Rizal Class 11- 23- 20

The death of Pelaez was regarded as a great lost on the nationalistic campaign particularly on the part of
Filipino and native priests because Pelaez was a high ranking priest in the Catholic hierarchy in the
Philippines and was very sympathetic to the cause of the Filipinos.

The nationalistic campaign however was revived by one of his students who was no other than Jose
Burgos. Burgos in his student years was already known as a liberal advocate for the secularization of
Philippine parishes and when he was ordained a secular priest, he actively continued the works of his
former teacher by writing, publishing, and participating in several notable demonstrations of the liberals
and ilustrados in Manila during the time of the reign of the most liberal Governor General, Carlos Maria
dela Torre who was appointed in the year 1869 in the Philippines.

One particular occasion which Burgos caught the eyes of the Friars was when the remains of former
Governor General, Simon de Anda was transferred to the Manila cathedral were many spaniards of
prominent positions and a lot of Friars were in attendance because Anda was regarded as a hero
because of his successful campaign to free Manila from the hands of the invading forces who for two
years had occupied Manila.

During the ceremony, Burgos made himself known by offering a wreath which was not actually part of
the program and the Friars, thought that his move was a part of the liberal's scheme to demonstrate
their political sentiments as well as an initial move to incite many people in Manila to embrace liberal
ideals which the Friars thought will only diminish their influence or will totally make irrelevant in the
Philippines.

The thoughts of the Friars that they were becoming irrelevant was generally regarded as the cause of
their political maneuvering not only the Philippines but also in Madrid, to keep themselves in the
parishes which put a dark label against the likes of Burgos and Filipino liberals which the Friars later used
after they somewhat succeeded in having dela Torre removed from power after their supporters in
Madrid had a new Governor General who was sympathetic to the Friars was sent to the Philippines in
the year 1871.

During the term of dela Torre, he encouraged freedom of speech, the press and expression along with
changing some very harsh punishments and exempting military personnel from the payment of taxes
and rendering of force labor.

Dela Torre was also known to have enjoyed walking in ordinary clothes along public places together with
the masses and became endeared to the general public in Manila who had loved him and even
serenaded de la Torre in his residential palace in Intramuros and was very hospitable because he even
invited the crowd of serenaders in his residence.

And also during his reign that the Friars looked in disgust on the way the liberals were displaying
themselves and they just sat by watching and recording who were the most active to await their time to
somehow avenge themselves.

That time did not take long when Rafael Izquierdo came to the Philippines who immediately announced
that he will be ruling the Philippines with a sword in one hand and a crucifix in the other which indicated
that he was conservative or a total counterpart of dela Torre.
As Izquierdo became Governor General, he abolished the liberal policies of his predecessor like the
exemption among military personnel on taxes and forced labor which triggered the Cavite mutiny.

Since we had talked about the mutiny in our previous lessons, I will just add some details.

According to Izquierdo, two days before the mutiny, he received a letter from an informant, named
Octavo who told him that he had heard from a recruiter that a mutiny will take place and its mastermind
was father Burgos.

Although the letter was not known to be a part of the evidence that were used during the trial of
Burgos, Zamora and Gomez, or it was really authentic, because the mutiny had transpired despite the
prior knowledge of Izquierdo who could have prevented the mutiny.

After the mutiny was committed and before it was crashed, Burgos was the first of the three secular
priests to be arrested together with hundreds of liberals in Manila and Cavite.

Father Gomez was later arrested and Izquierdo was convinced of his involvement because weapons
were said to have been found during his arrest. Father Gomez was a colleague of fathe Pelaez and was
vice vicar of Cavite who handled the very rich and coveted parish in Bocolor and was also known to be
detested by many Friars because these Friars did not want to be under the authority of Gomez. He was
also known to have written many articles in support of secularization particularly in La Verdad which had
a great circulation in Spain.

Zamora was the last of the three to be arrested and during his arrest, a note was found containing the
words ( a great reunion tonight, many guest will come bringing bullets and powder) which was
considered sufficient by Izquierdo but later researches found that the note was harmless since its
contents were slang words in gambling which actually meant gambling money or capital for the words
bullet and powder. Zamora was known as a gambler.

According to historian John Schumacher, the three seculars were innocent but the government headed
by Izquierdo thought otherwise and ordered their public execution in Bagumbayan by virtue of the
ruling of the court martial who judged the seculars as the masterminds of the mutiny.

And according to Edmond Plauchut, a French correspondent who witnessed the execution, some forty
thousand people came to see the execution and there were acupuncture four persons who got executed
by garrote on that day.

