HANDOUTS:
RIZAL: PHILIPPINE NATIONALIST AND MARTYR
BY: AUSTIN COATES
AUTHOR
Austin Coates
 British civil servant, writer and traveler
 Birthdate: 16 April 1922
 Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
 Died: 1997, Portugal because of Cancer
 Parents: Eric Coates, noted English composer
Occupations
 Royal Air Force intelligence in India, Burma, Malaysia and
Indonesia in the Second World War
 Assistant Colonial Secretary and Magistrate in New
Territories for Hongkong Government from 1949-1956
 Chinese Affairs Officer in Sarawak from 1957 to 1959
 First Secretary of the British High Commission in Kuala
Lumpur and Penang from 1959 to 1962
Timeline
 1962- left British Civil Service
 1965- settled in Hongkong
 1968- Published Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr
Guest of many prominent Asians
 Tagore Family
 Jamini Roy
 Mahatma Gandhi
Purpose of International Congress on Rizal that was held on
December 4-8 1961
“to give definitive measure of Rizal’s contribution by his life, his
martyrdom and his ideas to the experience of other peoples in their
struggle for political, economic and social freedom”
Order of the Knight of Rizal – Coates is a Grand Officer
 Supreme Commander: Sir Elihu A. Ybañez, KGCR
 Motto: Non Omnis Moriar; (I shall not wholly die)
 Next (higher): Presidential Medal of Merit
 Founded: 30 December 1911
The Order of the Knights of Rizal is the sole order of knighthood in the
Philippines. The Order is created to honor and uphold the ideals of
Philippine national hero José Rizal
Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society, London – Coates was a fellow
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known
as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its Royal
Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects
connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the
arts in relation to Asia."
F. Sionil Jose
 Francisco Sionil José’s novels, short stories and non-fiction
works highlight the social underpinnings, class struggles and
colonial history of Filipino society.
 He is best known for his epic work, The Rosales Saga – five
novels encompassing a hundred years of Philippine history,
painting a vivid documentary of Filipino life.
 National Artist in Literature
According to the Interview to Jose
Several Rizal biographies have been written but Austin Coates’
“Rizal Filipino Nationalist and Patriot” is the best, declares F. Sionil Jose.
Read more at
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2011/01/08/645880/sionil-jose-
austin-coates-and-rizals-biography-other-books-
published#b51A2j19HDcqMpm5.99
SOURCES
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2011/01/08/645880/sionil-jose-
austin-coates-and-rizals-biography-other-books-published
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20067552?seq=1#page_scan_tab_content
s tracked down and shot. After the killing of Bonifacio, the rebels
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Austin-Coates
INTRODUCTION:
SPANISH PERIOD
 30 December 1896. A day of execution was a fiesta because in
the street and building hung with flags.
 The Europeans had the vantage places and being the general taller
AMERICAN PERIOD
than the local people. However, some of the local people had come
as well, the fashionably Europeanized.
 As he (Rizal) passed, there was silence, while people stared, some
in surprised, other were concerned, and all with the uneasy sense
of being confronted by something they did not fully understand.
 In the eyes of an astute observer, he was from one of the countries
of South-East Asia, could be sensed at once a mental affinity to
Europe, expressed through an Asian Physique.
 Despite being a member of subject race, the Europeans think that
it was the face of a person equal of any that has unusual measure
of intellectual honesty and insights.
 From the day that Rizal was executed, more victims were executed
but these deaths did not make any impact as did by the execution
of Rizal is a sense of personal shock and unforgivably insulted that
produced revulsion against the tormentor.
 Andres Bonifacio the actual organizer and the first leader of the
rebellion. He is capable of inspiring men to follow him but there’s
a criticism of being inadequate as a military commander. While
Emilio Aguinaldo who operating from bases in Cavite province,
obtained numerous military success against the Spaniards.
 March 1897. A military meeting of the revolutionary leaders was
held and Aguinaldo was elected to direct the struggle succession
to Bonifacio. Bonifacio didn’t accept the result and cut loose with
a number of men still loyal to him, refusing to acknowledged the
leadership Aguinaldo’s leadership.
 April 1897. General Camilo Polavieja found that his
reinforcement was ignored and he decided to resigned his
command. General Primo de Rivera became the new Governor
and General-Captain of the Philippines.
 10 May 1897. As factionalism getting worst. Bonifacio was
retreat because they little or no arms and ammunition; most of
them use the guerilla and fought with knives and staves.
