XII. Structure of the Philippine Government

Patterned after American system The government of the Philippine Islands as it now exists and functions resembles in structure the Federal and State governments of the United States. It is reared on the same fundamental principles of representative democracy which have made the United States government the model for other states, so that the Philippine government is just as much a republican government as that of the United States; the will of the majority rules.

The law of public officers as observed in the United States is in effect in the Philippine Islands. The principle of division of powers is recognized, and the functions of government are distributed among three departments, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The principle of checks and balances is likewise observed, and the legislature and the courts are prohibited from delegating their powers. The passage of irrepealable laws is forbidden. The government is immune from suit at the instance of private individuals except with its consent.

The Council of State in session

DEPARTURES FROM AMERICAN STANDARDS.—There have been several departures, however, from the American standard of government that have been made by the Filipinos. For instance, the budget system has been adopted previous to its adoption in the United States to provide for economy and certainty in expenditures. The Council of State was created as a coördinating and advisory body to the Governor-General. It is made up of the Governor-General as presiding officer, the six members of the cabinet, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It also serves to bring the executive and the legislative departments into close relationship. The creation of the council seems to indicate a tendency to adopt in the future a parliamentary or semi-parliamentary system of government.

In addition to the foregoing departments there is the further innovation conferring on either house of the legislature, the right to call and interpellate the secretaries of departments before it. The secretaries of departments in turn have the right to be heard in the legislature. The chairmen of the appropriation committees are also empowered to require the attendance of chiefs of bureaus and offices, thus bringing the executive and legislative departments in close harmony.

Autonomy All of the officials of the government are Filipinos with the exception of the Governor-General and the Vice-Governor-General and the majority of the members of the Supreme Court who are Americans, appointed by the President of the United States. There is thus a practical autonomy, the American chief executive having supervision and control of the government in theory but in actual practice rarely acting on matters of domestic concern except with the advice of the Council of State.

Appointments made by the Governor-General are with the advice and consent of the Philippine Senate.

The Members of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.—The Governor-General is appointed by the President by and with the consent of the Senate and holds his office at the pleasure of the President and until his successor is chosen and qualified. Through the Secretary of War, he is responsible to the President and the American people for his acts. He has a more responsible position than that held by the Governors of the several states of the union. He is paid a handsome salary from the Philippine government and is given free quarters. As chief executive of the Islands, he is in charge of the executive control of the Philippine government; which he exercises either in person or through the secretaries of departments. He can veto laws passed by the Philippine Legislature.

THE VICE-GOVERNOR.—The Vice-Governor is also appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of the Senate. He acts at the same time as the Secretary of Public Instruction and may be assigned such other executive duties as the Governor-General may designate. In case of vacancy in the office of the Governor-General, the Vice-Governor acts.

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.—There are six executive departments. At the head of each is a department secretary, who, with the exception of the Secretary of Public Instruction, must be a citizen of the Philippine Islands. As Secretary he is assisted by an under-secretary who temporarily performs the duties of department secretary in case of vacancy. The executive departments and bureaus, offices, and boards pertaining to each are given below:

The Executive Bureau and the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, both of which are under the Department of the Interior, exercise supervision over the provincial and municipal governments. The Executive Bureau has charge of the so-called regular provinces, and the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of those inhabited by the backward inhabitants of the Philippines including the Moros in Mindanao and the Igorotes of the mountain regions of Luzon. The functions of these two bureaus are practically identical, the difference lying only in the degree of civilization of the inhabitants over whom they have supervision.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.—The legislative branch of the Philippine government is vested in the Philippine legislature. It is made up of two separate coördinate bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives. All the senators and representatives are elected by direct popular suffrage with the exception of the representatives and senators from the Mountain Province, the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, and the provinces in Mindanao and Sulu who are appointed by the Governor-General with no restriction as to residence or length of office. The elective representatives hold their office for terms of three years and the senators for terms of six years.

Laws dealing with certain special subjects such as the tariff and the mining laws require the approval of the President of the United States.

The Senate has twenty-four members consisting of two senators from each of the twelve senatorial districts. The lower house has ninety members, determined by the population of each province. Appropriation bills originate by custom in the House of Representatives.

THE JUDICIARY.—An independent judiciary system completes the governmental structure. The administration of justice is entrusted to the Supreme Court, the Courts of First Instance, the Municipal Court of the City of Manila, and the courts of justices of the peace in each municipality.

