The Gomburza effect beyond Rizal and Bonifacio

THE recent Gomburza film by Jesuit Communications directed by Pepe Diokno (an unexpected hit!) and an earlier documentary by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) with the same name — of which I was a historical consultant — underscored the link between the events of 1872 and the martyrdom of the Filipino priests Mariano Gomes, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora, and what eventually would become the birth of the Filipino nation. This was achieved through José Rizal, who dedicated his second novel "El Filibusterismo" to the three priests, and Andres Bonifacio's revolutionary movement, the Katipunan, which used what was believed to be a piece of clothing from the priests' execution in their rituals, sort of a talisman, and vowed in their writings to avenge them.

But fellow Manila Times columnist Van Ybiernas, who has been writing about the historical context and effects of the three priests' martyrdom, often says that we should go beyond this to make the big picture accurate and complete, to see the total implications of the Gomburza effect. He tasked me to write about it to conclude somehow what he had started in his columns.