 11 May 1897. Jose Alejandrino, revolutionary general, write a
letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt that Emilio Aguinaldo is a good
ruler that uses peaceful means in fixing problems but will use
energetic measures(violence) when circumstances warranted
their use.
 Emilio Aguinaldo and General Primo de Rivera signed a truce that
made Emilio Aguinaldo going into voluntary exile in Hongkong.
 February 1898. The United States battleship Maine blew up in
Havana harbor.
 19 April. Resolutions were introduced into congress demanding
the independence of Cuba and dispatch of American forces to aid
the Cuban Rebels.
 Unwisely Spain, accepted the challenge and made a fatal
declaration of war to the United states.
 1 May 1898. George Dewey with his squadron entered the Manila
Bay. Without loss of a man, they destroyed the entire Spanish fleet
off Cavite.
 12 June 1898. The Filipinos declared their independence, Emilio
Aguinaldo becoming President of the First Philippine Republic.
His first act is declared December 30 a day of rest and reflection
in memory of Rizal.
 Secret Negotiations happened between Dewey and Spanish
Authorities.
 13 August. The American forces entered Manila. While the
Filipino forces waiting for a signal to enter the city.
 In realization of Aguinaldo that the he need to effort to obtain
international recognition of the Philippine independence but in
peace negotiations held in Paris. His representatives were not
admitted to the conference room.
 December 1898. The Philippines were declared to be American
Territory by the Treaty of Paris.
 For almost two years, Aguinaldo is struggling against the
American Forces in the islands, but one by one his principal
officers were captured.
 March 1901. Aguinaldo was Captured.
  4 July. The inauguration of American Civil Government. The
Philippines became a colony of the United States of America
 They quickly discover the political and literary works of Rizal.
They look him that Rizal seemed aims and the American are one.
 7 April 1903. President Theodore Roosevelt say: that the
Americans tried to implement what the greatest genius and most
patriot ever known.
JAPANESE PERIOD
 December 1941. Japan invaded the Philippines and subjected the
country to a rule of tyranny and barbarism. So that they can
establish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
 1944 – 1945. The Japanese is having struggle to the returning
American and Manila was fought street by street.
 4 July 1946. The independence was accorded by the American
and have the ceremony at the Luneta. As President Truman’s
special emissary read the deed of independence before the statue
of Rizal.
 Outside of the Country, Rizal is well known for the poem he wrote
while in the cell on the eve of his execution, and which was
smuggled out of Fort Santiago hidden in an alcohol burner. The
poem was not titled, not dated, and not signed.
 In his own Country, Rizal is revered as the National Hero and well
known for a mass of writings.
 1858 onwards the European still acquiring territorial for the
empire for purpose of trade, but also has the aim to bring the
western forms of government and education to the people whom
the west considered to be either barbarous or decadent or both.
 Four great individuals pre-eminent: Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sun Yat-sen, and Jose Rizal. This
individual brought Western-trained intellect to bear upon the
problems of Asia.
 Among these four Rizal is the least well-known but in some ways,
is remarkable because in his works you can see the uniqueness of
the topics. Like in the Philippine Revolution of 1896, Rizal was
opposed because it is premature and inadequately organized. He
was just a 35 years old doctor that showed simply that there was
something rotten in the state of Spanish Philippines.
 Abanindranath Tagore made some art that distinctive style
where it was inspired by indian sources.
 Hu Shih and Ch’i Pai-shi are the Chinese scholars that declare the
philosophy and arts of China were valuable than the philosophy
brought by the Europeans.
 Rizal is the most highly documented life of any Asian of the 19th
century. Although his biographer was accused of the exaggeration
of the life of Rizal. People kept his letter, however unimportant
subject matter. They hoping that someday it will become
significant. This letter gave some point in his life in many angle
and with unusual clarity.
 Jose Rizal uses six languages in his works. Some of his works is
irrelevant in an account of his political life. Like his travel diaries,
that showed a young Filipino seeing for the first time the great
cities of the modern world.
 There’s a lack of oriental atmosphere because the Philippines had
been Christian and Europeanized country.
BODY:
I. Childhood in Calamba
1. Love of Country and Family
- Jose Rizal
: was born on June 19, 1861 at Calamba, Laguna.
: Laguna is lay in the heart of the region of agricultural prosperity, it is
called "The Rice Basket of the Philippines" because it is the most
productive region that produce rice and sugar.
