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BRIGADIER GENERAL PACIANO ALONZO RIZAL,
KKK, COMMANDER, LAGUNA COMMAND
Hero of the Philippine Revolution
The eldest brother of Dr. Jose Protacio Mercado Alonzo Rizal y Realonda, is also a
national hero who had been in the shadows of Dr. Jose Rizal. Only When the Spaniards
ruled that the "indios" bore last names, they were to pick last names from an
alphabetically listing. Francisco Mercado, their father, picked Rizal, for
"ricial" or grain or rice which is the staple food of the Filipino people and
that it was appropriate as they were famers/land owners. However, only Jose Rizal
was allowed to bore the last name and Francisco Mercado retained his last name as
"mercado" meaning "market" or "marketer". However,
when Jose Rizal was executed, the whole family started using the last name
"Rizal" as a protest and as a symbol signifying love for freedom is immortal and
could not be "killed". Brigadier General Paciano Rizal was a commander of
the vestige of what was left of the Philippine Army (the converted Katipuneros after the
declaration of Philippine Independence of 1896, KKK which stands for
"Kagalang-galangan, Kataas-taasan, Katipunan ng mga anak ng Bayan" or in English
"Most High, most venerable congregation of the sons of the country")
fought the Spaniards for liberation and during the Philippine-American War, in which the
United States inappropriately call "Philippine-Insurrection". He and his
men were captured by the American General Omalley. The Philippine government named a
Camp for the Philippine Constabulary in his hometown after him as "Camp Paciano
Rizal". However, during the American Colonial government, the renamed the Camp
after another town hero to hail from Calamba, Laguna, a chinese meztiso, General Vicente
Lim and as of right now, the camp is still named "Camp Vicente Lim".
However, local townsfolk and government, renamed the barrio surrounding the camp after
Brigadier General Paciano Rizal.
If you are a Filipino, you may ask, how come I haven't heard of him being a hero until
now, except that is his an elder brother of Dr. Jose Rizal? That is a good an
legitimate question. But then you must realize that he fought against the Americans
and most of the books and educational system that we had going to school after the war
were "donated" by the American government since they basically destroyed every
school there was during the war. Remember how we never studied Russia and China in
our World History Classes? We know they exists, but we never studied them!
There just wasn't any chapter about them. It was hard to miss in our books as the
maps show them real big! Maybe they are right about what they say about
"Colonial mis/Education".
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