Document 302

Filipino Version of the Cavite Mutiny of 1872

The Filipino version of the bloody incident of Cavite in 1872 was written by Dr.
Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera, Filipino scholar, scientist, and historical researcher.
According to him, this incident was merely a mutiny by the native Filipino soldiers and
laborers of the Cavite arsenal against the harsh policy of despotic Governor and Captain-
General Rafael de Iquierdo (1871-1873) which abolished their old-time privileges of
exemption from paying the annual tribute and from rendering the polo (forced labor). The
loss of these privileges was naturally resented by the soldiers and. laborers. Some of
them, impelled by volcanic wrath, rose in arms on the night of January 20, 1872, and
killed the commanding officer of the Cavite arsenal and other Spanish officers. This was
easily suppressed by the Spanish troops which were rushed from Manila. This turbulent
Cavite incident, which was magnified by the Spanish officials and friars into a revolt for
Philippine independence, is narrated by Pardo de Tavera, as follows

The arrival of General Izquierdo (1871-1873) was the signal for a complete change
in the aspect of affairs. The new governor soon made it clear that his views were different
from those of La Torre - that there would be no change in the established form of
government - and he at once announced that he intended to govern the people "with a
crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other."

His first official act was to prohibit the founding of a school of arts and trades, which
was being organized by the efforts and funds raised by natives of standing in the

1 Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera was born in Manila on April 13, 1857, of
parents belonging to the Spanish nobility. His father, Felix Pardo de Tavera, was a
lawyer and a brother of the patriot Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, a law professor and
government official. During the early years of the American rule he served as a member
of Taft's Philippine Commission and founded the Federal Party. He died in Manila on
March 26, 1925, aged 68.

" Pardo de Taver& 'Historical Account of the Philippines from Its Discovery to 1903,"
Census of the Philippine Islands: 1903 (Washington, D.C, 1905), pp. 376. 380.

community, but the founding of which did not tally with the views of the religious
orders. . Governor Izquierdo believed that the establishment of the new school was
merely a pretext for the organization of a political club, and he not only did not allow it to
be opened but made a public statement accusing the Fiipinos who had charge of the
movement. All of those who had offered their support to ex-Governor La Torre were
classed as personas sospechosas (suspects), a term that since that time has been used
in the Philippine Islands to designate any person who refused to servilely. obey the
wishes and whims of the authorities. The conservative element in the islands now
directed the governmental policy, and the educated Filipinos. fell more and more under
the displeasure and suspicion of the governor.

The peace of the colony was broken by a certain incident which, though unimportant
in itself, was probably the origin of the political agitation which, constantly growing for
thirty years, culminated in the overthrow of the Spanish sovereignty in the Philippine
Islands. From time immemorial the workmen in. the arsenal at Cavite and in the barracks
of the artillery and engineer corps had been exempt from the payment of the tribute tax
and from obligation to work certain days each year on public improvements. General
Izquierdo believed the time opportune for abolishing these privileges and ordered that in
the future all such workmen should pay tribute and labor on public improvements. This
produced great dissatisfaction among the workmen affected and the men employed in
the arsenal at Cavite went on a strike, but, yielding to pressure and threats made by the
autho-rities, they subsequently returned to their labors.
The workmen in the Cavite arsenal were all natives of that town and of the
neighboring town of San Roque. In a short while the dissatisfaction and discontent with
the government spread all over that section and even the entire troops became
disaffected. On the night of January 20, 1872, there was an uprising among the soldiers
in the San Felipe fort, in Cavite, and the commanding officer and other Spanish. officers
in charge of the fort wereassassinated. Forty marines attached to the arsenal and 22
artillerymen under Sergeant La Madrid took part in this uprising, and it was believe that
the entire garrison in Cavite was disaffected and probably implicated. But if the few
soldiers who precipitated the attack believed they would be supported by the bulk of the
army and that a general rebellion against Spain would be declared in the islands, they
were deceived. When the news of the uprising was received in Manila, General Izquierdo
sent the commanding general to Cavite, who reinforced the native troops, took
possession of the fort, and put the rebels to the sword. Sergeant La Madrid has been
blinded and badly burned by the explosion of a sack of powder and, being unable to
escape, was also cut down. A few of the rebels were captured and taken to Manila and
there was no further disturbance of the peace or insubordination of any kind.