: Young Jose Rizal is a nature lover because of his surroundings. His first
personal friends are the trees that facing his window.
- Francisco Mercado, the father of Rizal, is a sugar-planter and a land-
holder in their community. He builds houses that is big and also strong, it
has earthquake-proof foundations.
: He is loyal to Spaniard just like his father and grandfather, and the
Spaniard treat him just like them.
- Teodora Alonso
: A well-educated woman in their community. She is the first teacher of
her children. He runs a small flour-mill, managing a medicine and general
good store, and she also helps her husband in holding lands.
: She had difficulty in giving birth to Rizal. She gives birth to him and
turned out to be, pale and sickly child with an undersized body and
unusual large head.
2. Early Talents
-Special Ability of Rizal
: At age of 2, he can recite the alphabet through listening to her sisters.
: At 4, he can compose Tagalog and Spanish sentences.
: He become obsessed with the idea of strength. He is fond of story about
giants and strong men. He considers the library as home inside the home.
: At 6, He is fond of clay modeling.
3. Physical Discipline
: His uncle visited him and stayed at their house. He taught Rizal to ride a
horse, swim, and taking such exercise regularly. Because of this, from pale
and delicate boy, his health improved and strength increases.
: Also, because of this, the idea of weak Filipino of him, arose.
: Rizal's first formal education happened at their house with a private
tutor. He is delighted in posing adult’s questions that he was sure they
can't answer (Coates, 1968).
: His parent next sent him at Calamba school but after a few weeks he
returned at their house, because he still keeps on posting questions that
his teachers can answer, and teachers confirmed what was Rizal saying is
true.
4. Respect for Truth and Religion
: Teodora was a devout Catholice and they establish two influences in
their house for their children. The respect for the truth, and respect for
the religion.
: Rizal was nurtured in religion by his mother. And also, he grew up to be
devout Catholic, and religion meaning is a great deal for him.
: Teodora and Francisco doesn't like gossips and also lies. Telling the truth
is tradition for them. If you don't want to say the half-truth answer, then
stay silent.
5. Tagalog Poems/ Concept of National Identity
: Teodora admired the Tagalog poetry, and because of this she influenced
young Rizal to like and be fond also to Tagalog poems.
: At 9, Rizal wrote his first Tagalog verses. Most of them were occasional
pieces, written when there was a birthday, baptism or wedding (Coates,
1968). He also wrote a short comedy in Tagalog and was given publicly in
Calamba.
: One of his poem that has been survived is about the language. In this, his
revolutionary utterance known by other poets, entitled "Our mother
tongue". In this poem, he means that Tagalog, Spanish, English, and other
languages are equal, and Tagalog is Filipino's own.
II. The Frailocracry
- Frailocracry means rules of friars
1. Arrest of Teodora
: Teodora and her cousin, named Jose Alberto, has been framed up by his
wife. Jose's wife accused him of trying to poison her and Teodora as an
accomplice of Jose.
: Without any hearing, the alcalde ordered Teodora's arrest and
imprisonment (Coates, 1968).
: She has been humiliated by the alferez, by letting her to walk the entire
way to the prison with distance of some twenty miles.
2. Power of Spanish Friars
: They controlled the whole religious and education life of the country.
: Every parish in the Philippines was a Spanish friar curate. They also
serve as local inspector of taxes and school, chairman of board of charity,
public works and etc.
: They obliged the entire population to attend a masa on Sundays. It is
where the communication among them started. Non-attendance of the
mass will be noticed; failure to communicate could draw forth inquiry;
and confessional was shamelessly used a means of obtaining information
(Coates, 1968).
: Because of the Arrest of Teodora, Rizal had a trust issue on other
Spaniard, he become alert and cautious.
: The Friars had two reasons for watching Rizal's Family. First, Francisco
Mercado is not sycophant though he is close with Spanish officials. He
knows to stand for himself. Second, the most important, and concerned
Paciano, the elder son of Francisco, at that was a favorite pupil and friend
of one of the most brilliant Filipino intellectual, Father Jose Burgos.
3. Jose Burgos and the claims of Filipino Clergy.
: Burgos was the principal spokesman for the Filipino Clergy, they
replaced the Spanish friar curates.
: The claim bore the strong undertones of political demand for what in
effect amounted to form a self-rule, in that to remove the friar curates.
