Excerpts from the Official Report of Governor Izquierdo on the Cavite Mutiny of 1872

Source: Rafael Izquierdo "Official Report on the Cavite Mutiny," in Gregorio Zaide and Sonia Zaide.
Documentary Sources of Philippine History, Volume 7 (Manila: National Book Store, 1990), 281-286.

It It seems definite that the insurrection was motivated and prepared by the native clergy, by the
mestizos and native lawyers, and by those known here as abogadillos. The instigators, to carry out their
criminal project, protested against the injustice of the government in not paying the provinces for their
tobacco crop, and against the usury that some practice in documents that the Finance department gives
crop owners who have to sell them at a loss. They encouraged the rebellion by protesting what they
called the injustice of having obliged the workers in the Cavite arsenal to pay tribute starting January 1
and to render personal service, from which they were formerly exempted.

Up to now it has not been clearly determined if they planned to establish a monarchy or a republic,
because the Indios have no word in their language to describe this different form of government, whose
head in Tagalog would be called hari; but it turns out that they would place at the head of the
government a priest... that the head selected would be D. Jose Burgos, or D. Jacinto Zamora...

Such is... the plan of the rebels, those who guided them, and the means they counted upon for its
realization.

It is apparent that the accounts underscore the reason for the "revolution": the abolition of privileges
enjoyed by the workers of the Cavite arsenal such as exemption from payment of tribute and being
employed in Polos y Servicios, or force labor. They also identified other reasons which seemingly made
the issue a lot more serious, which included the presence of the native clergy, who, out of spite against
the Spanish friars, "conspired and supported" the rebels. Izquierdo, in an obviously biased report,
highlighted that attempt to overthrow the Spanish government in the Philippines, to install a new "hari"
in the persons of Fathers Burgos and Zamora. According to him, native clergy attracted supporters by
giving them charismatic assurance that their fight will not fail because they have God's support aside
from promises of lofty rewards such as employment, wealth, and ranks in the army.

In the Spaniard's accounts, the event of 1872 was premeditated, and is part of a big conspiracy among
the educated leaders, mestizos, lawyers, and residents of Manila and Cavite. They allegedly plan to
liquidate high-ranking Spanish officers, then kill the friars. The signal they identify among these
conspirators of Manila and Cavite was the rockets fired from Intramuros. The accounts detail that on 20
January 1872, the district of Sampaloc celebrated the feast of the Virgin of Loreto, and came with it
were some fireworks display. The Caviteños allegedly mistook this as the signal to commence with the
attack. The 200-men contingent led by Sergeant Lamadrid attacked Spanish officers at sight and seized
the arsenal. Izquierdo, upon learning of the attack, ordered the reinforcement of the Spanish forces in
Cavite to quell the revolt. The "revolution" was easily crushed, when the Manileños who were expected
to aid the Caviteños did not arrive. Leaders of the plot were killed in the resulting skirmish, while Fathers
Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora were tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be executed. Others who
were implicated such as Joaquin Pardo de Tavera. Antonio Ma Regidor, Jose and Pio Basa, and other
Filipino lawyers were suspended from the practice of law, arrested, and sentenced to life imprisonment
at the Marianas Island. Izquierdo dissolved the native regiments of artillery and ordered the creation of
an artillery force composed exclusively by Peninsulares.

On 17 February 1872, the GOMBURZA were executed to serve as a threat to Filipinos never to attempt
to fight the Spaniards again.

Two other primary accounts exist that seem to counter the accounts of Izquierdo and Montero. First,
the account of Dr. Trinidad Hermenigildo Pardo de Tavera, a Filipino scholar and researcher, who wrote
a Filipino version of the bloody incident in Cavite.