This uprising among the soldiers in Cavite was used as a powerful lever by the
Spanish residents and by the friars. During the time that General La Torre was chief
executive in the Philippine Islands the influential Filipinos did not hesitate to announce
their hostility to the religious orders, and the Central Government in Madrid had
announced its intention to deprive the friars in these islands of all powers of intervention
in matters of civil government and of the direction and management of the management
of the university. Mort, the colonial minister, had drawn up a scheme of reforms by which
he proposed to make a radical change in the colonial system of government which was to
harmonize with the principles for which the revolution 3 in Spain had been fought. It was
due to these facts and promises that the Filipinos had great hopes of an improvement in
the affairs of their country, while the friars, on the other hand, feared that their power in
the colony would soon be completely a thing of the past.

The mutiny in Cavite gave the conservative element that is, those who favored a
continuation of the colonial modus vivendi - an opportunity to represent to the Spanish
Government that a vast conspiracy was afoot and organized throughout the archipelago
with the object of destroying the Spanish sovereignty. They stated that the Spanish
Government in Madrid was to blame for the propagation of pernicious doctrines and for
the hopes that had been held out from Madrid to the Filipino people, and also because of
the leanings of ex-Governor La Torre and of other public functionaries who had been
sent to the Philippine Islands by the Government that succeeded Oueen Isabella. The fall
of the new rulers in Spain within a few days, as well as other occurrences, seemed to
accentuate the claims made by the conservative element in the Philippine Islands
regarding the peril which threatened Spanish sovereignty in the islands; it appeared as
though the prophecies were about to be fulfilled. The Madrid authorities were not able to
combat public opinion in that country; no opportunity was given nor time taken to make a
thorough investigation of the real facts or extent of the alleged revolution, the
conservative element in the Philippine Islands painted the local condition of affairs in
somber tints; and the Madrid Government came to believe, or at least to suspect, that a
scheme was being concocted throughout the islands to shake off Spanish sovereignty.
Consistent with the precedents of their colonial rule, the repressive measures adopted to
quell the supposed insurrection were strict and sudden. No attempt appears to have
been made to ascertain whether or not the innocent suffered with the guilty, and the only
end sought appeared to be to inspire terror in the minds of all by making examples of a
certain number, so that none in the future should attempt, nor even dream of any attempt
at secession.
 Many of the best known Filipinos were denounced to the military authorities, and
they, the sons of Spaniards born in the islands and men of mixed blood (Spanish and
Chinese), as well as the Indians of pure blood, as the Philippine Malays were called,
were persecuted and punished without distinction by the military authorities.
Those who dared to oppose themselves to the friars were punished with special
severity; among others may be mentioned the priests Burgos, a half-blood Spaniard,
Zamora, a half-blood Chinaman, and Gomez, a pure-blood Tagalog, who had vigorously
opposed the friars in the litigation over the curacies in the various provinces. The three
priests mentioned were condemned to death by a military court-martial; and Antonio M.
Regidor, a lawyer and councilman of Manila, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, lawyer and
member of the administrative council, P. Mendoza, curate of Sarta Cruz, Guevarra,
curate of Quiapo, the priests Mariano Sevilla, Feliciano Gomez, Ballesteros, Jose Basa,
the lawyers Carillo, Basa, Enriquez, Crisanto Reyes, Maximo Paterno, and many others
were sentenced to life imprisonment on the Marianas Islands. The Government thus
secured its object of terrorizing the Filipino people, but the punishments meted out were
not only unjust but were from every point of view unnecessary, as there had not been the
remote intention on the part of anyone to overthrow the Spanish sovereignty. On the
contrary, the attitude of Moret, Labra, Becerra, and other high officials in the Madrid
Government had awakened in the breasts of the Filipinos a lively friendship for the home
government, and never had the ties which bound the colony to Spain been as close as
they were during the short interval between the arrival of General La Torre and the time
when General Izquierdo, in the name of the home government, was guilty of the atrocities
mentioned above, of which innocent men were made victims.

