In his dedication of  Noli me Tangere to our country, Dr. Jose Rizal, wrote these moving words:

“In the catalogue of human ills there is to be found a cancer so malignant that the least touch inflames and causes agonizing pains; afflicted with such a cancer, a social cancer, has your dear image appeared to me, when, for my own heart’s ease or to compare you with others, I have sought, in the centers of modern civilization, to call you to mind.