RAMBAYON, BENZON A.

1-D
2020-21813

Madrid and Manila: Secular Spanish Participants by Owen J. Lynch

Overview
 Major concerns of the relatively small number of colonial officials in the islands until the 19 th
century:
1. To ward off other potential European predators
2. To make money (initially off the lucrative galleon trade as well as the land and labor of
the natives)
 Some Catholic clerics pursued a more spiritual paradigm but were handicapped by a shortage of
Spanish personnel.
 1604- there were only 1200 pureblooded Spaniards in the colony.
 1842- the number of Spaniards had grown by a mere three hundred with an additional 2,500
insulares or pureblooded Spaniards born in the colony.
 The shortage of Spanish manpower left the colonial authorities with no alternative but to rely on
indigenous institutions and leaders.
 Hispanic mode of indirect rule- more limited than its British and Dutch counterparts in Malaysia
and Indonesia.
o Spanish officialdom never relinquished the right to determine and enforce substantive
policies in each Christian village.
 Personnel shortages did not prevent the colonial government from extracting tribute (taxes)
from many natives, Chinese, and Chinese mestizos.
 After the British occupation of Manila (1762-1764), there was a growing appreciation in Madrid
of the economic potential of the colony’s arable land resources.
o One outcome was a sweeping overhaul of the colony’s legal and bureaucratic apparatus
during the last four decades of the 19 th century.

Castillan/Spanish Monarchy
 The Spanish Crown established the Philippine colony to promote 4 objectives:
1. It desired to break the Portuguese spice trade monopoly and believed that a military base in the
archipelago would prove helpful in that regard
2. It aspired to establish and maintain direct contacts with China and Japan in the hope that they
would open the door for trade and missionary endeavors.
3. The crown shared the traditional economic ambitions that were inherent in every colonial
endeavor.
4. Its duty to Christianize the inhabitants of the archipelago, pursuant to its legal obligations under
the Declaration of Alexander.
 Charles Cunningham, in The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies as Illustrated by the Audiencia of
Manila, observed that the most impressive aspect of the colonial legal “machinery was its failure
to effect deliberately the division of powers.”
 Throughout the 19th century, the Spanish Crown endured unrelenting political pressures which
distracted it from Philippine issues.
o Between 1834 and 1862, the Spanish Government operated under four different
constitutions and 28 parliaments.
o During September 1868, Queen Isabela was deposed in a revolutionary upheaval.

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 These political developments were felt in Manila, and reports of the uprising
changed “the political atmosphere of the islands.
 It promoted some among the informed and formally educated native elites to
“awake from their state of contemplative acquiescence in which up to that time
they had accepted the established system, and which until then had appeared
to be eternal and immutable.

Council of Indies/Overseas Ministry

 In 1524, the Consejo de Indias or Council of the Indies was established exercising enormous and
largely undifferentiated executive, legislative, and judicial powers.
 The council was usually comprised of 14 high-level officials, and a large number of functionaries,
all of whom served as political conduits through which various institutions and individuals with
colonial interests vied for official favors and rewards.
o These machinations and intrigues prompted the council to interfere with minor details
of colonial administration.
o In turn, this encouraged appeals of no great importance and served to undermine the
authority and responsibilities of officials in the far-off colonies.
 Until 1812, the council, in collaboration with the Spanish Crown, legislated an internally
contradictory but uniform legal framework throughout the vast Spanish empire.
o Official positions, courts, central and municipal governments, and other governmental
institutions were created for each colony in virtually identical fashion.
o Each colonial regime, including prosperous and influential viceroyalties of Lima and New
Spain (Mexico), were theoretically governed by the same laws and regulations.
o Many laws defining the powers and functions of overseas officials and institutions were
enacted and in place before the establishment of the Philippine colony in 1565.
o Bureaucrats in Madrid tended to treat the Philippine colony as if it were a Mexican
province until Mexican independence in 1820.
o It is correct in an administrative sense because the Islands were designated as an
autonomous branch of the viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) reflecting economic and
commercial perspectives based in Madrid.
 However, local conditions in the archipelago were often quite different from those in Spain and
Mexico. Many colonial bureaucrats were also not interested in promoting the more noble
aspirations of the Spanish Crown.
o The resulting impairment of legislative responsibility in the Philippine colony “had its
undoubted effect in retarding and discouraging the progress of the government and
giving to colonial laws the effect of detachment from the actual conditions they were to
remedy.”
 After abolishment of the council, the archipelago was placed under control of various Spanish
institutions for several years.
 In 1863, the Ministerio de Ultramar (Overseas Ministry) assumed primary jurisdiction.
o Its powers include the right to remove and appoint all important officials in the colony.
 To assist the minister, Consejo de Filipinas (Council of the Philippines) was created in 1870.