: Anyone who supported the rights of the Filipino clergy was an enemy of
Spain.
: The Friars become defensive as the different trade open in the
Philippines. The friars had difficulty in preventing outside ideas from
entering the country.
: Their main method used to do so was to restrict to the utmost to the
teaching Spanish. In Spain's policy, they made the Spanish at all school to
be compulsory subject, but the friars disagree with this. Spanish was
taught only at Manila Colleges, and the rest of education being in various
regional languages such as Tagalog and Latin.
: Friars' aim to educate the Filipinos but not too much; to help them to
stand, but not encouraged them to rise too high. (Coates, 1968)
4. First Liberal Governor-General
: Another feature that disquieted the friars was, Spain was passing
through the period of political ferment and agitation for reform.
:1868, Isabel II dethroned and liberal came to power. They introduce new
constitution and bringing long-overdue reforms (freedom of religion, the
introduction of civil marriage).
: Carlos Maria De la Torre y Navacerrada, the first liberal Governor and
Captain General.
: The censorship of the press was abolished and the van removed on
holding of public demonstration (Coates, 1968).
: For the first time, the thinking of the Filipinos has been stirred up with
the belief that Spain would keep her word that the abuse and petty
tyranny would be swept away.
: Within a week, Friars are exerting their full influence to bring about his
removal, while men such Father Burgos trod a path of perilous eminence.
: After 2 years, Friars achieved what they want. De la Torre was replaced
by Rafael de Izquierdo, the choice didn't please the friars,
: Rafael was a freemason, and freemasonry was anathema for Spanish
church.
5. Cavite Mutiny of 1872
: January 1872, a mutiny occurred at the military arsenal at Cavite, but it
was quickly suppressed. Spanish authorities’ claims to have discovered
proofs of widespread conspiracy against the government involving with
intellectual whom friars want to get rid.
: The government's severity was reserved for GOMBURZA. Accusing them
of complicity in Cavite mutiny. They found them guilty and sentenced
death.
6. Execution of Burgos
: February 17, 1872 at Luneta, they were publicly garroted. No one
survived to explain the execution of the fathers. And also, the Spaniard
didn't record the incident.
: Many Filipino's believe that they are, some way, connected with Cavite
mutiny but Paciano believes that the incident in Cavite was used just to
execute the Fathers.
III. Students of Jesuits
1.) The Spanish Philippines
- The three priests were executed in a horrible manner before
the Filipino crowd. There was no public reaction of any kind
 whatever. There was no such thing as public opinion. There was
only God’s will, as made known by Spanish friars.
2.) Paciano Mercado
- He was twenty, slim, and of medium height, with rather an oval
face, close-cropped hair, and a slightly Chinese look about the
eyes. His personality was like his father, but more intense. His
words could not keep in silent before injustice, with his friend
and teacher unjustly executed, and with his mother with equal
injustice imprisoned.
3.) Ateneo Municipal
- Aged eleven, Jose Rizal went up to Manila to begin his studies at
the foremost school in the country, Ateneo Municipal. Ateneo
was ran not by friars but Jesuit Fathers reconstituted when
Society of Jesuits were withdrawn from the country. They were
well-educated, most in touch of scientific thought, and most of
them were young. They provided a broader-based education
than any other available in the country.
- Ateneo was inside Intramuros and the side river was
Bagumbayan, Hermita, Malate, and Paco. Within Intramuros,
there was the Real Audencia (the highest court), government
offices, and churches. At its north-western, the river of Pasig
flows into Manila Bay, stood the citadel, Fort Santiago. At its
south-eastward was the Luneta where Spaniards patrol, it is a
place of execution as well.
Young Rizal lodges at the real life of Manila, the Binondo,
Sta.Cruz, and Quiapo along with Chinese mestizos and Spanish
mestizos, some of the Spanish mestizos were illegitimate sons of
Spanish priests that Rizal would call, “fruit of love-affair”.
4.) Rizal as a student
- He was outstanding and a brilliant scholar. He learned
gymnastics as it was few advices from his childhood and learned
fencing. He reads preferably history, sharpening his retentive
memory. He was popular and talented. He excelled in academics,
poetry, painting, and in sculpture.
