The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55 / 1636-37 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

Book 7, folio 261, et seq. The second instance of litigation was in the year 625, the auditor of accounts claiming that the royal officials must deliver to him all the books, vouchers, and papers of the treasury for which he asked; and that he could take them to his house, without any time-limit in which they must be returned. The royal officials claimed the very opposite to the above. Therefore, the Audiencia decreed an act on January 2, 626, ordering the auditor of accounts not to take the said papers from the treasury, but to audit the said account there. The auditor of accounts (at that time Luis de Vera Encalada) having entered a petition, the Audiencia enacted on the twenty-seventh of the said month and year that, notwithstanding the above-mentioned act, the said auditor of accounts, in consideration of the ill-health that he alleges, may exercise his duties in his house; but that he may not demand any paper by act from the royal officials except in virtue of the act from the tribunal of accounts for this purpose which proceeds, in which he is under obligation to ask for the papers which shall be necessary. From those which shall be ordered to be delivered to him, he shall select what shall be necessary, and shall return them to the treasury in accordance with the ordinance.

Book 7, folio 344. The third instance of litigation was at that same period, on the question whether the auditor of accounts was to audit the accounts of private persons, who should have to account for royal revenues, or whether he was to review those concluded by the royal officials. The Audiencia ordered that the said auditor of accounts should not audit accounts of that class.

Book 7, folios 77–79. After the year 628, the said tribunal of accounts ordered by an act that the auditor of accounts could make additions to and draw up results [resultas] from the accounts concluded by the royal officials, provided he do it in a separate blankbook without making notes in the royal books.

The fourth instance of litigation was in regard to the question whether he was to be entitled “auditor of accounts” [contador de cuentas] or “auditor-arranger of accounts” [contador ordenador de cuentas]. The royal officials claimed that it should be the second, saying that the name “auditor of accounts” belongs only to those of the three tribunals of Lima, Santa Fe, and Mexico, according to the provision of August 24, 605, and the ordinances therein cited. The auditor of accounts claimed that this name belongs to him by virtue of his office, and because he has always been so called. The ordinances give him that name, as appears by ordinance forty-two given above, and in the warrants despatched by the governors. The Audiencia decreed an act February 14, 626, ordering that he shall not be called “auditor of accounts,” but “auditor-arranger of accounts of the royal treasury;” since the auditing of the accounts does not belong to him, but only the arranging of them, so that the president and auditors, the judges of the accounts, may audit them, and conclude and remit them, as is ordained. Thus was he styled until the visitor altered it.

The last and most acrimonious lawsuit was in regard to the form of the sworn relation which the royal officials must give to the auditor of accounts, in order that he may audit the general accounts of each year. Upon this point arose the charge in the visit, the examination of which was the cause of my being ordered to compile this paper. In that contention, the royal officials have claimed that they do not need to give a sworn statement of the amounts that ought to be collected; but that the auditor of accounts must charge himself with that duty in the general account of each year. In case that the royal officials have to give a sworn statement, [they claim] that it is to be only of the debts incurred during their time; and that they do not need to give a general sworn statement, but only a statement of those kinds of royal revenue which are received into that treasury, and are current through their administration—and not of other things which, although they belong to his Majesty, do not enter into that treasury; and which are disbursed before they enter it, and pass through other hands. They allege that in these islands a very different account of the royal revenue is usual from that furnished in other provinces. They availed themselves, for all three points of this claim, of the same sections of the ordinances on which the charge was founded, namely, the sections 14 and 22 of “tribunals of accounts, the decree of the year 605,” and section 20 of the decree of the year 60 [sic] explanatory of the tribunals—which, copied word for word, are as follows:

