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Philippines The Development of a National Consciousness
Religious movements such as the cofradía and
colorums expressed an inchoate desire of their members to
be rid of the Spanish and discover a promised land that would
reflect memories of a world that existed before the coming of the
colonists. Nationalism in the modern sense developed in an urban
context, in Manila and the major towns and, perhaps more
significantly, in Spain and other parts of Europe where Filipino
students and exiles were exposed to modern intellectual currents.
Folk religion, for all its power, did not form the basis of the
national ideology. Yet the millenarian tradition of rural revolt
would merge with the Europeanized nationalism of the
ilustrados to spur a truly national resistance, first
against Spain in 1896 and then against the Americans in 1899.
Following the Spanish revolution of September 1868, in which
the unpopular Queen Isabella II was deposed, the new government
appointed General Carlos María de la Torre governor of the
Philippines. An outspoken liberal, de la Torre extended to
Filipinos the promise of reform. In a break with established
practice, he fraternized with Filipinos, invited them to the
governor's palace, and rode with them in official processions.
Filipinos in turn welcomed de la Torre warmly, held a "liberty
parade" to celebrate the adoption of the liberal 1869 Spanish
constitution, and established a reform committee to lay the
foundations of a new order. Prominent among de la Torre's
supporters in Manila were professional and business leaders of
the ilustrado community and, perhaps more significantly,
Filipino secular priests. These included the learned Father José
Burgos, a Spanish mestizo, who had published a pamphlet,
Manifesto to the Noble Spanish Nation, criticizing those
racially prejudiced Spanish who barred Filipinos from the
priesthood and government service. For a brief time, the tide
seemed to be turning against the friars. In December 1870, the
archbishop of Manila, Gregorio Melitón Martínez, wrote to the
Spanish regent advocating secularization and warning that
discrimination against Filipino priests would encourage
anti-Spanish sentiments.
According to historian Austin Coates, "1869 and 1870 stand
distinct and apart from the whole of the rest of the period as a
time when for a brief moment a real breath of the nineteenth
century penetrated the Islands, which till then had been living
largely in the seventeenth century." De la Torre abolished
censorship of newspapers and legalized the holding of public
demonstrations, free speech, and assembly--rights guaranteed in
the 1869 Spanish constitution. Students at the University of
Santo Tomás formed an association, the Liberal Young Students
(Juventud Escolar Liberal), and in October 1869 held
demonstrations protesting the abuses of the university's
Dominican friar administrators and teachers.
The liberal period came to an abrupt end in 1871. Friars and
other conservative Spaniards in Manila managed to engineer the
replacement of de la Torre by a more conservative figure, Rafael
de Izquierdo, who, following his installation as governor in
April 1871, reimposed the severities of the old regime. He is
alleged to have boasted that he came to the islands "with a
crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other." Liberal laws were
rescinded, and the enthusiastic Filipino supporters of de la
Torre came under political suspicion.
The heaviest blow came after a mutiny on January 20, 1872,
when about 200 Filipino dockworkers and soldiers in Cavite
Province revolted and killed their Spanish officers, apparently
in the mistaken belief that a general uprising was in progress
among Filipino regiments in Manila. Grievances connected with the
government's revocation of old privileges--particularly exemption
from tribute service--inspired the revolt, which was put down by
January 22. The authorities, however, began weaving a tale of
conspiracy between the mutineers and prominent members of the
Filipino community, particularly diocesan priests. The governor
asserted that a secret junta, with connections to liberal parties
in Spain, existed in Manila and was ready to overthrow Spanish
rule.
A military court sentenced to death the three Filipino
priests most closely associated with liberal reformism--José
Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora--and exiled a number of
prominent ilustrados to Guam and the Marianas (then
Spanish possessions), from which they escaped to carry on the
struggle from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Europe. Archbishop
Martínez requested that the governor commute the priests' death
sentences and refused the governor's order that they be
defrocked. Martínez's efforts were in vain, however, and on
February 17, 1872, they were publicly executed with the brutal
garrote on the Luneta (the broad park facing Manila Bay). The
archbishop ordered that Manila church bells toll a requiem for
the victims, a requiem that turned out to be for Spanish rule in
the islands as well. Although a policy of accommodation would
have won the loyalty of peasant and ilustrado alike,
intransigence--particularly on the question of the secularization
of the clergy--led increasing numbers of Filipinos to question
the need for a continuing association with Spain.
Data as of June 1991
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