REV. MARIANO GOMES (1825-1872)
The Oldest of the triumvirate who figured in the aftermath of the Cavite Mutiny (erroneously referred to by the Spaniards as a revolt) of 1872 – the great turning point of our history as a nation – was a secular priest, Fr. Mariano Gomes delos Angeles, a native of Sta. Cruz Manila, who spent 48 years of his life in Bacoor, Cavite. He purposely chose the letter “s”, instead of the Spanish letter “z” in his surname to distinguish him two other priests by the same name; a Spanish friar also assigned in Cavite, and a native priest from Cabuyao, Laguna. Besides Fr. Gomes was a Tagalista, one – proficient in the Tagalog language, and the letter “s” is more commonly used under the original Tagalog alphabet.
The acronym GOMBURZA stands for the triumvirate: Fathers Mariano Gomes, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora. Aside from the fact that Gomes was the oldest of the trio, he appears, from a fresh reading of our history, to be the foremost leader of the secularization movement that was to become synonymous with the Filipinization of the clergy in the Philippines. Independence was the ultimate goal of the secularization movement spearheaded by Gomes, Burgos, and Zamora.
The Cavite Mutiny of 1872, which resulted in the martyrdom of the three Filipino secular priests, was the turning point in history because without 1872 there would not have been in 1896 the Philippine revolution that was to cultivate in the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1899, in Kawit, Cavite.
In Bacoor, the first and only parish in his entire ministry, Fr. Gomes, who came from an affluent family, spent his own money for the spiritual welfare of the people as well as for their economic improvement. As a priest he was “ a man always on the go.” After attending to the religious needs of the parish he would turn his efforts to the people’s temporal needs. He initiated public works projects. Working under the sweltering heat of the sun, he assisted the local Gobernadorcillo in supervising the construction of the roads linking the nine barrios of Bacoor. After road building he organized a sort of rural bank which lent money without collaterals and interest, thus enabling the salt-makers to develop and expand industry.
Father Gomes also convened the landowners and appealed to them t o be more considerate to their tenants by giving them a fair share of the harvest. It was Gomes who foiled to attempt of a big religious corporation in the nearby town of Imus to expand to some barrios of Bacoor, thereby forestalling payment of higher rentals that it charged its hacienda tenants and inquilinos (leaseholders).
Gomes identified himself with the poor and oppressed. He took up the cudgels in defense of their rights. At that time Cavite and nearby provinces were racked by agrarian conflicts affecting more than 3,000 inquilinos. As a man of God his role was to use his influence to bring about a peace. He himself sought out the leader of the disaffected tenants, Luis Parang, a victim of gross injustice at the hands of Spanish friars. Getting prior permission from the governor-general at Malacañang, Gomes talked with Parang in his mountain hideout. At first Parang dismissed the priests’ efforts to secure a peaceful solution to their agrarian problem. He stood firm in his belief that in Cavite he (Parang) was the law.
But Gomes’ tact, patience, and sympathetic attitude paid off. Finally, Parang relented and agreed to come down from the hills and accept amnesty from the governor-general himself, who also ordered the freezing of the priars’ plan to raise the land rentals. In addition, he decreed that inability of the tenants to pay land rentals would not be sufficient ground for ejectment from their lands.
In 1848 Gomes became the vicar forane of Cavite Province, a position that enabled him to rally all Filipino priests in Cavite and nearby provinces behind the movement seeking the revocation of the Royal Decree of 1849 giving seen Cavite parishes held by native priests to the friars of the Recollect and Domonican Orders.
He initiated a fund campaign to pay the services of an “influential personage in Madrid” working for the revocation of the Royal Decree. In addition, Gomes founded his own paper called La Verdad (The Truth), which soon became an effective propaganda vehicle for the cause of the Filipino clergy. The paper urged the holding of competition examinations for filing vacant parishes, thus eliminating discrimination between Spaniards and Filipinos in the awarding of parishes.
The campaign in Spain to secure a “more dignified status for the native clergy in the affairs of the church,” which was initiated by Gomes, shifted to the Philippines, this time under the leadership of Fr. Jose Burgos, assisted by Fr. Jacinto Zamora. Alarmed by the growing strength of the secularization movement, the Spanish friars implicated the three priests (Gomes, Burgos, Zamora) in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872.
The son of a middle class Filipino-Chinese couple, Alejandro Francisco Gomes and Martina Custodio, Marino Gomes was born on August 2, 1799. A brilliant student had received the degree of bachelor en sagrada teologia with honors in June 1824, and said first mass on May 28. On June 2 he was assigned parish priest of Bacoor, and for the next 48 years he would devote all his waking hours to the spiritual and material welfare of Caviteños until his martyrdom by garrote on February 17,1872.
A Protestant minister and scholar, Dr. Peter G. Gowing, in his book says that the execution of the three Filipino priests “shocked the Filipino people into nationhood,” adding that February 17, 1872 may well be called “ the birthday of the Filipino nation.”
[Sources: (1) Sol H. Gwekoh, Burgos-Gomes-Zamora,” Secular Martyrs of Filipinism Manila, 1973; (2) E. Arsenio Manuel, “ Mariano Gomes,” Burgos-Gomes-Zamora Centennial Commission. Manila, 1972; and (3) Peter G. Gowing, Islands Under the Cross-. The Story of the Church in the Philippines. Manila, 1967.]