THE 1872 CAVITE MUTINY

BRIEF PROFILE
Cavite Province lies along the southern shore of Manila Bay. It is
bounded on the north by Manila Bay and Metro Manila, on the east
by Laguna, on the west by the South China Sea, and on the south by
Batangas.

• Capital: Trece Martires City

• Land Area: 128,755 Hectares
• Population: 1,150,103 (1990)
• Cities: Trece Martires, Cavite and Tagaytay
• Number of Towns: 20
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
 • THE 1872 CAVITE MUTINY WAS
PRECIPITATED BY THE REMOVAL OF
LONG-STANDING PERSONAL BENEFITS TO
THE WORKERS, EXACTING PERSONAL
TAXES FROM THE FILIPINO LABORERS,
AND REQUIRING THEM TO PERFORM
FORCED LABOR LIKE ORDINARY
SUBJECTS.

• IZQUIERDO REPLACED GOVERNOR GENERAL CARLOS

MARIA DE LA TORRE SOME MONTHS BEFORE IN 1871
AND IMMEDIATELY RESCINDED TORRE’S LIBERAL
MEASURES AND IMPOSED HIS IRON-FIST RULE.
• HE WAS IN OFFICE FOR LESS THAN TWO YEARS, BUT HE WILL
BE REMEMBERED FOR HIS CRUELTY TO THE FILIPINOS AND
THE BARBARIC EXECUTION OF THE THREE MARTYR-PRIESTS
BLAMED FOR THE MUTINY: FATHERS MARIANO GOMEZ,
JOSE BURGOS, AND JACINTO ZAMORA, LATER
COLLECTIVELY CALLED “GOMBURZA.”

• THE MUTINEERS WERE LED BY SGT. FERNANDO LA

MADRID; THEY SEIZED THE FORT AND KILLED THE
SPANISH OFFICERS.
• FEARING A GENERAL UPRISING, THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT
IN MANILA SENT A REGIMENT UNDER GENERAL FELIPE
GINOVES TO RECOVER THE FORT. THE BESIEGED MUTINY WAS
QUELLED, AND MANY MUTINEERS INCLUDING SGT. LA
MADRID WERE KILLED. LATER, OTHERS WERE SENTENCED TO
DEATH OR HARD LABOR.

• PROMINENT FILIPINOS SUCH AS PRIESTS,

PROFESSIONALS, AND BUSINESSMEN WERE ARRESTED
AND SENTENCED TO PRISON, DEATH, OR EXILE. THESE
INCLUDE JOAQUIN PARDO DE TAVERA, JOSE BASA, AND
ANTONIO M. REGIDOR.
• IT WAS SAID THAT THE CAVITE MUTINEERS GOT THEIR CUE
FROM MANILA WHEN THEY SAW AND HEARD FIREWORKS
ACROSS THE MANILA BAY WHICH WAS REALLY A
CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF THE LADY OF LORETO IN
SAMPALOC.

• WHEN THE ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA, REV. MELITON

MARTINEZ, REFUSED TO COOPERATE AND DEFROCK THE
PRIESTS, THE SPANISH COURT-MARTIAL ON FEBRUARY 15
WENT AHEAD AND MALICIOUSLY FOUND FATHERS GOMEZ,
BURGOS, AND ZAMORA GUILTY OF TREASON FOR
INSTIGATING THE CAVITE MUTINY.
• TWO DAYS LATER, THE THREE PRIESTS WERE PUT TO
DEATH BY GARROTTE IN BAGUMBAYAN, NOW KNOWN AS
LUNETA.

