diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

And so, following these premises, El Eco Filipino made the followinghypothetical analysis of the facts. When Governor Carlos Ma. de la Tonearrived in the Philippines, he was received with a patriotic demonstration.But the friars were "displeased with the actual demand for peaceful reforms,manifesting much less sympathy for the Spanish liberal party." This couldhave been the first cause. Later, when a plan was made to erect a monumentto the memory of Simon Anda y Salazar, the regular clergy reacted with afrigid indifference while the secular clergy were enthusiastic. Second cause.On 31 October, Anda's remains were transfered to the provisionalcathedral—the centuries-old Franciscan church. The people, the career men,etc. participated fervently in the ceremonies, but especially outstanding wasthat group "of the secular clergy and the Filipino youth, and this was the thirdcause, suspicion of certain people." Fourth cause: "Later, these sameindividuals—the secular clergy and the Filipino youth—now marked assubversive," were caught reading El Eco Filipino.As it is, the editors' conclusion falls by its own weight. But in its issue for8 April 1872, the last of this publication, the following clear andunambiguous statement appeared:From the first day we appeared in print, we have been bringing up the antagonismexisting even long before the revolution, which has grown in bitterness andseriousness, between the regular and the secular clergy in the Philippines ... andnot only that, an, insurrection takes place and three priests are implicated in it asthe instigators. What, in good logic, must we conclude?. many Filipinos are in sympathy with the liberal parties in Spain. But there, inthe islands, where the cruel rule of absolute theocracy prevails, this is cause forsuspicion and persecution of those who, nonetheless, continue being loyalSpaniards. It is thus quite possible that many of those who had no part directly orindirectly in the uprising may have been imprisoned .And, concluded El Eco Filipino, this was the reason why the conservativepress, as long as the court made no statements, had no right toaccuse—as it has been doing all the while—these priests as traitors.It was in this way that the only newspaper in Madrid wholly dedicated topublicize news and comments on Philippine affairs, and edited by Spaniardsborn in the colony, offered for public consumption a first explanation of the1872 events in Cavite, laying the blame' on the friars, even if it was only amere supposition. Only the details were missing to complete the story andgive it greater verisimilitude. This, as we shall see shortly, was the taskAntonio Ma. Regidor would undertake about 30 years later.138