Dominicans Request Suppression of the Audiencia
Certain religious of the Order of St. Dominic declare that his Majesty’s decrees are not observed, and relate the evil behavior of the fiscal of that Audiencia. They send a memorandum of their arguments for the suppression of the Audiencia in those islands.
Sire:
The Order of St. Dominic has been in these districts and islands upwards of twenty-four years, and one of those who write this letter is one of the first who came to these districts to establish the order. Here, by the grace of God, great service has been rendered to God and to your Majesty in the conversion of the provinces which have been entrusted to us—namely, the province of Pangasinan, and that of Cagayan, and this. The conversion has ceased to progress for want of ministers, and now is not being continued for the natives. In all the above period of time, we have seen many things, and write as eyewitnesses. Our first statement is that if this country were governed according to the orders and decrees despatched by your Majesty for that purpose, it would be the most prosperous of all your Majesty’s kingdoms, for your Majesty’s orders in regard to this country seem truly to have had at the time of their ordering the special help of the Holy Spirit. But the deplorable thing is that your Majesty’s orders and decrees are not observed; and worse, some say that your decrees do not bind the conscience. This is very grievous, and brings in its train great difficulties. The pity is, that those who should be the agents and defenders of your decrees are the first to violate them. All that is done is contrary to your Majesty’s orders and commands. As this state of affairs should be punished severely for the correction of other offenders, and there is no one to attend to that punishment, the Lord, who is supreme judge, advocates the cause thus, and punishes them, avenging by His hand the little respect given to your Majesty’s just orders. This is seen in the great number of shipwrecks, one after another. Although there are no prophets in this land, yet all prognosticate beforehand what will surely happen, since the vessels sail with so heavy a cargo of injustices; and accordingly they say that the voyages will not end well, as we see by the outcome. But the pity is that, as the punishment is public, and in the ships, it is necessary that the just should pay for the sinners. Of the truth of all the above, your Majesty would rest assured if you were to visit this country. This is daily going from bad to worse, because until now, if those debarred therefrom were trading and engaging in commerce, they did so with some show of shame, and under some cover; but last year your Majesty’s fiscal came here, and all shame has been lost. For he has publicly traded and engaged in commerce, and has gone to Cavite to lade his exports. This has scandalized the entire community. Although the fiscal has been advised and corrected in a fraternal spirit, he has not turned over a new leaf. One of our number having told him that he had committed a heavy sin against the oath that he had given to your Majesty, he says that he knows his own business, and what he can do. And, as your Majesty is far away, they have no fear.
A memorandum concerning your Majesty’s Audiencia in this country, accompanies this letter. Therein are set forth the reasons why it is advisable for your Majesty to order it to be suppressed, and they explain how it would be to the service of God and of your Majesty, and to the advantage of your royal treasury were there no Audiencia. For the Audiencia serves but to take the profits of the country, in violation of your Majesty’s orders in your royal decrees. For if there is any matter of gain it is given to the relatives or followers of the auditors, and in matters touching trade and commerce, these are they who export most of the cargo. This is manifestly unjust, as it would be in Castilla, if any corregidor should unlawfully reap the benefits of the whole returns of vineyards which were not his. In this country there are no other vineyards or fields than the cargo which your Majesty has conceded to the inhabitants. As for the advantage that could accrue from this Audiencia to this country, that was, to act as a check on the governor. This consideration has now no longer any force, on account of the decrees brought by the governor, in which the auditors are ordered not to oppose him, but only to give information to your Majesty. This can be done by many in this community who are free from covetousness (as are the archbishop and the religious orders), if they were permitted to attend to this and to oppose the acts of the governor. The auditors are pledged to the said governor, because he has given the posts and advantageous positions to the relatives of the auditors; therefore the latter do not dare to talk, as experience has shown us in the past. If your Majesty reestablished the Audiencia—and we, your Majesty’s vassals, requested it—it was with hopes of the aforesaid. And since that result is lacking, it is very much to the service of God and of your Majesty, and advantageous to your royal treasury, that there be no Audiencia. For any lawyer can conclude the cases here, as Licentiate Rojas and Doctor Morga did when there was no Audiencia here. We trust, through our Lord’s mercy, that your Majesty will consider this so just proposal, and give it inspiration, so that it will be settled in a manner suitable to the service of God and that of your Majesty, and the welfare of all these your vassals who live so far from your Majesty, and who are most loyal, as you have been made to see in the past.
Archbishop Don Diego Vazquez de Mercado reached this city this month of June, and was received with universal rejoicing and happiness; for he is well-known, and the people know his earnest zeal, and that it is expended for the service of your Majesty and that of God, and the increase of our holy faith. We trust that life will be given him to reestablish all this country that has remained without a shepherd for so long. The pity is, that he has not the means with which to assist the poor, as their father which he is, and all are grieving over this. Will your Majesty encourage him to continue with holy zeal in the future and not to become faint-hearted on account of poverty; and surely it is poverty to be an archbishop in this land.
