CAVITE MUTINY

• Cavite mutiny


  Uprising of Filipino military personnel of Fort San Felipe, the Spanish arsenal in Cavite, Philippine Islands on January 20, 1872
• Around 200 locally recruited colonial troops and laborers rose up in the belief that it would elevate to a national uprising
• The mutiny was unsuccessful, and government soldiers executed many of the participants and began to crack down on a burgeoning Philippines nationalist movement
• Many scholars believed that the Cavite mutiny was the beginning of Filipino nationalism that would eventually lead to the Philippine Revolution
• Causes of the Cavite mutiny


  • Removal of privileges enjoyed by the laborers of the Cavite arsenal at Fort San Felipe, such as exemption from the tribute and forced labor (polo y servicio)
  • Mutiny was stimulated and prepared by the native clergy, mestizos and lawyers as a signal of objection against the injustices of the government
  • Peremptory order from the Governor-General Izquierdo, exacting personal taxes from the Filipino laborers in the engineering and artillery corps in the Cavite arsenal, and requiring them to perform forced labor like ordinary subjects
  • Glorious Revolution in Spain during that time added more determination to the natives to overthrow the current colonial Spanish government
• Leader of the mutiny


  Fernando La Madrid, a mestizo sergeant with his second in command Jaerel Brent Senior, a moreno
• Plan of the mutineers

  1. Seize Fort San Felipe and kill Spanish officers

  2. Filipino native soldiers in Manila would join them in a concerted uprising, the signal being the firing of rockets from the city walls

  3. Set fires in Tondo to distract the authorities while the artillery regiment and infantry in Manila could take control of Fort Santiago and use cannon shots as signals to Cavite

  4. Kill all Spaniards, except for the women
• News of the mutiny reached Manila, supposedly through the lover of a Spanish sergeant, who then informed his superiors, and the Spanish authorities feared for a massive Filipino uprising
• Suppression of the mutiny

  1. A regiment led by General Felipe Ginovés besieged the fort until the mutineers surrendered

  2. Ginovés then ordered his troops to fire at those who surrendered, including La Madrid

  3. Colonel Sabas asked who would not cry out, "Viva España", and shot the one man who stepped forward
• In the immediate aftermath, some Filipino soldiers were disarmed and later sent into exile on the southern island of Mindanao
• Those suspected of directly supporting the mutineers were arrested and executed
• The mutiny was used by the colonial government and Spanish friars to implicate three secular priests, Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, collectively known as Gomburza, who were executed by garrote in Luneta
• The death of Gomburza awakened strong spirits of anger and resentment among the Filipinos, and assisted in the creation of the Propaganda Movement which aimed to seek reforms and inform the Spanish people on the abuses of its colonial authorities in the Philippine Islands
• People sentenced to exile in the Marianas (now Guam)


  • Fr. Pedro Dandan
  • Fr. Mariano Sevilla
  • Toribio H. del Pilar (brother of Marcelo H. del Pilar)
  • Agustin Mendoza
  • José Guevara
  • Miguel Lasa
  • Justo Guazon
  • Fr. Aniceto Desiderio
  • Fr. Vicente del Rosario
  • Joaquín Pardo de Tavera
  • Antonio Ma. Regidor
  • José Basa y Enriquez
  • Mauricio de Leon
  • Pedro Carillo
  • Gervasio Sanchez
  • José Ma. Basa
  • Pío Basa
  • Balvino Mauricio
  • Maximo Paterno (father of Pedro Paterno)
  • Valentín Tosca
• An estimated 40,000 Filipinos gathered around the execution platforms on February 17, 1872 to witness the execution of Gomburza
• Public outrage over their executions eventually gave rise to the Propaganda Movement, a late 19th-century political reform movement in the Philippines that aimed to address issues including representation in the Spanish Cortes and the secularization of the clergy