The Execution of Gomburza

The Execution of GOMBURZA (Jose Montero Y Vidal) Gomburza, alternatively stylized as GOMBURZA or GomBurZa, refers to three Filipino Catholic priests (Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora) who were executed by garrote on 17 February 1872 in Bagumbayan, Philippines by Spanish colonial authorities on charges of treason and sedation, and subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny. Two days after their verdict, they were executed. The charges against Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora was their alleged complicity in the uprising of workers at the Cavite Naval Yard. Gomburza incurred the hatred of Spanish authorities for fighting for equal rights among priests and leading the campaign against the Spanish friars. They fought on the issues of secularization in the Philippines that led to the conflict of religious and church seculars. Their deaths were facilitated in a public execution at Bagumbayan (Luzon) using a garrote due to false accusations charged against them by Spanish authorities. Their alleged crimes included treason and sedition for being the supposed masterminds of the insurrection of Indios (native Filipinos) working in the Cavite arsenal. Furthermore, according to the Spanish military tribunal, they were believed to have been a part of a clandestine movement aimed to overthrow the Spanish government, making them a threat to the Spanish Clergy. The execution has since been labeled the Terror of 1872, and is recognized as a pivotal event contributing to the later Philippine Revolution from 1896 to 1898. (GomBurZa execution site) The Execution was documented by a Spanish historian named Jose Montero Y Vidal who wrote a book entitled Historia General de Filipinas that centers on a Spaniard's perspective of the Cavite Mutiny. The inclusion of biased story-telling of the reasons for the execution of Gomburza later gained widespread criticisms. Vidal's account was corroborated by the then Governor-General Rafael Izquierdo. In his report, he narrated that the abolition of privileges enjoyed by the workers of Cavite arsenals caused the "revolution". He also blamed the media, specifically the Spanish press, regardless of democratic, liberal or republican affiliation, for the circulation of unrestrained media. The latter is said to have featured propaganda such as overthrowing a secular throne, which allegedly inspired the Indios (native Filipinos) to organize the mutiny. General Izquierdo also mentioned the native clergy being a part of the rebels who were against the Spanish friars. The clergy supposedly wanted to end the hold of Spain over the Philippines in order to elect a new hari who would rule the land and named Fathers Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora to be the ones responsible. The accounts of these two Spaniards supported one another, thus pointing to a planned conspiracy among educated leaders, mestizos, abogadillos, Manila and Cavite residents, and native clergy. Furthermore, on 20 June 1872, the feast of the Virgin Loreto was celebrated in the district of Sampaloc, involving a fireworks display as a normal tradition. However, according to Izquierdo and Vidal, the fireworks mislead those in Cavite, causing them to attack Spanish officers, fulfilling republican wishes to eradicate the Spanish presence. There was also a mass murder of friars, which made the arrest of Gomburza legal. Through a quick court trial, they were sentenced to death by strangulation. However, speculate arise with their swift end that stirred the public, with some of the controversies published by Philippine News Agency. The reports stated that the Spanish prosecutors bribed a witness to testify against the three priests who were charged with sedition and treason, which led to their death by garrote. Moreover, according to Edmund Plauchut, as quoted by Jaime Veneracion, late on the night of 15 February 1872, the three priests were found guilty of treason as instigators of mutiny in the Cavite Navy-yard and were sentenced to death by Spanish Court martial. The judgement of the court was read to the priest in Fort Santiago the next morning, and they were told that they would be executed the following day (17 February 1872). After they heard the sentence, Burgos broke into sobs, Zamora lost his mind and never recovered it, and only Gomez listened impassively. Almost forty thousand of Filipinos, who were at different places surrounding the platform, witnessed the execution of the Filipino priest and saw Saldua (the artilleryman who testified for the conviction of the priest). When Gomez's confessor, a Recollect friar, exhorted him loudly to accept his fate, he replied: “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.” The so-called Cavite Mutiny of workers in the arsenal of the naval shipyard over a pay reduction produced a witness willing to implicate the three priests, each of whom were summarily tried and sentenced to death by garrote on 17 February 1872. The bodies of the three priests were buried in a common, unmarked grave in the Paco Cemetery, in keeping with the practice of burying enemies of the state. Notably, in the archives of Spain, there is no record of how Izquierdo, a liberal, could have been influenced to authorize these executions. In 1998, the remains, believed to belong to the trio, were discovered at the Paco Park Cemetery by the Manila City Engineers Office. Gregorio Meliton Martinez, the Archbishop of Manila, refused to defrock the priests, as they did not break any canon law. He ordered the bells of every church to be rung in honor of the executed priests. The martyrdom of the three secular priests would resonate among Filipinos; grief and outrage over their execution would make way for the first stirrings of the Filipino revolution, thus making the first secular martyrs of a nascent national identity. The execution of Gomburza remains as one of the most controversial issues deeply embedded in Philippine history. However, their tragic end led to the dawn of the Philippine Nationalism in the 19th century, intensified by Dr. Jose P. Rizal, in dedicating his second novel entitled El Filibusterismo which condemned the Spanish rule and the elite Filipinos. In his novel, Rizal wrote "To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (89 years old), Don Jose Burgos (40 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (55 years old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on 25th of February, 1897. The church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed to you; the government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows causes the belief that there was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by worshiping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no sense recognizes your capability. In so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite Mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may or may not have been patriots, and as you may or may not cherish sentiments for justice and for liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake in combat." It must be noted, however, that Rizal's account was erroneous in detail as the execution took place on 17 February 1872, not on 28 February 1872, as Rizal mistakenly mentions. Additionally, the ages of the priests were listed down inaccurately. At the time of the execution, Gomez was 73 years old, Burgos was 35 years old, and Zamora was 37 years old. These executions, particularly those of the Gomburza, were to have a significant effect on people because of the shadowy nature of the trials. The death of Gomburza awakened strong spirits of anger and resentment among the Filipinos. They grilled Spanish authorities and demanded reforms due to the prejudicial governance of the Spanish Authorities. The martyrdom of the three priests, ironically, assisted in the creation of the Propaganda Movement which aimed to seek reforms and inform the Spanish people on the abuses of its colonial authorities in the Philippine Islands.