Statement | Migrante Canada | June 19, 2026
Jose Rizal @165: the Filipino Diaspora and the Unfinished Struggle
On June 19, Filipinos around the world mark the 165th birth anniversary of Dr. José Rizal, one of the most influential figures in the continuing Filipino people’s struggle for national dignity, freedom, and self-determination.
As overseas Filipinos, migrant workers, international students, and members of the diaspora, we remember Rizal not only as a national hero, but also as a kababayan who went abroad to Spain and other places in the world to study, work, and organize while remaining deeply committed to the welfare of his people and the future of his homeland.
Rizal dreamt of a homeland where its people could live with dignity and equality, participate meaningfully in public life, and contribute to the building of a just and humane society. Through his writings, especially his two novels Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), Rizal exposed the abuses and oppression of the Spanish friars, the Spanish officials, the Guardia Civil, and their local lackeys. His novels, which were immediately banned in the Philippines, explored not only the possibility of reforms in Philippine society but also the possibility of revolution.
Rizal’s experiences at home and abroad deepened his patriotic sentiments and his understanding of the conditions facing the people under colonial rule. The execution of the three priests Burgos, Gomez and Zamora, the arrest of his mother on false charges, the Calamba agrarian dispute and evictions that involved the Rizal family, the stories of exploitation and brutalization of Filipinos under the Spanish colonial yoke shaped and sharpened Rizal’s political consciousness.
Rizal’s anti-clerical and anti-colonial writings drew the ire of the Spanish colonial regime. He was called a filibuster, very much in the same way that critics and activists of today are red-tagged, maligned and vilified as terrorists, subversives, communists.
Prof. Jose Maria Sison in his essay “Rizal the Social Critic” wrote: “The situation of Spanish colonialism then parallels that of US imperialism today, over-extended and unable to cope with the advance of the world socialist revolution and the more vigorous national independence movements of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.”
Like many Filipinos today who live, work, study and migrate abroad, Rizal also lived, studied, and worked in Spain and in many other countries. Rizal joined other Filipino liberals and exiles to found the Propaganda Movement in Spain; they created the organization La Solidaridad (1872) which pushed for reform in the colony. It had a newspaper called by the same name La Solidaridad (1889-1895), the organ of the Reform Movement of which Rizal was one of the chief propagandists. Rizal and the other members of the (First) Propaganda Movement fought the Spanish colonial regime with its newspaper, manifestos, essays, poems, works of art, and novels.
Rizal went back to the Philippines in 1892 at great risk, and in today’s parlance, a wanted man. He hoped to continue what had started in Spain and he established the very short-lived La Liga Filipina which called for moderate social reforms. Four days later, on July 6, 1892, the Spanish colonial authorities arrested him and exiled him to Dapitan.
On August 23, 1896, the Cry of Pugadlawin signalled the start of armed warfare against Spain led by the Katipunan which was founded in 1892. The Katipunan called for separation from Spain and demanded the Filipino people’s sovereignty, the confiscation of friar lands, protection and promotion of civil liberties, and the end of theocratic rule.The sparks from more than 200 revolts against Spain since 1521 converged in the fire of the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
On December 30, 1896, Rizal was led to his execution at Bagumbayan. He was 35 years old.
Rizal is still remembered and still relevant after more than a hundred years, not simply because of what he wrote, but also because of the questions he posed about the condition of our nation and the future of our people.
For overseas Filipinos, Rizal’s life offers this important lesson: Filipinos abroad, estimated at 10-12 million, are not merely observers of the nation’s history. We are participants in it.
Just as Rizal and the First Propaganda Movement used international networks to advance the cause of reform and national dignity, today’s diaspora has the important role in pushing the Second Propaganda Movement to defend migrant rights, support democratic struggles, strengthen communities, and contribute to the pursuit of genuine national liberation and development.
In Canada and around the world, Filipino migrants continue to confront exploitation, precarious work, racism, anti-immigrant policies, family separation, and uncertainty. For many migrant workers, migration is no longer a personal choice, not when 8,000 Filipino men and women leave the country every day. The forced migration is born out of economic conditions that deny Filipinos the opportunities to live and work with dignity in their own country. The continued reliance on labour export, the separation of families, and the displacement of generations of Filipinos are reminders that the aspirations for genuine national development remain unfulfilled.
More than better consular services or emergency assistance for migrant Filipinos abroad , the best protection is the creation of conditions where Filipinos can choose to stay, work, raise families, and build their futures in the Philippines with dignity and security.
On Rizal’s birth anniversary, we honour not only his life and contributions but also the continuing struggles of Filipino workers, migrants, youth, farmers, Indigenous peoples, and communities around the world.
The greatest tribute we can pay to Rizal is to continue the work he began: to challenge injustice, to defend the dignity of our people, and to help build a Philippines where freedom is meaningful, sovereignty is genuine, and no one is forced to go abroad by poverty and lack of opportunity, and to continue the unfinished struggle for national freedom, democracy, social justice, and genuine development.
Mabuhay si Dr. José Rizal!
Mabuhay ang mga manggagawang migrante at kanilang mga pamilya!
Mabuhay ang sambayanang Pilipino!###