1 Rizal Leaves Barcelona

On October 6, 1896 at 8:00 in the evening, Rizal leaves Barcelona and is bound for
Manila. He was given a
second class cabin in the transport ship Colon. He had a diary with him
which he wrote about his homecoming journey.

2 Confiscation of Rizal's Diary

The Spanish authorities who were on board Colon knew that Rizal had been keeping
track of the daily events
in the ship on his diary. They were curious and their suspicion was aroused for
they were fearful that Rizal
might be writing something seditious or treasonable

On October 11, before reaching Port Said, Rizal's diary was confiscated by the
Spanish authorities and was
critically
scrutinized. The Spanish authorities did not find anything incriminating in Rizal's
diary.
The diary was then returned to
Rizal on the 2nd of November.

3 Rescue Attempt in Singapore

News of Rizal's predicament reached his friends in Singapore and Europe. Dr.
Antonio Ma. Regidor and Sixto Lopez dispatched
telegrams to an English lawyer in Singapore names Hugh Fort to save Rizal from the
Spanish steamer.

The plan was to rescue Rizal by means of a Writ of Habeas Corpus. Unfortunately,
CHief of Justice Loinel Cox denied the Writ on the ground
that Colon was a warship of a foreign power which was beyond the jurisdiction of
Singapore authorities.

4 Arrival in Manila
On November 3, Colon reached Manila. On his arrival, Rizal was then transported to
Fort Santiago under heavy guard of Spanish troops.
While Rizal was in Fort Santiago, the Spanish authorites were fishing for evidence
against Dr. Jose Rizal.

Many Filipino patriots including Deodato Arelano, Dr. Pio Valenzuela, Moises
Salvador, Temoteo Paez and
even Rizal's brother Paciano were arrested and brutally tortured to implicate
Rizal. Paciano suffered many broken
bones including his left hand.

5 Prelimninary Investigation

On the 20th of November, Rizal appeared before the judge advocate Col. Francisco
Olive. Rizal was subjected to a grueling five day trial. He answered all questions
thrown at him but
he was not allowed to confront his accusers. The court had presented two kinds of
evidences against Rizal, namely documentary and testimonial.
The documentary evidence consisted of fifteen exhibits.
X:

On the 26th of November, Col. Olive transmitted the reports of Rizal's case to Gov.
Gen. Ramon Blanco and the latter appointed
Capt. Rafael Dominguez as special judge to take action against Rizal. Immediately,
Dominguez resumed the investigation against Rizal
and returned the papers to Gov. Gen. Blanco.

Gov. Gen. Blanco transmitted the documents to judge Advocate General, Don Nicolas
de la Pena for an opinion.
After studying the documents, de la Pena recommended the following: (1) the accused
be brought to trial, (2)he should be kept in prison,
(3) an order for payment of one million pesos be issued to Rizal and (4) he should
be defended in court by an army officer.

6 Rizal Chooses His Defender

Rizal had to make the choice for his defender. His choices were limited as the list
of possible army lawyers was provided for him.
On the 8th of December, Rizal was given the list of 100 lieutenants in the Spanish
army. One name in the list struck his fancy,
Don Luis Taviel de Andrade, who was actually the brother of his former body guard,
Jose de Andrade. Don Luis Taviel de Andrade was
Rizal's choice for a lawyer.

7 Accusations Against Rizal

On December 11, Rizal was formally given his charges. He was accused of being "the
principal Organizer and the living soul of the Filipino
insurrection, the founder of societies, periodicals and books dedicated to
fomenting and propagating ideas of rebellion." With these
charges, Rizal had raised no objection but he pleaded 'not guilty' to the court. He
waived the right to amend or make any further
statements already made, except that he had taen no part in politics since his
exile in Dapitan.

8 A New Governor General

On the 13th of December, Gen. Camilo de Polavieja took the seat of General Blanco
as governor general of the Philippines. The withdrawal
of Blanco from the position had sealed Rizal's fate as Polavieja was ruthless and
was biased against Rizal.

9 Rizal's Manifesto

On December 15, Rizal wrote a manifesto to his people appealing to them to stop the
necessary shedding of blood and to achieve
their liberties by means of education and industry.

Judge Advocate de la Pena however

suppressed the release of this manifesto.

10 Rizal's Saddest Christmas

December 25, 1986 was Rizal's last and saddest Christmas. He was accustomed to
celebrating Christmas with his family or his beloved
friends. On his last Christmas, he found himself alone and depressed in a dreary
prison cell. He was in despair in this particular
Christmas as he had no illusions about his fate. He took time to write a letter to
Lt. Taviel de Andrade. He wished to see
Lt. Andrade before he makes an appearance in court.

11 The Trial of Rizal

On the 26th of December at 8:00am, the court-marital of Rizal started in the
building called Cuartel de Espana. Seated behind
the table were seven members of the military court. In their army uniforms, the
officers present were" Lt. Col. Arjona, Capt. Munoz
Capt. Reguera, Capt. Osorio, Capt. Nunez, Capt. Escribrano and Capt. Rodriguez

The trial was opened by judge Dominguez who explained the case against Rizal. After
him, Atty. Alcocer arose and delivered a long
speech summarizing all charges against Rizal and urged to give him a death
sentence. The spectators applauded the petition for
Rizal's death.

12 In Defense of Rizal

After all accusations have been read, Lt. Taviel de Andrade took the floor and read
his eloquent defense for Rizal. He ended his
defense with a noble but futile statement for the members of the court:"The judges
cannot be vindictive; the judges can only be just."
However, his defense proved to be of not much use as the Spanish officers had
already prejudge Rizal guilty of all accusations.

When