The election of corporate members is carried on under the presidency of the provincial chief by twelve of the most prominent men in the town—half of them drawn by lots cast by those who were gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay, and the other six from the cabezas in actual office; while he who is gobernadorcillo at the time of election votes also. The individual who obtains most votes is proposed to the general government as being first on the list; he who follows him in the number of votes, in the second; and the actual pedanéo [i.e. a subordinate officer, here the gobernadorcillo], in the third. From that list of three [terna], the governor-general appoints one, after seeing the report of the president of the election.
The cabezas de barangay are chiefs of fifty families, those from whom are collected the contributions that form part of the revenues of the treasury and government. This institution, antedating the conquest, is most useful, the more, for the same reasons, since the gobernadorcillos come to be to their members of barangays or those they rule, the same that those pedáneos [i.e.], the cabezas] are to the generality of the inhabitants. The actual cabezas or the ex-cabezas, with the gobernadorcillo and the ex-captains (as those who have exercised that office are designated), form the principalia [i.e., chieftain class, or nobility].
Their usual dress is a black jacket, European trousers, mushroom hat, and colored slippers; many even wear varnished [i.e., patent leather] shoes. The shirt is short, and worn outside the trousers. The gobernadorcillo carries a tasseled cane [baston], the lieutenants wands [varas]. On occasions of great ceremony, they dress formally in frock coat, high-crowned hat—objects of value that are inherited from father to son.
On the day on which the gobernadorcillo takes his office, his town has a great festival [fiestajan]. All eat, drink, smoke, and amuse themselves at the expense of the munícipe [i.e., the citizen who is elected gobernadorcillo], and the rejoicing is universal. In the tribunal (city hall) he occupies a large lofty seat, which is adorned with the arms of España and with fanciful designs, if his social footing shows a respectable antiquity.
On holy days the officials go to the church in a body. The principalia and the cuadrilleros form in two lines in front of the gobernadorcillo and the music precedes them. In the church the latter occupies a seat in precedence of those of the chiefs, who have benches of honor. After the mass, they usually go to the convent to pay their respects to the parish priest; and they return to the tribunal in the same order, the musicians playing a loud double quick march.[12] There they hold a meeting, at which the gobernadorcillo presides, in which he, in concert with the cabezas, determines the public services for the week.
The tributarios of many towns go, after mass, to hear orally the orders that the cabezas communicate to them. In order to summon any of them when necessity requires, they have adopted certain taps of the drum; and on hearing it they go to the tribunal.
If the gobernadorcillo is energetic or has a bad temper, the cabezas fear and respect him highly; but if he is irresolute they abuse him. When he goes out on the street, an alguacil with a long wand precedes him.
Since the majority of these pedáneos do not talk Spanish, they are authorized to appoint directorcillos [i.e., petty directors], who receive very slender pay. The directorcillo—who has generally studied for several years in the university or the colleges of Manila without concluding his course—writes the judicial measures, and the answers to the orders of the provincial authorities; serves as interpreter to the pedáneo, when the latter has to talk to Europeans; and exercises entire influence in all matters. By virtue of that he sometimes commits abuses that the gobernadorcillo finds it necessary to tolerate, in order not to lose his services; for there are towns where one cannot possibly find another inhabitant to take his place, because of their ignorance of Castilian. All that redounds to the hurt of the honest administration of the towns, and even the prestige of the government, since the said directorcillos are wont to ascribe to the superior orders their own exactions and annoyances.
Each town of Filipinas contains a number of cuadrilleros, proportional to its citizenship. They are under obligation to serve for three years, and only enjoy exemption from the payment of tribute and polos.[13] The cuadrilleros are armed with old guns and spears, perform police duty, and guard the tribunal, prison, and the royal or government house. They also go in pursuit of criminals.
Some provinces (for instance, the majority of those in Luzon) are ruled by legal alcaldes-mayor who are lawyers, who exercise the civil government, and are at the same time judges of first instance, sub-delegates of the treasury and of local departments, administrators of the posts, military commandants, and presiding officers of the meetings for auctions and for primary instruction. They were also formerly collectors of tobacco, in the provinces where that plant is cultivated.[14]