The electors hold office for six years, and one-third go out of office every two years.
The municipal Captain must be a resident of the village, more than 25 years of age, read and speak Spanish and be a Chief of Barangay. While the Municipal Tribunal nominally controls the local affairs, yet the Captain has the right to suspend all its acts which he considers against the public welfare, and report the matter to the Provincial Governor, who has power to rescind them; the Captain appoints all village employes, and removes them at will; he can also fine and punish them for petty offenses; he issues orders to the police and collects the taxes. He holds a commission as Delegate or Representative of the Governor General, and, in fact, he exercises within his little bailiwick the same supreme power that the governor exercises in the province, and the Governor General in the whole Archipelago.
In each province there is a Junta or Council, whose membership consists of
The Administrator of Finance.
Two Vicars.
The Public Physician.
The latter Four Members must be residents of the Capital of the Province, and they are elected by the Municipal Captains, from a list of names submitted to them by the Junta with the approval of the Governor.
The functions of this Junta or Council are solely those of inspection and advice. It watches over affairs of the Municipal Tribunals, and reports to the Governor its advice and recommendations concerning them. The Municipal Captain is obliged to deposit the taxes in the Provincial Treasury, the keys of which are held by three members of the Council; he draws out the money in accordance with the municipal budget, and his accounts must be approved by his lieutenants, countersigned by the village priest, passed upon by the Provincial Council, and finally approved by the Governor.
The Governor has power to suspend the Municipal Captain or any of his colleagues for a period of three months, and the Governor General can remove one or all of them from office at will; and "in extraordinary cases or for reasons of public tranquility, the Governor shall have power to decree, without any legal process, the abolition of the Municipal Tribunals." (Article 45.)
In December, 1896, General Polavieja issued a decree, suspending the elections which were to take place that month for one-third of the municipal electors, and directed the Governors of Provinces to send in names of persons suitable for appointment, together with the recommendations of the village priest in each case.
An examination of this unique scheme of village government shows that one-half of the electors are to be chosen from persons holding a subordinate office and appointed by the Governor; that the village priest must be present at all elections and important meetings; that the Captain has all the responsibility, and he must also be of the class holding a subordinate office by appointment of the governor; that the acts of Municipal Tribunal can be suspended by the Captain and rescinded by the Governor; and, finally, if the Municipal Tribunal is offensive to the Governor General he can either remove its members and appoint others in their place or can abolish it altogether.
Such is the Spanish idea of self-government; the Minister of the Colonies, in submitting the decree to the Queen Regent, expatiated on its merits in giving the natives such full control of their local affairs, and expressed the confident belief that it would prove "most beneficent to these people whom Providence has confided to the generous sovereignty of the Spanish monarchs."