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Dapitan City Tourism Office - Cultural Affairs and Historical Division

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14/10/2022

Jose Rizal’s exile in Dapitan gave him an opportunity to showcase his technical skills as a perito agrimensor or expert surveyor, which he obtained from Ateneo Municipal. He constructed a waterworks and dam to provide potable water for the Dapitanons, with the help of a Jesuit brother named Juan Costa. The Dapitanons also volunteered to construct the waterworks system. In 1894, the Linao water system dam was constructed, giving a good water system to the town from 1895 until the 1950s.

In 1895, Rizal also built his own water supply system, the Talisay waterworks system, which served as his swimming pool during rainy days and his reservoir during summer. His students helped him in the construction of it, some of the materials they used were clay, lime, and shells. The source of water for his private waterworks came from a stream found inside his estate in Talisay, Dapitan. At present, Rizal's Talisay waterworks system is one of the notable landmarks inside the Museo ni Jose Rizal in Dapitan.

13/10/2022

Aside from the wonderful view which you will experience when you climb the Ilihan Hill in the city, You will also have a glance at the ruins left on the old Dapitan Fort which were present during the 1580s. The fortress was created in order to have a better view of the place for defensive purposes. The fortress can be reached when climbing for about 200 steps which are also near the top of the hill. Unfortunately, only the ruins remained and no other materials remained such as cannons, or guns.

12/10/2022

In 1895, a small but dangerous snail specie was first identified by German naturalist Otto Franz von Möllendorff and was named Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi. It was one of Dr. Jose Rizal's species collections, a snail, which he managed to collect while he was in exile in Dapitan. The new snail species was named after Jose Florencio Quadras, a known Spanish naturalist in Manila. It was unknown to everyone that the identification of snails would become important to combat a deadly disease decades after its discovery.

In 1932, Dr. Marcos Tubangui of the Division of Biology and Serum Laboratory of the Bureau of Science of the Philippines recognized the species as the intermediate host of Schistosomiasis japonica. It is a parasite that causes the deadly disease Schistosomiasis, which infects people’s blood. Dr. Tubangui was able to confirm that Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi was indeed the intermediate host of the parasite after he and his team went to Palo, Leyte, where most cases were diagnosed in the previous years. Rizal’s help in the discovery of the snail species was considered one of his biggest contributions to science, which has prevented a potential epidemic. It helped to develop immediate prevention and treatment for schistosomiasis.

11/10/2022

To experience the humor and wit of Jose Rizal, his invented game Haec Est Sybilla Cumana or This is Sibylla Cumana is a must-play. It is a fortune-telling or oracle game, consisting of questions and answers for which a small octagonal wooden top was used. The game was originally written in Spanish but later on, it was translated into English and Filipino by Ms. Gemma Cruz Araneta and Virgilio Almario.

According to one of Rizal’s heirs, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, the game is “a panorama of Filipino thought, customs, interests, and practices at the end of 19th-century Filipinas.” It was only in 2011 that the family heirloom, the oracle book, was made public for the National Celebration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Jose Rizal upon publication by Cruz Publishing. In Museo Jose Rizal in Dapitan City, four sets of oracle books are on display.

07/10/2022

The productive years Rizal spent in Dapitan during his exile in the late 19th century is without the comfort of numerous foods. His stay in Dapitan can be distinguished from the food he ate. While there are several dishes in Dapitan, Rizal also made his request for food from his family. Gathered from his letters documented in “Reminiscences and Travels of José Rizal” (1977), and “One Hundred Letters of José Rizal to his Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Relatives” (1959), published by the National Historical Institute are some of food requests during his exile.

Rizal would write to his mother Teodora Alonso, requesting to send him mangoes, Laguna cheese, and “terrinas de foie gras.” The same food item was also requested in a letter to his sister, Narcisa. He also wrote to his sister, Maria, during the time when vegetables and fish were scarce, to send tokwa, dried small fish, and monggo. According to his descendant, Francisco Rizal Lopez, it was monggo soup with young leaves of ampalaya that is served to his visiting nephews and nieces during his exile, as written by Milagros Enriquez in “Kasaysayan ng Kaluto ng Bayan.”

Aside from food requests, Rizal would also narrate in his letters the foods he ate and events during his stay in Dapitan. Miss B, as he calls Josephine Bracken, makes suman, bagoong, bread and chili miso, and when they didn’t have noodles for pancit, Miss B would make it from scratch - described to be a kind of long macaroni noodles out of flour and eggs.

Available online is a copy where his letters are documented “Reminiscences and Travels of Jose Rizal”, https://vebuka.com/print/150619012021-9a8adb1bcbcdb491650c683aa404f0f2/Reminiscences_and_travels_of_Jose_Rizal

05/10/2022

On September 3, 1940 by virtue of the Proclamation No. 616, s. 1940 signed by then President Manuel Quezon, Rizal National Park was established. It was later promoted to Jose Rizal Shrine in 1973 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 105 before it was called the now NHCP Museo ni Jose Rizal – Dapitan.