The Supreme Court is the highest legal entity in the judiciary system. It has an appellate jurisdiction in all actions and special proceedings brought to it from the Courts of First Instance and from other inferior tribunals from whose decision appeals to the Supreme Court are allowed. The justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of the United States Senate and serve during good behavior. It is made up of nine justices, the chief justice and eight associate justices. The chief justice has always been a Filipino. It seats in banc to transact business. It also seats in divisions for the same purpose, and when it so sits, four justices constitute a quorum so that two divisions may sit at the same time.

Appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States are allowed in certain cases only.

The judges of the Court of First Instance are appointed by the Governor-General with the consent of the Philippine Senate and serve practically for life, the only restriction being that they must retire upon reaching sixty-five years of age. The justices of the peace are also appointed by the Governor-General with the advice and consent of the Philippine Senate.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.—The Philippine Archipelago is divided into 46 provinces, 34 of which are designated as regular provinces and the remaining 12 as special provinces.—The chief executive of a regular province is the provincial governor, who is an elective official. He, together with two other elective members, form the provincial board which constitutes the legislative branch of the provincial government. In the special provinces, with the exception of Mindoro, Palawan, and Batanes, the provincial governors are appointive officials.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.—As the name indicates, this branch of the Government has charge of the municipalities or towns. The chief executive of a municipality is called the municipal president. The municipal council, which is the legislative branch of the municipal government, consists of from 8 to 18 councilors, depending on the size of the municipality. There is a vice-president who substitutes the president during his absence or disability and who is ex-officio member of the council. All these officials are elected by the people.

EXPENSES OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT.—All the expenses of the Philippine government are paid for from the Insular Treasury. The United States government pays for nothing in the administration of the Islands except for the army and navy and the salaries of the resident commissioners from the Philippines who are stationed in Washington and granted the privileges of members of Congress.

An investigation into the expenses incurred by the United States for the Philippine Islands, exclusive of the maintenance of her army and navy, elicits the following facts:

1. That the Philippines has always been a self-supporting country; all expenditures have been drawn from ordinary revenues.

2. That the sum of $267,663.26 pertaining to the former government of Spain and seized by the United States, and therefore legally pertaining to the latter country, was subsequently turned over into the general fund of the insular government.

3. That the Congress of the United States appropriated the sum of $3,000,000, known as the “Congressional Relief Fund,” for the purchase, distribution and sale of farm implements, farm or draft animals, supplies and necessaries of life, extermination of pests, relief for sufferers due to fire and other calamities, etc. This amount has been, at different times, appropriated by the Philippine Commission for the purposes above mentioned. The unexpended balance from this fund was subsequently turned over into the general funds.

Aside, therefore, from the Spanish seized funds and the expenses for the army and navy, the only amount expended by the United States directly for the benefit of the Philippine Islands was the Congressional Relief Fund. The Philippine government having always had, at the end of every year, an excess of ordinary revenue over ordinary expenditure, the United States could not have any other occasion to give direct pecuniary aid for the maintenance of the Islands.

FINANCIAL STATUS.—The Philippine government today is on a solid financial basis as any government in the world. It is self-supporting, its taxation is adequate to its needs, the per capita tax of the people is low. The Filipinos bear a smaller burden of taxation than the natives of Great Britain, United States, Japan, Argentina, and Brazil. The year, 1922, was presented with an aggregate surplus of approximately $64,000,000 in central, provincial, and municipal governments including the City of Manila. This goes to show that both the central and local governments are on a sound financial basis.

A clearer comprehension of the financial standing of the government may be had from an inspection of the following tables:

Statement of receipts, expenditures, and surplus of the Insular government, 1921–1922

[Source: Bureau of Audits]

