Evils from officials in trade.Independent, however, of the serious injuries and great errors persons of the class above described cannot fail to commit in the exercise of their functions, purely judicial, the consequences of their inordinate avarice are still more lamentable, and the tacit permission to satisfy it, granted to them by the government under the specious title of a licence to trade. Hence may it be affirmed, that the first of the evils, and the one the native immediately feels, is occasioned by the very person the law has destined for his relief and protection. In a word, he experiences injuries from the civil magistrates presiding over the provinces, who, at the same time, are the natural enemies of the inhabitants, and the real oppressors of their industry.
It is a known and melancholy fact that, far from promoting the felicity of the provinces intrusted to their care, the magistrates attend to nothing else but their own fortunes and personal interests; nor do they hesitate as to the means by which their object is to be attained. Scarcely are they seated in the place of authority, when they become the chief consumers, purchasers, and exporters of every thing produced and manufactured within the districts under their command, thus converting their licence to trade into a positive monopoly. In all lucrative speculations the magistrate seeks to have the largest share; in all his enterprises he calls in the forced aid of his subjects, and if he deigns to remunerate their labor, at most it is only on the same terms as if they had been working on account of the king. These unhappy people bring in their produce and crude manufactures to the very person who, directly or indirectly, is to fix upon them an arbitrary value. To offer such and such a price for the articles is the same as to say, another bidding shall not be made. To insinuate is to command—the native is not allowed to hesitate, he must either please the magistrate, or submit to his persecutions. Being besides free from all competition in the prosecution of his traffic, since he is frequently the only Spaniard resident in the province, the magistrate therein acts with unbounded sway, without dread, and almost without risk of his tyranny ever being denounced to the superior tribunals.
Speculating in tributes.In order, however, that a more correct idea may be formed of the iniquitous conduct of many of these public functionaries, it is necessary to lay open some part of their irregular dealings in the collection of the Indian tributes. It is well known that the government, anxious to conciliate the interests of the tributary classes with those of the revenue, frequently commutes the pecuniary capitation tax into an obligation to pay the amount in produce or manufactures. A season comes when, owing to the failure of the crops, the productions have risen to an excessive price, and consequently infinitely above the ordinary rates affixed by law, which are generally the lowest, and the natives, unable to keep their bargains without considerable injury or endangering the subsistence of their numerous families, implore the favor of the magistrate, petitioning him to lay their calamitous situation before the superior government, in order to have the payment of their tribute in kind remitted, and offering to pay it in money. This is the precise moment when, as his own profits depend on the misery of the province under his command, he endeavors to misuse the accidental power with which he is invested. Hence it happens that, instead of acting as a beneficent mediator, and supporting the just solicitations of the natives, he at first disregards their petition, and then all at once transforming himself into a zealous collector, issues his notifications, sends his satellites into the very fields to seize on the produce, and in a most inexorable manner insists on collecting till necessity compels him to suspend the measure. The principal object being attained, that is, having now become master of the gleanings and scanty crops of his bereft subjects, on a sudden his disposition changes, he is moved to pity, and in the most pathetic language describes to the government the ravages done to the plantations by the hurricanes, and the utter impossibility of collecting in the tributes that year in kind. On such a remonstrance he easily obtains permission to change the standing order, and proceeding on to collect in some of the remaining tributes in money, merely to save appearance, with perfect impunity he puts the finishing stroke to the wicked act he had commenced, by applying to himself all the produce his collectors had gathered in, and places to the credit of the treasury the total amount of the tributes, corresponding to his jurisdiction, in money.
Supposing, for example, that this has happened in the province of Antique, where the payment of the capitation-tax generally takes place in the unhusked rice, rated at two reals per cavan, and, through the effects of a bad season, this article should rise as high as ten or twelve reals. It is clear that the magistrate, by accounting for the tributes with the revenue office in money, and collecting them in kind at the rate fixed by law, would by the sales gain a profit of 400 or 500 per cent; at the same time the native, by the mere circumstance of then paying in kind, would have paid the tribute corresponding to five or six years in a single one, without, on that account, having freed himself from the same charge in the following seasons.
