1894

Dapitan

Mr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonzo, Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery and in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Madrid, without personal certificate on account of his present status, respectfully expounds to your Excellency:

Almost two years ago by order of the Most Excellent former Governor General[1] he was banished to this district of Dapitan without having been permitted the slightest defense, the most insignificant attempt to destroy with citations and proofs, which could not have given place to doubts, the imputations that served as the reason for that measure. No penalty is imposed upon the greatest criminals without first giving them a hearing, without a defender to protect them and in many cases the law within its severity grants them the humanitarian assistance of an official defender. In all cases the culprit, preserving his rights, waits, not always in prison, for the sentence that may proclaim his innocence or deprive him of his rights by the imposition of corporal punishment, and in this case he knows the exact time of its expiration. The undersigned, on the other hand, without investigation, without proofs — for he does not consider proofs what in a political sense may perhaps be sufficient for administrative action the rumors so difficult to confirm in a country given to making comments — he was removed all at once from his means of livelihood, from his home, from his family, from his interests, compelling him to reside in a place where the scarcity of articles of prime necessity, the lack of resources, and the smallness of the town all make his situation more distressing.

I do not know, Most Excellent Sir, if the attention of Your Excellency, claimed by your multiple duties, has permitted you to give a thought to the indefinite situation of the undersigned, undecided at present with regard to his interests by a hope that is not realized. This indefinite situation is always prejudicial to one who must prepare for his old age and is the only support of his now aged mother. He finds himself in his youth deprived of his rights, isolated and inactive, unable to practice his profession obtained at great cost and sacrifice.

Considering the nobility of your sentiments which is recognized by all, these considerations seem to be sufficient to encourage the undersigned to say to Your Excellency what at an opportune time he said to your predecessor: “Submit me in any case to a trial; if I am found guilty, let the law prevail, not this punishment without limits that kills organisms and activities; but if I am innocent, give me liberty. In the certainty that if at one time that he regrets you had interpreted erroneously his writings, hereafter his conduct will try to demonstrate the groundlessness of such interpretations. As a Spaniard who loves the nationality and the justice of your administration he appeals to you only to entreat Your Excellency to give him his liberty.

He has no doubt that he would obtain this grace from the nobility of the sentiments of Your Excellency whose life may God keep many years.[2]

JOSE RIZAL

Dapitan, 13 February 1894

01-810 [Family]