Rizal spent many, many hours of his childhood down on the shore of the lake, Laguna de Bay. He was thinking of what was beyond. He was dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the waves. Almost every day, in their town, they saw the Guardia Civil lieutenant caning and injuring some unarmed and inoffensive villager. The villager’s only fault was that while at a distance he had not taken off his hat and made his bow. The alcalde treated the poor villagers in the same way whenever he visited Rizal's family.
There was no restraint put upon brutality. Acts of violence and other excesses were committed daily. The officers whose duty it was to protect the people and keep the public peace were the real outlaws. Against such lawbreakers, our authorities were powerless. Rizal asked himself if, in the lands which lay across the lake, the people lived in this same way. He wondered if there they tortured any countryman with hard and cruel whips merely on suspicion. Did they there respect the home? Or over yonder also, in order to live in peace, would one have to bribe tyrants?
Source: Rizal's Own Story of His Life