Dexby de Guzman January 27, 2011

Reflection on “The Three faces of Evil in El Filibusterismo” by Fr. Miguel Bernad, SJ

Fr. Miguel Bernad is a Jesuit who has contributed much to the study of Rizal’s life and

writings. He has made literary, biographical and historical studies on Dr. Jose Rizal, our

Philippine national hero. He had a book published by Ateneo de Manila University in 2004

entitled The Native Sky: Studies in the Life and Writings of Jose Rizal. In this book, he had this

article: The Three Faces of Evil in El Filibusterismo. The title somehow captured my attention.

Back when I was in high school, we had an El Filibusterismo class. The character of Simoun

wearing that round eyeglasses of his have interested me much, but the novel showing the three

faces of evil? That I have not thought of so far. Fr. Bernad explains three faces of evil in El Fili:

the institutional evil, the personal evil, and a special kind of evil which we will discuss later.

First is the institutional evil or the evil due to unjust social structures. Fr. Bernad talks of

the tale of Kabesang Tales in El Fili. Such is the story of a good man who turned bad due to

unjust social structures. His story was like this: He was a hardworking man who cleared and

farmed his fields. Though he thinks that he owns his land, the neighboring friars think otherwise.

He paid a rent which was increased substantially when the friars knew the good harvest of his

land. The conflict was brought to the courts, but the friars were very powerful and influential.

Even after the negative verdict, he went on guarding his fields with a gun, and subsequently, a

bolo. After he was freed from being kidnapped, he murdered a friar, the new land tenant and

latter’s wife. Further, Kabesang Tales became a bandit. What a sad story it was. At that time,

there was this agrarian tragedy in Calamba too. Calambeños were evicted by the friars out of

their lands and estate. Yet, I think Rizal’s goal here is to open the eyes of the readers to reality.

There are still many Kabesang Tales in the present. Unjust structures still exist today.

Dexby de Guzman, 2011 Page 1

The second evil is personal evil. It is personal because the evil is inherent in the

individual. Examples of which in El Fili are two friars: the Dominican Physics teacher and Fray

Camorra. The Physics teacher was conducting a class in such an ill manner. He even failed

students for having a bad recitation. This friar has no concern for the good and the education of

the students. In my terms, he is an evil teacher. The essence of being one is not in him. Another

is Fray Camorra who has some inappropriate desires to Juli (the daughter of Kabesang Tales).

In effect, Juli chose to be chaste by killing herself than to give up herself to the evil friar. The

point of Fr. Bernad is not their beings priests as evil. But the evilness of these two people is

rooted in themselves, and this evil has corresponding terrible effects.

Lastly is a special face of evil. It is the evil that is the means to accomplish good

objectives. Simoun is the primary example of Fr. Bernad. He was once, the idealistic and noble

man in the character of Crisostomo Ibarra in the Noli Me Tangere. He has changed since then.

He made corrupt and evil activities in the government such as being involved in the arms trade.

But his actual goal is for an armed revolution to happen. This is for the people to be united

against the Spanish government. His plans failed however. In my opinion, it is sad that Simoun

turned to this means of achieving change. Yet, I cannot blame him for such because he only did

what he thinks was necessary.

Even amidst these evil, there were still some good men in the novel. There was the

helpful Fr. Florentino and many others in the novel who possessed dignity and honor.

In sum, these three faces of evil still exist today. And maybe, that is one reason, why El

Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere are considered immortal novels. They are stories of the

past, and from them, young minds can learn that it is not right just being a spectator of evil in

society. Rather, we need to act to avoid the harm these evils do to “our neighbors”.

Dexby de Guzman, 2011 Page 2