Rizal in Exile Shrine at the Living with Nature Center

Rizal in Exile Shrine at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, Philippines 

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

 

The restored icon is now enshrined at the San Vicente Botanical Garden

 (Living with Nature Center) San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

 

Bust of Philippine national hero Dr Jose P Rizal gets a thorough cleaning from the author. The icon is a masterpiece of the late Francisco "Boy" Peralta, a local sculptor of San Vicente. 

Rizal was exiled to the remote town of Dapitan in Mindanao. Throughout his 4-year exile, Rizal practiced ophthalmology and general medicine at no charge to the townspeople. He became a farmer and proved that farming is a good profession. He demonstrated it on an abandoned farm he bought in Talisay, a barrio near Dapitan. This farm had an area of sixteen hectares and was rather rocky. 

Not only as a doctor and farmer he pursued scientific studies, continued his artistic and literary works, widened his knowledge of languages and established a school for boys.