José Apolonio Burgos was a Spanish-Filipino priest, part of the Gomburza trio, who were falsely accused of mutiny by the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19th century. He was placed in a mock trial and summarily executed in Manila along with two other clergymen.

Fr. Burgos was born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur on February 9, 1837 to a Spanish officer, Don José Tiburcio Burgos, and a mestiza mother named Florencia Garcia. He obtained three undergraduate degrees with honors, two masters degrees and two doctorate degrees from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and from the University of Santo Tomas. He conducted his first mass in the Intramuros.

His liberal and nationalist views, codified in editorial essays, championing political and ecclesiastic reforms in favor of empowering more native clergy, made him a target of opposition by Roman Catholic authorities. When a mutiny took place in Cavite on January 20, 1872, royal and church officials quickly sought to pin blame on him and two other priests, Fr. Jacinto Zamora and Fr. Mariano Gomez, for sedition.

The three men were dragged through a tribunal amid a list of drummed up charges and false witnesses, and where their own lawyers betrayed them to the court. On February 15, 1872, they were garroted at Fort Santiago in the middle of Bagumbayan field (now Luneta Park). Burgos, at 35, was the youngest and the last to die.

The priests’ death was a seminal event in the life of Dr. José Rizal, who was inspired to write his second novel and compelled him to plunge into the independence movement.