Gomburza or GOMBURZA is an acronym denoting the surnames of the priests Mariano Gómez, José Apolonio Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, three Filipino priests who were executed on 17 February 1872 at Bagumbayan in Manila, Philippines by Spanish colonial authorities on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny. Their execution left a profound effect on many Filipinos; José Rizal, the national hero, would dedicate his novel El filibusterismo to their memory.The uprising by workers in the Cavite Naval Yard was the pretext needed by the authorities to redress a perceived humiliation from the principal objective, José Burgos, who threatened the established order.
During the Spanish colonial period, four social class distinctions were observed in the islands. These were 1.) Spaniards who were born in Spain— peninsulares, 2.) Spaniards born in the colonies of Spain (Latin America or The Philippines)—insulares or Criollo 3.) Spanish mestizos, Chinese mestizos or 'Indios' (natives) dwelling within or nearby the urban city (or town) and the church, and, finally, 4.) Chinese or Sangley and rural Indios.
Father Burgos was a criollo, a Doctor of Philosophy[citation needed] whose prominence extended even to Spain, such that when the new Governor and Captain-General Carlos Maria de la Torre arrived from Spain to assume his duties, he invited Burgos to sit beside him in his carriage during the inaugural procession, a place traditionally reserved for the Archbishop and who was a peninsular Spaniard. The arrival of the liberal governor De la Torre was not welcomed by the ruling minority of friars, regular priests who belonged to an order (Dominicans, Augustinians, Recollects and Franciscans) and their allies in civil government, but embraced by the secular priests, majority of whom were mestizos and indios assigned to parishes and far-flung communities, who believed the reforms and the equality they sought with peninsular Spaniards were at hand. In less than two years, De la Torre was replaced by Rafael de Izquierdo.
