The Cry from the Bloodline: Rizal Descendant Demands Integrity from the Knights

“I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You, who have it to see, welcome it — and forget not those who fell during the night.”— José Rizal, Mi Último Adiós

A descendant of the national hero Dr. José P. Rizal has sounded an impassioned call to rescue the Order created in his name from the shadows of misrule and moral decay.

Quintero’s plea reverberates beyond the walls of the Order. It is a cry for moral renewal in an age when institutions born of noble intent risk becoming hollow symbols.

Lady Josephine Quintero, a direct descendant of Soledad Rizal Quintero and adviser to the Kababaihang Rizalista, Inc. (Melbourne, Victoria Chapter), has appealed to the Council of Elders of the Knights of Rizal (KOR), led by former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, to investigate alleged abuses within the organization’s present leadership — from financial opacity to the creation of sham chapters meant to influence elections and perpetuate authoritarian control.

“Let us not force our members and countrymen to lose faith in the Knights of Rizal,” she urged. “Instead, let us act now, with courage and integrity, to ensure that Non Omnis Moriar — not everything in us will die — and that the Knights of Rizal will remain a living monument to the life, works, and principles of the greatest Filipino.”

In her formal appeal, Quintero outlined four urgent measures that echo the very ideals her forebear once died for:

1. Financial transparency through independent audits, clear budgetary controls, and a modernized accounting system;

2. Accountability by sanctioning those who misuse power or resources;

3. Restoration of principled leadership, ensuring that appointments and removals are guided by due process, not political scheming; and

4. Reaffirmation of Rizalian ideals — truth, honor, and service over personal or factional ambition.

Her call is both procedural and profoundly moral.

“The alarming state of affairs now confronting the Knights of Rizal tarnishes the image of Dr. Rizal and his family, and threatens the credibility of an institution created under Republic Act No. 646 to perpetuate his teachings,” Quintero declared.

As Rizal once warned in El Filibusterismo:

“To tolerate vice is to encourage it.”

Quintero cited specific acts that, she said, have wounded the Order’s unity and soul.

She pointed to the abrupt removal of Sir Bob Alipalo, KCR, as Regional Commander “without due process,” which she said has “disrupted unity, bred animosity, and replaced principle-based leadership with politically motivated impositions.”

Equally disturbing, she noted, was the orchestrated withdrawal of a qualified theft case against a former employee — reportedly engineered by members of the KOR Supreme Council themselves.

In her letter to Chief Justice Puno, she called these actions “a betrayal of Rizal’s ideals” and urged the Council of Elders to act decisively, for, in her words, “the honor of Rizal and the moral integrity of the Order demand nothing less.”

Quintero’s plea reverberates beyond the walls of the Order. It is a cry for moral renewal in an age when institutions born of noble intent risk becoming hollow symbols.

As Rizal wrote in Noli Me Tángere:

“There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.”

And perhaps that is the haunting truth beneath this moment — that silence, not opposition, is the truest betrayal.

Lady Josephine Quintero’s appeal, then, is not merely to a council of elders but to the conscience of a nation: to guard the flame that Rizal lit more than a century ago, so that it may continue to burn — bright, incorruptible, and free.

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