• ONCE THE FORT WAS BACK UNDER SPANISH CONTROL,

GINOVÉS ORDERED ALL MUTINEERS TO BE EXECUTED.
WHEN THE SOLDIERS WERE LINED UP, GINOVÉS ASKED
WHICH OF THE MUTINEERS WOULD NOT PLEDGE THEIR
ALLEGIANCE TO SPAIN. ONE MAN STEPPED FORWARD
AND WAS SWIFTLY SHOT AND KILLED, NO ONE ELSE
STEPPED FORWARD, AND THE REST OF THE MUTINEERS
WERE IMPRISONED. THE PRISONERS WERE LATER EXILED
TO THE PHILIPPINE ISLAND OF MINDANAO.
• IN THE COLD, GRAY DAWN OF THE 17TH OF FEBRUARY,
1872, PEOPLE STARTED TO GATHER ON THE GRASSY FIELD
OF BAGUMBAYAN (NOW RIZAL PARK) SOUTH OF
INTRAMUROS. AT FIRST, THEY WERE MOSTLY SPANISH
SOLDIERS AND THE GUARDIA CIVIL IN THEIR FINE
UNIFORMS, OFFICE HOLDERS AND LETRADOS IN SUITS,
ROTUND FRIARS WITH THEIR SACRISTANS, PRINCIPALIA IN
SHORT BLACK JACKETS WORN OVER UNTUCKED BARO.
THEY WERE IN A FESTIVE MOOD FOR THEY HAD COME TO
WITNESS A PUBLIC EXECUTION, ALWAYS A FIESTA IN THE
SPANISH ESTABLISHMENT.
GOMBURZA
FR. MARIANO GOMEZ
THE FIRST TO ASCEND THE
GALLOWS WAS FR. GOMEZ,
WHITE-HAIRED AND VISIBLY
AGED (HE WAS 72), AND INDIO
OF CHINESE OR JAPANESE
DESCENT, WHO HAD BEEN A
POPULAR PARISH PRIEST IN
BACOOR, CAVITE. PERFECTLY
ERECT AND SERENE, HE SPOKE
BRIEFLY, “THY WILL BE DONE.”
FR. JACINTO ZAMORA
NEXT CAME FATHER JACINTO
ZAMORA, A SPANISH MESTIZO
MANILEÑO, A CLASSMATE AT
LETRAN AND SANTO TOMAS OF
THE MAIN “TRAITOR” FR. JOSE
BURGOS. HE STARED VACANTLY
INTO SPACE AND HAD TO BE LED
TO THE BLACK CHAIR. HE WAS 36
AND HIS ARREST ORDER HAD
BORE THE NAME OF “JOSE MARIA
ZAMORA.” JACINTO ZAMORA WAS
THE PARISH PRIEST OF
PANDACAN.
 FR. JOSE BURGOS
FR. JOSE BURGOS, 35, A HANDSOME
CREOLE, BORNIN VIGAN OF SPANISH
PARENTS, ASCENDED LAST. HE WAS THE
RECOGNIZED LEADER OF THE
“SECULARIZATION” FACTION AND HAD
WRITTEN VEHEMENT AND ELOQUENT
MANIFESTOS. HIS BEING A FULL BLOODED
SPANIARD MADE IT PLAIN THAT THE FIGHT
WAS BETWEEN THE NATIVES, BORN ON
PHILIPPINE SOIL, AND THE PENINSULARES,
BORN ON THE SPANISH PENINSULA.
BURGOS HAD CALLED HIS FACTION “HIJOS
DEL PAIS,” THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT, WHICH
DECADES LATER, BECAME BONIFACIO’S
“ANAK NG BAYAN.”
GOMEZ, PARISH PRIEST IN BACOOR, CAVITE
WAS FOUNDER OF THE NEWSPAPER LA
VERDAD (THE TRUTH) IN WHICH HE
DESCRIBED THE DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS
OF THE COUNTRY AND PRINTED THE LIBERAL
ARTICLES OF BURGOS. BURGOS WAS LINKED
TO MANY ACTIVITIES PERCEIVED AS HOSTILE
TOWARDS THE SPANISH SINCE HE WAS ALSO
ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS OF THE
COMMITTEE OF REFORMERS WHICH
CAMPAIGNED FOR MORE LIBERAL LAWS. THE
CLERIC SECTION, INCLUDES GOMEZ AND
ZAMORA, WAS HEADED BY BURGOS.
EXCERPTS
THE TWO FACES OF THE 1872 CAVITE MUTINY
BY: CHRIS ANTONETTE PIEDAD-PUGAY

HTTP://NHCP.GOV.PH/THE-TWO-FACES-OF-THE-1872-
CAVITE-MUTINY/
 1872 CAVITE MUTINY: SPANISH PERSPECTIVE
• Jose Montero y Vidal, a prolific Spanish historian documented
the event and highlighted it as an attempt of the Indios to
overthrow the Spanish government in the Philippines.
• Gov. Gen. Rafael Izquierdo’s official report magnified the
event and made use of it to implicate the native clergy, which
was then active in the call for secularization.

