1963 International Red Cross Centennial

In 1963, the International Red Cross celebrated the centennial of its founding . The Bureau of Posts issued a set of three stamps honouring the Red Cross. The stamps, which feature the Red Cross centennial emblem, were printed by Courvoisier, S.A. Switzerland, and released on September 1, 1963.

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The Red Cross centennial symbol was included in the cancellation.

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1963 Asian-Oceanic Postal Union 1st Anniversary

On April 1, 1962, Nationalist China, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand, formed the Asian-Oceanic Postal Union (AOPU) whose headquarters were established in Manila. The purpose of the AOPU was to extend, facilitate, and improve postal relations between member countries and to promote co-operation in the field of postal services. By 2009, 31 countries in the region were members of the Postal Union.

The Bureau of Posts issued a set of two stamps on August 26, 1963, to commemorate the first anniversary of the AOPU.

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1963 Anti-TB Semi-postals

A map of the Philippines is featured on the 1963 Anti-TB semi-postal set, issued on August 19, 1963.

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1963 Diego Silang Bicentennial Art & Philatelic Exhibition

ARPHEX was an art and philatelic exhibition held in Manila commemorating the bicentennial of Diego Silang's death.  The 2p Jaeno definitive stamp of 1952 was overprinted and surcharged to mark the exhibition. The three stamps in the set were issued on June 12, 1963.

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1963 New Famous Filipinos Definitives VI Cayetano Arellano

Cayetano Arellano was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines under the American Civil Government, serving from 1901 to 1920. Arellano was the subject of the regular and official  50s definitive stamp issued on May 1, 1963.

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The cancel includes scales and a sword, traditional symbols of justice.

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1963 New Famous Filipinos Definitives V (Padre Burgos)

On March 24, 1963, the Bureau of Posts issued the 5th stamp in its New Famous Filipino definitive series, honoring Padre Jose Burgos. Regular and Official 10s stamps were released.

Padre Burgos was Filipino secular priest who was tried and executed for sedition in 1872. In order to understand why Burgos and two other secular priests were killed by Spanish authorities it is necessary to understand the conflict between the Spanish friars (religious orders) and the native-born diocesan (secular) priests.

Secular and Religious Priests

There are two kinds of priests in the Roman Catholic Church : diocesan (secular) and regular/religious (belonging to orders). Secular priests generally work in parishes assigned by bishops. Regular priests belong to religious orders such as Jesuits, or Franciscans, where a superior general has jurisdiction over the order's communities.

Conflict Between Bishops and the Orders: 1500s To 1760

The first  priests who came to the Philippines in the 1500s were from religious orders. In the early days there were no bishops to interfere with their parish work. As bishops were appointed and attempted to exercise their authority over parishes, the regular priests refused to be controlled by them, threatening to leave the Philippines. Bishops could not appoint secular priests to replace them because very few secular priests came from Spain to the Philippines. Vacancies in parishes had to be filled by priests from the Spanish orders. In fact, until the 1700s there were no native-born ordained  priests. The orders did not wish to train native priests.

Secularization of the Philippine Church : 1760s to 1820s

In 1759, a new Spanish monarch, Charles III, wishing to have more control over the Church targeted the religious orders, expelling the Jesuits from the Philippines in 1768. The secular clergy under the crown-appointed bishops were more easily controlled than were the religious priests. This created a shortage of priests in the Philippines, a problem which was solved by training and ordaining Filipino secular priests. The conflict was now between Filipino secular priests and the Spanish religious priests.

Reversal of Secularization : From 1820

The Spanish government's secularization policy changed in the 1820s following Mexico's successful war of independence from Spain. Since Mexican secular priests participated in the revolution against Spain, the Spanish government was now mistrustful of  the Filipino secular priests. At first, the religious orders including the Jesuits, returned and slowly began the take-over of  the parishes. Later, the Spanish authorities transferred parishes directly to the orders which aroused the secular priests to protest.

Father Burgos : 1868 - 1872

Jose Burgos was a young secular priest who emerged as the leader of the Filipino clergy in 1868. He  wrote that their rights were being denied them by the Spanish priests ant  parishes were being denied to Filipinos because of their race. His protests were a concern to the government and the Spanish priests.

Cavite Mutiny and Burgos Execution: 1872

The Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was an uprising of military personnel of the aresnal in Cavite. About 200 soldiers and laborers rose up believing that this was the beginning of a national uprising against the Spanish. The mutiny was unsuccessful. Although there was no real evidence that Burgos was involved in the revolt, the Spanish authorities, with the support of the Spanish orders, executed Burgos and fellow priests Gomez and Zamaora.  The death of Padre Burgos affected Jose Rizal deeply and inspired his nationalistic writings.

Reference 

 Scumacher, John N., (1999)  Father Jose Burgos: A Documentary History (1999) Quezon City : Ateneo de Manila Univ. Press


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Padre Burgos was sentenced to die by the garrotte. The garrotte was a device in which the condemned person was bound and seated in a wooden chair while the executioner tightened a metal band around his neck with a crank until the person was asphyxiated.

 Garrotte execution Philippines, 1901

The first day of issue cancellation includes an image of a garrotte device.

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