Note 44 — Statement of Capt. Olegario Diaz1

Note 44. It was not the aim which Rizal had in his mind, of delivering his country from disabilities but the manner in which he set to work to accomplish that end, to which objection must be raised. When a people suffer under the oppression of its rulers, all the world admires the man who rises to throw off the hateful yoke. But when the oppression is imaginary and when the so-called hero is but a marionette in the hands of political schemers who seek their own advantage under the shelter of a pretence to throw off a yoke which does not exist, one cannot admire the part played by the deluded “tool”. The emancipation from the mother-country was the key-note of the revolt. It was the aim of the Filipino freemasons, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios and of the Katipunan.