The first to be executed, was Francisco Saldua who was the recruiter mentioned in the letter of Octavo
who also stood during the trial as the primary witnessed against the three martyrs by confessing that he
handled or delivered the messages between Burgos and the mutineers in Cavite. And before he was
called by the executioner, he was still hopeful that a reprieve or pardon will come to save him but no
such thing ever came as he was swiftly ended by the executioner,

Next was Gomez, who looked calmed and had accepted his fate due to being a costumed to the thought
of dying due to his advanced age, 73 years old and his last words were said to be, ( no leaf fall if not for
the will of God) and was reported to have left a fortune to his natural son amounting to 200,000 pesos.

He had a son before he was ordained priest.

Zamora came next and was looking like his mind had already left him because it was known that the day
before when the death sentences were read before them, he immediately became mad. He mentioned
no last word.

When it was time for Burgos, he dramatically cried and shouted when he resisted to be put on the
armwrest of the garrote and was loudly expressing his innocence by saying he committed no crime and
he did not deserve such injustice. Since Burgos saw his colleagues death and being the youngest, his
behavior was very understandable but in resisting to be placed in the garrote, some Friars forced him
down but when he felt that he was being tied, he rose up again and was only consoled when one of the
Friars told him that even Christ was innocent.

After that he composed himself and accepted his death. But before getting executed, the executioner
had asked him forgiveness which he accepted by telling the man to do his job.

Before the execution, the Friars had asked that the three seculars will be defrocked of their ecclesiastical
authority be removed but the archbishop at that time refused and even tolled the church bells in Manila
after the seculars were pronounced dead.

The act of the archbishop was regarded by the general Philippine public as a sign of innocence on the
part of the martyrs but later, an official condemnation was released announcing that the three seculars
were traitors.

The death of the three martyrs was commonly regarded as a catalyst for many Filipino nationalists like
Rizal to campaign further and many historians believed that this event, had open a gateway towards the
Philippine revolution which will come 24 years later.

The next wave of the nationalist campaign of the Filipinos came from those who were involved in the
event of 1872 who got lucky to be deported only by the government to the Marianna's island who
managed to escape and went to Europe and other safe places through the help of their rich families and
friends. Many of these Filipinos were later befriended by Rizal as he stayed in Europe as a student and a
self exiled.

These nationalists founded the propaganda movement and in the year 1889, officially established
themselves as the Associacion la Solidaridad after the periodical, La Solidaridad which was created and
first edited by Graciano Lopez Jaena. The periodical was a forthnightly paper or it came out once every
two weeks and was regarded as the literary arm of the Filipino propaganda movement.

By the time Rizal had joined the propaganda movement under the Solidaridad, he had already made
strong impact on his own by his novels and pronouncements which already caused a negative
impressions among the Friars and Spaniards in the Philippines.

During his participation in the movement, he was regarded as the most active contributor in the
Solidaridad through many series of lengthy articles like the The indolence of the Filipinos, For Telepono,
The Vision of Father Rodriguez, The Philippines a Century hence and many others.

Rizal however became disappointed with the way the Solidaridad handled her publications when
Marcelo H. Del pilar came to Europe and bought and edited the La Solidaridad.
Del Pilar was a lawyer and 11 years older than Rizal who came to join the movement after his local
nationalist campaign in Manila was reciprocated by the Friars with an arrest warrant which he avoided
by going to Europe.

According to Rizal, the likes of Del Pilar was not needed by the Filipino community in Europe since he
was already a professional and far developed compared to their many contemporaries who were still
studying or had newly graduated. But Del Pilar proved to be a very clever politician that he was able to
gain the supports of many members of the movement that when they elected someone to lead them,
Del Pilar became a rival of Rizal.

Although Rizal was chosen as leader and was proclaimed, he abdicated or gave away the position to his
rival and reasoned that he did not want to see their movement being divided into factions.

After this move of Rizal, he then announced his retirement from the movement because he intended to
go back to the Philippines which he considered as the real battleground of their nationalist fight.

Some of his friends thought that he was overly acting out but there were few of them who knew what
he was really feeling around those times who were not shocked of his decision to come home despite of
the apparent danger.

At that time, Rizal was thinking of his family who were being persecuted by the government in his
absence.

And it started when his family was ousted from Calamba after their agrarian case against the Dominican
corporation was lost.

According to his brother, after they lose the case, the government sent a platoon of soldiers to execute
the decision of the court and these soldiers who were led by Col. Francisco Olive and ordered by
Governor General Valeriano Weyler brutally evicted his family along with other Calambans who were
forced to abandon their farms and houses and were relocated to other provinces.

His family was relocated to Manila particularly in Tondo and Binondo and were never again known to
have resided back to Calamba for the rest of their lives.