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The Power of the Church Over the State (1759)

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The Power of the Church Over the State (1759)

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Colonial Philippines was a completely feudal society, with its institutions propped up to serve the land-owning class of Spanish peninsulares and the friars. The Catholic Church was no exception; in some cases, the Church was even the deciding factor.The Church was a nexus of power, culture, politics, and ultimately, economy. In early colonial Philippines, land was distributed among church orders like the Jesuits or the Dominicans for them to use as they saw fit. This gave the Church sweeping power in the colonial government. It gave the Church amazing economic power. Churches reaped massive profits in the form of tithes from church-goers and by exploiting farmers and the land they tilled. Being assigned to a “good” church like the Antipolo Shrine or Quiapo meant you’d be set for life.

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Contrary to the pictures depicting him as a younger man, Gomez was already 72 when he sentenced to die. He was an ilustrado to the core, with his nephew, Dominador, eventually becoming an influential figure in the labor movement.

In his younger years, he was just as militant, fighting for the rights of the secular clergy and agrarian reform, which made him a wholly unpopular figure among the Spanish landed elite. In 1822, he launched a campaign to provide amnesty for Cavite peasants who were forced to take up arms. He was an old liberal, through and through, riding the crest of the liberal wave of the early 19th century. But the events of the Novales revolt and its aftermath led Gomez to lie low and accept the status quo. By 1872, he was an old man, weary and resigned that little will change in his lifetime.

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This started to unravel as secular priests, priests not under any religious order, began to emerge and were assigned churches. The regulars, priests from the established orders, naturally protested.

Their reasons were mostly racist—they were Filipinos, and they were unfit to serve as priests. But the underlying motivation was purely economic—more Filipino priests controlling key churches would shake the established status quo or, worse, they could lead a rebellion just like in Mexico or Peru.

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Jose Burgos, the ‘King of the Filipinos’

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Jose Burgos, the ‘King of the Filipinos’

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Burgos has been described as a “precursor to Rizal,” the type of secular priest who really clamored for Filipino rights. As a student, he was said to have incited a demonstration that ended in violence when the Letran administration tried to curb students’ rights and imposed its candidate in student council elections.

As a priest, he co-headed a reform committee and was keen on seeing Filipinos taking up more positions in the Church. He saw the Philippine Church as rightfully belonging to the Filipinos—by that he meant the insulares, Spaniards born in the Philippines. But it was that budding nationalism that made him dangerous. In the eyes of the Spanish elite, he was a young upstart trying to upend the established system. That’s why in 1872, he was implicated in the Cavite mutiny—the mutineers were calling out for Burgos, proclaiming him “Rey indio,” native King. He was 35 when he was sentenced to die.

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Jacinto Zamora, the Victim of False Identity

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Jacinto Zamora, the Victim of False Identity

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Unlike Gomez or Burgos, Jacinto Zamora was not an exemplary priest. He was anything but—he had a habit of playing cards during mass. While the others could be said to have died for some sort of conviction, Zamora was a gambling priest who had little care in the world.

One day in 1872, he received a letter that one of his gambler friends had “bullets and gunpowder”—code for a lot of cash. That note fell into Spanish authorities and branded him as the one thing they feared the most: a native priest trying to start a revolution.

The cards fell badly for Zamora soon after. An unrelated arrest warrant for another Jose Zamora was given to him and he died in the man’s place. He was 36 at the time.

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Brief uprising of 200 Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal, which became the excuse for Spanish repression of the embryonic Philippine nationalist movement. Ironically, the harsh reaction of the Spanish authorities served ultimately to promote the nationalist cause.

The mutiny was quickly crushed, but the Spanish regime under the reactionary governor Rafael de Izquierdo magnified the incident and used it as an excuse to clamp down on those Filipinos who had been calling for governmental reform. A number of Filipino intellectuals were seized and accused of complicity with the mutineers. After a brief trial, three priests—José Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, and Mariano Gómez.

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Destiny of the Mutineers (February 15, 1872)

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Destiny of the Mutineers (February 15, 1872)

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The three priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, Jacinto Zamora were judged guilty of treason as the leaders of the mutiny by the Spanish court on the evening of February 15, 1872. Early the next morning, the verdict was announced at Fort Santiago. On the orders of Governor-General Izquierdo, a number of priests and laypeople were detained as a result of the uprising in Cavite several Filipino lawyers and merchants. In Guam, further Filipinos were punished.

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Execution of GomBurZa (February 17, 1872)

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Execution of GomBurZa (February 17, 1872)

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An estimated 40,000 Filipinos gathered around the execution platforms on February 17, 1872. Father Burgos accepted his fate, Father Zamora had vacant eyes, and Father Gomez was holding his head high during the execution. Along with them, Saldua, an artilleryman, was put to death. The Spanish colonial authorities charged the Fathers Burgos, Gomez and Zamora with treason and sedition, and subversion; and were sentenced to death by garrote at Bagumbayan, Philippines. They were executed two days after their verdict. The charge against the three was their alleged complicity in the uprising of workers at the Cavite Naval Yard. It was believed by Governor-General Izquierdo that the Filipinos will create its own government and allegedly, the three priests were nominated as the leader of the planned government in order to break free of the Spanish government.

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Twenty years later, during the 1890s, a new crop of ilustrados would take inspiration from the deaths of Gomburza. One of them, a man named Jose Rizal, would write his novel, Noli Me Tangere, and dedicate it to the trio.

The death of Gomburza solidified the nascent nationalism felt by so many. The concept of “Filipino” and what is “Philippine” only grew from there. Besides Rizal, the Katipunan also grew emboldened by the liberal ideas which propelled their inadvertent martyrdom, even going so far as using Gomburza as a password.