[1][3] Finished in February 1899, the three-tiered stone pylon inscribing Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, and Morga, for Antonio de Morga, author of Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, a book about the early days of the Spanish colonization in the Philippines.

In an effort to demonstrate that they were more pro-Filipino than the Spaniards, the American Governor-General William Howard Taft in 1901 named Rizal a Philippine national hero.

[1] The law also requires that flags across the country remain at half staff throughout the day and that every city and municipality in the Philippines should hold a solemn commemoration in their respective areas.

If the offender holds the position of mayor in a municipality or city, an additional penalty of suspension from office for a duration of one month shall apply.

[citation needed] On his Rizal Day address on December 30, 1937, President Manuel L. Quezon declared through Commonwealth Act No.

[1] On December 30, 2000, local terrorists, with the backing of Jemaah Islamiyah, bombed five areas in Metro Manila, killing 22 and injuring 100.

The House of Representatives approved on its third reading a bill that would have changed it to June 19 on December 10, 2008,[9][10][11] but was not acted in time by the Senate after the 14th Congress ended its session and was thus not enacted.