Friendship and commerce have been maintained from the beginning of the conquest with Great China, and are still preserved. The emperor of China ordered a port to be assigned so that the people of Luzon could establish a city and factory under the same conditions as the Portuguese in Macao. His Majesty also ordered, by a decree of April 9, 1586, Doctor Francisco de Sande to sustain the friendship, and prohibited him from making war; for, as some authors say, Sande had the intention of conquering that empire.[6] That does not seem to me so certain, for that empire had so many millions of men, with innumerable cities, forts, and walls, and fleets that guard the ports with great vigilance. Moreover at that time the soldiers in these islands did not number five hundred, and were scarcely sufficient to guard them; and it was very difficult to transport them from Nueva España and other kingdoms. Although it might be that that idea was simply speculative, the council prohibited it, and ordered them thenceforth to observe what was prescribed.
The king of Siam captured two ships of these islands in his ports in 1629. Don Juan Niño de Tabora, who was governor at that time, immediately despatched two warships to punish so great violence, and they made many prizes and inflicted many injuries along those coasts. After that he sent ambassadors to the king to ask satisfaction for what the latter had done, and the restoration of the Spanish ships. Although the king who had had the ships seized was dead, his son was forced to return them, and did so. The Mindanaos and Joloans, chastised because of the fleets that they were sending to plunder these islands, have been subdued and have made peace several times. But, whenever it appears good to them, they break the peace, make war on us, and sack and burn the towns of the Christians, capturing many thousands of them; this is done not only by the Mindanaos, but by their vassals, the Camucones and Tirones. Consequently, one can and ought to make war on them very justifiably, until they are destroyed and annihilated, if necessary—as was done before, and is being done in this year of 1751.[7] During this and previous years the king of Joló lived in Manila, was baptized, and made a subject of the Spanish crown. He solicited aid against one of his brothers named Bantilan, by saying that the latter had revolted with the kingdom. However it is hoped that the truth of the whole thing will be discovered in time.[8] It was resolved by a royal provision of May 29, 1720, that all the prisoners made among those nations during the war should be declared slaves forever.
Besides the above, the governors of these islands have absolute authority privately to provide and attend to all that pertains to the royal estate, government, war, and consultations in difficult affairs of the auditors of this royal Audiencia; to try in the first instance the criminal causes of the soldiers; and to appoint alcaldes, corregidora, deputies, and chief justices of all the islands for the exercise of government, justice, and war, together with the chief scrivener appointed by his Majesty for government and war matters. The governor also enjoys the privilege of a permanent body-guard of twelve halberdiers, with a captain of the guard, who always accompany him, besides many other preeminences conceded by royal decrees to the presidency of the royal Audiencia and Cnancillería. He is, finally, captain-general of all the archipelago. For these his employments, his Majesty assigns him annually a salary of eight thousand pesos de minas—or thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty-five pesos, three granos of common gold—besides the many profits and gains assigned to him by domestic and foreign fees and privileges, which amount annually to great sums of money.
Administration of Government and the Captaincy-General
[The following is taken from Sinibaldo de Mas,[9] Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842 (Madrid, 1843), tomo ii. Portions of it are apparently embodied in translation and abstract in Bowring’s Visit to the Philippine Isles (London, 1859), p. 87–93.]
The government of the Filipinas Islands, together with the group of the Marianas, is in charge of a military chief, who, to the title of governor, joins those of president of the Audiencia, and royal vice-patron; subdelegate judge of the revenue, and of post-offices, posts, and express [correos, postas y estafeta]; and director of the troops, captain-general, and commander-in-chief of the navy. His authority, then, embraces all the powers derived from these titles, both for administration and for the security and defense of the territory.
To discharge these duties he has three secretaryships—one of government, another of the captaincy-general, and the third of the navy—one military auditor, one adviser in government matters, one fiscal, and one scrivener. One may appeal from his gubernatorial measures to the royal Audiencia, which often alters or annuls those measures by means of sentence. But there is a law that provides that in case that the governor-general undertakes to have his order put into effect, it must be observed until the superior decision, so that no uneasiness and confusion may result from it in the country. The collection of taxes and the disbursement of money is in charge of a superintendent of the treasury [hacienda], under the immediate orders of the government at Madrid. In sudden or doubtful cases, the resolutions of the superior council [junta] of the treasury—composed of the superintendent, the accountant-in-chief of accounts [contador mayor de cuentas], the accountant of the army and treasury, the newest auditor of the Audiencia, and the fiscal of the treasury—decide the matter.
