Jose Rizal was imprisoned in Fort Santiago awaiting execution.  He had to walk from there to Bagumbayan Field with his arms tied behind his back and surrounded by guards, accompanied by Jesuits.

Rizal asked to be allowed to face his executioners but was not allowed to.  He gave a brief statement in which he protested his execution and being labeled a "traitor."  The best he got was that a promise was made not to do nasty things to his head after his death.  A surgeon who checked his pulse found his heart-rate to be normal...Rizal was not as shaken up by the impending execution as people expected him to be.

Then, without a blindfold and standing up straight, he twisted his hand behind his back to show the soldiers where to aim to hit his heart.  As he was shot and fell he spun around and landed face upwards.  His last words were "It is finished," the same words Christ is said to have uttered in the gospel of John.

A monument was later erected on the spot of his execution.