historical landmarks and old churches in Anini-y, Tobias Fornier, Hamtic, San Jose de Buenavista, Bugasong, Patnongon, and Sibalom.

He also visited heritage, cultural, and livelihood initiatives supported by Legarda, including the San Juan de Nepomuceno in Anini-y; Hibla Museum, Tindahang Lokal at the Old Capitol and Balay nga Bato in San Jose; the Bagtason Loom Weavers in Bugasong, and Casa Tribunal in Patnongon.

Legarda said the lecture and heritage tour form part of her broader work to make Rizal, Philippine history, and Filipino culture accessible beyond the classroom.

Her related initiatives include the Rizal Trail in Germany; the former vicarage in Wilhelmsfeld, where Rizal lived in 1886 and completed the final chapters of Noli Me Tangere, which will be transformed into the RizalHaus cultural center and museum; the documentary Finding Rizal in Times of Barriers; and Sentro Rizal, established under the National Cultural Heritage Act, which she authored.

She has also filed Senate Bill No. 819, or the proposed Sentro Rizal Act, to provide Sentro Rizal centers with a permanent charter and sustained funding.

Legarda expressed hope that the lecture encouraged participants to encounter Rizal beyond classroom requirements and engage more deeply with his life and writings.

She added, “I hope you leave today knowing Rizal better than you did when you came in.” (30)