Roxas, Vannessa C.

RIZAL EB 405 01:30-03:18

May 8, 2015

Recalling the Gomburza

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 as
the instigators of a mutiny in the Kabite navy-yard a month before, and sentenced them
to death. The judgement of the court martial was read to the priests in Fort Santiago
early in 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 it, 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 Bulakan, Pampanga, Kabite 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.
The three priests followed Saldua: Burgos weeping like a child, Zamora with vacant
eyes, and Gomez head held high, blessing the Filipinos who knelt at his feet, heads
bared and praying. He was next to die. When his 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.
Zamora went up the scaffold without a word and delivered his body to the executioner;
his mind had already left it.
Burgos was the last, a refinement of cruelty that compelled him to watch the death of his
companions. He seated himself on the iron rest and then sprang up crying: But what
crime have I committed? Is it possible that I should die like this. My God, is there no
justice on earth?

Roxas, Vannessa C.
RIZAL EB 405 01:30-03:18

May 8, 2015

A dozen friars surrounded him and pressed him down again upon the seat of the
garrote, pleading with him to die a Christian death. He obeyed but, feeling his arms tied
round the fatal post, protested once again: But I am innocent!
So was Jesus Christ, said one of the friars. At this Burgos resigned himself. The
executioner knelt at his feet and asked his forgiveness. I forgive you, my son. Do your
duty. And it was done.
Leon Ma Guerrero (The First Filipino) from whose book can be read this account then
continued where Plauchut left off:
We are told that the crowd, seeing the executioner fall to his knees, suddenly did the
same, saying the prayers to the dying. Many Spaniards thought it was the beginning of
an attack and fled panic-stricken to the Walled City.
If the Spaniards thought that by doing away with the three priests and the laypersons
that supported them would solve the problem of restlessness in the populace, they were
wrong. When a new generation of Filipinos gave importance to this event, its place in
the annals of history was assured. By being connected to a bigger event (The Philippine
Revolution of 1896), the Gomburza execution became historical.
It was said that Francisco Mercado, father of Rizal, forbade his household to talk about
Cavite and Gomburza. Yet it was possible that instead of modulating the impact of the
event on the family, it merely fed more on young Jose Rizals curiosity why this
secrecy about the event? And the curiosity to know who these persons were could only
be satisfied by the stories told discreetly by his older brother Paciano. On this matter,
the evidence could be circumstantial -- Paciano at the time of the Cavite Mutiny was a
student boarder at the residence of Fr. Jose Burgos.
We have a sense of this when in recalling the event, Rizal had said:

Roxas, Vannessa C.
RIZAL EB 405 01:30-03:18

May 8, 2015

Without 1872 there would not now be a Plaridel, a Jaena, a Sanciangco, nor would the
brave and generous Filipino colonies exist in Europe. Without 1872 Rizal would now be
a Jesuit and instead of writing the Noli Me Tangere, would have written the contrary. At
the sight of those injustices and cruelties, though still a child, my imagination awoke,
and I swore to dedicate myself to avenge one day so many victims. With this idea I have
gone on studying, and this can be read in all my works and writings. God will grant me
one day to fulfill my promise.
The critical phrase, as underscored in the above quotation, was though still a child, my
imagination awoke. Rizal knew as a child of eleven what happened. His imagination
was awakened... And aside from proposing to study (our past), he longed for the day to
fulfill my (his) promise. What was this promise? Looking at subsequent statements, an
ambivalent feeling he made on Jose Burgos, we can see this promise.

Reference:
Veneracion,

Jaime.

Towards

Awakening

the

National

Spirit

https://www.facebook.com/sampakabulacan/posts/506495399414762 (Accessed: May

7, 2015)