Secularization - is the transition of a culture from a focus on religious

values towards nonreligious attitudes. Religious figureheads, such as
leaders of a church, lose their authority and influence over society.
• The presence of the native clergy who out of animosity against
the spanish friars, “conspired and supported” the rebels and
enemies of spain.
• In particular, Izquierdo blamed the unruly Spanish Press for
“stockpiling” malicious propagandas grasped by the Filipinos. He
reported to the King of Spain that the “rebels” wanted to
overthrow the Spanish government to install a new “hari” in the
likes of Fathers Burgos and Zamora.
• The general even added that the native clergy enticed other
participants by giving them charismatic assurance that their fight
will not fail because God is with them coupled with handsome
promises of rewards such as employment, wealth, and ranks in
the army.
• According to the accounts of the two, on 20 January 1872, the
district of Sampaloc celebrated the feast of the Virgin of Loreto,
unfortunately participants to the feast celebrated the occasion with
the usual fireworks displays. Allegedly, those in Cavite mistook the
fireworks as the sign for the attack, and just like what was agreed
upon, the 200-men contingent headed by Sergeant Lamadrid
launched an attack targeting Spanish officers at sight and seized
the arsenal.
• When the news reached the iron-fisted Gov. Izquierdo, he readily
ordered the reinforcement of the Spanish forces in Cavite to quell
the revolt. The “revolution” was easily crushed when the expected
reinforcement from Manila did not come ashore.
 A RESPONSE TO INJUSTICE: THE FILIPINO VERSION
OF THE INCIDENT
• According to Dr. Trinidad Hermenigildo Pardo de Tavera, a Filipino
scholar and researcher, the incident was a mere mutiny by the native
Filipino soldiers and laborers of the Cavite arsenal who turned out to
be dissatisfied with the abolition of their privileges.
• Indirectly, Tavera blamed Gov. Izquierdo’s cold-blooded policies such
as the abolition of privileges of the workers and native army
members of the arsenal and the prohibition of the founding of
school of arts and trades for the Filipinos, which the general believed
as a cover-up for the organization of a political club.
• Tavera believed that the Spanish friars and Izquierdo used the
Cavite Mutiny as a powerful lever by magnifying it as a full-blown
conspiracy involving not only the native army but also included
residents of Cavite and Manila, and more importantly the native
clergy to overthrow the Spanish government in the Philippines.
• The Central Government in Madrid announced its intention to
deprive the friars of all the powers of intervention in matters of
civil government and the direction and management of
educational institutions. This turnout of events was believed by
Tavera, prompted the friars to do something drastic in their dire
to maintain power in the Philippines.
RELEVANCE TO THE
HISTORY
• MANY BELIEVE THAT THE CAVITE MUTINY
OF 1872 WAS THE BEGINNING OF FILIPINO
NATIONALISM THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY
LEAD TO THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION
OF 1896.
SOURCES/LINKS:
• https://www.britannica.com/event/Cavite-Mutiny
• http://filipinojournal.com/the-1872-cavite-mutiny/
• http://www.historyuncaged.com/asian/cavite
• https://upouphilhistory.wordpress.com/remarkable-events-and-
people-in-the-philippine-history/cavite-mutiny-1872/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/nccaofficial/18009683433
• https://www.scribd.com/doc/36453846/Cavite-Mutiny
• http://nhcp.gov.ph/the-two-faces-of-the-1872-cavite-mutiny/
• https://www.thoughtco.com/secularization-definition-3026575
• http://stuartxchange.org/CaviteMutiny.html
 PREPARED BY:

CHRISTINE JOY T. BAYTON

&
JHONELLE S. CERBITO