CHAPTER 7

EMEROING
NATIONALISMA

hen Rizal published El Filibusterismo in 1891, he dedicated

W the book to the three martyred priests, Mariano Gomez, Jose

Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora. In his dedication, he wrote:

|Ihave the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of

the evil which I undertake to combat. And while we await
expectantly upon Spain some day to restore your good namne
and cease to be answerable for your death, let these pages
serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your unknown
tombs, and let it be understood that every one who without
clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your
blood!
Although Rizal was only 10 years old when the three priests were
Executed, the events of 1872 would play a decisive role in shaping
Rizal's ideas and decisions. This chapter will focus on these events,
particularly the Cavite Mutiny and the execution of the three priests,
Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Attthe end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

At

examine the causes and effects of the Cavite Mutiny; and

explain the confiict between the Filipino secular priests and the
Spanish regular priests
 VOCABULARY

episcopal visitation an official pastoral visit conducted by the bishn

op
on a diocese to examine the conditions of a congregation; often done
once every three years
garrote- an apparatus used for capital punishment in which an iron
collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck

polo system of forced labor that required Filipino males from 16 to 60

years old to render service for a period of 40 days
regular clergy priests who belong to religious orders
secular clergy priests who do not
belong to religious orders and are
engaged in pastoral work
tributo system of taxation imposed by the Spanish colonial
-

government on the Filipinos in order to

generate resources for the
maintenance of the colony

Cavite Mutiny
On January 20, 1872, approximately
and 2.50 Filipino soldiers
workers rose in revolt at an arsenal in Cavite. Eleven
Spaniards were killed
during the
assault led by mutiny, but an immediate
three days.
government forces put an end to
the atter uprising
An oft-cited reason for the
by Governor-General mutiny was decree a
released
Rafael de
that the lzquierdo. The
arsenal workers would decree ordered
tributo and polo, a
privilege longer be exempt from the
no

accounts, however, argued thatthey had enjoyed in the

the revolt past. Official
movement with the aim was part of a
of larger
and asserting independence. overthrowing the Spanish governmen Overnment

Official reports also claimed

had expected the support of that the leaders
close to of the mutiny
2,000 from
men
regiments
regiments
ased both in Cavite and in Manila. The plan was to
sed both
olt after midnight in Manila with rebels setting fires begin
the
in Tondo
n distract the authorities. A signal by way of fireworks would
hen be sent to the rebels in Cavite who would then lay
siege to
the arsenal. In reality, however, the mutiny in Cavite began earlier
in the evening and many of those who pledged support defected
and vowed loyalty to Spain. Ultimately, the mutiny failed and the
Spanish government used the incident as a means to suppress the
increasing calls for a more liberal administration.
Among those who clamored for reforms were Filipino
secular priests. To understand how the Filipino secular priests
became involved in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872, a brief historical
background on missionary efforts in the Philippines shall first be
discussed.

Secularization Movement
The introduction and the strengthening of the Catholic
faith were largely through the efforts of two types of clergy: the
regular priests and the secular priests. The regular clergy, whose
jurisdiction fell on their elected prelates, were better prepared
for missionary work because of their standards of discipline and
asceticism. Their job, then, was to introduce the faith, convet the
natives, and establish religious communities. In the Philippines,
five religious orders took on this task: the Augustinians who
arrived in 1565, the Discalced Franciscans who arrived in 1578,
the Jesuits who arrived in 1581, the Dominicans who arrived in
1987, and theAugustinian Recollects who arrived in 1606.