“Book 7, folio 5, section 14. Item: We ordain and command that at the time and when the said accounts are to be audited and completed, and before anything else, both the said our royal officials and other persons—of whatever estate, rank, and condition they may be—who may have received, and have had or have, the duty of receiving and collecting our revenue, must deliver—and they shall deliver—to the said our auditors of accounts, sworn statements, signed with their names, of all that they have received, and all that has been delivered to them, as well as what they have disbursed and distributed. They shall take oath, in the form required by law, at the foot of the said sworn statements, that everything therein contained is accurate, faithful, and true; and that they have not received more maravedis than those entered in their accounts, and that they have [actually] paid out all that which is entered therein as spent and disbursed. They shall bind themselves, with their persons and possessions, that if at any time it appear and be found that they have failed to enter anything of what they have received, or have entered as disbursed any sum in excess of what they have honestly and truly paid out, they shall pay such sum, together with a fine of a sum three times as large—to which we declare them immediately condemned, and order that the penalty be executed on their persons and possessions. One-third part shall be given to the denouncer, one shall be placed in our exchequer, and the remaining third shall be given to the judges who sentence and decide the matter.”

“Section 22. Furthermore, the said our auditors of accounts shall audit and conclude the final account of the said our royal officials of the said our Indias for the year preceding, in the year immediately following, without delaying or extending the time, under any consideration whatever—except that of our royal officials of the province of Chile, and of the persons in whose possession enters the money that we order to be supplied from Piru for the expenses which shall be incurred there; and the accounts of the Filipinas Islands, which, as those islands are so remote and out of the way, shall be audited every two years. All the said our officials of the said our royal treasuries which we possess in the said our Western Indias, shall be obliged to go, or to send persons with their powers and sufficient authority, to render their accounts before the said our auditors of accounts, except those who shall audit the accounts of our royal officials of the imperial city of Potosi, which shall be done as will be declared hereafter. And in the said accounts that shall be audited and concluded for all, entry shall be made of all the said our incomes and duties, which pertain and ought to pertain to us in any manner, in the said year as abovesaid, notwithstanding that they may say and allege that they have not collected nor can collect it; and the balances of their total shall be struck. If they shall present sufficient evidence from which it appears that they made the efforts necessary at the time when they were obliged, and that they were unable to collect it, they shall be given a brief respite from paying such balance, which, as above said, shall have been struck against them, which time shall be long enough for them to collect it or place it in the said our treasury. And should they, upon the expiration of that time, not have executed it or presented sufficient evidence that they have made the efforts necessary for its collection, they and their bondsmen shall be proceeded against by the full rigor of law, in order that they may place and deposit the amount due in the said our royal treasury. In regard to this action, the necessary executions and investigations shall be made, and by maravedis of our treasury. If it shall appear from the evidence that they shall present, that they have made the necessary efforts, and have been unable to collect, and that they have discharged their duty in this regard, the amount of their accounts shall be received on account, and the said our auditors of accounts shall make the new efforts that appear expedient for its collection, until it shall have been paid into the said our treasury.”

“Section 20 of the explanatory decree. Book 7, folio 16. By section 22 of the ordinances of the said auditors of accounts, and by other royal decrees, is ordained the manner in which my royal officials of my royal revenues, and of the rest of my estate which is in their charge, with obligation to collect those revenues, or show sufficient efforts, shall be held responsible. I have been informed that the said auditors of accounts undertake, when they audit the accounts of the said my royal officials, to proceed according to this order; but that the said my royal officials are generally accustomed to appeal from some things, and bring a suit. That causes delay and other troubles, for the correction of which I ordain and command the said auditors of accounts to audit the accounts of the said my royal officials, charging them with all my incomes and the other property which must enter into their possession with obligation of collecting it, or else proving [that they have made] sufficient efforts for what shall not have been collected, in accordance with what has been enacted by the said ordinances for auditors [contadores] and other decrees; and in no manner shall the said my royal officials be allowed to appeal to the law until what has been ordained regarding this matter be observed and executed.”

Book 7, folio 87. On those three sections the visitor based his charge and the royal officials their rebuttal. The visitor ordered that, notwithstanding what they alleged, the royal officials should give a sworn statement of the collections made and of those still due, for the general account of the year 631.

In charge 3. The disadvantage and loss to the royal treasury alleged by the visitor, because the statements are not so given, is that that has resulted in there being more than sixty thousand pesos of royal revenue to collect, of which results [resultas] have been made in the visit against the said royal officials, besides others that are being made.