Rizal: ‘A man whose vision is still ours to build’ — Loren Legarda

MANILA, Philippines — “Dr. Jose Rizal should be remembered not as a figure for mourning but as a living force whose ideals of freedom and dignity continue to guide the Filipino people,” Sen. Loren Legarda said on Friday at Rizal Park during the commemoration of the national hero’s 165th birth anniversary.

A day after, she continued the commemoration by attending the opening of the Rizal Historic Trail in Wilhelmsfeld, Germany, where Rizal completed “Noli Me Tangere,” the novel that awakened a nation’s thirst for independence and self-determination.

“So why mark his birthday in Wilhelmsfeld? Because this is where he found shelter,” Legarda said, according to a statement released by her office on Monday.

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“We did not come to Wilhelmsfeld just to speak about Dr. Jose Rizal from a distance. We came to stand on the ground that opened its doors to a young Filipino far from home and gave him a place to belong,” she added.

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READ: Loren Legarda attends opening of Rizal Historic Trail in Germany

Legarda emphasized that Rizal’s significance lies not only in what he accomplished during his lifetime but in the continuing responsibility of succeeding generations to carry forward the ideals he championed.

“Dr. Jose Rizal, 165 years from the day you were born, we are here to remember you not as a man we mourn. You are a man whose vision is still ours to build,” she said.

“As the Knights of Rizal say, ‘Non omnis moriar.’ Not all of you have died, and in our homeland, in Wilhelmsfeld, and in every mind still awakened by your words, you live on,” Legarda said.

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Wilhelmself’s place in PH history

Legarda noted that Wilhelmsfeld holds a unique place in Philippine history.

Besides being the place where he completed the “Noli,” it was there, in 1886, that Rizal lived as a guest of Pastor Karl Ullmer while he was studying in nearby Heidelberg, which the Historic Rizal Trail leads to.

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Legarda thanked the people of Wilhelmsfeld and Heidelberg, the Ullmer family, and the Knights of Rizal for keeping Rizal’s memory alive in Germany through the Rizal Historic Trail, commemorative programs, and generations of care for the places that shaped his life and work.

She emphasized that the story of Rizal’s stay in Wilhelmsfeld demonstrates how a simple act of kindness by a German family can leave a lasting mark on a nation’s history.

“A small German town that welcomed a young Filipino far from home became part of the story of a nation,” Legarda said.

The senator also underscored that nation-building is never accomplished in isolation, noting how Rizal, despite his aspirations being firmly rooted in his love for the Philippines, also showed the importance of dialogue among peoples, cultural exchange, and international friendship.

“For more than a decade, I have tried to bring Rizal home to his own people, by way of Germany,” Legarda said as she recounted efforts to retrace Rizal’s footsteps and give honor to his legacy.

Efforts to preserve Rizal’s legacy

Legarda’s 2019 visit to the town of Wilhelmsfeld gave rise to the 2021 documentary “Finding Rizal in a Time of Barriers,” tracing Rizal’s path across Germany and Europe, and to the “Rizal in Wilhelmsfeld” exhibit, opened on Rizal’s 160th birth anniversary at the Museo ni Jose Rizal in Fort Santiago alongside the unveiling of the German translation of “Mi Ultimo Adios.”

In March 2026, at Legarda’s encouragement, her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste, purchased with private funds the Protestant vicarage where Rizal wrote the last chapters of “Noli Me Tangere,” with plans to convert it into a museum and cultural center.

READ: Rep. Leviste buys Germany house where Rizal once lived, wrote ‘Noli’

The Rizal Historic Trail is the most recent step in her effort to preserve Rizal’s memory and the places tied to him.

“When I first visited Wilhelmsfeld and met Dr. Fritz Hack Ullmer, I left with a wish that the house where Rizal wrote his novel would one day be preserved for the people he loved,” she said.

“To this town and to the Ullmer family, who have kept Rizal’s story alive across generations, the Filipino people are very grateful,” she added.

Legarda also supported the digital exhibit “Connecting and Collecting: Rizal’s Ethnographic Objects in Germany,” which presents the 21 Philippine objects Rizal donated to the German ethnologist Dr. Adolf Bastian, founding director of the Berlin Ethnological Museum.

She also supported Dr. Stephanie Marie Coo’s research into Philippine material culture preserved in German archives, published as “Journey of Culture Through Objects: The Philippine Collection at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart” and the book, “Seams of Sedition: Sartorial Symbols in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere.”

Here are some of her other efforts to promote Philippine culture in Germany:

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She secured the 2019 reopening of the Philippine Consulate General in Frankfurt

She established Philippine Studies programs at Ruhr University Bochum, the University of Hamburg, and Humboldt University of Berlin.

She brought the “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” textile exhibition to Frankfurt in 2018.

She brought the Philippines back to the Frankfurt Book Fair, a decade-long campaign that culminated in the Philippines as Guest of Honour in 2025, under the theme “The imagination peoples the air,” a line from Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere.”

/atm