A National Hero is an individual who influences society and revolutionary response.
Rizal was a national hero because, his very writings solidified and made into substance the psyche of the people; his writings was the epitome of the population's feelings towards the abuses of the oligarchy, to which, ironically, Corazon Aquino, belonged to. As she is part of a powerful land owning political family, Peninsulares, to which Rizal, himself, focused most of his grievances against. The peninsulares and the Religious Episcopy that were abusing land and power.
Rizal initiated and incited the nationalistic movement; he and other writers such as Sr. Marcelo Del Pilar, and other Filipino intelligentsias in Spain formed the La Solidaridad, as a literary source to vent the Filipino view on the colonial government's way of ruling the islands. Rizal and Del Pilar made hedgeway by even addressing these matters to members of the Royal Spanish Cortes (Royal Parliamentary Body) ; in a move to explore the notion of granting all Filipinos Spanish citizenry and the Philippines to be made into an overseas Province as compared to an overseas Colony (as it was still regarded as, duirng the mid 19th century).
Rizal, through his works, fueled intellectual discourse amongst Filipino intelligentsias in Europe and in the Philippines, his writings shook the foundation of the Roman Catholic Episcopy in the Islands, his writings challenged the military colonial government into notions of liberalizing the islands and to put away with the fuedal-based oligarchic system that was set in placed by the Conquistadores some 2-3 centuries prior.
Rizal, in his brilliant foresight, tried to initiate peaceful and gradual assimilation into province-hood. Never so much to sponsor militant revolution.
But you see, as idealistic as Rizal was, as pure and incorrupt as his notions were, his writings and his ideas were twisted and used to legitimize actions made by the KKK. The KKK was more of a militant wing of the revolutionary phenomenon within that Philippine Revolution.
There were 3 forces within the Revolution:
1. The Loyalists; namely composed of the church, the peninsulares/oligarchic land owners, powerful political families, and the Spanish Creoles
2. The Filipino pro-assimilation. Filipinos that were intellectuals, that wanted the islands to be part of Spain Proper, as a province, not as a military bastion.
3. The Revolutionary Separatists.
===> and within the separatists were the militant wing and the intellectual wing.
Rizal , definately, influenced the movement.
His death, was the very straw that errupted the Filipino Revolution. His Death and execution signified the unilateral direction of the Revolution.
Had he lived and given amnesty, assimilation with Spain would have occurred, showing the Spanish Government's mercy and understanding of the situation, as afterall, Rizal was an educated polymath. He Spanish-Trained Physician-Surgeon, a writer, intellectual and activist.
He was beloved in Spain; and his death---to some of the revolutionary thinkers of the day (namely Filipino intelligentsias) represented the final betrayal of the Spain. Some believed that Spain should have rescued Rizal.
But in the end, Rizal's fate was left to the colonial government's hands.
And with his death---everything transpired after it.
Rizal was the Keystone in Filipino National History.
He was the one that coined the term "FILIPINOISMO"
or as he wrote in La Solidaridad, "Mi Patria Adorada Filipina" (My adored Filipino Nation).
With his pen, he unravelled half a millenia of Spanish regency.
Rizal. The ultimate example of "The Pen is mightier than the sword."
Again, there can be no comparison between Corazon and Rizal.
Rizal INFLUENCED the revolution. He made the revolution. He was the revolution.
Corazon was but a small figure within the People's Power movement.
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