The royal officials, whose duty it is, by right, to inform your Majesty of everything here, will inform you and attend to that. They are honorable men and fulfil their obligations, as we see. Especially does the factor Juan Saenz de Hegoen attend in a very Christian and faithful manner, and very assiduously and carefully, to what is in his charge. He shows his zeal for the service of your Majesty and for the increase of your royal treasury. He is deserving of favor from your Majesty. Inasmuch as others will inform you of this, we shall not enlarge more on it, but beg from the Lord the life that we all wish for your Majesty, even if it be taken from ours, for the welfare of His church, the glory of the Lord, and the increase of the estates of your Majesty. Manila, June the last, 1610.
Fray Baltasar Fort,[1] prior provincial.
Fray Francisco Miñayo,[2] prior of St. Dominic, Manila.
Fray Bernardo De Santo Catalina,
commissary of the Holy Office.
Memorandum, in order that his Majesty may see why it is not advisable to have an Audiencia in the city of Manila.
Many great disadvantages result from having an Audiencia in the Philipinas Islands. Only those that appear to be the worst are mentioned.
1st. As to the first, it has been seen by experience that, since the arrival of the royal Audiencia, many more suits occur than before. The jails are full of prisoners; that of Manila contains usually more than one hundred prisoners. Some of them are there for a considerable time, even for many years, because the auditors do not attend to their duty. A Sangley infidel of those imprisoned during the war was seven full years in prison. After that, for want of galley criminals, he was placed in the galleys, while his case was being investigated. He was one of those who afterward mutinied in the galley, and killed the captain, after which he and his companions went to China. There is at present an Indian woman of La Panpanga imprisoned in the Manila prison. She was incarcerated there when a girl, for she was said to have been accomplice in a murder. She has grown up in the prison, and is now a woman in years; and her case is still to be investigated. In conclusion, it is an open fact that those imprisoned at the order of the governor or alcaldes are generally let out of prison quickly, and their affairs are soon concluded. But those imprisoned by the royal Audiencia either have no hope of leaving, or else they leave the prison only after a long period.
2d. Item: That the said royal Audiencia not only is useless in these islands, but a signal harm to, and destroyer of the peace and quiet of the natives of the islands, because of the Indians’ method of procedure and their characteristics. These are quite different from the characteristics of the Spaniards, for when the Indians have quarrels and disputes, they do not come to knife-thrusts or blows, but present false testimony. For this the royal Audiencia’s method of procedure is very suitable. When an Indian is accused by a false witness whom they present, the Audiencia immediately have the accused man arrested and thrust into prison, which is the end desired by his opponent in order to avenge himself; for he knows quite well that the prisoner has entered the prison not for a few days or months. If the accuser wishes to proceed with his investigation, he presents more witnesses and proves whatever he desires. He can find witnesses for anything, as the Indian’s nature is as facile in swearing falsehood as truth. Cases like this are actually seen daily. In grave matters the innocent and guiltless are punished and condemned to the galleys, while the guilty and deceivers are left free and unpunished. The ministers of the gospel, who know the truth of the matter, and how things are tending, seeing that those punished blaspheme the name of God—saying that those who condemn them are Christians and men placed there in the stead of the king to administer justice, but who administer injustice—the religious, then, incited by their zeal for the honor of God, inform the judges. That the truth may be known, they go to give information of what they know. The judges answer that they have to judge juxta allegata et probata, without proceeding to inquire of the nature of the witnesses. Consequently instead of administering justice they administer injustice. They condemn the innocent, and allow the criminals to go free. False testimonies continue to increase. False witnesses have no fear of justice. Finally, the Indians declare that they punished like crimes better when they were infidels, while the Sangley infidels assert that their law is better, for justice proceeds rigorously to punish false witnesses, which is not done by the royal Audiencia.
3d. Item: The said royal Audiencia is the cause of the perversion of distributive justice. Dignities and offices are given to the unworthy and undeserving, thus causing those who have served his Majesty to complain.[3] For the appointive offices and offices of dignity, both of war and of the districts of alcaldes-mayor, are given to the brothers, sons, or relatives of the said auditors. These are men without experience or merit. As a manifest and evident proof of this, it is not necessary to refer to the events of past years, but only to what is now current in this city of Manila. There are five companies of foot-soldiers. Don Pedro de Almaçan, son of Auditor Almaçan, a youth of tender years, and inexperienced in military affairs, is captain of one company. Don Juan de la Vega, son of Auditor Vega, likewise a person of tender years, has another company. Captain Madrid, brother of Auditor Madrid—who has been in this country but one year, and before coming here was only a common soldier—has a third company. I do not mention many others—alferezes and sergeants who are immature boys—at whom all laugh, and who would better be in school than occupying such offices. They are the ridicule and plaything of the soldiers; for the latter see in them no other valor or sufficiency than to be relatives of the auditors or fiscal. The same is true of other honorable and advantageous posts. Mateo de Heredia is alcalde-mayor of La Pampanga. He is the son-in-law of Licentiate Almacan, and that office is the best appointment in this country. To be chief guard of the parián of the Sangleys is a position that needs especially qualified persons, and those who have served his Majesty for many years. For six or seven years it has been held by Diego Sanchez, a common person, who is married to a mestizo woman of Nueva España. He has no greater merit therein than to be the brother-in-law of Auditor Alcaraz. The same is true of other provisions.