A careful study of the history and documents of that time brings to light the part
which the religious orders played in that sad drama. One of the results of the so-called
revolution of Cavite was to strengthen the power of the friars in the Philippine Islands in
such manner that the Madrid Government, which up to that time had contemplated
reducing the power of the religious orders in these islands, was obliged not only to
abandon its intention, but to place a yet greater measure of official influences at the
service of the friars, and from that time they were considered as an important factor in the
preservation of the Spanish sovereignty in the colony.

This influnce was felt throughout the islands, and not only were the friars taken into
the confidence of the Government, but the Filipino people looked upon the religious
orders as their real masters and as the representatives, powerful and unsparing, of the
Spanish Kingdom.

But there were other results following upon the unfortunate policy adopted by
Governor Izquierdo. Up to that time there had been no. intention of secession from
Spain, and the only aspiration of the people was to secure the material and educational
advancement of the country. The Filipino people had never blamed the Spanish nation
for the backward condition in which the islands existed, nor for the injustices commited in
the islands by the Spanish officials; but on the contrary it was the custom to lay all the
blame for these things on the individual officers guilty of maladministration, and no
attempt had been made to investigate whether or not the evils under which the islands
suffered were due to fundarnental causes. The persecutions which began under
Governor Izquierdo were based on the false assumption that the Filipino people were
desirous of independence, and although this was an unfounded accusation, there were
many martyrs to the cause, among whom were found many of the most intelligent and
well-to-do people, without distinction of color or race or nationality, who were sentenced
to death, to imprisonment, or were expatriated because they were believed to aspire to
the independence of these islands. The fear which the people felt of the friars and of the
punishments meted out by the Government was exceeded only by the admiration which
the Filipino people had for those who did not hesitate to stand up for the rights of the
country. In this manner the persecutions to which the people were subjected served as a
stimulus and an educative force, and from that time the rebellion was nursed in secret
and the passive resistance to the abuses of the official power became greater day by
day.

No attempt was made to allay the ill-feeling which existed between the Filipinos and
the Spaniards, especially the friars, caused by the mutiny in Cavite and the cruelmanner
in which the punishment was meted out. Many years would have been necessary to heal
the wounds felt by the large number of families whose members were made the victims
of the unjust sentences of the military courts-martial. Nothing was done by the
Government to blot out the recollection of these actions; on the contrary, it appeared to
be its policy to continually bring up the memory of these occurrences as a reminder to the
malcontents of what they had to expect; but the only thing accomplished was to increase
the popular discontent. It was from that time that every disagreement between the
Spaniards and Filipinos, however trivial, was given a racial or political character;
everytime a friar was insulted or injured in any way, it was claimed to be an act of hostility
to the Spanish nation.

Document 303
Official Report of Governor Izquierdo on the Cavite Mutiny of 1872

Governor General Rafael Iquierdo reported to the Spanish Minister of War, dated Manila,
January 23, 1872, blaming the Cavite Mutiny on the native clergy, some local residents,
intellectuals, and even El Eco Filipino, a Madrid-based reformist newspaper. Significantly,
he calls the military mutiny an "insurrection", an "uprising", and a "revolution". The text of
the report is as follows

From the summary of information received - that is, from the declaration made
before the fiscal - it seems definite that the insurrection was motivated and prepared by
the native clergy, by the mestizos and native lawyers, and by those known here as
abogadillos. Some are residents of Manila, others from Cavite, and some from the
nearby provinces.

The instigators, to carry out their criminal project, protested against the injustice of
the government in not paying the provinces for their tobacco crop, and against the usury
that some (officials) practise in (handling) documents that the Finance department gives
crp owners who have to sell them at a loss. They encouraged the rebellion by protesting
what they called the injustice of having obliged the workers in the Cavite arsenal to pay
tribute starting January 1 (1872) and to render personal service, from which they were
formerly exempted.
To seduce the native troops, they resorted to superstitions with which the indios are
so prone to believe; persuading them that the Chief of State (hari) would be an
ecclesiastic and the rest or the clergy who backed the uprising would celebrate daily for
its success. Thus the rebellion could not fail because God was with them; and those who
would not revolt they would kill immediately. Taking advantage of the ignorance of those