The offices of gobernadorcillo, deputies, and alguacils of justice are elective, and last one year, with superior approbation. It is stipulated that the elections take place exactly at the beginning of each year, in the royal houses or halls of justice in the towns, and not elsewhere. The electors are the outgoing gobernadorcillo and the twelve senior cabezas de barangay. For gobernadorcillo three individuals have to be nominated by a plurality of votes, and the respective place of each one in the terna must be expressed. It is to be noted that the nominee must be able to speak, read, and write the Spanish language. If he cannot do that, the election of the one who lacks this express condition will be considered null and void, where such election has been made. For the other officials of justice, those needed by the town are elected by the same convention. The balloting must be secret, and is authorized by the notary and presided over by the provincial chief. The parish priest may be present, if he wishes, to express what opinions he may consider fitting, but for no other purpose. In sealed envelopes the election returns are sent to the superior governments of the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite, so that after choosing one of those proposed as gobernadorcillo, the respective government orders the credentials corresponding to each class to be despatched. In the other provinces, because of their distance from the capital, the chief of each one appoints the nominee in the first place, and making use of the blank credentials entrusted to him by the superior government, writes therein the names of those interested, and places them in possession [of their offices].
The cabezas of barangay can be elected, if they preserve their cabecerías and the collection of tributes, by the rule in the royal decree of October 17, 1785.
The Chinese community may elect from among its Christian individuals, and in a meeting presided over by the alcalde-mayor of Tondo, one man as gobernadorcillo, one as chief deputy, and a third as alguacil-mayor. The government grants those elected the proper credentials, by virtue of which they exercise jurisdiction. The officials of justice in this community are called bilangos, and are appointed by the new gobernadorcillo. The electors are also thirteen in number, and are composed of the outgoing gobernadorcillo, the ex-captains, and the petty chiefs [cabecillas] of the tribute and of champans, both past and present. When any number is lacking, it is made up from the petty heads of the trades. At present the collection of tribute or the poll-tax from the Chinese is in direct charge of the alcalde-mayor in the province of Tondo, with a supervisor chosen from among the officials of administration of the royal treasury. In the other provinces it is attended to in person by the chief of each province. This levy of taxes is managed by a register, where the Chinese are enrolled and classified, and that register determines the quota of each, who contributes according to his class.
The gobernadorcillos and officials of justice deserve the greatest consideration from the government. The provincial chiefs are under obligation to show them the honor corresponding to their respective duties. They are allowed to sit in the houses of the latter, and in any other place, and are not suffered to remain standing. Neither is it permitted to the parish priests to treat these officials with less consideration.
Political and Administrative Organization
[Montero y Vidal’s Archipiélago Filipino(Madrid, 1866), pp. 162–168, contains the following chapter.]
The municipal organization of Filipinas differs widely from that of España.
Some native functionaries, improperly called gobernadorcillos,[11] exercise command in the towns; they correspond to the alcaldes and municipal judges, of the Peninsula, and perform at once functions of judges and even of notaries, with defined powers. As assistants they elect several lieutenants and alguacils, proportionate in number to the inhabitants. Those assistants, together with three ex-gobernadorcillos to whom are referred the duties of judges of cattle, fields, and police, constitute a sort of town council. Manila is the only place that has that corporation [i.e., ayuntamiento] with an organization identical with those of the same class in España.
Even when the gobernadorcillos are recompensed with a certain percentage for the collection of contributions, and they collect some other dues, the total sum that they finally receive is so small that their office is considered honorary. In spite of this, the duty is an onerous one, and they are subject to annoyances, fines, and imprisonment, if the gubernative, judicial, and administrative authorities, etc., are rigorous. The Indians covet it with a desire that is astonishing, and avail themselves of all possible means in order to obtain it. The secret of the motive that impels them lies in their fondness for prominence, and in the fact that nearly all of them succeed in becoming rich, or in attaining independent means, after the two years of their office. For the polistas, or individuals who are obliged to labor on the public works of the state, build their houses for them free of cost, bringing the materials from the forest or the points where they are found; there are the fallas, or the amount of the aliquot sum that is to make good the deficiency in public works [i.e., in the services on public works rendered by the natives], in the collection of which there is opportunity for the gobernadorcillo to figure, by supporting all or the majority of those who should perform that work, and himself using that money; the innumerable bribes and illegal exactions that they impose, and the taxes that they collect through numberless separate judgments: [all these] make the office sufficiently lucrative, although in that country, scarcely any importance is attached to many of these irregularities (even by those who are injured by them), which custom has almost sanctioned as law.