<P> Rizal, according to Cuenco, "attack (ed) dogmas, beliefs and practices of the Church . The assertion that Rizal limited himself to castigating undeserving priests and refrained from criticizing, ridiculing or putting in doubt dogmas of the Catholic Church, is absolutely gratuitous and misleading ." Cuenco touched on Rizal's denial of the existence of purgatory, as it was not found in the Bible, and that Moses and Jesus Christ did not mention its existence; Cuenco concluded that a "majority of the Members of this Chamber, if not all (including) our good friend, the gentleman from Sulu" believed in purgatory . The senator from Sulu, Domocao Alonto, attacked Filipinos who proclaimed Rizal as "their national hero but seemed to despise what he had written", saying that the Indonesians used Rizal's books as their Bible on their independence movement; Pedro López, who hails from Cebu, Cuenco's province, in his support for the bill, reasoned out that it was in their province the independence movement started, when Lapu - Lapu fought Ferdinand Magellan . </P> <P> Outside the Senate, the Catholic schools threatened to close down if the bill was passed; Recto countered that if that happened, the schools would be nationalized . Recto did not believe the threat, stating that the schools were too profitable to be closed . The schools gave up the threat, but threatened to "punish" legislators in favor of the law in future elections . A compromise was suggested, to use the expurgated version; Recto, who had supported the required reading of the unexpurgated version, declared: "The people who would eliminate the books of Rizal from the schools would blot out from our minds the memory of the national hero . This is not a fight against Recto but a fight against Rizal", adding that since Rizal is dead, they are attempting to suppress his memory . </P> <P> On May 12, 1956, a compromise inserted by Committee on Education chairman Laurel that accommodated the objections of the Catholic Church was approved unanimously . The bill specified that only college (university) students would have the option of reading unexpurgated versions of clerically - contested reading material, such as Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo . The bill was enacted on June 12, 1956, Flag Day . </P> <P> Section 2 mandated that the students were to read the novels as they were written in Spanish, although a provision ordered that the Board of National Education create rules on how these should be applied . The last two sections were focused on making Rizal's works accessible to the general public: the second section mandated the schools to have "an adequate number" of copies in their libraries, while the third ordered the board to publish the works in major Philippine languages . </P>

Who was the president when the rizal law was passed