Among the members of this confraternity were Father Agustin Mendoza, the parish priest of Santa Cruz; Dr. José Búrgos, also a native priest; Máximo Paterno, the father of Pedro A. Paterno; Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista; and others still living (some personally known to me), under the presidency of José Maria Basa (now residing in Hong-Kong). This Secret Society demanded reforms, and published in Madrid their organ, Eco de Filipinas, copies of which reached the Islands. The copy for the paper was the result of the societyʼs deliberations. The monks, incensed at its publication, were, for a long time, puzzled to find out whence the information emanated. Many of the desired reforms closely affected the position of the regular clergy, the Philippine priests, led by Dr. Búrgos, urging the fulfilment of the Council of Trent decisions, which forbade the friars to hold benefices unless there were no secular priests available.
It appears that the friars, nevertheless, secured these ecclesiastical preferments by virtue of Papal Bulls of Pius V. and subsequent Popes, who authorized friars to act as parish priests, not in perpetuity, but so long as secular clergymen were insufficient in number to attend to the cure of souls. The native party consequently declared that the friars retained their incumbencies illegally and by intrusion, in view of the sufficiency of Philippine secular priests. Had the Council of Trent enactments been carried out to the letter, undoubtedly the religious communities in the Philippines would have been doomed to comparative political impotence. The friars, therefore, sought to embroil Dr. Búrgos and his party in overt acts of sedition, in order to bring about their downfall and so quash the movement. To this end they contrived to draw a number of Manila and Cavite natives into a conspiracy to subvert the Spanish Government. The native soldiers of the Cavite garrison were induced to co-operate in what they believed to be a genuine endeavour to throw off the Spanish dominion. They were told that rockets fired off in Manila would be the signal for revolt. It happened, however, that they mistook the fireworks of a suburban feast for the agreed signal and precipitated the outbreak in Cavite without any support in the capital. The disaffected soldiers seized the Arsenal, whilst others attacked the influential Europeans. Colonel Sábas was sent over to Cavite to quell the riot, and after a short, but stubborn resistance, the rebels were overcome, disarmed, and then formed up in line. On Colonel Sábas asking if there were any one who would not cry, “Viva España!” one man stepped forward a few paces out of the ranks. The Colonel shot him dead, and the remainder were marched to prison.
The ruse operated effectually on the lay authorities, who yielded to the Spanish monksʼ demand that the extreme penalty of the law should be inflicted upon their opponents. Thereupon, Dr. José Búrgos (aged 30 years), Father Jacinto Zamora (aged 35 years), and Father Mariano Gomez[8] (a dotard, 85 years of age) were executed (February 28, 1872) on the Luneta, the fashionable esplanade outside the walled city, facing the sea.
The friars then caused a bill of indictment to be put forward by the Public Prosecutor, in which it was alleged that a Revolutionary Government had been projected. The native clergy were terror-stricken. It was decreed that whilst the Filipinos already acting as parish priests would not be deposed, no further appointments would be made, and the most the Philippine novice could aspire to would be the position of coadjutor—practically servant—to the friar incumbent. Moreover, the opportunity was taken to banish to the Ladrone (Marianas) Islands many members of wealthy and influential families whose passive resistance was an eyesore to the friars. Among these was the late Máximo Paterno (q.v.), the father of Pedro A. Paterno; also Dr. Antonio M. Regidor y Jurado and José Maria Basa, who are still living.[9]
In 1889 I visited a penal settlement—La Colonia Agrícola de San Ramón—in Mindanao Island, and during my stay at the directorʼs house I was every day served at table by a native convict who was said to have been nominated by the Cavite rebels to the Civil Governorship of Manila. There was, however, no open trial from which the public could form an opinion of the merits of the case, and the idea of subverting the Spanish Government would appear to have been a fantastic concoction for the purposes stated. But from that date there never ceased to exist a secret revolutionary agitation which culminated in the events of 1898.
[1] Zúñigaʼs History, Vol II., Chap xii., English translation, published in London, 1814.
[2] Crónica de los P. P. Dominicos, Vol. IV., pp. 637 to 650, edition of Rivadenayra, published in Madrid.
[3] This money constituted the Manila merchantsʼ specie remittances from Acapulco, together with the Mexican subsidy to support the administration of this Colony, which was merely a dependency of Mexico up to the second decade of last century (vide Chap. [xv].).
[4] Vicissitudes of Sultan Mahamad Alimudin (vide Chap. [x].).