Our consciousness, in its quest to assert its existence in the world, has been constantly striving to define our place and role in the world. And in that quest, we begin to latch on to what’s called an identity to provide certainty in our place and the contribution of our existence in the world. The quest could be intrapersonal, where we find the uniqueness and the individuality of our appeal. Or the quest could be collective, where we find our identities as a nation.
As the collective memories become hazy given the backwardness and gaslighting that the wretched present bombards the Filipinos with, maybe it is time to give a poignant reminder once again on what collectively defines us as Filipinos in the first place.
The closing days of the year 2023 brings us Director Jose Lorenzo Diokno presenting a cinematographic tale from 151 years ago about the events – centered upon three secular priests, Padre Mariano Gomes, Padre Jose Burgos, and Padre Jacinto Zamora, known as the GomBurZa – that sparked the consciousness of those living in Capitanìa General de Filipinas into identifying themselves as a nation: as Filipinos.
The Philippines is known to be one of the countries that has the provisions of the Separation of the Church and State in its constitution, and yet Faith remains one of the fundamental aspects of being a Filipino. Faith, through the Church’s collaboration with colonialism, was what initially subdued the natives of archipelago, with the overwhelming imposition of subservience. But Faith, through the Church’s innate repentance and moral conscience, has also a key role in dismantlement of that colonialism and the oppression.
The duality of the Church during the 19th century Spanish Colonial period resulted in the tumultuous church politics that ultimately revolved around Padre José Apolonio Burgos (Cedric Juan), who led the peak of the secularization movement in the 1860s and 1870s. Burgos, who had two doctorates on Canonical Law and Civil Law respectively, took the reins of the secularization movement from his mentor, Padré Pedro Pelaez (Piolo Pascual).
Padre Pelaez, at the beginning of the movie, recalled the story of Apolinario dela Cruz, also known as Hermano Pule, who, out of the racially discriminatory practices of the Church, responded with the establishment of Cofradía de San José. The defiance of the Cofradía was seen as a rebellion and its subjugation resulted in a tragic end of Hermano Pulé being quartered and displayed as a warning or a cautionary tale against defiance.
Parallel were being drawn to the present times as the people holding the power readily making the heavy accusations and branding at times when they refused to yield their losing arguments. The friars back then couldn’t hold a candle against Padre Pelaez, having the intellect, the influence, and the charm, on which they continuously vilify even beyond Padre Pelaez’ unfortunate death during the 1863 earthquake.
The torch was then passed to the young Padre Burgos who took center stage during the tenure of Gov. Gen. Carlos Maria Dela Torre, a known liberal. Even though Dela Torre was a liberal, the film has also showcased how he, in reality, distanced himself from the liberal advocacies of the locals, who began identifying themselves as Filipinos, which became a term to identify, not only the Creoles, Mestizos and Insulares within the Philippines, but also to the natives, then known as Indios. As the movement culminated in active defiance of students (led by Felipe Buencamino) and the establishment of a potentially secessionist Secret Society of Reformers, Dela Torre drew the line for Padre Burgos and advised him to step back and take caution. Perhaps, a person is only liberal as long as the change is within one’s comfort zone, otherwise, that person will treat it as radical.
When to draw or cross the line? It is one of the three central themes integrated into the movie. Unless clearly defined, the blurring of the said line has been where duality of people inflicted the most damage. One often makes encouragement to another, given that the person believes that the other is still within his/her control. And once that person realizes that the other is not in fact acting based upon his/her whims guised as encouragement will that person reproach the other.
People tend to not only make clear boundaries but also make vague boundaries upon others (without knowledge) that they will get irrationally triggered upon crossing. People have that tendency to keep things under their grasp, yet they themselves don’t want to feel controlled. People are indeed the masters of their individual fates in order to pursue progress, but the reality is that their fates are always intertwined, and no person is living for himself/herself (which is one of the Church hymns being played in the movie trailer). And therefore, the conflicts are not to be generalized as hindering tribulations but rather a symptom of humanity.
