CAVITE MUTINY

• On January 20, 1872, approximately 250 Filipino soldiers and workers rose in revolt at an
arsenal in Cavite. Eleven Spaniards were killed during the mutiny, but an immediate
assault led by government forces put an end to the uprising after three days.

• An oft-cited reason for the mutiny was a decree released by Governor-General Rafael de
Izquierdo. The decree ordered that the arsenal workers would no longer be exempt from
the accounts, however, argued that the revolt was part of a larger movement with the aim
of overthrowing the Spanish government and asserting independence.
• Official reports also claimed that the leaders of the mutiny had expected the support of
close to 2,000 men from regiments based both in Cavite and in Manila. The plan was to
begin the revolt after midnight in Manila with rebels setting fires in Tondo to distract the
authorities. A signal by way of fireworks would then 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 priest and the secular priest. 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, convert 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 1587, and the Augustinians Recollects who arrived in 1606.
•  The secular clergy, on the other hand, were priests who
“live in the world” They were under the authority of bishops
and not members of a religious order. Their primary task
was the management of the religious communities and
ideally, the continuation of the work already laid down by
the regular clergy. 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 a parish priest 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 warted their implementation.
•    The regular 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 may, at
visitations, they hoped to avoid the possibility of violating their vows of obedience to their own
superiors. Serious attempts to regular clergy who abused their authority by resigning from their
posts and leaving the parishes unattended. This type of situation was especially disastrous in the
early stages of Christianization when the paucity of secular priests often forced the government to
give in to the wishes of the regular clergy.
•
      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, 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 forefront of this struggle to gain equality between Spanish and Filipino priests was Fr. Jose
Burgos.
EXECUTION OF GOMEZ, BURGOS AND
ZAMORA
• Priests and laymen were arrested on the orders of Governor-General Izquierdo and were
sentenced to varying terms of exile in Guam. 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 ●Paterno ●Jose Basa
• These Filipinos were sentenced to varying terms of exile in Guam.
February 15, 1872- the three priests, Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora, on the
other hand, were condemned to death by garrote.
• 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 and sentenced them to
death.
• Fort Santiago- Where the judgment of the court martial was read
to the priests 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
impassively, an old man accustomed to the thought of death.
• When dawn broke on the 17th of February, there were almost
forty thousand of Filipinos (who came from as far as Bulacan,
Cavite and Laguna) surrounding the four platforms where the
three priests and the man whose testimony had convicted them,
a former artilleryman called Saldua, would die.
• "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." Gomez
THE END

REPORTERS

JOAQUIN, KYLE FRANCIS C.

JAMANDRE, ALLEN GRACE V.