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The Filipinos seem always to have had a certain instinct for orderly government on a small scale. I have in modern times attended meetings of the populace of small pueblos called to consider questions which affected the community and heard all classes discuss questions, if not with the intelligence, certainly with the interest of a typical New England town meeting.

Jagor22 describes an election for gobernadorcillo which as to form and spirit may have occurred as well the present year as about 1860. The election "took place in the town house. At the table sits the governor or his proxy, on his right the pastor and on his left the secretary who is the interpreter. All the cabezas de barangay, the gobernadorcillo and those who have formerly been such have taken their places on the benches. In the first place, six of the cabezas and six of the ex-gobernadorcillos respectively are chosen by lot to serve as electors. The gobernadorcillo in office makes the thirteenth. The rest now leave the room. After the chairman has read the rules and exhorted the electors to fulfill their duties conscientiously, they go one by one to the table and write three names on a ballot. Whoever receives the largest number of votes is forthwith nominated for gobernadorcillo for the ensuing year, if the pastor or the electors make no well founded objection, subject to confirmation of the Superior Court in Manila, which is a matter of course since the influence of the pastor would prevent an unsuitable choice. The same process was followed in the election of the other local officials, except that the new gobernadorcillo was called in that he might make any objections to the selection.” Probably the pastor was a Spaniard and all the rest were Filipinos.

At the time of the American occupation the municipalities were gradually being organized under the Maura law of 1893. That law was, however, very materially modified before it was put in force in the Philippines. Many of its provisions for local self-government remained a dead letter up to the time

22 Travels in the Philippines (London, 1875). See Rizal's account of "The Meeting in the Town Hall," in An Eagle's Flight, Chap. XXII. This is the absurd title of the English translation of Nole me Jangere.

of the revolt in 1896 when it was superseded by martial law. It is important principally as showing what the Spanish government was attempting to do.23

The Spanish towns like Manila were organized much like similar places in Spain. The corporation, el cabildo, consisted of two ordinary alcaldes, or justices, eight regidores, or aldermen, a registrar and a constable. The aldermen were elected annually by the householders of the city, but the other offices were proprietary and could be sold, bought or inherited.

23 B. & R., LII, p. 153, note 91. A description of the government, prepared by the Jesuits, is printed in the Report of the Schurman Commission (1900), IV, p. 122. The following table will enable the reader to understand the system which was being introduced into Luzon at the time of the American occupation:

TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS

Luzon and the Visayan Islands are divided into..... Provinces and districts Each province or district is divided into....

Each pueblo is divided into..
Each distrito is divided into..
Each barrio is divided into..

.Pueblos (towns) .Distritos (divisions) Barrios (wards) Barangays (groups of from 50 to 100 families)

GOVERNING BODIES CORRESPONDING TO DIVISIONS

....Archipelago

The governor-general, assisted by the Council of
Administration, the Board of Authorities, and the
general directorate of civil administration form
the general government of the......
The governor of the province, assisted by the Pro-
vincial Council (junta) governs or rather super-
vises the affairs of the....
The municipal tribunal, assisted by the principalia,
administers the

The cabeza de barangay represents the government
as a sort of agent in the..

Province

Pueblo

...Barangay

The divisions called distritos and barrios are merely
for the purpose of administration.

Governor of a province appointed by the.....
Provincial junta:

Governor of province and five other officials.
Four other members elected by....

....

The municipal tribunal (captain and four lieutenants) elected by......

Government in Spain

Members ex officio
.Municipal captains

.Twelve delegates of the principalia (chief citizens)

Twelve delegates of the principalia chosen by.......Principalia

The principalia is composed of

All persons who have held certain offices.
Persons who pay 50 pesos land tax.

The cabezas de barangays are appointed by

The governor of the province on recommenda

tion of the twelve delegates or "principals" and

municipal tribunal, but practically elected by.. Municipal tribunal See Report Schurman Phil. Com., I, Part 4.

CHAPTER IX

Legislation, Codes and Courts

Sources of the Law-The Laws of the Indias-Extension of Peninsular Laws to Philippines-The Ancient Spanish Codes-The Fuero Juzgo-Siete Partidas-La Nueva Recopilacion-The Prelation of Laws-The Modern Codes -The Judicial Tribunals-The Audiencia-Its Organization and PowersThe Provincial Courts-The Courts of First Instance-Justice Courts-Ecclesiastical, Military, Treasury and Contentious Courts-The Judicial Personnel -Unsatisfactory Procedure-Popular Dissatisfaction with the Courts.

During Spanish times laws for the Philippines were enacted or proclaimed in various forms by the king directly or through the Council of the Indias, the Casa de Contratación or India House, the governor-general, the audiencia, and in later years by the Cortes.

