Our Heroes and Science

The symposium I attended last November 28, 2011 was titled “Our Heroes and Science“. I was very excited to attend this symposium because it would be my first time to attend one. Also, I knew I would be meeting many famous people there who have so much to offer and so much knowledge to share. It was farthest from my mind to meet a descendant of Jose Rizal, but there they were – 2 middle aged women with such bright and jubilant eyes. I immediately knew that they had a goal in mind when they came to the symposium – to share the knowledge they have, which had been passed down to them. However, I was disappointed to find out a few moments later that they were just there to listen to what the experts had to say.  But the symposium over all was still pretty good. There were 3 speakers: Dr. Benjamin Vallejo, our current STS professor; Mercedes Planta, PhD., an associate professor of history in UP Diliman; and Sir Perry Ong, a biologist. All 3 speakers talked about their respective expertise regarding our national heroes who have shown courage during the time of the Spaniards.

The talk given by Dr. Benjamin Vallejo, titled “Si Antonio Luna at ang pagtitinag ng kamalayan ng bayan”, was somewhat confusing for me since he used Tagalog as his language for discussion. I can understand the simple words in our native language; however, the words he used were very deep and very uncommon. Despite this, I still tried my best to understand his talk. He began his lecture with the word “agham” which is science in Filipino. To further explain the definition of this word and how it was used back then, he showed some pictures of the Spaniards busying themselves with works in science. He also explained that University of Santo Tomas was the first university to have a faculty of medicine. One scientist who was given recognition and emphasis was Antonio Luna. Antonio Luna was a wise man. He believed that the Filipinos were not yet ready for a revolution and everyone had to work together to achieve their goal, not only the masses or those with a low stature in society. Antonio Luna was also very nationalistic that he urged the Filipinos to stay strong no matter what the foreigners would offer to them. Their only goal in mind was independence.

Mercedes Planta, PhD, gave the second lecture. Her lecture was titled “Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, 1857-1925: Premier Filipino Filipinist”. She discussed that Trinidad Pardo de Tavera initiated the precursor for changes in Filipino ortography such as “k” and “w” instead of “c” and “u” to conform to proper fisonomia of Tagalog.

Last but not the least, Sir Perry Ong, a biologist gave the third and final lecture about Jose Rizal’s life and achievements specifically in the field of biology. At first, he compared Jose Rizal to Charles Darwin since he wanted to look at it at the point of view of a biologist but realized that it was a mistake. It is evident from the letters written by Rizal to various high-ranking officials and scientists that he was very much devoted to learning the sciences. Even though he was imprisoned, he continued sending letters and packages to his colleagues. He was truly very hardworking, no doubt about that. In addition to this, I would like to believe that Jose Rizal was truly gifted in the sense that he was able to study so many fields and be excellent in all of them. This was already obvious when he was still in Ateneo High School where he got an excellent mark in all of his subjects. Jose Rizal is truly one of a kind and someone worth emulating.