James San D.

Atienza
Jerome Magpili
1. Describe the extent of powers of the religious leaders on both local and national
level in the Philippines during the Spanish rule.
In the local level, there are the alcalde mayor, gobernadorcillo, and cabeza de
barangay. Alcalde mayor acts as judge, chief of police, tribute collector and captain
general. On the other hand, gobernadorcillo prepares pardon or tribute list, recruits and
distributes men for the draft labor, serves as postal clerk and judge in civil suits. The
cabeza de barangay collects tax and contributions, promote peace and order and
recruits polistas for communal public works. During Spanish period, religious leaders in
national levels include the governor general who has the powers under executive,
legislative, judicial, military, diplomatic and religious. When it comes to executive, the
governor general serves as the chief executive. The governor general has the duty to
execute the laws, appoint and remove officials, preserve peace and order, supervise
collection of taxes, and supervise as well as control administrative branches of the
government. He was also empowered to declare war and conclude peace treaties. And
lastly, when it comes to religious power, he can appoint or assign priests to their
parishes and approve the creation or abolition of parishes.
2. Who were the governor generals that the church labeled as the bad ones? Why?
The church labeled governor generals as bad ones when any of the clashed with
the Archbishops or were slow to comply with their wishes. Among them were Governor
General de la Gandara, Carlos Ma. De La Torre, Emilio Terrero, and Ramon Blanco.
Gandara was accused to be favoring liberals, same with de la torre. Terrero is not
acting decisively on Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Blanco dismissed the friars as alarmists.
3. Who were the governor generals that the church labeled as the good ones?
Why?
The church labeled governor generals as good ones when they were repressive
towards Filipino such as Rafael de Izquierdo which is the one who had the three leaders
of the secularization movement, Eulogio Despujol who made sure that Rizal would not
be able to leave the country after his arrival in 1892 and later had him deported in
Dapitan and lastly, Camilo de Polavieja the one who is repressive against the masons
and Katipunan suspects, also signed the death warrant of Rizal.
4. Differentiate regular priest from secular priest.
The secular were Filipino priests studied and trained in the seminaries in the
Philippines while 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
5. Why did the friar-curates object the visitation plan on their parishes?
 The problems began when the bishops insisted on visiting the parishes that
were being facilitated by the regular priests. They argued to check on the
administration of these parishes but the regular priests did not allow them these visits,
saying that they were not under the bishop’s jurisdiction and they threatened to
abandon their parishes if the bishops persisted.
6. What is secularization? (In the context of religious sector during Spanish rule)?
In the context of religious sector, “secularization” means nationalizing the
Catholic Church by replacing the friars with native secular priests
7. How did the secularization issue awaken the Filipino nationalism?
The controversy began as a religious issue and then later on became a racial
controversy between the friars and the Filipino secular clergy. Leading the Filipino
seculars in the struggle was Fr. Pedro Pelaez, an insulares who rose the position of
vicar capitular of Manila. He led the fight against royal decrees turning secular parishes
over the friars. The Jesuits then returned to the Philippines. Parishes under Filipino
regulars in Manila were then turned over to the recollects in exchange for the parishes
held by the recollects of Mindanao. The controversy led to the unification of the Filipino
clergy which in effect, strengthened their sense of identity.
8. Explain concisely what happened in the Cavity mutiny.
Cavite Mutiny is the brief uprising of 200 Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite
arsenal, which became the excuse for Spanish repression of the embryonic Philippine
nationalist movement. The mutiny was quickly crushed, but the Spanish regime under
the reactionary 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.
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. The three subsequently became martyrs to the cause
of Philippine independence.