THE JOSE RIZAL NATIONAL CENTENNIAL COMMISSION COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL COMMISSION OF THE PHILIPPINES
By: Reymann Guevarra
Date Published: October 5, 2023
One of the unique collections of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission Collection (JRNCC Collection). Located in the Special Collections of the NHCP Serafin D. Quiason Resource Center (SDQRC), the JRNCC Collection comprises the records and items from the now-defunct Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC), a government agency created by President Ramon Magsaysay by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 52 on 10 August 1954. Its mandate was to prepare the nation for the birth centenary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal on 19 June 1961. So far, this was the longest State-sponsored preparation for a milestone before the Philippine Centennial (i.e., from 1988 to 1998). Its mandate was further strengthened by Republic Act No. (RA) 1427 dated 19 June 1956. The JRNCC also reckoned its full operation when the law was passed upon securing regular funding of PhP 2 million appropriated by the Philippine Congress. Nonetheless, it remained a distinct government agency from the Philippines Historical Committee (PHC), the leading agency on Philippine history at that time.
The JRNCC was chaired by the Secretary of Education with Gregorio Hernandez, Jr. the first chairman from 1 July 1954 to 17 March 1957. He was followed by Martin Aguilar, Jr. who served from March 1957 to September 1957 and succeeded by Manuel Lim, JRNCC’s longest-serving chairman from October 1957 until his resignation in May 1959. Lim’s chairmanship confronted problems such as objections to the construction of the National Cultural Shrine at the Wallace Field in Luneta (now Rizal Park), Manila and the scant funding. The National Cultural Shrine later became the National Library of the Philippines (NLP) Building along Kalaw Street, Ermita, Manila. It was among the greatest legacies of the JRNCC since the National Library lost a significant number of collections during the Liberation of the Philippines in 1945 and never returned to its intended house, the Legislative Building (now the National Museum of Fine Arts). Moreover, the JRNCC was also tasked to supervise and administer three Rizal Shrines located in Rizal’s birthplace in Calamba, Laguna, his estate and site of exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, and his site of incarceration within the ruins of Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. The government agencies previously managing these sites were abolished and the supervision was in turn inherited by the JRNCC.
To augment government subsidy for the programs and activities of the JRNCC, President Magsaysay issued EO 226 on 2 January 1957 which empowered the agency to raise funds in accordance with RA 1427 which authorized the JRNCC to organize and undertake a national fund campaign to raise funds from private sources. It was followed by President Carlos Garcia’s Proclamation No. 523 issued on 30 July 1958 whose objective was best explained by its title “Appealing to All Officials, Employees and Laborers of Government Offices and Private Establishments to Donate One Day’s Pay to the Fund Drive for the Construction of a National Cultural Shrine.” The President himself donated his one-day salary, followed by the members of his cabinet. It was a domino effect: other government offices, private and public schools and some private sectors joined the President in his campaign for the JRNCC.
In 1960, Congress appropriated P3.6 million. It was also envisioned that whatever amount not spent after JRNCC’s completion of work and dissolution should be reverted to the National Treasury. In preparation for its obsolescence after Rizal’s birth centenary, the JRNCC proposed in 1958 the establishment of the Jose Rizal Foundation to carry over the task of promoting Rizal.
The JRNCC Collection, likewise, boasts a number of academic papers related to Rizal. Foremost of which are about the International Congress on Rizal on 4-8 December 1961 and the translation and publication of all Rizal’s works published on or before the hero’s birth centenary. It has also a copy of the plan of the controversial Pylon added by the JRNCC to the Motto Stella at Rizal Park. The structure has long been gone, said to have been relocated at the boundaries of Manila and Pasay City.
On 1 July 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal abolished the JRNCC by virtue of EO 14. Its records, assets and properties were transferred to a surrogate presidential committee composed of the Secretary of Education, the Director of Public Libraries (now the NLP), and the Director of the National Museum until a new agency was established for the commemoration of upcoming milestones of national heroes such as Apolinario Mabini’s birth centenary in 1964. This was the National Heroes Commission, created by President Macapagal by virtue of EO 28 on 27 December 1962. This agency was later merged with the PHC, creating the National Historical Commission (NHC) through RA 4368 on 19 June 1965. Aggregated with the mandates of the NHC was the management of the three Rizal shrines, safe keeping of the records and collection of the JRNCC, and the continuous reprinting of the JRNCC publications. On 24 September 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos further reorganized the government bureaucracy through Presidential Decree No. 1 upon the imposition of Martial Law throughout the country. The President saw redundancy in the historical agencies created before which include the NHC and abolished them to form the National Historical Institute (NHI) per his Integrated Reorganization Plan. The backbone of the NHI was the NHC. In the 1980s, the present-day NLP Building, a legacy of the JRNCC, was officially turned over by the NHI to the NLP. On 1 April 2004, the NHI asserted its ownership over the remaining JRNCC Collection in the NLP, especially the original letters of Rizal. The agency did not demand the transfer of the collection but an iteration for posterity purposes since the NHI was the direct successor of the JRNCC. On 12 May 2010, the NHI became the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) through RA 10086, thus, the JRNCC Collection remained part of it today.
