I will merely add that these Alcaldes, these perpetrators and beneficiaries of wholesale misrule and dishonor, yielded finally to the reform-wave, and, accordingly, fell away before their own judicial perversion. And the new system, it must be confessed, is a great improvement upon the old.
But the evil wrought upon the Filipino mind and character was deep-planted. For, by the despotic and summary disposing of his labor and chattels, in the name of the King,—abetted frequently, too, by seemingly supernatural means,—respect for the Spaniard and the white man in general had fled, fear and distrust supplanting it.
A Street Scene in Albay.
In the new order of things,—instituted by a decree from the Queen-Regent Maria Cristina, the 26th of February, 1886,—18 Civil Governorships were created, and the Alcaldes’ functions were confined to their Judgeships. And thus the former frightful distortion of justice was overcome and banished.
So, too, under this law of 1886 each Civil Governor has a Secretary, who serves as a check upon his chief, if he be illegally inclined.
Accordingly, two new official safeguards were thus erected in the fabric of Colonial Administration in these 18 different provinces.
The Present Division and Administration.
The colony was then divided into 19 civil provinces, including Sulu, and into 3 grand military divisions.