The consideration and respect which the Audiencia of Manila merits
among the Indians proceeds also from those times in which its
members made official visits to the provinces, and in these visits
did so much good to the villages. The visiting auditors were, in
reality, friendly mediators in the disputes between the Indians;
and they made agreements, placed limits to the villages, furnished
a sort of municipal ordinance, and protected the natives against the
oppressions of the alcaldes-mayor. Notwithstanding my high opinion of
that tribunal, I regard as very proper the provisions of law xxxiv,
título ii, book ii of the laws of the Indias in regard to the removal
and promotion of its ministers, basing my opinion on the same arguments
as did the law--that is, that it is very desirable not only to reward
them, but to uproot them from the friendships which they contract
in places where they remain a long time. These friendships, whose
influence is always detrimental to the equitable administration of
justice, are in Manila an almost necessary result of the small Spanish
population, of the lack of all public amusement or diversion, and of
the fact that with the enervating effect of the climate the rectitude
and vigor of European morals is lost after some years of residence
in the country. [The Audiencia has been unable to attend to the
administration of justice in the islands as it has desired, for it has
always been hindered by the many obstacles which arise from the storms,
the lack of roads and mail service, the attraction of all the lawyers
in the islands to the capital, the ignorance of the gobernadorcillo and
the alcalde of each other's language and of judicial procedures, the
dilatory mode of carrying on these between the provinces and Manila,
etc. "Thus it is very common that these lawsuits, besides being always
full of defects, last three, four, or six years; and that in that
long period either the delinquents take to flight, or the documents
are lost." Even in the Audiencia itself there are many obstacles to
its action. Its subordinate officials are Indian or mestizo lawyers,
who often are neither competent nor qualified for their positions;]
and that which most contributes to retard the despatch of business,
and to maintain the offices of the court without any organization,
is the unfitness of those who occupy the class or purchasable and
renunciable offices. The court clerk, the special commissioners,
and the attorneys know nothing else than how to obtain the greatest
possible advantage from the purchase of their offices. Without any
instruction in the obligations of those positions, because they cannot
acquire it in that country, and incapable of carrying out even what the
ministers themselves have the patience to teach them, those men are,
notwithstanding, the only ones whom the ministers can choose for those
offices, because they are likewise the only ones who can outbid others
in the sale of them. These positions are also of little advantage,
because in the immense extension of the military jurisdiction, among
the wealthy persons of Filipinas, the tribunal of the War Department
has drawn to itself all the civil causes of importance in the islands;
and the Audiencia has been reduced to criminal causes, and the minor
controversies over land among the Indians, for which reason it is
impossible to have educated Europeans who will purchase those posts
and serve in them. The consequence of this is that the offices of
the Audiencia are in the utmost disorder; that they do not contain
even the books of entry which the laws provide for, or registers,
citations, or reports of cases; that in order to record a decree or an
official report it is necessary for a minister to take upon himself the
task of doing that; and, finally, that the administration of justice
must necessarily be slow. [Bernaldez therefore recommends that the
ministers of the Audiencia be promoted at least every ten years to
other appointments; that the minor offices be no longer purchasable
or renunciable, but filled directly by royal appointment, and given
to suitable persons, with good salaries (which are specified); and
that the government of the islands provide some expedient for raising
money to pay the salary of an attorney-general in each province.]