[Original Policy]
The Second Philippine Commission sent out to the Philippines by
President McKinley on March 16, 1900 were given the following
instruction, among others:
"That in all cases, the municipal officers who administer the local
affairs of the people are to be selected by the people and that
wherever officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected
in any way, natives of the Islands are to be preferred, and if
they can be found competent and willing to perform their duties
they are to receive the offices in preference to any others."
These instructions were confirmed by President Roosevelt when he
said that the Government of the Philippine Islands would cease to
be a government of Americans aided by Filipinos and instead would
be a government of Filipinos aided by Americans. And in 1908 after
the opening of the Philippine Assembly, President Roosevelt in his
message to Congress added:
"I trust that within a generation the time will arrive when the
Filipinos can decide for themselves whether it is well for them to
become independent or continue under the protection of a strong
and disinterested power, able to guarantee to the islands order
at home and protection from foreign invasion."
[Filipinization]
In pursuance of all this policy the placing of Filipinos in government
offices was hastened from 1913 to 1921, the turning over of power into
Filipino hands having been virtually made complete by the passage
of the Jones Law in 1916. This law provided for the creation of an
elective Senate and House of Representatives and for the appointment
of heads of departments and other government officials. Appointments
made by the Governor-General were made to be with the advice and
consent of the Philippine Senate.
The proportion of Filipinos to Americans in the Philippine Government
during the period 1914-1921 is shown in the following table:
-----+--------------------------------+-----------------------
| Number | Percentage
-----+-----------+-----------+--------+-----------+-----------
Year | Americans | Filipinos | Total | Americans | Filipinos
-----+-----------+-----------+--------+-----------+-----------
| | | | Per cent | Per cent
1914 | 2,148 | 7,283 | 9,451 | 23 | 77
1915 | 1,935 | 7,881 | 9,816 | 20 | 80
1916 | 1,730 | 8,725 | 10,455 | 17 | 83
1917 | 1,310 | 9,859 | 11,169 | 12 | 88
1918 | 948 | 10,866 | 11,814 | 8 | 92
1919 | 760 | 12,047 | 12,807 | 6 | 94
1920 | 582 | 12,651 | 13,143 | 4 | 96
1921 | 614 | 13,240 | 13,854 | 4 | 96
1922 | 604 | 13,726 | 14,330 | 4 | 96
-----+-----------+-----------+--------+-----------+-----------
[Instruments of Autonomy]
The principal agencies that gave the Filipinos effective control
over domestic affairs in conformity with the spirit of the Jones Law,
were the following:
1. The creation of a Council of State on October 16, 1918, to help
and advise the Governor-General on matters of public importance. In
this council many prominent leaders of the Filipino people have
figured prominently.
2. The creation of the Philippine Cabinet by which the Government
Departments were organized and the work of the Executive Department
divided among them. The aim was to have them undertake the work
expressly entrusted to them, and to have in each branch of the
administration a head responsible for its policy and direction. Each
Secretary of Department assumes responsibility for all the activities
of the government under his control and supervision. To this end he
has the power to initiate, the power to regulate, the power to direct
and inspect, and the power to appoint and remove.
3. The several laws that had given to the Council of State and to the
Chairmen of the two houses of the Legislature the power to supervise
and control the execution of the laws.
4. The liberal policy followed by Governor-General Harrison in
accordance with the liberal tenor of the Jones Law, a policy really
preparatory for the independence of the Philippines.
Speaking of this policy, Governor-General Harrison on September 1,
1916, said:
"I firmly believe that the Chief Executive should consult the
people through their representatives who are called upon to serve
them. This is the very life-blood of self-government. It should
never be possible for a Chief Executive--and it will now never
be possible here--to ride ruthlessly over the people he has been
sent here to govern, without taking into account their feelings,
and without due consideration to their desires."
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FILIPINO GOVERNMENT.--The outstanding achievements
of the Filipinized government are summarized below.
I. REORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENTS.--The Reorganization Act, as finally
passed by the Philippine Legislature (Act No. 2666 as amended by
Act No. 2803), has provided the Philippine government with a more
logical and scientific grouping of bureaus and offices. It has given
the new department heads more authority and power over the offices
and bureaus under them. They are now empowered to promulgate rules,
regulations, orders, circulars, memorandums, and other instructions
for the harmonious and efficient administration of each and all of the
offices and dependencies of each department. Secretaries of departments
may be called by either of the two Houses of the Legislature for the
purpose of reporting on matters pertaining to their departments. In
this case they are also responsible to the two Houses. The six
departments created by the Reorganization Act correspond to the six
principal purposes of a fairly well organized government, to wit:
[Functions of the Departments]
(1) The maintenance of order and political direction of local
administrative units, such as departments, provincial and municipal
governments, and special governments--the Department of Interior;
(2) The guardianship of the State over the mental development and
physical welfare of the citizens--the Department of Public Instruction;
(3) The collection of the public revenues and administration of the
finances and business of the government--the Department of Finance;
(4) The enforcement of the law and safeguarding of the citizens and
their rights--the Department of Justice;
(5) The guardianship in connection with the preservation of the
natural resources and the development of the country's sources of
wealth--the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources; and
(6) The carrying out of such work and services as cannot be performed
by private citizens, conducive to the common welfare and public
prosperity--the Department of Commerce and Communications.
II. ADOPTION OF A BUDGETARY SYSTEM.--A scientific budgetary system
has been adopted. Under the system the estimates are made under the
supervision and control of the department heads who have the power to
add or cut down items. These different estimates are then submitted to
the Secretary of Finance, who coördinates them. Any conflict between
a departmental head and the Secretary of Finance is submitted to the
Council of State for decision. Once the budget is definitely approved
by the Council of State the Governor-General submits it with a message
to the Legislature.
The lower house is the first one to take up the budget. The
corresponding Department Secretary appears before it to explain the
details of the budget for his Department and to answer all questions
by the members. Once the budget is approved in principle it is sent
to the Committee on Appropriations with instructions to draft the
appropriation bill in accordance therewith. When the appropriation
bill is approved by the house, it is sent to the Senate and practically
the same procedure is followed.
[The Emergency Board]
To make the budgetary system sufficiently elastic to meet changing
conditions, there has been created the so-called Emergency Board
composed of the Secretary of Finance as Chairman, two members of
the Legislature, the Insular Auditor and the Attorney-General as
members. In the general Appropriation Act, this board is given a
substantial amount with which to supply the additional funds that the
various units of the government may need for the purpose authorized
by the appropriation law. As an additional safe-guard, the actions
of the Emergency Board do not become operative until after approval
by the Governor-General and the presidents of both houses.
III. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.--In public improvements, the following was
the record of the Filipinos within the last nine years. The mileage
of first-class roads was more than doubled increasing from 2,172
kilometers in 1913 to 4,782 in 1922, not to speak of the second
and third class; 7,562 permanent bridges and culverts are now in
existence; 725 permanent government buildings were built, including
schools, public markets, hospitals, provincial capitols, and large
and beautiful edifices for the university and the Insular government;
a network of wireless stations was erected throughout the provinces;
a vast program of improvements in port works was launched, and a bond
issue of ten million pesos was sold in the United States for harbor
improvements in Manila alone; irrigation works estimated to cost about
ten million pesos, and designed to benefit 150,000 acres of land in
sixteen different localities, were initiated; 949 artesian wells in
the different provinces, an average of one to each municipality, were
drilled at a total cost of nearly two and one-half million pesos,
and 55 new water-works systems were installed with 36 more under
active construction, to cost more than three million pesos.
IV. AGRICULTURE AND TAXATION.--The progress in agriculture was
remarkable. The chief point of interest here is that the placing of
Filipinos in control of the agricultural departments greatly enlarged
the power of the Government to influence the people to increased
production. Of rice alone, 1,285,385 acres more were planted during
the last nine years (1913-1922); 544 rural-credit societies were
established with a membership of 75,114 and coöperation in agriculture,
a new spirit among the farmers, encouraged and explained.
Taxation was revised and increased, and the government revenue
from this source which in 1913 had been only P39,236,007, rose to
P62,900,403 in 1919 and P64,259,776 in 1922; there are twelve banking
institutions in the Islands, now, instead of only six, and the money
in circulation has risen from P50,000,000 in 1914 to three times
that figure.
V. PUBLIC ORDER.--Public order, the first requisite of a stable
government, has been splendidly maintained through the agency of the
Philippine Constabulary and the municipal police. The Constabulary
has always been dependable and thoroughly efficient. There is hardly
any country in the world more peaceful than the Philippines.
