[Montero y Vidal's _Archipiélago Filipino_(Madrid, 1866), pp. 162-168,
contains the following chapter.]
The municipal organization of Filipinas differs widely from that
of España.
Some native functionaries, improperly called gobernadorcillos, [103]
exercise command in the towns; they correspond to the alcaldes and
municipal judges, of the Peninsula, and perform at once functions
of judges and even of notaries, with defined powers. As assistants
they elect several lieutenants and alguacils, proportionate in
number to the inhabitants. Those assistants, together with three
ex-gobernadorcillos to whom are referred the duties of judges of
cattle, fields, and police, constitute a sort of town council. Manila
is the only place that has that corporation [_i.e., ayuntamiento_]
with an organization identical with those of the same class in España.
Even when the gobernadorcillos are recompensed with a certain
percentage for the collection of contributions, and they collect
some other dues, the total sum that they finally receive is so small
that their office is considered honorary. In spite of this, the
duty is an onerous one, and they are subject to annoyances, fines,
and imprisonment, if the gubernative, judicial, and administrative
authorities, etc., are rigorous. The Indians covet it with a desire
that is astonishing, and avail themselves of all possible means in
order to obtain it. The secret of the motive that impels them lies in
their fondness for prominence, and in the fact that nearly all of them
succeed in becoming rich, or in attaining independent means, after
the two years of their office. For the _polistas_, or individuals
who are obliged to labor on the public works of the state, build
their houses for them free of cost, bringing the materials from the
forest or the points where they are found; there are the _fallas_,
or the amount of the aliquot sum that is to make good the deficiency
in public works [i.e., in the services on public works rendered by
the natives], in the collection of which there is opportunity for
the gobernadorcillo to figure, by supporting all or the majority of
those who should perform that work, and himself using that money;
the innumerable bribes and illegal exactions that they impose, and
the taxes that they collect through numberless separate judgments:
[all these] make the office sufficiently lucrative, although in
that country, scarcely any importance is attached to many of these
irregularities (even by those who are injured by them), which custom
has almost sanctioned as law.
The election of corporate members is carried on under the presidency
of the provincial chief by twelve of the most prominent men
in the town--half of them drawn by lots cast by those who were
gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay, and the other six from
the cabezas in actual office; while he who is gobernadorcillo at the
time of election votes also. The individual who obtains most votes
is proposed to the general government as being first on the list; he
who follows him in the number of votes, in the second; and the actual
_pedanéo_ [i.e. a subordinate officer, here the gobernadorcillo],
in the third. From that list of three [_terna_], the governor-general
appoints one, after seeing the report of the president of the election.
The cabezas de barangay are chiefs of fifty families, those from
whom are collected the contributions that form part of the revenues
of the treasury and government. This institution, antedating the
conquest, is most useful, the more, for the same reasons, since
the gobernadorcillos come to be to their members of barangays or
those they rule, the same that those pedáneos [i.e.], the cabezas]
are to the generality of the inhabitants. The actual cabezas or the
ex-cabezas, with the gobernadorcillo and the ex-captains (as those
who have exercised that office are designated), form the _principalia_
[i.e., chieftain class, or nobility].
Their usual dress is a black jacket, European trousers, mushroom
hat, and colored slippers; many even wear varnished [i.e., patent
leather] shoes. The shirt is short, and worn outside the trousers. The
gobernadorcillo carries a tasseled cane [_baston_], the lieutenants
wands [_varas_]. On occasions of great ceremony, they dress formally
in frock coat, high-crowned hat--objects of value that are inherited
from father to son.
On the day on which the gobernadorcillo takes his office, his town
has a great festival [_fiestajan_]. All eat, drink, smoke, and amuse
themselves at the expense of the _munícipe_ [i.e., the citizen who
is elected gobernadorcillo], and the rejoicing is universal. In
the tribunal (city hall) he occupies a large lofty seat, which is
adorned with the arms of España and with fanciful designs, if his
social footing shows a respectable antiquity.
On holy days the officials go to the church in a body. The
principalia and the _cuadrilleros_ form in two lines in front of the
gobernadorcillo and the music precedes them. In the church the latter
occupies a seat in precedence of those of the chiefs, who have benches
of honor. After the mass, they usually go to the convent to pay their
respects to the parish priest; and they return to the tribunal in the
same order, the musicians playing a loud double quick march. [104]
There they hold a meeting, at which the gobernadorcillo presides, in
which he, in concert with the cabezas, determines the public services
for the week.
