BORNEO COLONIZATION PROJECT

· Rizal planned to move the landless Filipino families Filipino families to North Borneo (Sabah), rich British owned island and carve out of its virgin wildness a “New Calamba”
· March 7, 1892- Rizal went to Sandakan on board the ship Menon to negotiate with the British authorities
for the establishment of a Filipino colony
· Rizal looked over the land up the Bengkoka River in Maradu Bay which was offered by the British North
Borneo Company
· April 20, 1892- Rizal was back in Hong Kong
· Hidalgo- Rizal’s brother-in-law, objected to the colonization project
· Governor Valeriano Weyler- Cubans odiously called “The Butcher”
· Governor Eulogio Despujol- the Count of Caspe, a new governor general after Weyler
· December 23, 1891- first letter of Rizal to Governor Despujol
· March 21, 1892- Rizal’s second letter and gave it to a ship captain to be sure it would reach Governor
Despujol’s hand
-in this second letter, he requested the governor general to permit the landless Filipinos to establish themselves in Borneo
· Despujol could not approve the Filipino immigration to Borneo, alleging that “the Philippines lacked
laborers” and “it was not very patriotic to go off and cultivate foreign soil.”