The secular clergy, on the other hand, were priests who

ave in the world." They were under the authority of bishops
primary
Their task
and not members of a religious order.
was

e management of the religious laid down the ideally,

communities and
regular
ethe Continuation of the work already by
ergy. In other words, while it was the task of the regular clergy
to introduce the faith and establish religious communities, the
management of the parishes themselves was left to the secular
priests.
The missionary efforts in the Philippines, however, presented
a
unique case. In other Spanish colonies, well-established parishes
witnessed the replacement of regular clergy by secular priests in
the management of the religious communities. In the Philippines,
the regular
clergy remained administrators of the parishes well
into the nineteenth
century.
Two issues were particularly
contentious among the clergy
in the Philippines. The first issue had to do with episcopal
visitations. An omnimoda bull passed by
Pope Adrian VI in
1522 allowed the
regulars to administer the sacraments and act
as parish
priests independent from the authority of the local
bishop. This bull, however, conflicted with reforms established in
the Council of Trent
(1545-1563), which declared that no priest
could care for the souls of
laymen unless they were subjected
to
episcopal authority that often came in the form of visitations.
Although King Philip II was granted discretionary power to
enforce the reforms in the
Philippines, the regular clergy often
thwarted their implementation.
Theregular clergy argued that if they allowed the visitations
to occur, the congregation would be
subjected to two sources of
authority, the bishop and the provincial superiors, who
some point, issue may, at
contlicting orders. By refusing the
visitations, they hoped to avoid the possibility of episcopal
vows of obedience to their own violating their
superiors. Serious attempts to
enforce the visitations, however, were often
regular clergy who abused their authority countered by thee
by resigning from their
posts and leaving the parishes unattended. This
was especially, disastrous in the
type of situation
early stages of Christianization
when the paucity of secular priests often
forced the government
to give in to the wishes of the
regular clerg.
 The second issue had to do with the management of the
parishes. Regular priests maintained control over the parishes in
the early stages of Christianization out of necessity because of the
scarcity of secular priests to whom the parishes would be passed
on. However, beginning in the late seventeenth century, efforts
were intensified to produce and train Filipino secular priests
that by the nineteenth century, they constituted an increasingly
significant number. Despite this, the regular clergy usually
contested, if not outright refused, the rights of the secular clergy
to the parishes.
One reason provided by the regulars was that the Philippines
still remained an active mission, en. viva conquista espiritual,
with some groups not yet Christianized. They would, therefore,
argue that the Filipinos were not ready to be turned over to the
secular clergy. Another reason was more economic in nature
with the regulars refusing to give up the parishes that generated
large profits for them. However, an overwhelming reason why
the regulars refused to give up the parishes had to do with
their view that the Filipino secular clergy were unqualified and
incompetent. Even worse, some viewed the seculars as potential
leaders of any future separatist movement.

The secular clergy would react strongly to these claims. In

the mid-nineteenth century, Fr. Mariano Gomez, parish priest of
Bacoor, and Fr. Pedro Pelaez, secretary to the archbishop, drew
up expositions to the government on behalf of the secular clergy,
but their efforts proved futile. The struggle eventually took on a
different tone towards the 1860s as the issue of secularization
was no longer limited to questions of merit and competence.
By 1864, the nature of the issue became one of racial equality
as well. At the foretfront of this struggle to gain equality between
Spanish and Filipino priests was Fr. Jose Burgos.
Execution of Gomez, Burgos, and zZamora

As a result of the revolt in Cavite, several priests and laymen

were arrested on the orders of Governor-General lzquierdo.
Among the priests arrested in the succeeding days were Fathers
Jose Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, Jose Guevara, Mariano Gomez,
Feliciano Gomez, Mariano Sevilla, Bartolome Serra, Miguel
de Laza, Justo Guazon, Vicente del Rosario, Pedro Dandan,
and Anacleto Desiderio. Among the laymen were lawyers
and businessmen: Gervacio Sanchez, Pedro Carillo, Maximo
Inocencio, Balbino Mauricio, Ramon Maurente, Maximo
Paterno, and Jose Basa. These Filipinos were sentenced to varying
terms of exile in Guam. The three priests, Burgos, Gomez, and
Zamora, on the other hand, were condemned to death by garrote
on February 15, 1872.
A French writer-journalist named Edmund Plauchut gave an
account of the execution:

