1.

Austin Coates
Born in London in 1922, Coates made a study of Rizals 1891-92 stay in Hongkong while he was Assistant
Colonial Secretary. He was an administrator, diplomat and advisor on Chinese affairs until 1962. A Knight Grand
Officer of Rizal, he was guest at the 1961 International Congress on Rizal in Manila.

2. Francisco Pi y Margall
President of the short-lived First Republic, became a friend. Rizal wrote a favorable review of his Las luchas de
nuestros dias in La Solidaridad. He ultimately played a significant role facilitating Dr. Rizals membership at the
Acacia Lodge No. 9 Grand Orientes de Espana in Madrid. Despite his many studies and activities, Dr. Rizal soon
became very active with the freemasons.

3. Faustino Tinong Alfon

He cooked Jose Rizals favorite dishes while the countrys national hero was on exile in Dapitan. Known to all
even in his childhood as Bolhog, the Cebuano-Visayan term for a person who is blind in one eye, Tinong probably
sought Rizal out to find some healing for his incurable deformity but ended up in his company in Dapitan instead.
Or perhaps it was his anti-Spanish sentiments as a young Sanicolasnon in the early 1890s while he was barely in
his 20s.

4. Manuel Sarkisyanz
He contextualized by noting that Rizals Spanish education had made him the embodiment of everything that
seemed to threaten the friars superior position in the Philippine colony. He has produced a detailed and
innovative look at the dynamic relationship between Rizal and nineteenth century Spanish republicanism set
within.

5. Karl Ullmer
The Protestant pastor in the neighbouring village of Wilhelmsfeld in the Odenwald Hills. Pastor Ullmer invited
Jos Rizal to stay in Wilhelmsfeld with his family for three months, and Rizal accepted willingly (his letter to
Pastor Ullmer from April 24, 1886), because this gave him greater opportunity to speak German, offered him a
quiet and simple countryside alternative to the busy student life in Heidelberg, and gave him the chance of
experiencing European family life. In 1960 the Ullmer-Hack family donated their extensive and priceless
collection of original Rizal memorabilia (letters, sketches, a first edition of "Noli Me Tangere", etc.). Some of
these items can be seen at the Rizal-Shrine in Fort Santiago.

6. Miguel Morayta
He is the holder of the Chair of Spanish History at the University and masonic Grandmaster of the Gran Oriente
Espafiol, had Rizal in class and cultivated the friendship of the Filipino propagandists. Academic freedom was
one of the first lessons Rizal learned at the Universidad Central. At the inaugural ceremonies of the academic
year 1884-85, Morayta gave a lecture in which he questioned the computationof the age of the universe on the
basis of biblical sources and impugned the historical accuracy of Genesis by referring to the flood in Noah's time
as "el pretendido Diluvio Universal", ending with rousing defense of the academic freedom to be limited only by
the professor's competence and prudence.