VI. EDUCATION.--The present school system in the Philippines has been
one of the principal uplifting agencies in the colonial enterprise
undertaken by the United States as a result of the Spanish-American
war. Immediately after the capitulation of Manila, an army officer
acting as superintendent of schools opened schools. Everywhere the army
went afterwards a public school was established and put into operation.
The school system is supported entirely from Philippine revenue. The
advance has been rapid, there now being about a million pupils in
the schools being taken care of by the Philippine government. The
attendance of almost a million is entirely voluntary, there being no
compulsory education law.
The public school system has received the unstinted support of the
Filipino people. The first bill passed by the Philippine Assembly in
1907 was the appropriation of one million pesos for the building of
rural schools. In 1918 the thirty million-peso act was passed, which
provided that thirty million pesos be set aside, over and above the
regular annual appropriation, for school-housing and equipment. The
law is expected to provide school facilities for every boy and girl
of school age in the Islands by 1924.
The head of the public-school system is the Vice-Governor-General who
is at the same time Secretary of Public Instruction. The executive
control is centered in the Bureau of Education headed by a director,
who is responsible for the conduct of public schools and has the
authority necessary to make his control effective.
School divisions.--The Islands are divided into forty-nine school
divisions, each division generally coinciding with the boundaries of
a province, except the City of Manila, and four Insular schools--the
Philippine Normal School, the Philippine School of Arts and Trades,
the Philippine Nautical School, and the Central Luzon Agricultural
School--each of which is considered as a distinct division. A
division is under the immediate charge of a superintendent who
is the representative of the Director of Education. The Division
Superintendent in the province is generally assisted by a provincial
industrial supervisor and an academic supervisor. Each provincial
division is divided into different districts consisting of one or
more municipalities and several barrios or villages, each under the
charge of a supervising teacher.
There are 50 provincial high schools. There are 20 provincial
trade schools and 14 provincial shops, the principals of which are
responsible directly either to the principal of the provincial school
or to the Division Superintendent of Schools.
The original feature of all school work was the academic. Soon the
Bureau of Education labored to make industrial work a part and parcel
of the curriculum. This was followed by making physical education a
vital part of the courses. And now the aim is to maintain a proper
balance in the academic, industrial, physical, and social work.
The English language is the only medium of instruction.
There are seven elementary grades--four primary and three
intermediate. The secondary courses take four years. There has been
built up an English-speaking Filipino teaching staff--a distinctive
achievement reflecting credit on Filipinos and Americans alike.
Vocational instruction.--Graded vocational instruction occupies an
important place in the school curricula. Approximately 14 per cent
of the total time in the primary grades and about 17 per cent of the
total time in the general intermediate course is devoted to this form
of instruction. The special intermediate vocational courses include
farming and trades for boys and housekeeping and household arts
for girls. The chief aims of industrial instruction are: first,
industrial intelligence; second, industrial skill; and, third,
industrial sympathy. The educational and economic values of industrial
education are kept in view. It may be of interest to mention that the
Bureau of Education annually receives orders amounting to $150,000 a
year from various firms abroad, especially from America, for handicraft
articles; that trade school production yearly is over $100,000 and that
the yearly agricultural production of the schools is over $281,000.
Agricultural education.--The Philippines being essentially an
agricultural country, agricultural education is given considerable
attention. The Bureau of Education at present maintains 13 large
agricultural schools, 15 farm schools, and 162 settlement farm
schools. The agricultural school range in area from about 125 to
about 3,000 acres; the farm schools, from about 40 to 125 acres;
the settlement farm schools, from about 30 to about 100 acres. In
addition to these, the Bureau of Education has an extensive program
of school and home gardening and maintains numerous agricultural clubs
for boys and girls. Under the stress of the world-wide economic crisis
brought about by the World War, the general office appealed to the
country for increased productions, and in response to this appeal,
the schools now have over 4,000 school gardens and over 100,000 home
gardens. Annually there are held over 20,000 Garden Days where there
are over 143,000 pupils' exhibits and about 40,000 farmers' exhibits.
Athletics.--The system of physical education here compares favorably
with the best in the world. The temptation of developing only a
few "stars" has been valiantly resisted and the athletic slogan of
"Athletics for Everybody" has been stressed instead. As a result of
this policy over 96 per cent of the pupils enrolled in the elementary
and secondary schools take active participation in the program of
athletics and games during the year.
