SECULARIZATION AND FILIPINIZATION

kathcruz

1. Martyrdom of GomBurza During the Spanish era there were two kinds of priests: the regular and the secular. The regular were the Spanish priests trained and studied in seminaries in Spain belonging to the major missionary order like Jesuits, Recollects, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Benedictines while the secular were Filipino priests studied and trained in the seminaries in the Philippines. The secular priest were Filipino priests trained in the Philippines and were considered inferior and given limited assignments. They were not allowed to hold parishes. Due to this kind of treatment, the seculars boldly clamored and demanded for an equal responsibilities and assignments as clergies. This was known as the secularization issue headed by Fr. Mariano Gomez, Fr. Jose Burgos, and Fr. Jacinto Zamora. Somehow, they were able to get the sympathy of some Filipinos, which alarmed the Spanish authorities. This crusade became also an issue of Filipinization. On January 20, 1872, the same year of the emergence of the controversial secularization issue, Cavite mutiny took place. It was a mutiny spearheaded by Lt. La Madrid, in-charged of Spanish arsenal, who was disgruntled because of abolition of their benefits including forced labor and tax exemptions by the reactionary Governor General Rafael de Izquirdo. The Cavite mutiny was failure and easily subdued within two days. The Spanish authorities was able to get a chance to silence the GomBurZa in their secularization crusade by having them implicated as plotters of the Cavite mutiny. Consequently the GomBurZa were executed despite of archbishopss plea for clemency because of their innocence. Mounted fabricated evidences and false witnesses sent them to garrote on February 17, 1872. It was considered martyrdom by the Rizal family and some patriotic Filipinos in the Philippines. Paciano was a friend, teacher and housemate of Fr. Jose Burgos while he was studying in Colegio de San Jose in Manila. He was deeply affected with the execution of his friend. As a sympathy and protest against the injustice of Spanish authorities, he quit studies and went back to Calamba. He aired out his remorse by telling and retelling the heroic stories of Fr. Burgos to his family. He came to realize the injustice and racial discrimination in the Philippines.