Under pretext of the arrest and removal of Don Geronimo de Silva, Licentiate Legaspi, ... exercised the office of captain-general, carrying the staff of office and making them lower the banners to him, and address him as “your Lordship,” and his wife as “my lady.” He immediately appointed his elder son to the post of sargento-mayor of this camp, and his younger son to a company, while another company was assigned to a relative of Auditor Matias Flores y Cassila (also an oidor). Others were assigned to brothers of the said Don Matias, the fiscal, and other auditors, except Don Albaro (Messa y Lugo), who refused to have anything given to his household. Upon seeing the illegality of these appointments, I issued an act declaring them vacant and restoring those posts to those who had held them before.[48]
That the king had not entirely lost confidence in the audiencia, notwithstanding the above complaints, is attested by the instruction issued by the Council of the Indies to Francisco de Rojas y Ornate, royal visitor to the Philippines.[49] This communication, which was dated August 17, 1628, approved the stand which the audiencia had taken in insisting that all money obtained from Chinese trading-licenses should be put into the royal treasury and accounted for by the oficiales reales before it was spent. It appears that the governor had hitherto used this money as an extra fund upon which to draw for the expenses of the colony. The king also approved the attitude of the audiencia in denying to persons in New Spain the right of using the Manila galleon for the shipment of their goods, and in refusing to allow money sent by them to the Islands to be invested in the Chinese trade. Silva contended that the audiencia had no right to intervene in either of the above matters, but in this Silva was not sustained, Rojas y Ornate being instructed to see that Governor Tavora respected the action of the audiencia in the two particulars referred to.[50]
The audiencia assumed management of political affairs in 1632, on the death of Governor Juan Niño de Tavora, but neither the audiencia as a body, nor the senior oidor personally were entrusted with the military command. This responsibility devolved on Lorenzo de Olazo, the maestre de campo, who had been designated by the viceroy of New Spain to assume temporary charge of military affairs. He was succeeded the following year by Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, who had been sent from Mexico by the viceroy as soon as the death of Tavora was announced in that city. Cerezo served ad interim for three years, and during his administration the audiencia acted solely as a judicial body, not attempting to interfere in governmental or military affairs.[51] It was under the rule of this governor that important expeditions were undertaken against the Moros in the South, and the first fort and settlement were made at Zamboanga.
It is to be especially noted that in the appointment of Olazo and Cerezo in 1632 and 1633 respectively, the senior oidor was deprived of the control of military affairs. This had been done also in 1617 and in 1624 when Gerónimo de Silva, governor of Ternate, had taken charge of military affairs during vacancies in the regular governorship. Temporary appointments had been made on two different occasions by the Marqués de Cerralbo, Viceroy of New Spain, once in the sending of Fernando de Silva after the death of Governor Fajardo, and on this occasion, when Cerezo de Salamanca took the place of Governor Juan Niño de Tavora, after the audiencia had governed a year. Experience had shown that the assumption of the military command by the senior oidor was not productive of the most satisfactory results. It was not to be expected, of course, that a magistrate would administer military affairs with the skill of a captain-general, and we have seen that various governors recommended that the practice should no longer be continued. So it came about that the law of 1608 was revived, and the viceroy appointed a temporary governor to assume control of military affairs, the audiencia being restricted to judicial and administrative functions. In 1633, on the accession of Cerezo de Salamanca, the audiencia was deprived of the right of intervention in the last mentioned activity, and was confined to its judicial duties alone. This was confirmed by the cédula of January 30, 1635, which relieved the Audiencia of Manila of all jurisdiction over military affairs during vacancies, ordering that they were to be administered by a temporary appointee of the viceroy.[52]
Nevertheless, considerable opposition to this method of filling vacancies in the governorship had developed within the colony. This is shown in various protests which came from the Islands from time to time. These are set forth with great clarity in the correspondence of the governors. Corcuera, in a letter written to Philip IV on June 30, 1636, stated that these temporary governors had allowed persons in Mexico to make large fortunes out of the Philippine trade, and that the governors had devoted most of their time when in Manila to serving as agents of the residents of Mexico. Corcuera, however, seemed to regard the audiencia as incapable of government, for he claimed that in the brief term of a year in which the tribunal had ruled, three years prior to his accession, it had run the colony into debt from 80,000 to 100,000 pesos. He charged the oidores with the same dishonest practice as had been alleged against Governor Fajardo, namely, that they had issued due-bills in payment of debts and had bought them up later at less than their face value, realizing the full amount on them upon their presentation to the treasury later. He stated that these warrants were not only bought by the oidores, but by practically all the officials of the government. During Cerezo’s term a sum in excess of 100,000 pesos was said to have been paid out to officials as usury.[53]
Corcuera presented a scheme of reform designed to remedy the evils resulting from the succession either of the audiencia or of an irresponsible military commander to the ad interim governorship. He recommended that the regularly appointed governor should be assisted by five commissioners, who should be military men, holding the respective commands of Fort Santiago, Cavite, the Port of Manila, Formosa, and the Parián. These were to be eligible in the order named in case of a vacancy. This plan, like so many of the schemes of the soldier governors, only took cognizance of the military side of the governor’s office. The marked tendency of these commanders was to continually underestimate the administrative and political phases of their positions. The plan of Corcuera was not adopted, however, and the viceroy continued to appoint temporary governors to succeed the audiencia when it assumed the government ad interim.
Governor Diego Fajardo, on July 10, 1651, wrote a letter to the king protesting against the policy of appointment which was then in force. He said:
I should be unfaithful to Your Majesty if I did not advise you of the inconveniences arising from the appointment of governors by the Viceroy of New Spain; the practice of sending money from Mexico for investment in this colony has continued and increased, to the exclusion and deprivation of the merchants of these Islands.... Investments have been made by the viceroys through the agency of others.[54]
Fajardo urged that the audiencia should be permitted to retain the government as it had done formerly. He showed the advantages accruing to the colony from a continuity of policy which would result from the rule of the oidores. He showed that the incursions of the viceroys and residents of Mexico upon the galleon trade would more likely be checked by the oidores than by any other agency, adding moreover that this particular matter should be attended to at once since the life and prosperity of the colony depended on the control of the Acapulco and Chinese commerce by the merchants of Manila.[55] A similar argument was presented by Governor Manrique de Lara in a letter written July 19, 1654. This governor urged that a commission of magistrates, familiar with the needs of the colony through experience and long residence, was better fitted to rule for the common good than a stranger, appointed by a distant viceroy, coming to the Islands as most of the temporary governors had done, with the sole purpose of exploitation.[56]
Probably the sentiments of the residents and officials of the Philippines were best and most effectively expressed on this subject in the letter written by the audiencia to the king on July 19, 1654.[57] The audiencia, on this occasion, described the inconveniences resulting from the appointment of a resident of the Islands by the Viceroy of New Spain. It was alleged that these appointees, being already established in the Islands as merchants, officials, lawyers, and even as soldiers, spent all their time in the service of their own special interests. The commercial abuses of these appointees were said to be notorious. The presence of so many relatives, friends, and business connections made it impossible for these temporary rulers to officiate properly as presidents of the audiencia, or to administer the affairs of the government with diligence and impartiality.