5.) Love for Poetry
- He came to Ateneo with notably backward Spanish, worked
hard on studying it and his progress became rapid when he was
in the class of Father Sanchez. Father de Paula Sanchez was
twenty-six, dark, gloomy, and pessimistic but young Rizal would
describe him as “a model of uprightness, earnestness, and love of
advancement of his pupils”. He noticed Rizal’s love for poetry
soon after. In Rizal’s final year, Father Jose Vilaclara, whose
subjects were philosophy and sciences advised him to give up
the society of the Muses and give them goodbye.
6.) Por la Educacion Recibe Lustre la Patria
- Through Education the Fatherland acquired Glory is about the
significance of the education for a country. It uses a positive use
of ambiguity, conveying two entirely opposite thoughts,
depending on the viewpoint of the reader.
IV. University of Santo Tomas
1.) Entering University of Santo Tomas
- It was his father’s decision that he continue his studies at what
was then the Philippines’ sole institution of higher learning, the
Dominican University of Santo Tomas. However, his mother,
Teodora, was strongly opposed to him studying further. She was
afraid that if Jose continued to study, it will lead to him being
beheaded. It was the well-educated who were the first to be
regarded as the enemies.
- He entered University of Santo Tomas as an unwilling student,
still uncertain what he wanted to do in life, thus undecided what
subjects to take. He enrolled in metaphysics because his father
desired him to learn it and at the same time, he took land
surveying course at Ateneo.
- University of Santo Tomas founded in 1611, had been
academically stagnating for well over a century. Curricula and
systems of teaching had become addled with time. Students
learned that individual self-expression was inhibited. The
Dominicans were demagogic teachers and along with the heat
 and humidity of the Philippines, conducting classes had become
wearisome. Thus, Jose Rizal having sense of purposelessness.
2.) Segunda Catigbac
- Seguna was Jose Rizal’s first love and two years younger. She’s
from Lipa of Batangas and from a wealthy mestizo family. Rizal
wrote her an idyll. Central to the idyll was the young lady’s
presentation to Jose of an artificial rose which she presented
someone else had made when really she herself had made it
specially for him. Segunda was in arrangement for her formal
engagement to the man she eventually married back in Batangas.
It was time for Jose to go back to Calamba to celebrate Christmas
vacation. Segunda was leaving on a Saturday while Jose was
leaving on the day earlier. Jose made a promise to see her pass
Calamba on her way to Batangas.
- Two nights after that event, Jose went with a friend to visit an
unmarried woman but Segunda Catigbac, he says, “will always be
the conqueror of my heart that still refused to surrender”.
3.) Return to Calamba
- On his return to Calamba, he stood before his mother awaiting
her joyful welcome, he was shocked when she stared at him for a
quite a time without sign of recognition. She was going blind
The following year, he chose medicine as his subject at his
second in UST though it wasn’t really his interest, his main
interest was still literature. The three professions available and
open for Filipinos were priesthood, law, and medicine but he saw
it as a money-earning career, studying medicine was a duty, he
thought. His sense of purposelessness was now gone and in
addition, he also added philosophy and literature as his subjects.
As he was a having a versatile talent, taking these subjects
enhanced his self-discipline and budgeting his time. He also came
back to creative work— poetry, sculpting, sketching, and more
literary… also more sleeping, exercising, and social relaxation,
and above all, so much time for reading and thinking.
Along with these years, he perceived that not all the fault lay on
the side of the friars. Much pf it lay with the Filipinos. That the
mass of population should be inert and depressed, accepting
injustice without criticism because it knew of no other way of
life.
4.) Paciano and Jose
- A la Juventud Filipina (To the Philippine Youth) won first
prize in a public competition organized by the Liceo
Artistico-Literario of Manila 1879. The following year, he
won a more important literary prize given by the Liceo in
commemoration of the centenary of Cervantes, This was an
open competition; and for the prize to go to a Filipino,
surpassing Peninsular Spaniards in the use of their own
language.
- All of these time, Paciano was somewhere in the shadows.
While Jose was at Ateneo, Paciano’s thoughts has been
maturing, acquiring a more defined direction. His mother’s
oncoming blindness and visible ageing of both his parents
had made Paciano deeply conscious of his duty to support
them in their declining years yet the urge to do something for
the country was still a powerful force in him.
- When Paciano was striving in his final years at College of
San Jose and take his bachelor’s degree, the Dominicans
ruling the institution knew his relation to Burgos. They were
determined not to give him a bachelor’s degree and just see
him go back to the sugar plantations back in Calamba, so they
failed him. It was notable that he had no bitterness within
him, yet he encourages Jose to take the position of Burgos
and support him, their political views are both in agreement
as always, because he thinks Jose is fitted better for the task.
