Gomburza Story

Gomburza 

The martyrdom of Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora - collectively known as GOMBURZA culminated in February 17, 1872.

Champions of the secularization movement, the priest was the common denominator in the lives of Gomez, Burgos and Zamora. Burgos wrote the Manifesto a la Noble Nacion Espanol (Manifest to the Noble Country of Spain) which attacked the friars who attempted to downgrade the Filipino clergy. Gomez organized a large number of Filipino priests in his archdiocese to raise funds to defend the cause of secularization. Zamora, on one occasion, celebrated with two other Filipino Priests, a high mass scheduled to be said by Franciscan friars. Such an acts was condemned since Filipino Priests often serve as assistants to Spanish friars. Except for Gomez who was in Cavite, Burgos and Zamora were arrested in Manila on the night of January 21 while the mutiny at Fort San Felipe was still ranging. Obviously, it was not on the basis of evidence of their participation in the mutiny that they were arrested. Their active espousal of the rights of the Filipino clergy was the real reason for their arrest and eventual execution.

Rafael Izquierdo, who ordered the arrest of the priests, wanted to humiliate them. First he requested Archbishop Meliton Martinez to unfrock the priests. The Archbishop refused, believing the priests were innocent of the charges of treason. Instead, he ordered the toiling of the bells as one last salute to the martyred clerics.

Izquierdo made the execution a public spectacle to strike terror in the minds of the restive populace. On February 17, the day of execution, Filipinos from all parts of Manila as well as the neighboring provinces gathered at Bagumbayan (now part of Rizal Park) where the priests would be garroted. Most of them believed the priests were not guilty. So, as they passed them, they fell on their knees and bared their heads as a sign of their reverence and respect.

Their hideous garrote may have snuffed out the lives of the three but it did not kill-in fact, it nurtured the flames of the fight for freedom from the Spanish colonizers.