Rizals Assets

RIZAL’S ASSETS

It was   Christmas   day   of   1896   when   Dr.   Jose   Rizal   wrote   a   letter   to   his defender, Luis Taviel de Andrade wishing to talk with him about something important before his trial. I was thinking that the important matter had something to do with settling Rizal’s assets. But Andrade couldn’t meet with Rizal because he was busy for another job with regards to his profession. It was stated that the liquid assets of Jose Rizal was a pair of gold cufflinks with little pearls and two amethysts together with a gold tie-pin with a bee and a letter of credit amounted to 73.76 with his family. Besides that, Rizal had properties in Dapitan. There were actually two properties which add up to 35 hectares, 105 ares , and 108 centiares with a stand of 3000 abaca plants. At that time, Rizal bought both properties for only one hundred and ten pesos. I can just imagine how much it costs now. With the inflation we have today, it would really costs ten-twenty times than before. Dr. Jose Rizal also bought one estate which is now considered as one of the historical landmarks in the Philippines. He used the money won by him when he bought a lottery ticket together with Capt. Ricardo Carnicero (the political military governor of Dapitan at that time), and a Spaniard residing in Dipolog. His total share amounted to six thousand two hundred pesos. Two thousand pesos was given to his father   and   two   hundred   was   given   to   Basa,   a   friend   of   him   in   Hong Kong.   The remaining money of four thousand pesos was used to invest in some businesses, and bought lands and built houses. But after he was shot to death, his properties’ in Dapitan were confiscated by the Spanish authorities which then making Don Cosme Borrmeo as the custodian. In 1913, it was converted to park by the government and was then reconstructed by Pres. Manuel L. Quezon in 1940, declaring it as the “Rizal National Park” under the issued Proclamation No. 616. Aside from the Rizal shrine, there was also another property with the same features as the latter but with different dimensions. With the vast property, thirty one coconut trees and ten bamboo trees were planted. There were also numerous numbers of fruit bearing trees. Another interesting hobby of Dr. Jose Rizal was building a boat, but he kept a vessel of a kind called vilus. It was unknown to us that Dr. Jose Rizal was also crafty. But the boat was unfinished. No matter how we think that we know Dr. Rizal for the years of learning we’ve had but there are still things that we had little knowledge of. For the remaining days that he had to spend, he didn’t waste it for his selfishness. Rather, he was thinking of his family and how he would leave them with so much ease. He tried to settle his assets before hand for the sake of his family. This is one of the few reasons why he became one of the heroes I adore.  From these forgotten statements of assets, we see how quiet his last years were in Dapitan. Yet the Spain did not see anything in him but the living soul of the revolution.