POSITION
PAPER
“Cavite Mutiny: Which Is True, the Spanish
Version or the Filipino Version?”
Readings in Philippine History
By:
GROUP 3
Rolmena Saddaramil
Clard Ramos
Siovi Villapaz
Leister Sarsalijo
BS MATHEMATICS 1A
INTRODUCTION
Studying history portrays a big role in our life. History helps us to understand the
past to predict the future. We can look back to the history if we want to know what leads
us to the present. This position paper will discuss about one of the tragic event
happened in the Philippines, the Cavite Munity.
Cavite Mutiny – happened January 20, 1872 – a brief uprising of 200 Filipino
troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal served as an excuse for renewed Spanish
repression. Ironically, the harsh reaction of the Spanish authorities served ultimately to
promote the nationalist cause.
The uprising was used by the Spanish colonial government to implicate and
sentence to death by garotte Fathers Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora
on February 17, 1872 in Bagumbayan, and several other Filipino leaders. These
executions, particularly those of the GOMBURZA, were to have a significant effect on
people because of the shadowy nature of the trials. Dr. Jose Rizal dedicated his work,
El Filibusterismo, to the executed priests. Many scholars believe that the Cavite Mutiny
of 1872 was the beginning of Filipino nationalism which eventually led to the 1896
Philippine Revolution. (Philippine News Agency archives, 2012)
The Cavite Mutiny has two existing versions comes from the two opposing side,
the Spanish and Filipino. Thus, we chose to defend the side which was pointing that it
happens due to the concerted efforts of disgruntled native soldiers and laborers of
Cavite arsenal who willfully revolted to overthrow the Spanish rule. The Spanish version
of Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was written by Jose Montero y Vidal.
BACKGROUND
“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. Meanwhile, 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.” (Piedad-Pugay, 2012)
Thus, the main reason of the so called “Revolution” is that the privileges enjoyed
by the laborers of Cavite arsenal have ended. Anyhow, the native clergy by its presence
conspired and supported the rebels against the Spanish Friars. Izquirdo report it to the
King of Spain saying that they will replace a new “Hari” in the likes of Fathers Burgos
and Zamora. As he also stated “native clergy attracted supporters by giving them
charismatic assurance that their fight would not fail because they had God’s support,
aside from promises of lofty rewards such as employment, wealth and ranks in the
army”.
They thought it as a big conspiracy among educated leaders, mestizos,
abogadillos or native lawyers, residents of Manila and Cavite and the native clergy.
They insinuated that the conspirators of Manila and Cavite planned to liquidate highranking Spanish officers to be followed by the massacre of the friars. The alleged preconcerted signal among the conspirators of Manila and Cavite was the firing of rockets
from the walls of Intramuros.
“The idea of attaining their independence, it was towards this goal that they
started to work, with the powerful assistance of a certain section of the native clergy…,”
an excerpt from Montero’s accounts in Cavite Mutiny. His account was said to be and
was criticized as woefully biased. Hence, we believed that the Cavite Mutiny was a
grand conspiracy. We consider that the abolition of the privileges enjoyed by the
laborers of the Cavite arsenal and it causes the insurrection as it is stated. We shall not
just focus in an argument that the mutiny is a labor issue and this leads to a widespread
uprising of the Filipinos. If we dig further, the GOMBURZA was executed because they
were blamed as the masterminds of the Cavite Mutiny not because of labor issues.
The GOMBURZA were convicted guilty by the fiscal for being the defendants,
this is why it is a grand conspiracy. But then the prosecutors used the interpretations of
Gov. Izquirdo that the three priests was the cause of the uprising because of the
circulation of the events. Now, it then leads the labor issue be a weak argument that
Cavite Mutiny happened and that the Spanish version was true.
CONCLUSION
The natives aim to get rid of the Spanish Government since the privileges
enjoyed by the laborers of Cavite arsenal had removed. But the native clergy
supported the rebels against the Spanish friars. Laborers commit their uprising due to
labor issues; however the mutiny happens to be a grand conspiracy. Besides the friars
knew in advance of the mutiny and they plotted it to assert to Spain their importance to
the Colony.
Montero’s account centered on how the event was an attempt in overthrowing
the Spanish Government in the Philippines. The GOMBURZA was publicly executed so
that it will serves as a lesson. They were executed because they became the
masterminds in this mutiny. In addition, many Filipinos were sentence to deaths
because they became part of the revolution. Izquirdo had requested the sending of the
Spanish troops to Manila serves as defense of the fort as most of these found here
were natives.
Through defending this version, we had surely learned that every stands and
document should not be biased because it might weaken the theory you are proposing.
That it should have stands in both side of the opposing team not just one-sided. But we
also know, even unbiased documents could still have flaws and can be crashed by a
strong theory. Even though Jose Montero y Vidal’s version was criticized a woefully
biased, he was also one of the most knowledgeable of the Spanish historians of the
Philippines. For us, the Spanish version of Cavite Mutiny was true and it happened
because of the Grand Conspiracy that firmly caused the uprising which deals with the
Spanish perspective.
Reference:
http://nhcp.gov.ph/the-two-faces-of-the-1872-cavite-mutiny/
https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/891/today-in-philippine-history-january-201872-the-cavite-mutiny-took-place
Grey, Evelyn (201 7), Readings in Philippine History. Student’s Edition.