The JRNCC publications and parts of its collection found in the NHCP SDQRC will be made available via the National Memory Project. On 3 March 2023, a memorandum of agreement between the NHCP and the NLP was inked to make the remaining JRNCC Collection in the custody of the latter to form part of the National Memory Project digitally.
See link: https://memory.nhcp.gov.ph/?s=rizal+cultural
Sources:
Alfonso, Ian Christopher N. “Introduction: A Nation Inspired.” In Illustrious: The Museums of the
National Historical Commission of the Philippines, 9-19 (Manila: National Historical
Commission of the Philippines 2022).
Annual Report of the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission for the Period from January 1 to December 31, 1961.
E.O. No. 14 “Abolishing the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission and Creating a Committee to Carry Out the Remaining Activities of the Commission”. (June 29, 1962)
House Bill No. 4810 “An Act Appropriating Funds to Carry Out the Purposes of the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission Created by Executive Order Numbered Fifty-Two, Dated August Ten, Nineteen Hundred Fifty-Four”.
Executive Order No. 145 “Authorizing The Collection of Voluntary Contributions of Five, Ten, and Twenty Centavos from Pupils and Students Enrolled in Public and Private Elementary, Secondary, and Collegiate Schools, Respectively, with which to Finance the Repair or Reconstruction of the House Occupied by Dr. Jose Rizal in Calamba, Laguna, and of Dapitan Park in Zamboanga” (June 19, 1948)
Executive Order No. 190 “Extending up to December 31, 1949, the Period Fixed in Executive Order No. 145, Dated June 19, 1948, for the Collection of Funds with which to Finance the Repair or Reconstruction of the House Occupied by Dr. Jose Rizal in Calamba, Laguna, and of Dapitan Park in Zamboanga”. (December 16, 1948)
Executive Order. No. 28, s. 1962 “Amending Executive Order No. 14, Dated June 29, 1962, by Converting the Committee Created thereunto into a National Heroes Commission with Additional Members, Duties and Functions”. (December 27, 1962)
Executive Order No. 163 “Creating Provincial, City Municipal, and Barrio Committees to Lead the Celebration of the Rizal Centenary in their Respective Communities”. (January 30, 1956)
Executive Order 253 “Abolishing the Committee on the Restoration of the Rizal Home in Calamba and the Dapitan Park in Zamboanga and Transferring its Personnel, Property, Assets and Records to the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission”. (June 27, 1957)
Executive Order No. 226 “Creating a National Campaign Committee to Raise Funds to Out the Objectives of the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission”. (January 2, 1957)
Letter of Director Luis Montilla to Honorable Amado del Rosario, dated October 1, 1958.
Letter/Memo of Director Luis Montilla to JRNCC, dated September 3, 1958.
Letter of Alejandro R. Roces (Secretary of Education) to the Executive Secretary of the Rizal Presidential Committee, dated November 15, 1962.
Memorandum for Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, by Director Luis Montilla, dated November 5, 1958.
Presidential Decree No. 1, entitled, “Reorganizing the Executive Branch of the National Government”. (September 24, 1972)
Problems Confronting the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission. (n.d.).
Proclamation No. 523 “Appealing to All Officials, Employees and Laborers of Government Offices and Private Establishments to Donate One Day’s Pay to the Fund Drive for the Construction of a National Cultural Shrine”. (July 30, 1958)
R.A. No. 2703 “An Act Appropriating Funds to Carry Out the Purposes of the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission Created by Executive Order Numbered Fifty-Two, Dated August Ten Nineteen Hundred Fifty Four”. (June 18 1960)
R.A. No. 4368 “An Act to Establish a National Historical Commission, to Define its Powers and Functions, Authorizing the Appropriation of Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes”. (June 19, 1965)
Republic Act No. 10086, entitled, “An Act Strengthening Peoples’ Nationalism Through Philippine History By Changing The Nomenclature Of The National Historical Institute Into The National Historical Commission Of The Philippines, Strengthening Its Powers And Functions, And For Other Purposes” (May 12, 2010)
Resolution on the Resignation of Honorable Manuel Lim Adopted by the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission at a Special Meeting Held on May 29, 1959.
Rizal Centennial Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 11. Manila : Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1961.
Rizal Centennial Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 8. Manila : Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1959.