Political and Administrative Organization
[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,[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
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[15] 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.
[1] Inasmuch as Bonifaz, although junior auditor, obtained the office by trickery he was a true governor ad interim, and the Audiencia did not have charge of political affairs.
[2] The following authorities were used in compiling the above list of governors: Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos (Mexico, 1609); Argensola, Conquistas de las Malucas (Madrid, 1609); Colin, Labor evangelica (Madrid, 1663)—who mentions as authorities the authors Morga, Grijalva, and Chirino; San Antonio, Chronicas, parte primera (Manila, 1738); Murillo Velarde, Historia, (Manila, 1749); Delgado, Historia general (Manila, 1892); La Concepcion, Historia general (Sampaloc, 1788–1792); Zúñiga, Historia de las islas Filipinos (Sampaloc, 1803), and Estadismo (Retana’s ed., Madrid, 1893); Mas, Informe de las Islas Filipinos (Madrid, 1843); Buzeta and Bravo, Diccionario (Madrid, 1851); Montero y Vidal, Historia general (Madrid, 1887), and Historia de la pirateria (Madrid, 1888); Combés, Historia de Mindanao y Jolo (Retana’s ed., Madrid, 1897); Católogo de la exposition general de las Islas Filipinos (Madrid, 1887); Algué, Archipiélago Filipino (Washington, 1900); Sawyer, Inhabitants of the Philippines (New York, 1900); Calkins, “Filipino Insurrection of 1896” in Harper’s Monthly, vol. xcix, pp. 469–483; and various documents already published in this series.
[3] Delgado’s work was written during 1751–54.
[4] Referring to the dissensions and conflicts between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities which culminated in the assassination (October 11, 1719) of Governor Bustamente.
[5] See account of this expedition in Argensola’s Conquistas (Vol. XVI of this series), book x. The king seized by Acuña was Saíd Berkatt, the twenty-sixth king of Ternate; he came to the throne in 1584 and reigned until made a captive by Acuña—who treated him well, but later governors made Saíd the subject of shameful neglect and even cruelty. He died at Manila in February or March, 1627. After Saíd was carried away from Ternate, his son Modafar became king; the ruler of Tidore at that time was Cachil (or Prince) Mole. See Valentyn’s history of the Moluccas, in his Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, in the annals of Saíd’s reign and life are recorded in pp. 208–255 therein (a separate pagination, after the introductory sketch of the Netherlands dominion). On pp. 3, 4 are listed the islands subject to Temate; they include Mindanao, the Talaut or Tulour group, Ceram, Amboina, Solor, the Moluccas proper, and many others.
[6] In regard to this, see Sande’s own letters and reports in Vol. IV of this series.
[7] See account of the expeditions made in that year against the Moro pirates, under the governor, Francisco de Ovando, in Montero y Vidal’s Hist. de piratería, pp. 290–299.
[8] Ali-Mudin, sultan of Joló, claimed that he was dethroned by his brother Bantilan, in 1748; and, with the Jesuit missionaries who had just before arrived in Joló, Ali-Mudin went to Manila. In 1750 he was baptized in the Catholic faith, and was named Fernando I. A Spanish expedition was sent to reinstate him on his throne; but it was found that Ali-Mudin was an apostate and a traitor, and the Spanish governor of Zamboanga seized him and all his family and retinue, sending them to Manila, where they were held as prisoners. All except Ali-Mudin and his heir Israel were sent home in 1755; but these remained captives until 1763, when the English conquerors conveyed them back to Joló, and Ali-Mudin abdicated his throne in favor of Israel.
See Montero y Vidal’s Hist. de piratería, pp. 279–299, 307–309, 317–320, 322, 338.
[9] This writer was minister-plenipotentiary from Spain to Pekin; and during that term of office made a voyage to Manila, of which this book is a result.
[10] i.e., those who pay the tax called polo—a personal service of forty days in the year; see Montero y Vidal’s note, post.
[11] The services of these municipal officers, which—barring certain abuses, to which their small remuneration and excessive official obligations force them—are of undeniable worth in the Philippines, and their functions, which carry importance and respectability, demand much rather that there be substituted for the ridiculous name of gobernadorcillo, by which they are officially designated, another name more serious and more in harmony with their praiseworthy ministry. This is now being done among themselves in the more enlightened villages, where they are called capitán [“captain”] instead of gobernadorcillo.—Montero y Vidal.
Cf. Bourne’s account of these officials, Vol. I, of this series, pp. 55, 56.
[12] The Spanish is paso doble, a term used also as the name of a dance, the equivalent of the “two-step.”
[13] This tribute is the contribution that the Indians and mestizos pay in order to aid in the maintenance of the burdens of the state. The polos means the obligation to work a certain number of days in neighborhood works.—Montero y Vidal.
[14] The tobacco monopoly was arranged by Governor Basco y Vargas in pursuance of a royal order of February 9, 1780. Although opposed by certain classes, especially the friars, the monopoly was organized by March 1, 1782, and approved by royal order May 15, 1784. Under the monopoly, however, quantities of tobacco always escaped the vigilance of the government, and could be bought at much cheaper rates than the government tobacco. The monopoly was repealed in the province of Unión October 25, 1852; and in all the archipelago, by a royal order in 1881. The order was applied in the islands in 1882, and the suppression of the monopoly was completed in 1884.
Tobacco was introduced into the islands by missionaries in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The best brands come from the provinces of Isabela and Cagayán. Its cultivation and export has been, and is, of great importance, immense quantities both of cigars and leaf tobacco being shipped chiefly to China, Japan, the East Indies, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australasia. About thirty thousand people were employed in making cigars and cigarettes in the province of Manila, most of them women. See Montero y Vidal, ii, pp. 295, 296, iii, p. 165; Bowring, pp. 309, 310; Sawyer, pp. 131–133, 158; Report of Philippine Commission (1901), iii, pp. 267–269; and U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 75, 76.
[15] The royal assembly was the council whom the governor-general had to assist him in his decisions, and they shared with him, to a certain point, the authority. They counterbalanced his powers, and, during the vacancy, took his place in the command.—Montero y Vidal.