However, there is also inhumanity in the materialization of the grasp, to the point that it becomes a grip… an iron grip personified by Dela Torre’s successor, Rafael de Izquierdo. The discomfort on the impatience to spread liberality and reforms compelled Dela Torre to request to be replaced. Izquierdo, according to some text, was also a liberal, but the instability on the Peninsula (Spain) due to turmoil of 1868-1873, required a tight grasp on the situation to navigate through the uncertainty brought about by the instability.
Being aware of Dela Torre’s trepidations, Izquierdo repealed most of Dela Torre’s reforms, which led to the injustices that followed.
The 2nd central theme of the movie focused on the said injustices. Justice, according to the director’s grandfather, Jose W. Diokno, is something that can only be defined in the face of injustice. We have the current retrospective capability to surmise that the situation back in the 19th century was full of injustice, as the prejudices were deeply seated within the notions of equality.
The Spanish mestizos and Spaniards who were born in the Philippines, also known as the Insulares, were experiencing the disadvantage in the social hierarchy where they were treated as 2nd-class citizens. They were not being identified as Spaniards in the first place. And in that identity crisis and maltreatment, the secular movement, headed by Padre Burgos, began to identify themselves as Filipinos. Initially exclusive for the Spanish Mestizos, the collective identity then extended to the well-off locals, known as the Illustrados. It was through regionalism that the Spaniards had managed to conduct their divide-and-conquer schemes that colonized the Philippines. A Los Filipinos was an opportunity to transcend the regionalism and mend the fragments into a single nation.
But the situation was not ripe yet, as natives still identified themselves with their regions. Identifying themselves as part of a nation was the least of their priorities as they have mouths (including theirs) to feed and they still look up for God’s help because they kept on overlooking that His grace was actually realizing that they could help themselves. And the crusade of the secular messengers of God had to meet their premature end in 1872 as the situation was not ripe yet for people to assert control over their destinies with Sgt. La Madrid in Fort San Felipe failing to rally the soldiers behind his cause to overthrow the oppressive government that was further marginalizing their dignity as human beings.
This became an opportunity for Izquierdo to crack down the reformist movement, resulting in the exile of Joaquin Pardo de Tavera (father of T.H. Pardo de Tavera), Antonio Ma. Regidor, Gregorio Sancianco, and the rest of the first wave of Filipino expatriates who then started the Filipino propaganda movement in Europe. Don Maximo Inoncencio would live to fight another revolt in Cavite until being executed as one of the Trece Martirez of Cavite in 1896. Francisco Zaldua, on the other hand, was tricked into also implicating Padre Burgos in the uprising. The already 80-year-old Padre Gomes was also implicated as payback for his involvement in the secular movement of the 1820s and 1860s. Zaldua, Padre Gomes, and Padre Burgos would soon be sentenced to death by garrote in a kangaroo court, along with someone who wasn’t involved at all: Padre Jacinto Zamora (Enchong Dee).
Padre Zamora in the film, although largely based on the real Padre Zamora who gambled after mass, was a mirror to the people who remained indifferent and apathetic at times where others experienced injustice. They didn’t care because they weren’t on the shorter end of the stick. And yet the irony about injustice was that it was indiscriminate on whom to render its cruelty upon.
The three priests, now donning their vestments as Archbishop Gregorio Meliton Martinez (Jaime Fabregas) pleaded for them to be at least treated as priests on their deaths, took their turns on the garrote after Zaldua. The dazed Padre Zamora was executed first. Then Padre Gomes, resolute that it was God’s Will and that someone will take on their torch, bravely faced his end in the garrote. And with the weight of Padre Pelaez’s sage advice of maintaining a dignified attitude to prevent others from preying on the apparent weaknesses, Padre Burgos also braved himself towards the execution platform, even expressing his forgiveness to his executioners. He knew he was innocent, as with Jesus on the Cross. But he was not Jesus but a mere human being, and he could not help but express his despair over his injustice, which gave him a jaded belief that Filipinos were bound to misfortune like him, as his students, Felipe Buencamino – who was almost expelled – and Paciano Rizal – who was under close state surveillance – bore witness to his unjust execution.