Primary and Secondary Curriculum.--In the seven years' course the
studies are principally language, reading, good manners and right
conduct, arithmetic, civics, hygiene and sanitation, writing, drawing,
music, and Philippine history and government, in addition to a definite
vocational training and organized play and athletics. Besides the
regular secondary course, specialized secondary courses such as
the normal, commercial, trade, agricultural, and domestic science
are offered.
Number of pupils.--The enrollment of pupils in the public schools below
the University of the Philippines from the school year 1913-1914 to
1920-1921 is as follows:
-----------+-----------+-------------------
| | Increase over
| | previous year
Year | Enrollment|---------+---------
| | Number | Per cent
-----------+-----------+---------+---------
1913-1914 | 621,114 | 180,980 | 41.0
1914-1915 | 621,114 | ------- | ----
1915-1916 | 638,548 | 17,434 | 2.8
1916-1917 | 675,997 | 37,449 | 5.8
1917-1918 | 671,398 | 4,699 | .7
1918-1919 | 681,588 | 10,290 | 1.5
1919-1920 | 791,626 | 110,040 | 16.0
1920-1921. | 943,364 | 151,736 | 19.0
1921-1922. | 1,077,342 | 133,978 | 13.0
-----------+-----------+---------+---------
Number of schools and teachers.--The number of schools rose from 2,934
in 1913 to 7,670 in March, 1922, representing an increase of 128 per
cent. The average annual decrease in the number of schools from 1909
to 1913 (5 years preceding Filipino autonomy) was 181, or 4.8 per cent,
while the average yearly increase from 1914 to 1920 was 416.
The number of Filipino teachers increased from 7,671 in 1913 to 24,017
in 1922, which means an increase of 16,346, or 213 per cent. The
number of American teachers dropped from 658 in March, 1913, to 347
in March, 1922.
Number of school buildings.--The number of permanent school buildings
constructed up to 1913 was 624, which number rose to 1,301. In other
words, during nine years (1913-1922), 108 per cent more permanent
buildings were erected.
Universities.--Foremost among the universities in the Islands
is the University of the Philippines, which corresponds to a
state university. It gives courses in liberal arts, the sciences,
education, medicine and surgery, dentistry, pharmacy, agriculture,
veterinary medicine, engineering, law, forestry, music, and the
fine arts. Collegiate degrees are conferred upon graduates in all
the courses mentioned with the exception of the last two, for which
diplomas of proficiency are issued to the graduates.
The enrollment in the University for the school year 1922-1923 is
4,839, so that in 10 years the attendance rose from 1,400 in 1911-1912
to 4,839 in 1922-1923, representing an increase of 237 per cent. The
University has now 45 buildings of permanent materials.
The Santo Tomas University was the first to be established. It has the
distinction of being the oldest university under the American flag,
having been founded a quarter of a century before Harvard. It gives
courses in law, medicine, pharmacy, civil engineering, philosophy
and letters, and theology, and has about 700 students. The medium of
instruction is the Spanish language.
Besides these two universities there is the National University
with upwards of 4,500 students and the Manila University with almost
3,000. The presidents of the last two universities are Filipinos.
The overwhelming majority of the faculty in all the institutions of
high learning in the Islands are Filipinos.
VII. SANITATION.--In sanitation the progress attained by the
Philippines during the Filipinized government has also been rapid. The
sanitary work is now controlled by a central bureau called the
Philippine Health Service. With this centralization of activities
health measures can be enforced more economically and more effectively
than in previous years.
The municipalities are grouped into sanitary divisions, each of which
is in charge of a competent official. With few exceptions the men
in charge are qualified physicians. At the end of the year 1921,
there were 307 sanitary divisions comprising 792 out of the 846
municipalities. In other words, nearly 94 per cent of the total
number of municipalities in the Philippines form a part of these
sanitary divisions.
Some of the important functions of the Philippine Health Service are
as follows:
1. Control and supervision of all hospitals for dangerous communicable
diseases, and the isolation of persons suffering from such diseases.
2. Control of sanitation of schoolhouses and premises, prisons and
all other places for the detention of prisoners.
3. Establishment and maintenance of internal quarantine in times of
epidemic and the systematic inoculation of the inhabitants with virus,
sera, and prophylactics.