How Cavite sparked Mutiny?

Some of us may not know about the Cavite Rebellion than the very familiar

revolution of Katipuneros led by the Supremo, Andres Bonifacio. The Cavite Rebellion

happened on 1872 which was started at the fort of San Felipe. Its instigators planned an

assassination to all Spaniards at the fort in which was tasked to the soldiers of a Filipino

blood. Being led by Sgt. La Madrid, these native soldiers assassinated their

commanding officer, servants, masters, etc. and they also planned to burn down Tondo

to take over Fort Santiago and Manila. The news of the incident has been quickly raised

to the Spanish authorities in Manila wherein they acted and responded to the situation.

The next morning, some Filipinos were shot down and some were sent to prison for

interrogation. They also conducted investigations on what really happened and how did

the instigators manage to pull this act of treason against the Spanish government.

However, this act of mutiny failed and resulted to the deaths of several Filipinos and

known personalities at that time including D. Jose Burgos, D. Jacinto Zamora and D.

Mariano Gomez or also known as “Ang Tatlong Martir” in the Philippine history. The

event became controversial over the years whether the rebellion was an act of mutiny or

just a protest.

In this argument, I stand and believe that the Cavite Rebellion is an act of mutiny.

As for my understanding, I learned that the native Filipinos wanted to have the head of

government to be a priest which the newly hired Governor General Rafael Izquierdo

knew from the investigations of his men. Moreover, it is clearly an act of mutiny also an

act of treason to the Spanish government after the instigators of this rebellion managed

to conduct assassinations at the fort of San Felipe. They also managed to influence
native soldiers to join the rebellion and break their loyalties to the Spaniards. They

gathered these soldiers to do the assassinations. After this rebellion failed, one of the

house of arrested priests founded with a naval boat loaded with carbines, or any kind of

ammunition that could help them on this rebellion. I think this is one of the evidences

that this rebellion has been through preparations.

If this rebellion wasn’t an act of mutiny, why the Spanish government sentenced

the arrested with execution? Which an execution is only for those who committed an act

of treason to the Spanish government. Some of them were executed publicly to scare

other Filipinos who desired to do the same. Their deaths would not be in vain especially

the death of the three martyrs because these events sparked the hearts of other

Filipinos who really wanted to stop the oppression of the Spanish government. Like Dr.

Jose Rizal who really admired the three priests, through his writings and novels, it has

been his inspiration to expose the wrongs, abusive actions and the unfairness of the

Spanish friars to the Filipino countrymen. Again, the Cavite Rebellion was an act of

mutiny because of the assassinations and direct attack to the Spanish government.