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Another important matter which required immediate attention was the reorganization of the judicial system. There was much criticism of the personnel of the courts as organized by the military government. The framing and enactment of a new statute was attended with considerable excitement. It is notoriously difficult to induce any interested body or faction in Manila to act upon any public matter at the proper time. When legislation in which they are vitally interested is pending, they ordinarily ignore requests to appear until the question has been settled and the legislature is ready for the final vote, when they suddenly appear and excitedly ask for a continuance until they can have an opportunity to investigate matters. The lawyers, organized under the title of the College of Advocates, ostentatiously refused to attend the public sessions of the commission because some eight months had not been sufficient time for them to begin to study the proposed law. The commission thus was deprived of the benefit of their valuable advice and assistance.

Under the new act permanent judges were to be appointed by the commission in all the courts. The Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices, was to sit at Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. Courts of first instance were to be held in each of fourteen judicial districts, and certain municipalities were to have municipal courts.43 As organized the members of the Supreme Court were Cayetano S. Arellano, Chief Justice; and Florentino Torres, Victorina Mapa, Joseph F. Cooper, James F. Smith and Charles A. Willard, Associate Justices. Señor Arellano had been chief justice of the former court, and was the Filipino of all others upon whom the various military governors had relied for assistance in establishing peace, law and order. Señor Torres, who at the time of his appointment was attorney-general, had, like the chief justice, worked faithfully along the same lines. Señor Mapa was a Visayan from Iloilo who had not previously taken an active part in public af

42 See Rept. War Dept., 1900, I, Part 10, p. 19, for comments of Lieut. Col. Crowder, the military secretary.

43 Acts Nos. 136 and 140 (June 12, 1901), defined the judicial districts.

fairs. Justice Smith at the time of his appointment was collector of customs and had been a brigadier-general of volunteers and military governor of Negros.

The Spanish code of criminal procedure had been amended by General Order 58, issued April 23, 1900, so as to abolish the old inquisitorial methods and conform to American procedure." The work was so well done that it has since been but slightly amended. A code of civil procedure which it was hoped would relieve the people from the oppressive burdens of the old system was enacted."

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The selection of the judges for the courts of first instance was attended with much agitated discussion. "Believing the judiciary a critical point in our administration," wrote a contemporaneous observer, "the commission proposed making a somewhat clean sweep of the present personnel and naming men of tried standing from the States. This has driven the native press into paroxysms. They say the Filipino judges stood by the American government during the time of trial and that they are now to be ousted without any proof of guilt or incompetency; that if they have done wrong then let charges be brought against them. Our American press while violent enough in its opposition to appointing Filipinos, is pro-military and condemns the Commission for overlooking the judicial merits of various volunteer army officers whose commissions expire shortly."47 Against the protest of many interested parties, it

44 For a summary of the changes made, see Rept. War Dept., 1900, I, Part 10, p. 17 et seq.

45 "The preparation of a reformed code of criminal procedure was largely the work of Judge Young, who was also a member of the board convened to frame the new municipal law (General Order No. 40)." Rept. Lt. Col. E. H. Crowder, Mil. Secy., Sept. 20, 1900. Rept. War Dept., 1900, I, p. 20.

46 Act No. 190 (August 7, 1901. For a description of the old system, see p. 246, supra; also, Williams, Odyssey, p. 92.

47 Williams, Odyssey, p. 252. "The American bar of Manila is also up in arms, and is literally pawing the air because the Commission has provided that Spanish shall continue the official language of the Courts until 1906. They want English substituted at once even though it would result in eliminating practically every Filipino from the practice. Their attitude has the support of the American papers, and is condemned utterly by the SpanishFilipino press."

was determined that the Spanish language should be the official language of the courts until 1906.48

The president's instructions required the organization of municipal governments at as early a date as possible. But the previous enactment of a new municipal code was necessary. In 1893 Minister Maura wrote that "the local institutions of the Philippines have arrived at such a state of decadence and misunderstanding that those of their members who have not been corrupted are atrophied and useless." The new Maura Law was in effect in only a few localities. Municipal governments had been provided for by General Order Number 43.49 On further considerations the military governor had on January 29, 1900, appointed the always willing and efficient Chief Justice Arellano and Attorney-General Torres and the three American judges, a board charged with the duty of devising a complete system of municipal government adapted to the new conditions, under which the people might control their own local affairs through officers of their own selection. This board drafted a law50 of which it said:

"For the first time the Filipino people are to exercise the right of suffrage in the election of municipal officers, a right only slightly restricted by conditions which have been imposed for the purpose of rewarding as well as encouraging the people in their just and natural aspirations to become educated and worthy to enjoy all the benefits of civilization."

When the commission arrived in the islands, a few towns had applied for organization under this code, but none in fact had been organized.51 At the request of the commission no new applications were received, and matters were held in abeyance until it should assume its legislative functions. In the meantime the order was printed in Spanish, Tagalog and Visayan

48 The date was extended and Spanish is still the official language of the courts.

49 Series of 1899.

50 Gen. Order No. 40. Series of 1900, promulgated March 29, 1900.

51 See Lt. Col. Crowder's report on municipal governments, Rept. War Dept., 1900, I, Part 10, p. 28 et seq.

and widely distributed and discussed by the people. Some fifty towns, which had applied early, were organized so that when the commission undertook to draft a new code, it had the benefit of much advice and some experience under the existing law. The new law which was passed in 1901, was based upon Order Number 40.52

This beginning the work of introducing popular government at the bottom and working upward was much criticized by those who believed in what had been described as "Oriental government under the control of a system of sentry boxes," the method by which the Dutch had governed Netherlands India. Nevertheless it was strictly logical and in accord with the teachings of history. In primitive communities the unit of government is always a group of people living as a small community and governing themselves on democratic principles. It was in the local communities that "governments essentially popular" would be most likely to succeed, because the people had already some experience in self-government.

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Another act which provided for the organization of provincial governments, was general in form and required a special act to put it into effect in any particular province.

Having provided the machinery for local government, the commission's next task was to put it in operation in the pacified provinces. The president's instructions were to organize the municipalities first. But matters had moved so rapidly that it was decided to establish provincial governments first and appoint the provincial governors chairmen of committees to organize municipalities.

The organization of these governments was made the occasion for a somewhat spectacular tour about the islands. The members of the commission had been kept closely confined to Manila

52 Rept. Phil. Com., 1900, p. 53; Ibid., 1901, p. 154.

53 It is a curious fact that despotisms usually embrace democracies. In speaking of the political system of the East, Sir Charles Elliott (Letters from the Far East, p. 4) says: "The political system nearly always consists of a democracy beneath a despotism which allows surprisingly free play to individual careers, although progressive movements rarely succeed unless aided from without."

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