Late in the night of the 15th of February 1872, a Spanish

court martial found three secular priests, Jose Burgos,
Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora, guilty of treason
as the
instigators of a mutiny in the Cavite navy-yard
a month before, and sentenced them to death. The
judgment of the court martial was read to the priests in
Fort Santiago early the next
morning and they were told
it would be executed the
following day... Upon hearing
the sentence,Burgos broke into sobs, Zamora lost his
mind and never recovered, and
only Gomez listened
impassivel, an old man accustomed to the thought of
death.
When dawn broke on the 17th of February, there were
almost forty thousand of Pilipinos (who came from as far
as Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite and Laguna)
the four platforms where the three
surrounding
priests and the
man whose testimony had
convicted them, a former
artilleryman called Saldua, would die.
 The three priests followed Saldua: Burgos "weeping like
a child," Zamora with
vacant eyes, and Gonez head
held high, blessing the Filipinos who knelt at his feet,
heads bared and praying. He was next to die. When his
Confessor, a Recollect friar, exhorted him loudly to accept
his fate, he replied: "Father, I know that not a leaf falls to
the ground but by the will of God. Since He wills that I
should die here, His holy will be done"
Zamora went up the scaffold without a word and
delivered his body to the executioner; his mind had
already left it.
Burgos was the last, a refinement of cruelty that
compelled him to watch the death of his companions.
He seated himself on the iron rest and then sprang up
crying: "But what crime have I committed? Is it possible
that I should die like this. My God, is there no justice on
earth?"
A dozen friars surrounded him and pressed him down
with him to
again upon the seat of the garrote, pleading
die a Christian death. He obeyed but, feeling his arms
"But I
tied round the fatal post, protested once again: am

innocent!
the friars. At this
"So Jesus Christ," said one of
was
executioner knelt at his feet
Burgos resigned himself. The son. Do
and asked his forgiveness. "I forgive yo4, my
your duty." And it was done.
was meant
the public execution of the three priests
Although
had the opposite effect. In his
tO Instill
fear in the Filipinos, it
Mabini stated:
wOrk, La Revolucion Filipina, Apolinario
his
h e friars wanted to make an
example of Burgos and
should be afraid to go
Companions so that the Filipinos
that
injustice,
then But that patent
ganst them from on.
of the friars
aroused not fear but hatred
Icaal crime,
and of the regime that supported them, and a profou
and sorrow for the This sr
victims.
sympathy orrou
worked a miracle: it made
the Filipinos realize
eir
condition for the first time. Conscious of pain, and thus
conscious of life, they asked themselves what kind of a
of a
life they lived. The awakening was painful, and workin
to stay alive more painful still, but one must live. Hou?
They did not know, and the desire to know, the anxiety
to learn, overwhelmed and took possession of the youth
of the Philippines. The curtain of ignorance woven
diligently for centuries was rent at last: fiat lux, let there
be light, would not be long in coming, the daun of a new
day was nearing.
 ACTIVITY 1
Rizal and Gomburza

Read the following excerpt from a letter José Rizal wrote to

Mariano Ponce. Answer the questions that follow.
Without 1872 there would not be now either a Plaridel,
or Jaena, or Sanciangco, or would there exist brave and
generous Filipino colonies in Europe; without 1872 Rizal
would be a Jesuit now and instead of writing Noli Me
Tángere, would have written the opposite. At the sight
of those injustices and cruelties, while still a child, my
imagination was awakened, and I swore to devote myself
to day
avenge one so many victims, and with this idea
in my mnind I have been
studying and this can be read in
all my works and writings. God uwill
someday give me an
opportunity to carry out my promise. Good! May they
commit abuses, let there be imprisonments,
banishments,
executions, good. Let Destiny be fulfilled! The day they
lay their hands on us, the day they martyrize innocent
families for our faults, goodbye, friar government, and
perhaps, goodbye Spanish government!
 SUMMARY
The Cavite Mutiny and the subsequent execution of the
three
priests-Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora-
marked 1872 as a significant year in Philippine history. Although
the clamor for a moreliberal administration during this time
was temporarily silenced, nationalism was
gradually awakened,
culminating in more decisive events towards the end of the
nineteenth century.