Items of revenue and expenditures 1921 1922
Revenue: Pesos Pesos
Licenses and business. 14,246,440 13,755,670
Import duties. 12,778,791 11,362,250
Excise Tax. 13,327,843 13,444,281
Income tax. 4,880,370 1,943,716
Wharfage tax. 1,473,627 1,852,095
Franchise tax. 243,618 109,749
Documentary stamp tax (customs and internal revenue). 951,809 990,933
Immigration tax. 237,040 239,152
Tonnage dues. 254,515 276,130
Inheritance tax. 210,303 121,812
Revenue from public forests. 923,216 854,337
United States internal revenue. 756,444 1,428,959
Fines and forfeitures. 663,415 799,553
Sales and rentals of public domain. 22,110 24,254
Income from commercial and industrial units. 12,771,068 11,130,403
Income from operating units. 254,514 133,698
Dividends on bank stock. 463,373 ——
Interest repayments, railway companies. 192,716 387,785
All other income[1]. 67,430,039 74,427,334
Prior year adjustments. 1,282,547 531,826
Total. 133,363,798 133,813,937
Less apportionments of internal revenue to local governments. 3,164,084 3,164,084
Total revenue. 130,199,714 130,649,853
Expenditures:
General administration[2] 2,046,646 2,272,591
Legislation 1,413,541 1,547,683
Adjudication 1,891,080 1,747,093
Protective service[3] 5,783,904 4,866,840
Social improvement[4] 13,084,682 13,709,846
Economic development[5] 53,820,568 14,037,386
Aid to local governments 14,305,267 15,561,867
Expense of revenue collection 11,275,497 9,963,714
Public debt 3,811,266 5,117,494
Public works and purchase of equipment 10,209,597 9,670,476
Retirement gratuities[6] 521,226 397,886
Pensions Acts 2909 and 2922 12,000 12,000
Prior year adjustments 18,937 6,248
Total 118,194,211 78,911,424
Current surplus for the year 12,005,503 51,738,429
Current surplus at the beginning of the year 43,937,712 55,943,215
Current surplus at the end of the year 55,943,215 107,681,644

[1] Includes income incidental to functional activities, sales of fixed property, Friar Lands estates and San Lazaro estate, proceeds of loan from currency reserve fund, and sales of agricultural bank loans, etc. [↑]

[2] Executive direction and control. [↑]

[3] Includes expenditures on law and order, national defense, suppression of animal diseases and plant pests, protection against forces majeures and other protective service. [↑]

[4] Includes expenditures on public health, public education, public corrections, public charities, and other social improvements. [↑]

[5] Includes expenditures on conservation of natural resources, development of commerce and agriculture, regulation of public utilities, Philippine publicity, development of industrial arts and sciences, operation of commercial and industrial units, corporate investments, advances to railway companies under guaranty contracts and exchange on advances to railway companies, etc. [↑]

[6] Act No. 2589, amended by Act No. 2796, provides for a gratuity by reason of retirement to officers and employees of the Philippine Government who have rendered satisfactory service during six continuous years or more. [↑]

Budget estimates for the Insular government, 1918–1923

[Source: Budget presented by the Executive Department to the Philippine Legislature]

Items of revenue and expenditures 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923
Pesos Pesos Pesos Pesos Pesos Pesos
Income 45,511,037 70,957,757 73,977,000 84,289,932 63,051,435 65,952,560
Revenue from taxation 30,220,916 48,463,600 47,012,230 56,036,000 42,867,320 42,925,310
Incidental revenue 1,730,000 2,950,000 3,495,000 4,681,600 2,120,000 5,233,500
Earnings and other credits 13,560,120 19,544,157 23,469,770 23,572,332 18,064,115 13,143,750
Income from proposed legislation [b]4,650,000
Current surplus at the beginning of the year 18,996,477 33,470,664 10,560,300 11,964,152
Total available for expenditures 64,477,514 104,428,421 84,537,300 84,289,932 75,015,587 65,952,560
Expenditures 51,051,725 92,003,494 84,453,806 83,549,778 72,538,593 65,677,327
Expense of revenue collection 1,138,904 1,835,078 1,741,202 1,688,370 1,564,726 1,611,533
Operating expense of commercial and industrial units 8,002,820 12,699,877 14,089,177 14,502,504 8,981,853 7,661,867
Public debt 2,087,500 2,310,276 2,308,326 3,459,281 5,189,878 9,698,667
General administration 3,911,100 8,083,832 5,114,677 5,202,098 4,995,090 5,170,217
Protective service 8,261,259 9,696,100 11,185,108 10,373,411 9,284,643 9,393,072
Social improvement 5,680,914 7,987,190 8,498,527 9,093,423 8,818,029 8,317,816
Economic development 3,950,459 6,883,934 9,397,034 10,437,851 8,740,857 7,326,511
Aid to local governments 9,618,425 11,992,281 13,163,155 15,347,095 17,883,667 13,287,409
Retirement gratuities, Act 2589 700,000 800,000 750,000 600,000 500,000 300,000
Emergency service 1,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000
Outlays and investments 6,700,344 14,102,181 15,206,600 9,845,745 4,579,850 2,910,235
Appropriation balances for public works [a]4,296,754
Appropriation balances for miscellaneous accounts [a]10,315,991
Current surplus at the end of the year 13,425,789 12,424,927 83,494 740,154 2,476,994 275,233