The tributarios of many towns go, after mass, to hear orally the orders
that the cabezas communicate to them. In order to summon any of them
when necessity requires, they have adopted certain taps of the drum;
and on hearing it they go to the tribunal.
If the gobernadorcillo is energetic or has a bad temper, the cabezas
fear and respect him highly; but if he is irresolute they abuse
him. When he goes out on the street, an alguacil with a long wand
precedes him.
Since the majority of these pedáneos do not talk Spanish, they are
authorized to appoint _directorcillos_ [i.e., petty directors],
who receive very slender pay. The directorcillo--who has generally
studied for several years in the university or the colleges of Manila
without concluding his course--writes the judicial measures, and
the answers to the orders of the provincial authorities; serves as
interpreter to the pedáneo, when the latter has to talk to Europeans;
and exercises entire influence in all matters. By virtue of that he
sometimes commits abuses that the gobernadorcillo finds it necessary
to tolerate, in order not to lose his services; for there are towns
where one cannot possibly find another inhabitant to take his place,
because of their ignorance of Castilian. All that redounds to the hurt
of the honest administration of the towns, and even the prestige of
the government, since the said directorcillos are wont to ascribe to
the superior orders their own exactions and annoyances.
Each town of Filipinas contains a number of cuadrilleros, proportional
to its citizenship. They are under obligation to serve for three years,
and only enjoy exemption from the payment of tribute and _polos_. [105]
The cuadrilleros are armed with old guns and spears, perform police
duty, and guard the tribunal, prison, and the royal or government
house. They also go in pursuit of criminals.
Some provinces (for instance, the majority of those in Luzon) are
ruled by legal alcaldes-mayor who are lawyers, who exercise the
civil government, and are at the same time judges of first instance,
sub-delegates of the treasury and of local departments, administrators
of the posts, military commandants, and presiding officers of the
meetings for auctions and for primary instruction. They were also
formerly collectors of tobacco, in the provinces where that plant is
cultivated. [106]
Other provinces, such as those of Visayas and Mindanao, are ruled
by politico-military governors, belonging to the army and fleet,
who also unite duties identical to those of the alcaldes-mayor--with
the difference that in these provinces there are judges for the
administration of justice; while in the provinces of Luzón the
governors conduct the court of justice, with a lawyer as advisory
assistant [_asessor_], who is the judge of the next province. In
those provinces where no department of the public treasury exists,
they are also directors of economic matters.
A governor and captain-general exercises the supreme authority in
Filipinas. In his charge is the direction of all civil and military
matters, and even the direction of ecclesiastical matters in so far
as they touch the royal patronage. Until 1861, when the council of
administration was created, he also had charge of the presidency of
the royal Audiencia and Chancillería there.
The authority, then, of the governor-general is complete, and such
a number of attributes conferred on one functionary (incompetent,
as a general rule, for everything outside of military matters),
is certainly prejudicial to the right exercise of his duty.
Until the year 1822, private gentlemen, magistrates, military men,
sailors, and ecclesiastics, without any distinction, were appointed
to fill so lofty a post; and they have borne the title and exercised
the functions of captain-general to suit their own convenience.
During the vacancies, political authority resided in the royal
assembly--the Audiencia in full [107] and the military authority in an
auditor (magistrate), with the title of captain-general _ad interim_.
From the said year of 1822, the government has always devolved upon
an official, a general; in case of his death, the segundo cabo,
a general, is substituted for him; and in case of the death of the
latter, the commandant-general of the naval station.
The captain-general is, as we have indicated, supreme chief of all
departments, and the sum total of his pay amounts to forty thousand
pesos annually.
A command of so great importance, superior to the viceroyalties of
our former American colonies, ought not to be given exclusively to one
specified class; and the election of governor should be free, although
with the limitation that only ex-ministers and high dignitaries of
the army or of any other institution, who merit through their lofty
talents, known competence, and proved morality, that España should
entrust to them its representation and the exercise of its sovereignty
in so precious a portion of its domains, should be eligible to it. Thus
jointly do the prestige of the Spanish name the complications of
political life in modern society, and the progress and welfare of
eight millions of Spanish Indians--worthy under all concepts on which
governments now fix their attention more than they have hitherto done,
in a matter of so transcendent importance--demand this with urgency.
It is also advisable to change the vicious, anomalous, and unsuitable
organization of the provinces of Filipinas, assimilating them, so far
as possible, to those of España. The separation of the gubernatorial
and judicial duties, the suppression of politico-military commands,
and the appointment of civil governors, under excellent conditions
and unremovable for six years, are urgent; all these are measures
that will positively redound to the benefit of the country.