OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this module, you will:

1.Identify the significant information pertaining to Cavite Mutiny.

2. Understand and relate the content to the present time
3. Differentiate the contextual analysis of the two differing perspectives.
4. Demonstrate the ability to articulate contrasting arguments on issue using primary sources.

READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CAVITE MUTINY?

• The Cavite Mutiny is one of the most significant historical accounts in the Philippine History.

• It describes the uprising of the Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal due to the
removal of the privileges: exemption from the tribute exemption from forced labor.

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Exemption from the tribute

1. TAXATION
Filipinos paid taxes to Spain

A. TRIBUTE (TRIBUTO)
- the Filipinos were compelled to pay tribute called TRIBUTO, to the colonial government.

- The tributo was imposed as a sign of the Filipinos loyalty to the king of Spain.

• Those who paid tribute were individuals BETWEEN 16 ΤΟ 60 Υ.Ο.

• 1571-1884 = 8 reales (P1.00) per year

• Other forms of payment:

Gold, Chickens, Textile, Cotton and Rice

B. CEDULA
- (Personal Identification Paper) In1884, Tribute was nullified and replaced by the CEDULA.
- The cedula was a certificate identifying the taxpayer.
- It recorded his name, age, birthplace, marital state, occupation, place of residence, nationality and
sex.

C. DIEZMOS PREDIALES or TITHES

The diezmos prediales was a tax consisting one-tenth (1/10) of the produce of one's land.

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Exemption from forced labor

• All male Filipinos from 18 to 60 years of age were required to give their free labor, called polo, to
the government. This labor was for 40 days a year, reduced to 15 days in 1884. It also called Polo
Y Servicios

• Obligated to do:
Construction of buildings
Construction of churches
Cutting trees to make logs

• To be exempted: Pay FALLA 11/½ reals

• This labor was for 40 DAYS A YEAR.

• They are supposed to be paid 1/4 reales.

• The workers were called POLISTAS.

• In 1884 the number of days was lessened to 15 days per year.

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- It is an aim of natives "to get rid of the Spanish government in the Philippines" which became the
excuse for Spanish repression of the emergent Philippine nationalist movement.

- The mutiny was quickly cluttered, Governor Rafael de Izquierdo magnified the incident and used it
as an excuse to clamp down on those Filipinos who had been calling for governmental reform.
GOMBURZA and the Cavite Mutiny 1872

Others who were implicated such as:

- JOAQUIN PARDO DE TAVERA

- ANTONIO MA REGIDOR
- JOSE BASA
- PIO BASA
- AND OTHER FILIPINO LAWYERS WERE SUSPENDED FROM THE PRACTICE OF LAW, ARRESTED, AND
SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT AT THE MARIANAS ISLAND

• A number of Filipino intellectuals were seized and accused of complicity with the mutineers. After
a brief trial, three priests-José Burgos, Jacinto Zamora, and Mariano Gómez- were publicly
executed.

• Tragically, the harsh reaction of the Spanish authorities served ultimately to promote the
nationalist cause.

The Two Major Events happened in 1872:

- First, was the 1872 Cavite Mutiny

- Second, was the martyrdom of the three martyr priests in the persons of Fathers Mariano Gomes, Jose
Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (GOMBURZA) which is the awakening of nationalism among the Filipinos.

DIFFERING ACCOUNTS

THE FRIARS USED CAVITE MUTINY AS A PART OF A LARGER CONSPIRACY TO CEMENT THEIR
DOMINANCE THEY SHOWCASED THE MUTINY AS PART OF A GREATER CONSPIRACY IN THE
PHILIPPINES BY FILIPINOS TO OVERTHROW THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. UNINTENTIONALLY, IT
RESULTED IN THE MARTYRDOM OF GOMBURZA. AND PAVED WAY TO THE REVOLUTION CULMINATING
IN 1898.

1872 CAVITE MUTINY: SPANISH PERSPECTIVE

ACCOUNT OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL RAFAEL IZQUIERDO Y GUTIÉRREZ

- 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.