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o Membership in this council was limited to individuals who had served in the Philippines
at least two years in a senior administrative capacity. However, the council sat
permanently in Madrid.
 A similar body, Consejo de Administracion, was composed of various officials in the Philippine
colony.
 El Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de los Indios, the first major, empire-wide codification
of the Laws of the Indies (was not officially approved until May 18, 1680).
o A digest compiled to regulate the various colonial regimes in Spain’s vast empire.
o Not a complete code, nor were its provisions always enforceable in a colony if no
express provision for their application was made in Madrid.
 Siete Partidas- other laws pertaining to the colonies could be found here, it is a thirteenth-
century compilation made under orders of King Alphonso X of Castille.
 Arellano observed the “order of preference” of laws in the Philippine Islands:
1. Royal decrees and orders enacted in Madrid and specifically ordered to be complied
with in Philippine Islands
2. Autos Acordados (discussed infra)
3. Laws of the Indies
4. Local Custom (fuero juzgo)
5. Royal Custom (fuero real)
6. Siete Partidas
 Book Four of the Laws of the Indies- contained laws pertaining to the ownership and allocation
of legal rights to land, water, minerals, and fisheries.
 Book Six- concerned the legal rights of the natives, including their liberties, entitlement to
services and good treatment, tributes, and taxes.
o It contained abundant provisions apparently designed to promote the material and
spiritual well-being of the Indians.
 Sinbaldo de Mas, Spanish historian, commented that since the Laws of the Indies are not a
constitutional code but a compilation of royal decrees, dispatched at various epochs and by
distinct monarchs, their results were a confusion of jurisdiction, the fata fount of eternal
discord.
 Rodriguez Berriz’s Guia del Comprador de Terrenos Baldios y Realengos- list 12 types of legal
references, as well as variations of several types.

Governors/Captains-General
 The Philippine office of Governor/Captain-General was created by a Royal Cedula in 1567.
 In 1874, the title Governor, Captain-general, and President of the Royal Audiencia was shorted
to Governor-General, presumably to put more emphasis on his administrative duties than his
military functions.
 A replication of the model that had originated in Spain and been tried out in the Americas
 The selection of the governor was made personally by the king from a list of names submitted
personally by the king from a list of names submitted by the Council of Indies (most were
military men who had previously served in one of Spain’s American colonies).
 The governor- personal representative of the Crown, he discharged many official duties with
elaborate ceremony.

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o Viceroy- the governor’s direct superior, obliged to aid the Philippine governor in matters
pertaining to war “in whatever may occur” and to send “whatever may seem
necessary.”
o Viceroy (until 1720)- possesses the power to appoint ad interim governors.
 Despite the viceroy’s supervisory and financial leverage, the Philippine colony was largely
independent of him, particularly as internal matters were concerned.
 Edward G. Bourne, Historical Introduction to Blair and Robertson’s compilation- claimed that the
colony constituted a kingdom which was placed under the charge of a governor and captain
general whose powers were truly royal and limited only by the check imposed by the Supreme
Court (Audiencia) and by the ordeal of the residencia.
 Governor’s duties:
o In charge of colony’s civilian administration, including the appointment of local officials
not otherwise assigned by Madrid.
o Collecting revenues
o Establishing government monopolies
o Nominating encomenderos
o The right to select people for ecclesiastical positions below that of bishop (as a vice-
patron)
o In charge of all military forces and establishments, including their maintenance and
repair facilities
o Suspend the effectivity of laws emanating from Madrid (Laws of the Indies Book 2 Title 1
Law 24), power of cumplase “obedezco pero no cumplo” I obey but I do not follow”
o Right to allot boletas, or tickets, which entitled the holder to cargo space on the
Acapulco-bound galleon
o The powers as president of the audiencia
1. Control over the actual functions, although not always the decisions, of the
colony’s highest judicial body
 Dividing the tribunal into salas, or divisions, and order its members to
try cases, to undertake residencias and other inspections in the
provinces, or to attend some administrative matters
2. Authority to determine the judicial, governmental, military, or ecclesiastical
character of a particular disputed and then assign it to the proper tribunal or
department.
 This power made the governor supreme arbiter between conflicting
colonial authorities, although appeals could be made to Madrid.
 Residencia- the primary restraint against the commission of official abuses by the governor and
other colonial officials, it is a judicial examination or trial at the end of an official’s term of office
or, at any time, in cases of alleged malfeasance.
 Fear of residencia was almost the sole incentive to righteous conduct or efficient public service.
 The general caliber of the governors reportedly began to improve during the latter half of the
18th century. A major factor behind ineptitude during the opening decades of the 19 th century
was that from the time of Legazpi’s assumption into office until 1898, there were 116
administrations, with an average tenure of two years and 10 months. From an initial official