No check on extortion.When the extortionate acts as these are practised, to what lengths may it not be expected the other excesses and abuses of authority are carried? To the above it ought moreover to be added, that the provincial magistrates have no lieutenants, and are unprovided with any other auxiliaries in the administration of justice, except an accompanying witness and a native director; that the scrutinies of their accounts, to which they formerly were subject, are now abolished, and, in short, that they have no check upon them, or indeed any other persons to bear testimony to their irregularities, except the friendless and miserable victims of their despotism and avarice.
Notwithstanding, however, what is above stated, it sometimes happens that a magistrate is to be met with, distinguished from the rest by his prudence and good conduct; but this is a miracle, for by the very circumstance of his being allowed to trade, he is placed in a situation to abuse the wide powers confided to him, and preferably to attend to his personal interests; in fact, if the principle is in itself defective, it must naturally be expected the consequences will be equally baneful. The lamentable abuses here noticed are but too true, as well as many others passed over in silence; and the worst of all is, that there is no hope of remedying them thoroughly, unless the present system of interior administration is altogether changed. In vain would it be to allege the possibility of removing the evil by the timely and energetic interposition of the protector of the natives; for although this office is in itself highly respectable, it cannot in any way reach the multitude of excesses committed, and much less prevent them; not only because the minister who exercises it resides in the city, where complaints are seldom brought in, unless they come through the channel of the parish curates; but also on account of the difficulty of fully establishing the charges against the magistrates, in the way the natives are at present depressed by fear and threats, as well as restrained by the sub-governors and other inferior officers of justice, who, being dependent upon, and holding their situations from the magistrates, are interested in their monopolies and extortionate acts being kept from public view.
Less complaisant laws needed.If, therefore, it is not possible entirely to eradicate the vices under which the interior administration of these Islands labors, owing to the difficulty of finding persons possessed of the necessary virtues and talents to govern, in an upright and judicious manner, let us at least prevent the evils out of the too great condescension of our own laws. In the infancy of colonies, it has been the maxim of all governments to encourage the emigration and settlement of inhabitants from the mother-country, without paying much attention to the means by which this was to be done. It was not to be wondered at that, for reasons of state, defects were overlooked,—at such periods were even deemed necessary. Hence the relaxation in the laws in favor of those who, quitting their native land, carried over with them to strange countries their property and acquirements. Hence, no doubt, also are derived the full powers granted to those who took in charge the subjection and administration of the new provinces, in order that they might govern, and at the same time carry on their traffic with the natives, notwithstanding the manifest incompatibility of the two occupations; or rather, the certainty that ought to have been foreseen that public duties would generally be postponed, when placed in competition with private interests and the anxious desire of acquiring wealth.
Subsequently that happened which was, in fact, to be dreaded, viz., what at first was tolerated as a necessary evil, sanctioned by the lapse of time has at length become a legitimate right, or rather a compensation for the supposed trouble attached to the fulfillment of the duties of civil magistrates; whilst they, as already observed, think of nothing but themselves, and undergo no other trouble or inconvenience than usually fall on the lot of any other private merchant. In the Philippines, at least, many years having elapsed since the natives peaceably submitted to the dominion of the king, every motive has ceased that could formerly, and in a certain degree, justify the indulgence so much abused, at the same time that no plausible pretext whatever exists for its further continuation.
Although hitherto the number of whites, compared to that of the people of color, has not been great, as the whole of the provincial magistracies, collectorships, and subaltern governments, do not exceed twenty-seven, the scarcity of Spaniards ought not to be alleged as a sufficient reason; nor can it be doubted these situations might at any time be properly filled, if the person on whom the choice should fall were only certain of living with decency and in a suitable manner, without being carried away with the flattering hopes of withdrawing from office, with ten, twenty, and even as high as fifty thousand dollars of property, as has heretofore been the case, but satisfied with a due and equivalent salary they might receive as a reward for the public services they perform.
I do not therefore see why the government should hesitate in resolving to put a stop to evils which the people of the Philippines have not ceased to deplore from the time of the conquest, by proscribing, under the most severe penalties, the power of trading, as now exercised by the provincial magistrates. The time is come when this struggle between duty and sordid interest ought to end, and reason, as well as enlightened policy, demand that in this respect our legislation should be reformed, in order that the mace of justice, instead of being prostituted in search of lucre, may henceforwards be wholly employed in the support of equity and the protection of society.