- He insisted that the mutiny is stimulated and prepared by the native clergy, mestizos and lawyers as a
signal of objection against the injustices of the government such as not paying provinces for tobacco
crops, pay tribute and rendering of forced labor.

- It is not clearly identified if Indios planned to inaugurate a monarchy or a republic because they don't
have a word in their own language to describe this different form of government, whose leader in Filipino
would be called "hari".

- However, it turned out that they would set at the supreme of the government a priest, that the leader
selected would be Jose Burgos or Jacinto Zamora which is the plan of the rebels who guided them, and
the means they counted upon its realization.

AN EXCERPT FROM MONTERO'S ACCOUNT OF THE CAVITE MUTINY

“...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...”

Jose Montero y Vidal

- 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.

- The two accounts complimented and corroborated with one another, only that the general's report was
more spiteful.

- the abolition of privileges enjoyed by the workers of Cavite arsenal such as non-payment of tributes and
exemption from force labor were the main reasons of the "revolution",

- other causes were enumerated

1. overthrew the secular throne, dirty propagandas proliferated by unrestrained press, democratic,
liberal and republican books and pamphlets reaching the Philippines,

2. most importantly, the presence of the native clergy whose out of animosity (bitterness) against the
Spanish friars, "conspired and supported" the rebels and enemies of Spain.

Jose Montero y Vidal and Gov. Rafael de Izquierdo

- was planned earlier and was thought of it as a big conspiracy among educated leaders, mestizos,
abogadillos or native lawyers, residents of Manila and Cavite and the native clergy.
- insinuated that the conspirators of Manila and Cavite planned to liquidate high-ranking Spanish officers
to be followed by the massacre of the friars.

- 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 apprehended (detained) the arsenal.

RESPONSE TO INJUSTICE: THE FILIPINO VERSION OF THE INCIDENT DIFFERING ACCOUNTS OF THE
EVENTS OF 1872

1. PARDO DE TAVERA'S ACCOUNT OF THE CAVITE MUTINY

2. PLAUCHUT'S ACCOUNT OF THE CAVITE MUTINY

AN EXCERPT FROM PARDO DE TAVERA'S ACCOUNT OF THE CAVITE MUTINY

"...FILIPINOS HAD GREAT HOPES OF AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE AFFAIRS OF THEIR COUNTRY..." "...THE
FRIARS FEARED THAT THEIR POWER IN THE COLONY WOULD SOON BE COMPLETE A THING OF THE
PAST...”

DR. TRINIDAD HERMENEGILDO PARDO DE TAVERA

- A Filipino scholar and researcher

- the incident was merely amutiny by Filipino soldiers and laborers of the Cavite arsenal to the
dissatisfaction arising from the draconian policies of Izquierdo (abolition of priveleges and prohibition of
the founding of the school of arts and trades)

- The incident was merely a mutiny (defiance) by the native Filipino soldiers and laborers of the Cavite
arsenal who turned out to be dissatisfied with the abolition of their privileges.

- 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 the native army, residents of Cavite and Manila, and the
native clergy to overthrow the Spanish government in the Philippines.

- It is during the time, 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.

- The friars, fearing that their influence in the Philippines would be a thing of the past, took advantage of
the incident and presented it to the Spanish Government as a vast conspiracy organized throughout the
archipelago with the object of destroying Spanish sovereignty. Tavera sadly confirmed that the Madrid
government came to believe that the scheme was true without any attempt to investigate the real facts
or extent of the alleged "revolution" reported by Izquierdo and the friars.

- Convicted educated men who participated in the mutiny were sentenced life imprisonment while
members of the native clergy headed by the GOMBURZA were tied and executed by garrote. This episode
leads to the awakening of nationalism and eventually to the outbreak of Philippine Revolution of 1896.

