Press Release
June 19, 2009

ON JOSE RIZAL: THE LESSONS OF A LIFE WELL-LIVED

Today we commemorate the 148th birthday of our National Hero, Jose Rizal. Born in 1861, he would live to celebrate only 35 birthdays, a short but meaningful life that left a lasting imprint on our nation's history.

His death by firing squad in 1896 sparked a revolution and emboldened a generation of young men and women to take up arms and defeat a long-time colonial oppressor.

Rizal's enduring legacy is not that he penned timeless aphorisms like "the youth is the fair hope of our motherland;" it is the fact that in the face of persecution and certain death, he lived out his words and inspired the birthing of a nation.

Today we are no longer the servants of any one nation, but many of our countrymen continue to yearn for freedom--freedom from a corrupt and immoral government, freedom from poverty, freedom from hunger.

Let the lessons of Rizal's life and heroic example spur us--especially the youth-- to take action to change the fortunes of this long-suffering Republic.

My only lament is that this day is not given the importance it deserves by our national officials.

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