Ambeth Ocampo's Rizal Ransomed: The Saga of the Rizal Manuscript

Disclaimer: With respect to Dr. Ocampo, I will not be writing the details of the story but only its outline as well as my experience.

Yesterday, September 9, 2013, I was able to attend Ambeth Ocampo’s Lecture on Rizal Ransomed! The Saga of the Rizal Manuscripts.

The Speaker. “Ambeth R. Ocampo (b. 1961) is a multi-awarded Filipino historian, academic, journalist, and author best known for his writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal, and for his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, "Looking Back." He became the chair of the Philippines' National Historical Institute in 2002 and of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2005.” Source: Goodreads.com

Before the talk. As part of BPI's Anniversary Celebration (ehem, that's where I work), they invited Dr. Ambeth Ocampo to give a lecture series sponsored by BPI Foundation. All Unibankers were invited to join the lecture series. I was fortunate to be able to attend even one of this lecture series since I spent nothing and this same talk Ayala Museum costs an ample amount. And I am such a lucky fellow for there are only few people who attended the event (of course, it is exclusive for BPI employees and not everyone can leave their workstation). Because of that, I had the chance to have my copy of Rizal without the Overcoat signed. And surprisingly, there’s a free merienda after the talk. I so love BPI Foundation.

The Talk. Maybe only few of us knew about the incident that the 3 manuscript of Rizal’s famous works, Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, and Mi Ultimo Adios, were indeed stolen and was held “kidnapped”. He told the story happened before, during and after the incident. Before the whole story was reiterated, he mentioned his experience in British Library, and a book of Rizal which was never published. He even mentioned some hints of how Rizal thinkings which could be noticed on the annotations of the original manuscripts of his works.

The talk could be summarized as “What was the reason why there are works, most especially manuscripts, kept inside National Library’s vault?” Then you’ll realize that these manuscripts are so important historically and for research that people should value it. But how are you supposed to study these works if they are kept inside a vault with stick requirements for you to be able to lay a hand on these items.