Module 9 Week 9 Controversies and Conflicting

Analysis for Selected Primary Resources

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Recognize historical events using the primary resources: ‘The Cavity
Mutiny”
2. Interpret and Analyze the following Primary Resources; ‘The Cavity
Mutiny”
3. Discuss the significance of the events

What is the real story behind the Cavity Mutiny?

Figure 1. The Three Martyrs, GOMBURZA

In the year 1897 is a historic year of two events: the Cavite Mutiny, martyrdom of three
priests: Mariano Gomez, Jacinto Zamora and Jose Burgos later on immortalized as GOMBURZA.
These events are very significance milestone in the Philippines history and have caused ripples
throughout time, directly influencing the decisive events of the Philippines Revolution toward the
end of the century. While the important is unquestioned, what made this year controversial are
different sides to the story, a battle of perspectives supported by the different primary source. In
this module, we emphasize the events of Cavity Mutiny, a major factor in the awakenin g of
Nationalism among the Filipinos of that time.

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Spanish Accounts of the Cavite Mutiny
Jose Montero y Vidal, a Spanish historian who documented this event and his work
centered on how the event was an attempt in overthrowing the Spanish Government in th e
Philippines. Although regarded as a historian, his account of the mutiny was criticized as woefully
biased and rabit for a scholar. Another account from the official report written by then Governor
General Rafael Izquierdo implicated the native clergy, who were then, active in the movement
towards secularization of parishes. These two accounts corroborated each other.
The primary source excerpts from Montero’s Account of the Cavity Mutiny, Jose Montero Y
Vidal, and “Spanish Version of the Cavity Mutiny of 1872,” in Gregoria Zaide and Sonia Zaide,
Documentary Sources of Philippine History.
 Another primary source excerpts from the official report of Governor Izquierdo on the Cavity
Mutiny of 1872, Source: Rafael Izquierdo, “Official Report on the Cavity Mutiny,” in Gregoria Zaide and
Sonia Zaide, Documentary Source of the Philippine History.

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Differing Accounts of the events of 1872
Two other primary sources accounts exist that seem to counter the accounts of Izquierdo
and Montero. First, the account of Trinidad Hermengildo Pardo de Tavera, Doctor and a Filipino
scholar and researcher, and wrote a Filipino version of the bloody incident in Cavite.
Selections from Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, “ Filipino of the Cavite Mutiny,”.
 Another version, this time by French writer Edmind Plauchut, supplemented
Tavera’s account and analyzed the motivations of the 1872 Cavity Mutiny.

Assortments from Plauchut’s Account of the Cavite Mutiny, source: Edmund

Plauchut, “The Cavity Mutiny of 1872 and the Martyr of GOM-BUR-ZA,”

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 The GOMBURZA is the collective name of the three (3) martyred priests Jacinto Zamora ,
Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos who were tagged as the masterminds of the Cavity Mutiny. They
were prominent Filipino priest charged with treason to the mutiny as part of a conspiracy to stifle
the movement of secular priests who desired to have their own parishes instead of being merely
assistant to the regular friars. The GOMBURZA were executed by garrote in public, a scene
purportedly witnessed by a young Jose Rizal.
Their Martyrdom is widely accepted as the dawn of the Philippine Nationalism in the
nineteenth century, with Rizal dedicating his second novel, El Filibustersimo, to their memory.

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
1. Antonio, Eleonor D., Dallo, Evangeline M. at et al... ; 2010; Kayamanan (kasaysayan ng
Pilipinas); Sampaloc, Manila; Rex Book Store, Inc.
2. Rafael Izquierdo, “Official Report on the Cavity Mutiny,” in Gregoria Zaide and Sonia
Zaide, Documentary Sources of the Philippine History, Volume 7 (Manila: National
Book Store 1990, 281-286.
3. Candelaria, John Lee P., Alporha, Veronica C.: Reading in Philippine History; Sampaloc
Manila: REX Book Store, Inc.
4. Edmund Plauchut, “The Cavity Mutiny of 1872 and the Martyr of GOM-BUR-ZA,” in
Gregoria Zaide and Sonia Zaide, Documentary sources of Philippine History, Volume 7
(Manila: National Book Store, 1990), 251-268.
5. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, “ Filipino of the Cavite Mutiny,” in Gregoria Zaide and
Sonia, Documentary Sources of Philippine History, Volume 7 (Manila: National Book
Store, 1990), 274-280.
6. Jose Montero Y Vidal, and “Spanish Version of the Cavity Mutiny of 1872,” in Gregoria
Zaide and Sonia Zaide, Documentary Sources of Philippine History, Volume 7 (Manila:
National Book Store, 1990), 269-273.

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