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.