4th. Item: That if any person connected with any of the auditors commits a crime or crimes, such a one is not brought to justice for it, however grave and enormous his crime. This very year a very grave case has happened in this city, in the person of a son of Auditor Vega, who committed adultery with a woman married to an inhabitant of this city, an honorable man, and of a good family. The woman betook herself to a convent; and the adulterer fled. The aggrieved man begged justice of the governor and the Audiencia. The said Auditor Vega not only did not do his duty as judge, but defended his son with unfurled banners, to his own great infamy and censure as a person whom his Majesty maintains, to administer justice. The preachers have denounced him in the pulpits, demanding that justice be done. The people are exceedingly scandalized at so grave a matter remaining unpunished, only because the criminal is the son of an auditor. Not only do they not punish him, but the said adulterer was even made captain of infantry in the war with the Dutch, to the great offense of all. That appeared so unjust that a grave religious, who was going to the said war, said that he feared the wrath of God, and that the enemy would be victorious, because of so mischievous a man going on our side, who had offended God so deeply. Yet he was not punished, for the sole reason of being the son of an auditor, and because his father defended him so earnestly.
5th. Item: That the said auditors in this country can rather be called honorable traders and merchants than ministers of justice, since they trade and engage in commerce quite openly. Under their protection their sons, relatives, and connections trade very extensively. This is a cause of very great injury to the poor, and to the inhabitants of this city; and they are defrauded in the division of the cargo, for the auditors’ freight is better looked after. Hence it follows that the auditors possess very large estates. They build elegant houses, at a cost of twelve or fourteen thousand pesos. They generally keep embroiderers at work in their houses publicly, just as any merchant keeps them.
6th. Lastly, after the arrival of the governor last year with the decrees that he brought from his Majesty, if the royal Audiencia was before a harm or of little use, it is now useless; because then its possible service was to oppose the said governor and to undo any injury or violence committed by the governor, but now that is prohibited by the said decrees of his Majesty. In them his Majesty orders the royal Audiencia not to contradict their president and captain-general in whatever the latter wishes to do, but to advise him of the governor’s actions, without opposing the latter, in order to avoid scandals. In order to give information of the governor’s want of prudence, no Audiencia is needed, for there are enough people here to advise you.
During former years this city petitioned his Majesty that he would be pleased to order the establishment of an Audiencia, because it was believed that it would be a check on the governor’s actions, which were not so well considered. Now this ceases with the said precautions brought by the governor, in which his Majesty orders that the auditors shall not oppose the governor, but that they only advise his Majesty of everything. As to the said Audiencia, their hands have not been tied by these new precautions, nor do the auditors pay any attention to them, for they have so ingratiated themselves with the governor, because he has advantaged them and their relatives and followers, and his Majesty is so far away.
[1] Baltasar Fort was a native of Moto in Valencia, though some say of Horcajo in the diocese of Tortosa. He studied Latin grammar at Villa de San Mateo. At Valencia he studied philosophy. He took his vows at the Dominican convent of San Esteban at Salamanca, May 2, 1586. After serving as prior and as master of novitiates in Aragonese convents, he went to Manila in 1602. Mart of his ministry there was passed in the province of Pangasinam. He served as prior of the Manila convent, and then as provincial, after which he was sent to Japan as vicar-provincial, whence he was exiled in 1614. He was definitor several times and once rector of the college of Santo Tomás, after which he was again prior of the Manila convent. He died in that convent without the last sacraments, October 18, 1640, being over seventy years of age.—See Reseña biográfica, part i, pp. 311, 312.
[2] Francisco Minayo was a native of Arévalo. After arriving at the Philippines in 1598, he labored extensively in Cagayán, where his ministry had good results. He was accused of the sin against nature, but after arrest and trial was released. Later he was prior of the Manila convent, and after his three years’ term returned to Cagayán, where he died at Lallo-c, August 25, 1613. See Reseña biográfica, part i, pp. 302–303.
[3] The following law was passed at Lerma July 23, 1605; and at Madrid December 19, 1618, and is found in Recopilación de leyes, lib. iii, tit. x, ley xiv: “The governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands shall take care to reward the soldiers who shall have served us there, and their sons, with the posts and profits that shall fall to his appointment, in accordance with the ordinance, and with full justification, so that they may have some remuneration, observing in everything the laws issued upon this matter.”