FROM DAPITAN TO EXILE IN FORT SANTIAGO

 Katipuneros have planned to help Rizal escape, however Rizal refused

to the plan of the Katipuneros.
 August 6, 1896- arrival of Rizal in Manila. Just a day after the mail boat
Isla de Luzon had left for Spain. Rizal is afraid that his one-month stay
onboard might bring him troubles, so he requested the governor-
general that he will be isolated from everyone except his family.
 August 19, 1896- Teodoro Patino confessed to Mariano Gil,
Augustinian cura of Tondo, about the plot to revolt against Spanish
authorities. The Katipunan led by Bonifacio reacted to the discovery
of the plan to arrest the Katipuneros so they tore their cedula.
 August 29-30, 1896- Katipunan’s first major assault.
They attacked the Guardia Civil in Pasig and more
significantly the 100 Spanish soldiers protecting
the powder magazine in San Juan. On their
attacked about 150 Katipuneros were killed and
more than 200 were taken prisoner.
 August 30, 1896- Blanco issued letters of
recommendation on Rizal’s behalf to the Spanish
Minister of War and the Minister of Colonies with a
cover letter clearing Rizal of any connection to the
raging revolution.
 September 2, 2896- Rizal was transported to the
ship Isla de Panay
 September 7, 1896- Arrived in Singapore , he was urged by some Filipinos, like his
co-passenger don Pedro Roxas and Singaporean resident Don Manuel Camus to
stay in the Bristish-controlled territory. Trusting Blanco’s words, Rizal refused to
stay in Singapore, however Blanco and the Ministers of War and the colonies had
been planning to arrest Rizal upon reaching Barcelona.
 September 27, 1896- Isla de Panay made a stopover at Port Said, Egypt. Rizal had a
feeling that he had already been associated with the Filipino revolution as his co-
passengers became aloof to him. Then he wrote a letter to Blumentritt informing
him that he received some information that Blanco had an order to arrest him.
 October 3, 1896- Isla de Panay anchored at Barcelona. He was placed under heavy
guard by the then Military Commander of Barcelona, General Eulogio Despujol
 October 6, 1896- he was
transported to Monjuch prison-
fortress. In the afternoon he was
transported to Despujol who told
him that there was an order to
ship him back to Manila in the
evening.
 He was then taken aboard the
ship “Colon” which left Manila at
8 pm. The ship was full of Spanish
soldiers and their families who
were under orders not to go near
or talk to Rizal.
 November 3, 1896- He arrived in Manila as a prisoner and detained in Fort
Santiago where he had been imprisoned four years ago. To gather pieces of
evidence against him, some of his friends, acquaintances, members of the La Liga
and even his brother Paciano were tortured and forcibly questioned. Those who
were coerced to testify against Rizal were not allowed to be cross-examined by the
the accused.
 Colonel Francisco Olive- administer series of interrogation and investigation.
 15 pieces of documetary evidence were presented- Rizal’s letters. Letters of his
compatriots, a poem (Kundiman), a Masonic document, 2 transcripts of speech of
Katipuneros, and Rizal’s poem “A Talisay”. The testimonial evidence involved the
oral testimonies of 13 Filipinos notably including that of La Liga officers like
Ambrosio Salvador and Deodato Arellano, and the Katipunero Pio Valenzuela
 Olive submitted the reports to Blanco on November 26 and
Captain Rafael Dominguez was assigned as special Judge
Advocate in Rizal’s case. Dominguez made a summary of
the case and delivered it to Blanco who subsequently sent
the papers to Judge Advocate General Don Nicolas Dela
Peña. After examining the case, Peña recommended that (1)
Rizal be instantly brought to trial, (2) he must be kept in jail,
(3) an order of attachment be issued against his property,
and (4) a Spanish army officer, not a civilian lawyer, be
permitted to defend him in court.
 On December 8, Rizal was given the restricted right to choose his
lawyer from a list of 100 Spanish army officers. He chose Lt. Luis
Taviel de Andrade who turned out to be the younger brother of his
bodyguard-friend in Calamba in 1887, Jose Taviel de Andrade. Three
days after (December 11), the formal charges were read to Rizal in
his prison cell, with Andrade on his side. In short, he was accused of
being the main organizer and the ‘living soul’ of the revolution having
proliferated ideas of rebellion and of founding illegal organizations.
He pleaded not guilty to the crime of rebellion and explained that ‘La
Liga’, the constitution of which he wrote, was just a civic organization.
 On December 13, the day Camilo G. de Polavieja replaced
Blanco as governor general, papers of Rizal’s criminal case
were sent to Malacañang. Concern about the welfare of his
people, Rizal on December 15 wrote a manifesto appealing
to the revolutionaries to discontinue the uprising and
pursue to attain liberty instead by means of education and
of labor. But de la Peña interpreted the manifesto as all the
more advocating the spirit of rebellion as it ultimately
willed the Filipino liberty. Polavieja thus disallowed to issue
Rizal’s manifesto.
 On December 26 morning, the Filipino patriot who was once figuratively referred
to by Spanish officials as a ‘trapped rat’ appeared in the kangaroo court inside the
military building, Cuartel de España. He was tried before seven members of the
military court with Lt. Col. Jose Togores Arjona acting as the president
 Judge Advocate Dominguez presented Rizal’s criminal case followed by the
lengthy speech of Prosecuting Attorney Enrique de Alcocer. To appeal to the
emotions of the Spanish judges, Alcocer went as far as dramatically mentioning the
Spanish soldiers who had died in the Filipino traitorous revolt and discriminately
describing Rizal as “a typical ‘Oriental,’ who had presumed to rise from a lower
social scale in order to attain powers and positions that could never be his”
(Bantug, p. 144). At the end, Alcocer petitioned for a death sentence for Rizal and
an indemnity of twenty thousand pesos.
 Rizal’s defense counsel, Lt. Andrade, then took the floor and tried his very best to
save his client by reading his responsive defense, stressing too that it’s but natural
for anyone to yearn for liberty and independence.
 Rizal was allowed to read his complementary defense consisting of logical proofs
that he could have not taken part in the revolution and that La Liga was distinct from
Katipunan. He argued, among others, that he even advised the Katipunan emissary
(Valenzuela) in Dapitan not to pursue with the plan to revolt; the revolutionists had
used his name without his knowledge; he could have escaped either in Dapitan or
Singapore if he were guilty; and the civic group La Liga which died out upon his
exile did not serve the purpose of the uprising, and he had no knowledge about its
reformation.
 Lt. Col. Arjona then declared the trial over. Expectedly, the entire defense was
indifferently disregarded in Rizal’s mock trial as it instantaneously considered him
guilty and unanimously voted for the death sentence.
 The trial ended with the reading of the sentence. Doctor Jose Rizal was found guilty.
The sentence was death by firing squad.
 On December 28, Governor General Polavieja signed the court decision and
decreed that the guilty be executed by firing squad at 7 a.m. of December 30, 1896
at Bagumbayan (Luneta). Because Rizal was also required to sign the verdict, he
stoically signed his own death sentence.