17th, 1872 Secular priests Jose Burgos, Zamora, Gomez, excuted at Luneta for alleged complicity in the mutiny of soldiers and laborers in Cavite. GOMBURZA day is a national holiday.
15th , 1898 American warship USS Maine is blown up in Havana triggering the Spanish-American War that sends Commodore Dewey to Spanish Manila.
4th , 1899 American soldier fires upon soldiers of the newly independent Filipino Republic, triggering the Philippine-American War of 1899.
7th, 1986 Marcos calls for snap elections but declares results void after losing to Cory Aquino
16th, 1986 Pro-Marcos assembly declares him winner, Cory Aquino calls for mass protest
22th, 1986 Defense Secretary Enrile and Vice-Chief-of-Staff Fidel Ramos call on Marcos to resign. Crowds gather around Camp Aguinaldo in support of Enrile and Ramos.
23, 1986 Filipino masses converge on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) in support of Cory.
25th 1986 Chief Justice Teehankee proclaims Cory Aquino as President and Salvador Laurel as Vice-President. This marks the official date of People?s Power I or EDSA I.
26th, 1986 Marcos and family flees the Philippines in an American plane bound for Guam, then Hawaii.
2nd , 1987 A new constitution is ratified, creating a bicameral assembly and limiting the presidency to a single, six-year term.
Affairs of the heart often overshadow February?s significance with that other love, love country, of freedom and of justice . February bristles with this kind of history. In 1872, soldiers and laborers employed by the Spanish colonial government in Cavite, mutinied after they learned that they were no longer exempt from taxes and road work, a service that otherwise all able-bodied natives must render to the government. The revolt was suppressed and with ramifications to the growing prominence of the native and mestizo middle-class. Although college education was available, many of their children joined the priesthood, the one career that the colonial regime favored. Native priests became curates and officials in the church heirarchy. One such priest, a mestizo by birth, was Jose Burgos. By his merit and intelligence he became a high ranking native priest. Recognizing a dangerous trend towards native empowerment, the powerful friar organizations acted quickly to implicate the more prominent native priests to the mutiny of 1872. In a mock trial that foretold the trial and subsequent execution of another hero, Jose Rizal, the three priests Burgos and his associates Gomez, and Zamora, were accused of inciting the mutiny and sentenced to death by strangulation. This event was not lost to the rising generation of native intellectuals, Jose Rizal being one. Dedicating his novel, El Filibusterismo to their memory, Rizal credits the martyred priests to his heightened sense of colonial injustice and identity. Historians mark this event as the birth nationalism and the priests are to be ensconced in the shrine of nationalism as the heroes GOMBURZA.
On the 4th of this month, soldiers of the first Philippine Republic exchanged fire with American soldiers triggering the Philippine-American War of 1899. American forces, initially sent to Manila to defeat the Spanish outpost there, became an army of occupation that engaged regular and guerrilla soldiers in a conflict that resulted in 5000 U.S. soldiers killed and inflicted numerous casualties to combatants and civilians. Underestimating the determination and ideals of Filipino revolutionaries upholding the ideals of Jose Rizal and GOMBURZA, the U.S. did not pacify the country until 1913. It also marked the entry of the United States as a colonial power.
In 1972, one hundred years after GOMBURZA, the Philippines entered a new phase in its history towards self empowerment and political determination. Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and embarked on an ambitious, self-destructive political program. Opposition was quelled and cronyism encouraged. Without a credible opposition, Marcos faced by international pressure to legitimize his regime, allows Ninoy Aquino, a Marcos political opponent, to return to the Philippines from exile. Aquino was assassinated no sooner than his plane lands, plunging the Philippines into political turmoil. To appease the nation, Marcos allows for a snap election assuming an easy victory against Aquino?s widow, Cory. In spite of voting fraud, Cory wins the popular vote prompting Marcos to declare the results void. The sucession of events in this February of 1896 was swift, intense, and liberating. Priests, nuns, and ordinary citizens stared down Marcos?s tanks as they clamored for his resignation. It marked a new stage in political maturity. In a single month, the collective desire for justice and love of nation have deposed of a dictator with little bloodshed and the power of the people realized, making February a month close to many Filipino hearts.
Suggested Reading:
From Marcos to Aquino: Local Perspectives on Political Transition in the Philippines. Edited by Benedict Kerkvliet and Resil Mojares. Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1991.
Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream 1899-1999. Edited by Luis Francia and Angel Velasco Shaw. New York University Press, 2002.
