Balagtas should be declared national hero, activists propose

For his role in introducing nationalist consciousness among known Filipino heroes through his poem “Florante at

Laura” long before they were born, poet Francisco Balagtas should be given the title of national hero, cultural activists propose.

“Our heroes like Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio looked up to Balagtas,” Michael Corroza, officer-in-charge of the Filipinas Institute of Translation (FIT), said in a forum in Manila yesterday.

He noted that Rizal in his writings recognized Balagtas along with other prolific writers like England’s William Shakespeare for their contributions in literature.

The Komisyon sa WIkang Filipino (KWF) also said in a statement that in a document called “Liwanag at Dilim” written by Katipunan official Emilio Jacinto, he “reminded the mga anak ng bayan (“sons of the nation) on the value of work by lifting stanza 202 of ‘Florante at Laura,’ ‘Ang laki sa layaw karaniwang hubad / sa bait at muni’t sa hatol ay salat.’”

Corroza said that heroes like Rizal and Bonifacio were called heroes not only because they used physical force to fight the oppressors. “A virtue of being a hero lies on how he uses his mind, and on how he writes,” he said.

“Being a writer is a political decision,” he added, “…that is why we believe Balagtas involved himself in the campaign for freedom.”

Corroza meanwhile noted that the campaign for Balagtas to be called a national hero started between 1940s and 1950s, which was led by writer and former senator Lope K. Santos. The annual remembrance of Balagtas’s birthday every April 2, which included a literary competition called ‘balagtasan’ named after him, highlighted such remembrance.

“Naniniwala si– na Lope K. Santos at iba pang mga manunulat na Tagalog na si Balagtas ay isang huwarang manunulat hindi lang sa paggamit ng wika… Nagamit din niya ang wika bilang pangmulat sa sambayanan,” he said. In his piece “Ang Apat na Himagsik ni

Balagtas (The Four Revolts of Balagtas),” Santos identified the four qualities that Balagtas opposed especially in “Florante at Laura”: oppressive government, differences in faith, failure to teach good traits, and low quality of literature.

“Santos believed that as a writer, Balagtas promoted values that will form the Filipino identity and revolutionary ideas that oppose oppression,” Corroza explained.

Last year, former president Benigno Aquino III declared April 2, Balagtas’s birthday, a special non-working holiday in Bulacan province. The month of April marks the commemoration of the Francisco

“Balagtas” Baltazar Day. In 2015, he also issued Proclamation 968 declaring April as “National Literature Month.”