As the national hero of the Philippines, Jose Rizal is well remembered because of his many contributions to the history of this country during the Spanish era. His patriotism, love of country and intellectual pursuits have made him a celebrated figure even during his time. His legacy is then remembered with the many monuments in his honor erected all around the world. Of all these, the tallest ever made can be found at Calamba Rizal Park, a source of pride for the people of Calamba, the place where Rizal was born.
The Jose Rizal Tallest Monument can be found at Calamba Rizal Park, also The Plaza. This public park in Barangay Real commemorates Jose Rizal. Erected on a seven-hectare (17-acre) land at Calamba City Hall Complex, the monument is 22 feet (6.7 m) tall, with the number symbolizing the 22 languages and dialects used by Rizal. It sits on top of a 15-step podium, symbolizing one decade since Rizal was born. It is the tallest Jose Rizal Monument in the World. The monument was inaugurated by President Benigno Aquino III in preparation for the National Hero's sesquicentennial birth anniversary on June 19.
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist, writer and reformist. He is widely considered the greatest national hero of the Philippines. He was the author of Noli Me Tángere, El Filibusterismo and a number of poems and essays. He was executed on December 30, 1896.
Rizal was a contemporary of Gandhi, Tagore and Sun Yat Sen who also advocated liberty through peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. Coinciding with the appearance of those other leaders, Rizal from an early age had been enunciating in poems, tracts and plays, ideas all his own of modern nationhood as a practical possibility in Asia. In the Noli he stated that if European civilization had nothing better to offer, colonialism in Asia was doomed.
As a political figure, José Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andrés Bonifacio, a secret society which would start the Philippine Revolution against Spain that eventually laid the foundation of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through violent revolution, and would only support "violent means" as a last resort. Rizal believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government was the restoration of the dignity of the people, saying "Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?"
Rizal, through his reading of Morga and other western historians, knew of the genial image of Spain's early relations with his people. In his writings, he showed the disparity between the early colonialists and those of his day, with the latter's injustices giving rise to Gomburza and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. The English biographer, Austin Coates, and writer, Benedict Anderson, believe that Rizal gave the Philippine revolution a genuinely national character; and that Rizal's patriotism and his standing as one of Asia's first intellectuals have inspired others of the importance of a national identity to nation-building.
Several titles were bestowed on him: "the First Filipino", "Greatest Man of the Brown Race", among others.
To visit Jose Rizal’s Tallest Monument, one need only take a bus to Calamba City from many points in Metro Manila, particularly in Cubao, although there are also many alternative public transportation like jeeps and vans that can take you there.