CHAPTER 7

EMERGING
NATIONALISM
 INTRODUCTION:
• When Rizal published EL FILIBUSTERISMO in 1891, he dedicated
the book to the three martyred priests, Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos,
and Jacinto Zamora. 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 also known as
GOMBURZA.
CAVITE MUTINY
• The Cavite mutiny of 1872 was an uprising of Filipino military personnel of
Fort San Felipe, the Spanish arsenal in Cavite, Philippine Islands on 20
January 1872. Approximately 250 locally recruited colonial troops and
laborers rose up in the belief that it would elevate to a national uprising. The
mutiny was unsuccessful, and government soldiers executed many of the
participants and began to crack down on a burgeoning Philippines nationalist
movement. The 1872 Cavite Mutiny was precipitated by the removal of long-
standing personal benefits to the workers such as tax (tribute) and forced
labor exemptions on order from the Governor General Rafael de Izquierdo.
• In the immediate aftermath of the mutiny, Those suspected of directly
supporting the mutineers were arrested and executed. The mutiny was
used by the colonial government and Spanish friars to implicate three
secular priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora,
collectively known as Gomburza. They were executed by garrote in
Luneta, also known in Tagalog as Bagumbayan, on February 17, 1872.
Many scholars believed that the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was the
beginning of Filipino nationalism that would eventually lead to the
Philippine Revolution of 1896.
SECULARIZATION MOVEMENT
This movement demanded the handling over of the parishes
from the regular clergy (Dominicans, Franciscans, Recollects
etc.), who were Spanish friars, to secular priests, most of
whom were Filipinos. The seculars were those who were not
bound by monastic vows or rules
 Two kinds of priests served the Catholic Church in the
Philippines. These were the regulars and the seculars.
Regular priests belonged to religious orders. Their main task
was to spread Christianity. Examples were the Franciscans,
Recollects, Spanish church in Cavite circa 1899Dominicans,
and Augustinians. Secular priests did not belong to any
religious order. They were trained specifically to run the
parishes and were under the supervision of the bishops.
 The Cavite Mutiny of workers in the arsenal of the naval
shipyard over pay reduction owing to increased taxation was
magnified into a dangerous rebellion and was seized by
Spanish authorities as an occasion to silence the proponents
of secularization.
EXECUTION OF GOMEZ, BURGOS, AND ZAMORA
 On February 17, 1872, the three martyred Priests, Fathers Mariano
Gomez, Jose Apolonio Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, better known for the
acronym GOMBURZA, were executed by garrote by the Spaniards in
Bagumbayan in connection with the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.

The three priests incurred the hatred of the Spanish authorities for
leading the campaign against the abusive Spanish friars and fighting for
equal rights among priests. They fought on unresolved issues about
secularization in the Philippines that resulted in a conflict among the
religious regulars and the church seculars.
THANKYOU AND GODBLESS