At every decisive step Jose took in these early years, Paciano
was there somewhere.
- To the duties as sons of their parents: To Jose would fall the
duty taking up the Filipino cause, while to Paciano would fall
the duty looking up after their parents, at the same time
giving Jose all the support he could.
V. DEPARTURE ON A MISSION
1. Getting married
- Paciano and Jose doesn’t have any concern of which of them should get
settle down. For Jose, he was very hesitant about getting married
because he believed that it would be an interference for his goal, leaving
it to Paciano to marry if he wished. Paciano, who is the older brother of
Jose seems to have considered that his brother who should get married.
2. Highlights about Leonor Rivera
- Leonor Rivera was a charming lady—with a high forehead, soft wavy
hair, almond eyes, small, pensive mouth, and engaging dimples. She
played the piano and had a charming singing voice. Leonor and Jose are
cousin; her father was Antonio Rivera who supported Jose to go to
Europe. He is Jose’s inspiration of Maria Clara in his novel Noli Me
Tangere.
3. Young Prodigy
- His influence at the University was not without significance. He
gathered around him a group of the steadier and more serious-minded
students, forming them into a secret society for mutual protection and
for the encouragement of traditional Filipino sports. His aim was to
develop courage and integrity of character in the youth of his country.
He was described as humourless. He was humorous for humour’s sake,
and his humour never hurt anyone.
4. Going abroad (Europe)
- To go to Europe had been his own idea, held for a considerable time. He
told his brother he would like to leave soon as he could; he would finish
his medical training in Madrid. The departure of Jose Rizal was kept
secret from Spanish authorities, friars and even his parents especially
his mother because she would not allow him to go. Another reason why
Jose wanted to go to Europe was to learn in the widest possible sense
about other nations, how they governed, what laws they had, and which
governments were better than others, how national commerce worked,
what reform movements there were in Europe, how much freedom they
were allowed, and what mouthpieces they used. On May 3, 1882 he
sailed from Manila.
5. Consuelo Ortiga y Perez
- Jose and Consuelo met in Madrid. She was the daughter of Pablo Rey
Ortiga, a former mayor of Manila and president of Consejo de Filipinas.
As a young man who had abruptly left his sweetheart Leonor Rivera for
studies abroad, Rizal seemed to have himself through a flirtatious affair
with Consuelo.
6. Juan Al Pasig
- A one-act zarzuela in Spanish written by the Philippine national hero.
Jose Rizal, was staged by the Academy of Spanish Literature members on
December 8, 1880. - Rizal wrote it to honor “Nuestra Senora dela Paz y
Buenviaje de Antipolo ” (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage). He had
the temerity to speak of the Philippines’ erstwhile prosperity withering
away beneath the alien hand of Spain—but by a brilliant device putting
the words into the mouth of the Devil.
CONCLUSION:
After reading Austin Coates book titled, Rizal: Filipino Nationalist and
Patriotism, we noticed some typographical errors and fragment
sentences due to incompletion of words. We also had a hard time to
comprehend the context of the book because the chronological order of
the events is confusing making it difficult to understand. To understand
a book, one must also imagine a clear picture of the scene.
However, the a book review about Philippine Studies that was published
by Ateneo de Manila University on June 30,2008 about the book written
by Coates and reviewed by Nicholas Crushner
Some of the Key points on the Book Review he emphasized
1. Mr. Coates’ biography of Rizal has laudably attempted to assess
Rizal’s role in the Propaganda Movement and his influence on
the development of nationalism
2. Abundance of Errors of fact
I. “gold” from Mexico financed the colonial movement
II. Chinese from Manila traded by Junk with their native land
III. Continually refers to the College of San Jose as Dominican
Run
 IV. Law ordering the change of surnames
V. The date when the ports were opened
VI. Cavite mutiny

According to the Author: “Mr. Coates is not familiar with the

essential facts of Philippine History, or the reader assigned
the task of reviewing the manuscript was equally uninformed”
3. The Book is poorly footnoted
The book review debunks all the claims of the National Artists in
Literature as the most detailed biography of Rizal as it doesn’t give any
accurate information and continuously has inconsistencies in the
statements. The outlook of the Author is subjective which affects the
authenticity, integrity and reliability of the said book.