Discuss on Various authors presented a variety of opinions and evidence whether Rizal did or did not retract. Nonetheless, there is no proof or justification to bring the debate to a close. The assertions that follow lead to the testimonies that Rizal did not retract prior to his execution. The first was a copy of Rizal′s allegedly signed retraction paper, which was kept secret and only published in newspapers. When Rizal′s relatives asked for the original copy, it was said to have been lost. Can the Jesuits have been so careless as to be uninformed of the value of the paper? Was it hidden, or was it just hidden away? The original copy was recovered 39 years later in the archives . Ph.D. Ricardo Fascual Archbishop Nozaleda allowed him permission to examine the paper, and he later determined in his book ″Rizal Beyond the Grave″ that the materials provided were frauds. The much more prevalent objection to this claim is that either Father Balaguer or Father Pi made mistakes when manufacturing a duplicate of the original. Another piece of proof that Rizal did not retract is that after Jose signed the retraction paper, Father Balaguer married Jose and Nevertheless, no marriage certificate or official record being provided to support Father Balaguer′s claims. Then why should Rizal withdraw when he knows he will still be executed even if he signs the retraction paper? The Archbishop and Jesuits have no jurisdiction to mitigate his sentence because the judicial process engaged was exclusively a military tribunal with no civilian or church input. Rizal was suspected of engaging in filibusterous propaganda, a crime punishable by death in Spain. The same thing happened to the three priests who had been garrotted years before, despite the fact that they were still members of the church; they were still considered as rebels and not given a decent burial. Furthermore, when Rizal was still imprisoned in Dapitan , Jesuit superiors dispatched Father Sanchez, Rizal′s favorite Ateneo teacher, to try to persuade his former student′s allegations against the Catholic faith and Spanish religious in the Philippines. Father Sanchez offered him a professorship, a hundred thousand pesos, and an estate in exchange for his resignation (Laubach , 1736), but Rizal declined. I, for one, would like to assume Rizal had not recanted. This highlights the uncertainty of the information amassed surrounding this topic, which has been a simmering issue for far too long. If Rizal retracts, his status as the country′s national hero may be jeopardized, and Filipinos may lose contact with their origins, believing that our hero was, in fact, a coward, a liar, or any other term that would damage his image of heroic character. We may not fully comprehend Rizal′s complicated nature, but our nation may at least reflect on the difficulties our predecessors had in order for us, the offspring of our country, to be recognized as fellow humans with racial equality and fairness. All we can do to do is follow their lead and ensure that their efforts are not in vain.