EDMUND PLAUCHUT
- A French writer
- Complemented Tavera's account and analyzed the motivation of the 1872 Cavite Mutiny

Edmund Plauchut's account

- Confirmed that the event happened due to discontentment of the arsenal workers and soldiers in
Cavite fort.

- The event is just a simple mutiny since up to that time the Filipinos have no intention of separation from
Spain but only secure materials and education advancements in the country.

- Also, in this time, the central government deprived friars of the powers of involvement in civil
government and in governing and handling universities.

- This resulted in the friars afraid that their leverage in the Philippines would be a thing in the past, took
advantage of the mutiny and reported it to the Spanish government as a broad conspiracy organized
throughout the archipelago with the object of abolishing Spanish sovereignty.

- He traced the immediate cause to a peremptory order from the governor, Izquierdo, exacting personal
taxes from the Filipino laborers in the engineering and artillery corps in the Cavite arsenal, and requiring
them to perform forced labor like ordinary subjects. Until then, these workers in the arsenal had been
enjoying exemptions from both taxes and forced labor.

- January 20, the day of the revolt, was payday and the laborers found the amount of taxes as well as the
corresponding fee in lieu of the forced labor deducted from their pay envelopes.
- Forty infantry soldiers and twenty men from the artillery took over command of the Fort of San Felipe
and fired cannonades to announce to the world their moment of triumph.

- They had expected to be joined by their comrades in the 7th infantry company assigned to patrol the
Cavite plaza. however, when they beckoned to the 7th infantry men from the ramparts of the fort and
their comrades did not make any move to join them.

- Instead, the company started attacking them. The rebels decided to bolt the gates and wait for morning
when support from Manila was expected to come.

- He gave a dispassionate account of it and its causes in an article published in the Revue des Deux
Mondes in 1877.

- He traced that the primary cause of the mutiny is believed to "be an order from Governor-General
Carlos to subject the soldiers of the Engineering and Artillery Corps to personal taxes, from which they
were previously exempt.

- The taxes required them to pay a monetary sum as well as to perform forced labor called, polo y
servicio.
- The mutiny was sparked on January 20, 1872 when the laborers received their pay and realized the taxes
as well as the falla, the fine one paid to be exempt from forced labor, had been deducted from their
salaries.

Different accounts in the Cavite mutiny also highlighted other probable causes of the "revolution"

- Spanish Revolution which overthrew the secular throne, dirty propagandas proliferated by unrestrained
press, democratic, liberal and republican books and pamphlets reaching the Philippines,

- most importantly, the presence of the native clergy who out of animosity against the Spanish friars,
"conspired and supported the rebels and enemies of Spain.

- In addition, accounts of the mutiny suggest that the Spanish Revolution in Spain during that time added
more determination to the natives to overthrow the current colonial Spanish government.

UNRAVELING THE TRUTH

Considering the four accounts of the 1872 Mutiny, there were some basic facts that remained to be
unvarying:

First, "there was dissatisfaction among the workers of the arsenal as well as the members of the native
army after their privileges were drawn back by Gen. Izquierdo;"
Second, "Gen. Izquierdo introduced rigid and strict policies that made the Filipinos move and turn away
from Spanish government out of disgust;"

Third, "the Central Government failed to conduct an investigation on what truly transpired but relied on
reports of Izquierdo and the friars and the opinion of the public;"

Fourth, "the happy days of the friars were already numbered in 1872 when the Central Government in
Spain decided to deprive them of the power to intervene in government affairs as well as in the direction
and management of schools prompting them to commit frantic moves to extend their stay and power;"

Fifth, "the Filipino clergy members actively participated in the secularization movement in order to allow
Filipino priests to take hold of the parishes in the country making them prey to the rage of the friars;"

Sixth, "Filipinos during the time were active participants, and responded to what they deemed as
injustices;" and

Lastly, "the execution of GOMBURZA was a mistake on the part of the Spanish government, for the action
severed the ill-feelings of the Filipinos and the event inspired Filipino patriots to call for reforms and
eventually independence."