Gaspar de la Torre y Ayala

Gaspar Antonio de la Torre y Ayala served as the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines from July 1739 until his death on 21 September 1745.

As Governor-General of the Philippines Gaspar de la Torre arrived in the Philippines with the mission to urge the Sultan of Sulu Azim ud-Din (alternatively spelled as Alimuddin) to fulfill an earlier peace treaty signed in 1737 drawn by the previous Governor-General Fernándo Valdés y Tamon and to allow missionaries to carry out their evangelizing work. To this end, he dispatched the Jesuit friars Francisco Sazi and Tomás de Arrevillaga who obtained guarantees from the Sultan that they would be allowed to safely preach.

There were continued incursions from pirates based from Sulu and Mindanao leading the governor-general to retaliate harshly.