The Unspoken Conversations

Today is the 150th death anniversary of Fathers Mariano Gomes de los Angeles (a priest from Bacoor), Jose Burgos (a priest from the Manila Cathedral), and Jacinto Zamora (a parish priest from Marikina), collectively known in their portmanteau “GOMBURZA.”

The three secular priests were accused, tried, and sentenced to death by garrote for allegedly instigating the Cavite Mutiny—a brief uprising of two hundred Filipino troops and workers at the Cavite arsenal against the Spanish government for voiding their exemption from payment of tributes.

On 17 February 1872, forty thousand people gathered at Bagumbayan where the three priests were to be publicly executed.

The martyrdom of GOMBURZA was a major catalyst that pushed the Philippine revolution forward. Jose Rizal later dedicated his novel El Filibusterismo to the three priests.