This brings us to the last central theme that this movie has repeatedly delved upon: whether being a Filipino is full of bad luck. The Philippines may have the highest risk due to natural hazards. The Filipinos were given a false hope of progress with a liberal governor-general but then experienced repression with a repressive successor. Such bad luck can be said for Filipinos in the recent times. But should Filipinos lose hope?
The movie gave the viewers the gift of retrospect, for Filipinos knew the events that followed after the drawback of the execution of the GomBurZa. The bad taste of injustice remained, and it kindled the fervor within the young ones, like José Rizal, who became one of those who carried on the torch of Padre Gomes and Padre Burgos. Rizal, with the reminder of the sad and unjust death of GomBurZa, embraced the sadness of the fate that he willed himself to as he asserted that the bad luck of having a land plagued with natural hazards was actually a trade-off of having those lands rich in resources for Filipinos to enjoy, and that the bad luck of indignation by the Spaniards in what’s needed to wake the Filipinos from their slumber.
It was not yet the time, but their deaths became one of the dominoes that fell into making the environment right for Filipinos for assert their identity and destiny. The Seven Years War brought the British Occupation of Manila which realized the importance of the Philippines not only as a mere trading hub but an importance geopolitical outpost. The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars temporarily placed the Philippines under the French sphere of influence on which the ideas of liberté, egalité, fraternité diffused upon Spain and the Philippines. It also resulted in instability and unrest that dismantled the Spanish Empire in Latin America, resulting in the Philippines being directly administered by Spain, resulting in the Creole movement in the 1820s, and subsequently the secular movement by Padre Pelaez and Padre Burgos. The crackdown of the secular movement resulted in Filipinos finding their political and intellectual base in Europe which resulted in the propaganda movement that brought forth the likes of Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez-Jaena, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, and the others. The ideation by the propaganda movement became the intellectual base of the Philippine revolution that followed.
The timing was also right given the political climate in Europe. The instability brought by the French Revolution resulted in the Spaniards being ideated with republicanism at the height of usurpation by Ferdinand VII (resulting in subsequent Carlists uprising that further weakened the monarchy) and the French invasion of Spain. The instability also restored the Jesuits, which along with the imposition of the Metternich system, resulted in vacillation between progress and conservatism that soon slowly thawed the Philippines from its slumber. The transition to imperialism in Europe showcased the excesses of colonialism over the colonies. The imperialism paved way for the opening of the Suez Canal by the French Empire and the downfall of the French Empire caused by the rise of the German Empire (Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71). The downfall of the French Empire was intertwined with the Glorious Revolution that despised Queen Isabela and placed the liberal Dela Torre to the Philippines. It was also due to the Spanish affair and the French meddling that the French got tangled up with Prussia which ultimately resulted in the consolidation of the German states. The situation became ripe for the likes of those initially exiled to setup a Filipino base in Europe, espousing themselves with the liberal and even radical ideas brought by the renewed intellectualism and enlightenment in Europe. That base became the springboard for the likes of Rizal and the others. The situation in the Philippines was also ripe with freemason Governor-Generals like Emilio Terrero, being tolerant, and sometimes sympathetic to the cause. Yes, there were also the likes of Weyler, Despujol, and Polavieja, but each of them made their good and bad actions that fueled the fire within.
The time became ripe as Filipinos were enlightened with Rizal’s ideas and soon became known as the first people in Asia to rise up in arms against a colonial power and became the 1st republic. Para sa liwanag, Padre Burgos and Padre Gomes believed that they were to die believing that those who carry on their torch would ultimately determine that their efforts and their deaths were not in vain. The reminder of the injustice that the GomBurza experienced reduced most movie-goers into tears as the movie hoped that we too, the present Filipinos, would carry the torch like our forebearers did, as we have still work to do in being true to the Filipino spirit, who must pursue excellence and the fulfillment of our talents in order to use them against the injustices that plague us in the present day.