The characters of Rizal’s Noli me tangere have come to life again in a novel recently published in the United States and reprinted in Manila, written by Roger Olivares. The original title was Hero. The reprint is entitled Noli Me Tangere 2: A Modern Sequel to Dr. Jose P. Rizal’s Novel. In this reincarnation Crisostomo Ibarra (“Cris”) returns to the Philippines after his studies abroad and finds the country in a terrible mess. As in the earlier novel, Cris tries to do something about it and dies in the attempt.

Maria Clara in this new novel is a physician working among the people living in wretched conditions at the garbage dump in Payatas, and depending for a living on what they can salvage from the garbage. Unlike Rizal’s Maria Clara who was the adopted daughter of a wealthy Chinaman, the modern one was born to a squatter family living near the railroad tracks. Unable to support his family, her father in desperation tries to kill them, and eventually seeks employment abroad. So does the mother. The father acquires a new family, the mother meets with tragedy, the children left behind receive dollars from abroad but (except Maria Clara) fall into moral degradation.

The modern Elias is an adviser to the President. Unable to stand the corruption and ineptness around him he quits his job and joins the underground.

The novel gives a vivid picture of the corruption in the government, the wretchedness of the life of the poor, the frivolity of the wealthy, including the graduates of good Catholic schools who should know better.

Roger Olivares writes with anger about the degradation of the Filipino people who must export one million persons every year, because the leaders have neglected to develop the agricultural and the industrial resources which might have provided them with decent jobs at home. A total of eight million Filipinos are now abroad, most of them in menial jobs. On his return trip to the Philippines Cris stops over at Hong Kong and sees a shocking sight. In an open space among the skyscrapers, “hundreds of men and women squatted side by side, like modern slaves for sale without the chains.” It is the Filipino domestic servants enjoying their day off, not spending their money on themselves in order to send it to their families back home. But the worst thing is not what happens to them abroad, but what happens to their families left behind who “get dollars but not love”. Growing up without their parents they are exposed to moral dangers.

Government officials gloat over the number of Overseas Workers (OFW) and the amount of dollars coming in from them – not realizing that this situation is an indictment of their neglect: they should have been doing something to improve the economy so that people need not seek a better life abroad.

There is a chapter in which Cris visits his old teacher at his old school and he blames the school for not doing enough to instill a social conscience among its graduates. “You taught us to read the classics, but not to read the faces of the poor.”

It all seems hopeless, but the modern Crisostomo Ibarra and the modern Maria Clara have the optimistic vision that Father Florentino has in Rizal’s El Filibusterismo.

Literary critics will probably condemn this novel as they condemned Rizal’s. But the ordinary reader will have a different judgment. The blurb quotes former Senator Jovito Salonga: “Is the Philippines worth dying for? Philippines hopeless? Read this novel. Extremely fascinating, relevant and thought-provoking, a worthy sequel to (Rizal’s) Noli, written with admirable skill.” Dr. Josefina Constantino (now a Carmelite nun) calls it “a truly powerful book.” The book is all that. We might add: It is an authentic picture of the miserable state the Philippines is in today, but also offers hope that the Filipinos can redeem themselves.

Roger Olivares dedicates this book “to the eight million Filipino overseas workers (OFW) scattered around the world away from their families, and sadly increasing by three thousand every day. -- You are heroes to your families, but victims of greed, corruption and incompetence. – We will be waiting for you with yellow ribbons, when the day comes that we can stand tall again among nations. – And that day will come, we can promise you.”

Senator Jovito Salonga

Extremely fascinating, relevant, and thought provoking, this novel is a worthy sequel to the first “Noli.”

Written with admirable skill, Roger Olivares has seen much and felt the tragedy of the human predicament even more—the pathetic conditions of the OFW’s in the Middle East, in Europe, and Asia; the shameful, godforsaken misery of those who live and work and die in Payatas; the horrible poverty of squatters along the railroad tracks; the despicable corruption in government, the insatiable greed and hypocrisy of the Filipino elite, and the redeeming patriotism of a limited few – all these show that Philippine society has not really changed much since the days of Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.

The questions Ninoy Aquino raised must be answered again: Is the Filipino worth dying for? Is the Philippines hopeless. Read this novel.