The islands are divided by provinces, in each of which there is a subordinate chief who is styled governor or alcalde-mayor. These exercise jurisdiction in the first instance, in matters of government and litigation. They are military captains, and have in charge the collection of the royal revenues, under a responsibility guaranteed by bonds to the satisfaction of the accountant-general of the army and royal treasury. The province of Cavite is an exception to this rule, for the collection of the tribute there is now made by an assistant of the chief justice. Therefore he who rules in a province exercises all the attributes of political chief, and as such is subject to the governor-general; those of judge of first instance, and as such is dependent on the Audiencia; those of subdelegate of treasury (although he does not have the disposal of the monopolized incomes), and as such has to render accounts, bonds, and obedience to the chiefs of the treasury; and finally, if he is of military rank, he is commandant-of-arms, and subaltern of the captain-general; and even though he be not of military rank he obtains the rank of military commander [capitan á guerra] by virtue of his rank of alcalde-mayor. He has charge of the company assigned to his province, and, in the absence of his Majesty’s troops, he commands the troops that he equips upon extraordinary occasions.
Each province is subdivided into a greater or less number of towns. Each town has a gobernadorcillo [i.e., little or petty governor], with assistants and alguacils of justice, whose number is fixed. They discharge various functions, among them the administration of justice in regard to fields and palm-trees, and that of police. In some towns where there are a sufficient number of Sangley mestizos (who are the descendants of the Chinese), they form, when they obtain permission from the government, a separate community, with a gobernadorcillo and other members of the magistracy taken from their own midst. In the towns which are the capitals of the province there is often a gobernadorcillo for mestizos and one for natives. This latter always takes command of the province in case of the sickness or absence of the alcalde-mayor. The gobernadorcillos have in their towns all the municipal responsibility proper to the authority which is conferred upon them by their appointment. They are especially bound to aid their parish priests in everything pertaining to worship and the observance of religious laws. They try civil causes up to the value of two taels of gold, or forty-four pesos. They take action in criminal cases by collecting the preliminary evidence, which they submit to the provincial chiefs. They are under obligation to see to the collections of the royal revenue, and further to give notice of the ordinances for good government. They are permitted to collect certain dues that are specified in their own credentials. Each town has also other citizens known under the name of cabezas [i.e., heads] de barangay. Each cabeza is obliged to look after forty-five or fifty tributes which comprise as many families, and that is the signification of barangay. The cabezas must reside with them in the district or street assigned; must attend in person to the good order and harmony of their individuals; must apportion among them all the services that are due from them collectively; must settle their disputes; and must collect the tribute under a fixed bond, in order to effect its delivery afterward in entirety to the gobernadorcillo, or directly to the provincial chief, as happens in that of Tondo. The cabezas are ex-officio attorneys for their barangays in all matters that concern them collectively, and electors of the gobernadorcillos and other officials of justice. For that interesting function, only the twelve oldest men of each town or the substitutes whom the ordinance assigns, have a vote. In some provinces the cabezas appoint only the three who have to compose the terna [i.e., three nominees for any office] for the gobernadorcillo. These, with the outgoing gobernadorcillo, proceed to the election of the deputies, alguacils, and their committees. The cabecerías [i.e., headships], much more ancient in origin than the reductions [i.e., native villages of converts], were doubtless hereditary. At present they are hereditary and elective. When they fall vacant, whether for want of an heir or through the resignation of the regularly appointed incumbent, the substitute is appointed—by the superintendent, in the provinces near the capital; and in those distant from it by the respective subdelegate chief, but at the proposal of the gobernadorcillo and other cabezas. This same plan is followed in the creation of any cabecería in proportion to the increase in population, and as the number of tributarios in each town demands it. The cabezas, their wives, and first-born sons (who are their assistants in the collection of the royal revenues), enjoy exemption from the payment of tribute. The cabezas in some provinces serve in the cabecerías for three years; and, if they do not prove defaulters, they are recognized as chiefs in the towns, with the titles of ex-cabeza and don. Such system offers the serious disadvantage of multiplying the privileged class of chiefs, which, being exempted from personal services, increases the tax for the common people or the polistas[10] in proportion to the increase of the privileged class.