The supreme control under the king over all colonial affairs was vested in a body called the Council of the Indias, of which the leading statesmen of the Spanish court were members. Its jurisdiction covered the entire field of governmental activity. It enacted laws for the colonies, determined finally all controversies concerning colonial affairs and advised the king in all matters connected with the adminstration.

Economic affairs were controlled by a subordinate body known as the Casa de Contratación which also exercised judicial functions and made rules which had the force of law.1

The Laws of the Indias, the Novisima Recopilacion and the Partidas are at present frequently referred to in the Philippine courts as sources of controlling law and are thus of practical as well as historical importance.*

1 Moses' The Spanish Dependencies in South America, I, Chap. XIV (1914), and the same author's earlier book, Spanish Rule in America, Chap. III; Bourne's Spain in America, Chap. XV.

2 See the Historical Résumé of the Administration of Justice in the Philip

7

The Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, commonly referred to as the Laws of the Indias, is a collection of cedulas, decretos,* resoluciones, ordenamientos and pregmaticas, and reglamentos, which was published about 1680. It contains the general laws declared or enacted for the government of the Indias and may be called the primary legal authority. It never constituted a complete code and had to be supplemented by other compilations and laws designed primarily for the Peninsula and not in force in the colonies unless expressly made so by compliance with certain prescribed formalities. According to the Spanish constitution, "Las provinces de Ultramar seran governados par leyes especiales." Laws enacted in the Peninsula if intended to go into effect in the Philippines were transmitted to the governor-general with instructions to proclaim and publish them there. Until they had received the governor-general's "cumplase" (let it go into effect) they had no legal effect.

But it was necessary occasionally to resort to laws which had never been enacted for or extended to the Philippines. The Laws of the Indias provided that cases not covered by any of its provisions should be governed by the Laws of Castile in conformity with Law 1 of the Laws of Toro, which latter was included in the Novisima Recopilacion de Castilla. Thus the Filipino lawyer whose case was not determined by the Laws of the Indias or any statute subsequently passed for or extended to the islands found himself thrown back on the ancient Spanish Codes.

Spanish history and jurisprudence are rich in compilations and codes in which are embodied the legislation, decisions, customs and usages of hundreds of years of national life. While

pine Islands, by Cayetana S. Arellano, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Rept. Phil. Com., 1900, p. 225, Exhibit J, Sen. Doc. 112, 56 Cong., 2d Sess. As to conditions about 1840, see Mas' Report in B. & R., XXXVI, p. 279.

3 Orders emanating from some superior tribunal, promulgated in the name and by the authority of the sovereign.

4 Similar orders in ecclesiastical matters.

5 Opinions rendered by some superior authority on questions duly submitted, and thereafter sent to the inferior authorities for their guidance.

• Orders emanating from the king differing from cedulas only in form and in the manner of their promulgation.

7 Informal written instructions by competent authority. See Walton, Civil Law of Spain, p. 523, note.

they are sometimes a source of weariness to the men who are called upon to adjust the rights of contentious individuals, the student of the history of laws and institutions finds them of absorbing interest. Il faut eclairer l'histoire par lois et les lois par l'histoire.

In these ancient codes, as clearly as in the ancient highways, bridges, viaducts, theaters, arches, baths, porticos and palaces, are written the permanent records of Roman, Gothic and Saracen rule. What remains of Germanic law is embodied in the famous code known as the Fuero Juzgo or Forma Judicum which was probably compiled at the Council of Toledo in the eighth century. It was written in Latin, the language of the Church, and was not translated into the vernacular Spanish until the thirteenth century. In the meantime, although undergoing many vicissitudes, it was always in force in some part of the country, more particularly in sections where resistance to the Moors was strongest. In 1241 so strong had become the pressure of the Saracens that its application seems to have been confined to the towns of Andalusia alone.

After much controversy as to the value of the Fuero Juzgo its authority was finally established, and in the Spanish law of precedence it stands third in order.

During the reign of Charles III, it was ordered that a certain law from the Fuero Juzgo should be applied in preference to one contained in the Partidas." "As said law of Fuero Juzgo is not derogated by any other, you should abide by it in determining on this or similar business without attaching much importance to those of the Partidas." "After this decision," says Walton,10 "no dispute can be had about the existence to-day of the Gothic-Spanish legislation. Although its application may

8 A translation of this work by Mr. S. P. Scott, under the name of the Visigothic Code, has been published by the Comparative Law Bureau of the American Bar Association (Boston, 1910). Mr. Scott calls it "the most remarkable monument of legislation which ever emanated from a semi-barbarous people, and the only substantial memorial of greatness or erudition bequeathed by the Goths to posterity." Preface, p. 24.

9 Visigothic Code, Preface, p. 11.

10 Walton, Civil Law of Spain, p. 57.

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