[a] Unexpended balances from appropriations for public works and for cadastral survey, construction of irrigation systems, etc. [↑]

[b] Proceeds of proposed luxury tax to cover probable deficit. [↑]

CURRENCY.—At the time of the American occupation, the Mexican dollar and the Spanish peso were in circulation in the Islands as a part of the currency. The Mexican dollar had been introduced because of the trade between the Philippines and Mexico, which was fostered by the Spanish galleons. Besides the Mexican dollar and the Spanish peso, there also circulated the silver peso or dollar of the various South American countries. For fractional currency, however, the Spanish coins predominated. The denominations were half peso, peseta, and media peseta. Gold pieces were of ₱1, ₱2, and ₱4 denominations.

The first mint in the Islands was installed during the reign of Isabela II. It was then that the Philippine peso, both in gold and silver, was first coined.

Currency Legislation America early decided to make the currency system more stable and scientific. On March 2, 1903, Congress passed the Philippine Coinage Act which established the conant or Philippine peso as the official coin of the Islands. The effect of this Act was to drive away all the previous coins in circulation, and it is the basis of the present currency system in the Philippine Islands. The coins provided for were of the denomination of the peso, half-peso, peseta, media peseta, 5 centavos, 1 centavo, and one-half centavo, while the silver certificates were in the denominations of ₱2, ₱5, ₱10, ₱20, ₱50, ₱100, ₱500. The peso was issued on the basis of two Philippine pesos (₱2) to one dollar ($1) gold, United States currency. To maintain the parity the Gold Standard Act was passed by the Philippine Commission in October, 1903. There are gold deposits in the banks of the United States to guarantee every Philippine Government certificate in circulation. This places the Philippines practically on an actual gold basis.

Notes The notes in circulation at the time the Americans came were those issued by the Banco Español-Filipino. They were in 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 Mexican denominations. After the introduction of the Philippine peso, ₱1 notes were also allowed to circulate. In 1912, this same Banco Español was allowed to change its name to that of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, and thereafter, a new series of notes were issued, having the same size as the certificates issued by the Philippine Government, but of the denominations of ₱5, ₱10, ₱20, ₱50, ₱100, and ₱200.

When the Philippine National Bank was established in 1916, it was authorized to issue notes to be known as circulating notes. In accordance with this authorization, denominations of ₱1, ₱2, ₱5, and ₱10 began to appear.

The stability of the currency system in the Philippines depends solely on the maintenance of the parity of the Philippine peso with the gold dollar on the established basis of 2 to 1. This can be easily accomplished by keeping always intact the gold deposits in the United States.

Table of currency in circulation, 1913–1922

Year Amount in circulation Per capita circulation
Pesos Pesos
1913 50,697,253 5.53
1914 52,575,118 5.63
1915 51,284,907 5.40
1916 67,059,189 6.86
1917 102,580,314 10.20
1918 131,151,883 12.67
1919 146,576,956 13.87
1920 124,589,240 11.56
1921 103,661,820 10.01
1922 97,217,468 9.03

ELECTORS.—The total number of electors registered in the election of June 3, 1919, was 717,295 and the votes cast was 672,722, which is a very fine percentage when compared to the interest in elections shown in other countries. In the elections of 1912, 248,154 voters registered, of which 235,786 voted. Of the number of voters registered in 1919, 407,346 possessed educational qualifications, while only 81,916 were educationally qualified in 1912. It should be noted that the Philippine voters must have either property or educational qualifications, so that these figures show the progress of the people in political matters and in education in general during the last few years. In the elections of June, 1922, there were 824,058 voters registered.

The minority party has always accepted the decision of the majority, unless it thinks that the election has been vitiated by some illegal act, in which case it takes the matter up with the courts for decision. The practice of revolutionary countries where defeated minorities take the law in their own hands or use violence against the triumphant party, or utilize every other means to hinder the working of the government, has never been resorted to in the Islands.