Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante Y Rueda - Assassination

Assassination

In reaction to the imprisonment of the Archbishop, and to the government's total disregard with the sanctuary of the Church, a mob of the Archbishop's supporters stormed the Palacio de Gobernador and killed the Governor-General. The Archbishop was released from prison and appointed as acting Governor-General.

Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo's The Assassination of Governor Bustamante at the National Art Gallery of the National Museum is Hidalgo's interpretation of the death of overnor Bustamante. It illustrates a mob of Dominican friars murdering the governor.

However, according to Fr. Prof. Dr. Fidel Villarroel, a respected spanish historian, master theologian of the Dominican Order and former archivist at the University of Santo Tomas, Hidalgo was misled by some advisers to wrongly portray the Spanish missionaries as the promoters of the tragic murder. Antonio Regidor, a mason prominent for his anticlerical sentiments, was the painter’s adviser. Villarroel goes further by concluding that at the moment of the assassination of the governor, the friars were far away from the scene. They were imprisoned together with the Archbishop prior to the assassination by the mob.