Kaban ni D_BystandeR: PAGHANDOM SA KALANTIP NI DR. JOSE RIZAL

In the early 1960s, when Senator Raul Manglapuz was still going around the country and considered the leading orator of his time with a roaring voice that could hypnotize his audience endlessly, I heard him say boastfully about the numerous talents attributed to Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Manglapuz was in Britain on an official visiting tour when his group was led into 26 different sections bearing statues of their known heroes. 

But he said, in the Philippines we only have one man who could claim competence in 26 different talents that 26 of these statues represented. Our number one national hero, Rizal, was a doctor, an engineer, an architect, a surveyor, a linguist, a poet, a writer, a plumber, you name it, and he had it all. I don't know if Manglapuz was only trying to overemphasize the talents of Rizal but everybody believes him because Rizal was a genius and everything was possible for him.

Footnote: This comment came out in connection with an article written by Atty. Josephus B. Jimenez which appeared in The FREEMAN, entitled, "Why Rizal was still an authentic hero today?" It came out on December 30, 2014.