The historical significance of the place where the national hero was exiled and in order to secure the protection and future development of the land area, Proclamation no. 616 was signed. The land area allocated for the Rizal National Park as stated is:

Beginning at point marked 1 on Bureau of Forestry Map No. N. P. 30. N. 19° W., 1,380 meters from the municipality of Dapitan, Zamboanga, an anilao tree, 35 cm. in diam., marked F. Z. 225/233, identical to corner 1. block III. alienable and disposable Zamboanga project No. L; thence following coastline in a general westerly direction, 320 meters to corner 2, a wharf, marked 620/38, a pathway of Rizal Park on coastline; thence N. 23° E., 115 meters to corner 3, a bogo tree, 10 cm. in diam., marked 62 of the tank of Rizal Park; thence N. 7° W., 90 meter to corner 4, a bogo tree, 40 cm. in diam., marked 620, 31, about 5 meters from a nangka tree; thence N. 80° E., 85 meters to corner 5, a point at the bank of a creek; thence N. 52° E., 60 meters to corner 6, a point on cutline; thence N. 46° E., 160 meters to corner 7, a point on cutline; thence N. 46° E., 180 meters to corner 8, a dead yakal tree, 45 cm. in diam., marked 60/55, on cutline; thence S. 20° W., 125 meters to corner 9, an alupag tree, 15 cm. in diam., marked 620/56 near a big rock; and thence S. 3° W., 305 meters to the point of beginning.

Corner 1 was marked with official marking hatchet No. B. F. 318.

Containing an area of approximately 10 hectares.

It is within the Rizal Park and Shrine, together with the Jose Rizal Memorial Protected Landscape – a declared a protected landscape and memorial to Dr. Jose Rizal under the National Integrated Protected Areas System through Proclamation No. 279. It was in 2000, that it was enlarged to its present size of 439 hectares with a buffer zone of 15 hectares from approximately 10 hectares when the Rizal National Park was established.

04/10/2022

The now dubbed Shrine City of the Philippines became the living witness of Rizal’s most productive moments. His stay in Dapitan was more than just living his exile, but was a period for his passion in arts, science, and literature. It was also the time when Rizal had focused on serving the people and society through civic works, medical practices, educational advocacy, and Dapitan’s development.

It was also in Dapitan that he was interested in indigenous folklore and the supernatural. In November 1895, Rizal wrote a psychiatric essay entitled “La Curación de los Hechizados” (The treatment and cure of the bewitched), at the request of Dr. Benito Francia. In his essay, Rizal described the two types of witchcraft: that of mangkukulam and of the mangangaway, specifying the differences of each craft. The witchery of mangkukulam was rather terror that involves hypnosis as its mechanism. On the other hand, the witchery of mangangaway was the main topic of his monograph, where dolls and pins are used to inflict injury on the victim.

30/09/2022

While Dapitan is historically significant as the place where Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled, it is also one of the cities in Mindanao where Spanish influence was evident. As one of the predominant Catholic cities in the region, St. James the Greater is significant to Dapitan. Kinabayo Festival is annually celebrated in honor of the patron saint, whereas the second built Catholic Church in Dapitan was also named after the patron.

Kinabayo festival is celebrated every month of July as honor to Señor Santiago. It is a week-long festival, from July 15 to 26 and highlights the feast day of St. James the Greater on the 25th of July, which celebrates the festival's core, a reenactment of the Spanish-Moorish wars, the Battle of Clavijo, previously known as the Battle of Covadonga. St. James the Great was said to be riding a horse and holding a sword in this war, leading the Spanish to victory against the Moors.

The church was built by the Jesuits in 1871 which symbolizes Dapitan’s early Christianization, where early Spanish masonry and architecture were still evident. It was also in St. James Parish Church, a historical spot where Rizal stood while hearing mass on Sundays during his exile in Dapitan.

29/09/2022

Dapitan is officially known as the City of Dapitan. It became the first city in the province of Zamboanga Del Norte and is officially known as the "Shrine City of the Philippines." It is one of the four cities in Region IX.

With its historical significance as the place where Rizal was exiled during the late 19th century, Dapitan City is rich in history and culture. It was on June 22, 1963 that the small town of Dapitan became a chartered city by virtue of Republic Act No. 3811 signed by then President Diosdado Macapagal.

28/09/2022

During Rizal’s exile in Dapitan, He also likes to discover new species to send them to his European friends who are scientists such as Dr. Adolph Meyer whom he met at Dresden in 1886. Rizal wanted to prove that there are other treasures that our country can offer to the world which are not yet discovered. Dr. Meyer told Rizal that he should never stop getting species and always find what is valuable. The gathering of species not only helped Dr. Meyer to study more kinds of animals, but also it was acknowledged by European and Filipino scientists alike and even name some of the species after Rizal such as the Apogonia rizali (beetle); Rachophorus rizali (frog) and Draco rizali (lizard)

24/09/2022

In August 1892, Rizal and his teacher Padre Sanchez with the help of his students in Dapitan, built an enormous representation made of stones and soil based on Mindanao's topographical characteristics. The map was called "Relief Map of Mindanao" and was used as an educational tool to teach his students places and geography.

More than a hundred years passed when the place was declared a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Institute in 2002, and a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines in 2005.

21/09/2022

On this day in 1892, the mail steamship "Butuan" brought good news to Dapitan. Rizal, with the Dapitan Governor Ricardo Carnicero and Spanish Dipolog resident Francisco Equilor, won the lottery. The three won the Lottery Ticket no. 9736 in the government-run establishment in Manila. The ticket hit the second prize amounting to Php 20,000.

Php 6,200 was Rizal's share. The Php 2,000 was given to his father, and Php 200 was given to his friend Jose Ma. Basa in Hongkong while a huge part of his winnings was invested in agricultural lands along the coast of Talisay in Dapitan. During his exile to Dapitan, Lotteria had been the only vice of Dr. Jose Rizal.

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