Biography and History

• Two Currents

  • Enlightenment
  • Pasyon Tradition
• Burgos/Secularization/Filipinization Movement in shambles

  1. Downfall of the Liberal Regime in Madrid

  2. Cavite Mutiny
• Enlightenment

  1. French Revolution (1789) came to the Philippines through Spanish Liberalism by liberal peninsulars (International trade 1834)

  2. Spanish Revolution (1868) motivated to have liberal movement in the Philippines
• Cultural Milieu


  Setting and environment in which a person lives
• Groups in the society

  • Seculars
  • Friars
  • Priests
  • Filipinos
  • Creoles
  • Mestizos
  • Indios
  • Prayle
  • Peninsulars
  • Pure blood white Spanish
• Social classes based on place of birth

  • Peninsulares
  • Insulares/Creoles
  • Mestiso
  • Indios
• Types of Religious Orders

  • Franciscan
  • Dominican
  • Augustinian
  • Recollect
  • Jesuits
• Ilustrados


  • Learned, enlightened one
  • Filipino intelligentsia (educated class) during the Spanish colony
  • Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. Del Pillar, Mariano Ponce, Antonio Luna, Jose Rizal
• Pasyon Tradition - Three Moments Grand Emancipation

  1. 1872 - Father Jose Burgos’ Martyrdom

  2. Burgos/Secularization/Filipinization Movement/Campaign
• Burgos/Secularization/Filipinization Movement/Campaign

  1. Burgos Movement - led by Father Jose Burgos

  2. Secularization Movement

  3. Filipinization Movement
• Enlightenment - Spanish Revolution (1868)

  1. Staunch liberal, Don Manuel Becerra as overseas minister

  2. Overthrow of Queen Dona Isabel II

  3. Queen Dona Isabel II - conservative/close-minded (but she released a royal order to vaccinate the dogs in the PH to stop spread of rabies)
• La Liga Filipina became inactive and split into Cuerpo de Compromisarios (conservatives) and Katipunan (radicals)
• Arrest of Rizal and his exile to Dapitan, Mindanao was due to the league becoming a threat to Spanish authorities
• Events during the Trauma of 1872

  • Execution of Gomburza
  • Mother's humiliating arrest & imprisonment
  • Impact on Rizal
• The Trauma of 1872 - Rizal was 11 years old
• Imprisonment and exile of Filipinos (10 priests) to Guam
• Andres Bonifacio was one of the founders/Supreme President of the Katipunan (KKK)
• Sumuroy Revolt (1649 - 1650) - Led by Agustin Sumuroy against forced labor system in Samar
• Fr. Agapito Echegoyen, a Recollect, stated that the heads of the friar orders came up with a plan to frame Burgos
• Fr. Antonio Piernavieja, an Augustinian, stated that Franciscan friar, Fray Claudio del Arceo disguised as Burgos
• Rizal objected to Bonifacio's bold project stating that such would be a veritable suicide and stressed the need for organization and training for the success of the revolution
• Similarities between Burgos and Rizal

  • Both fought against the Spaniards
  • Both executed in Bagumbayan (Luneta)
  • Both 35 years old
  • Governors General during their time
• The testimony of the two differing friar orders show that Burgos was not the instigator of Mutiny
• In the 333 years of Spanish colonization in the Philippines, there have been over 100 revolts from the Filipino people, none of which succeeded due to lack of organization
• 1892 - La Liga Filipina, Andres Bonifacio’s Katipunan
• La Liga Filipina offered mutual aid and self-help through scholarship funds, legal aid, loaning capital, and cooperatives
• Dagohoy Rebellion (1744 - 1829) - Led by Francisco Dagohoy against forced labor, excessive tax collection, and refusal of Christian burial by Jesuit priest
• Teodora Alonzo was accused of poisoning a chichi elite mestiso
• La Liga Filipina was a secret organization created by Jose Rizal to protect its members physically, economically, and socially
• During Rizal’s exile in Dapitan, Bonifacio sent an emissary Dr. Pio Valenzuela to inform him of the Katipunan's plan to launch a revolution
• Saldua, the state witness, was also executed
• Andres Bonifacio witnessed Rizal’s speech on the Inaugural meeting of the La Liga Filipina