<figure class="image-550">
  <img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-29/rizals-tomb-in-paco-cemetery-30-december-1907.webp" alt="Black-and-white 1907 photograph of Jose Rizal's original grave at Paco Cemetery. The mounded plot is framed by flower wreaths, with a marker inscribed &quot;R.P.J.&quot; and a cross behind it. A man in a suit stands at the grave, and three women in mourning dress stand to the right. Caption at the bottom reads &quot;La tumba de Rizal, 30 Dbre. 1907.&quot;" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>Rizal's grave at Paco Cemetery, photographed on December 30, 1907 - the eleventh anniversary of his execution. His remains had already been moved to an ivory urn in Binondo nine years earlier, but the original plot, still marked with his reversed initials "R.P.J.," continued to draw visitors on the anniversary of his death.</figcaption>
</figure>


<h2>
A Secret Burial, Two Years Earlier
</h2>
<p>
<a href="/kauswagan/articles/1387/today-in-philippine-history-december-30-1896-dr-jose-rizal-was-shot-in-bagumbayan" class="news_link">Rizal was shot by a firing squad at Bagumbayan</a> (now <a href="/articles/3053/the-history-of-luneta-a-symbol-of-philippine-heritage" class="news_link">Luneta</a>, part of present-day Rizal Park) on the morning of <time datetime="1896-12-30">December 30, 1896</time>, after a court-martial convicted him of rebellion and sedition. His family had asked the Spanish civil governor, Manuel Luengo, for permission to claim the body and bury it themselves. Luengo agreed, but by the time the family's coach reached the execution ground, colonial authorities had already taken the body away. They wanted no grave that Filipinos could turn into a shrine.
</p>
<p>
Rizal's sister <a href="/articles/3228/today-in-filipino-history-october-29-1852-narcisa-rizal-was-born-in-calamba-laguna" class="news_link">Narcisa</a> spent the day going from cemetery to cemetery looking for him. Passing the gate of the old, mostly unused Paco Cemetery, she noticed several Guardia Civil standing watch inside. That was enough of a clue. She went in, found a patch of freshly dug earth, and paid the gravedigger to mark it. The marker she had placed was a small marble slab carved with the letters "R.P.J." - Rizal's initials written backward, so as not to draw attention. Rizal had been buried without a coffin.
</p>
<h2>
A Guarded Grave Through a War
</h2>
<p>
For close to two years, that grave sat mostly forgotten, watched over for its first fifteen days by the Guardia Civil Veterana and then left alone under its plain marker. Those two years were not quiet ones in the Philippines. The revolution Rizal had been accused of inspiring kept going after his death, and in 1898 it was overtaken by a bigger conflict: the Spanish-American War. Commodore <a href="/kauswagan/articles/1440/may-1-1898-the-naval-battle-between-the-united-states-and-spain-took-place-in-manila-bay" class="news_link">George Dewey's fleet destroyed the Spanish squadron</a> in Manila Bay on <time datetime="1898-05-01">May 1, 1898</time>. Filipino revolutionary forces under Emilio Aguinaldo besieged Manila by land through the following months, and <a href="/kauswagan/articles/1177/today-in-philippine-history-june-12-1898-aguinaldo-formally-proclaimed-the-philippine-independence-in-kawit-cavite" class="news_link">Philippine independence was declared</a> on <time datetime="1898-06-12">June 12, 1898</time>. On <time datetime="1898-08-13">August 13, 1898</time>, Spanish and American commanders staged what became known as the <a href="/kauswagan/articles/483/today-in-philippine-history-august-13-1898-the-battle-of-manila-occurred" class="news_link">Mock Battle of Manila</a> - a largely prearranged, low-casualty engagement that let Spain surrender the city to the United States rather than to the Filipino revolutionary army it had been fighting. Manila passed from Spanish to American control that day.
</p>



Rizal's Secret Grave: Exhumed & Taken to Binondo

Two years after his execution, Jose Rizal's grave was dug up and his remains brought to a house in Binondo. Here's the full story.

August 17, 1898: the remains of Dr. Rizal were exhumed and taken to his house in Binondo