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appointment of eight years, it was shortened to three years during the latter part of the 19 th
century.

Res Audiencia of Manila/Oidere

 Audiencias- established as a means to relieve colonial governors of judicial duties and thereby
check their alleged excesses. They provided a generally reliable back channel through which
royal authority could be asserted in the colonies.
 Colonial audiencias exercised greater functions and autonomy.
 Audiencias which provided the territorial nuclei from which other audiencias were established:
(1) Lima, (2) Mexico.
 Santo Domingo- where the first colonial audiencia was established on September 14, 1526.
o The general powers and duties of colonial audiencias were enumerated in Laws of the
Indies Book 2 Title 15.
 Audiencia of Manila- established on May 5, 1583 (10th to be founded).
 The governor sat as president, accompanied by four OIDERES, members of the tribunal who
investigated and decided the outcome of disputes and performed other judicial and
administrative functions.
 Fiscal- assisted the deliberations of audiencia. He prosecuted on behalf of the Crown, defended
its interest in all cases tried before the audiencia and at times obliged to serve as “El protector
de los Indios.”
 Powers/Duties of Audiencia:
o Promulgate real acuerdos or royal resolutions (conducted with the governor, but
sometimes governors issue them alone)
 Roth- stated that when governor-general unilaterally acted as legislator,
he issued decrees known as bandos (proclamations)
 Different laws have different names at different times.
 Viewed, at least by the Spaniards, as authoritative domestic legislation,
compiled and referred to as AUTOS ACORDADOA (judicial agreements)
o Always take great care to be informed of the crimes and abuses which are committed
against the Indians.
 Responsibility to ensure that indigenes were all treated
 Protect customary property rights
 Ensure natives were not wrongfully disturbed in their holdings
o Monitor provincial bureaucrats so that they would not be remiss in their duties
 Entailed the annual appointment by the governor of an oider who was
named as a visitador. An oider on a visita possessed extraordinary array
of powers such as inquire about the condition of the natives and to
punish oppressors.
 Criticisms of the oiders and fiscals was widespread.
 Rivalries between the governors and the oideres erupted almost
immediately. The primary sources of conflict were greed and venality.
 The audiencia of Manila was largely unable to curb the excesses of the governors and other
colonial officials.

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 Like most other components of the colonial bureaucracy, audiencia also underwent major
reorganization during the last decade of Spanish rule.
 Cayetano Arellano- first chief justice of the US-Philippine Supreme court.

Philippine-Spanish Colonial Bureaucracy

 Mercedes (grants of royal favor)- official appointments and the right to any emoluments
 Those seeking Mercedes were obliged to petition the Crown.
 Only monarch was empowered to appoint viceroys, governors and members of the Audiencia.
 Philippine governors- authorized to make interim appointments of the alcaldes mayore,
corregidores, and officials of the royal exechequer subject to confirmation by the Crown
 In theory, all government positions were only grated to deserving applicants. However, by the
late 17th century, almost every important colonial office in Spanish empire, and virtually
everyone in the Philippines, except for the governor, was being sold to the highest bidder. The
positions include:
o Those which involved assessment, collection, and custody of fees ordinarily charged for
the performance of official acts
 Office obtained through highest bid is viewed as private investment which led to abuses and a
lessened sense of responsibility to the colonial enterprises and colonial subjects.
 Due to the high centralization and concentration of the insular bureaucracy in Manila, petty
conflicts of all sorts intensified.
 End of 18th century- authorities in Madrird were aware that the machinery of colonial
administration was corrupted and not working well.
o A series of reforms were instituted including the creation of an array of bureaucratic
institutions, many of which undermined the powers of the governor, the church, and
other colonial institutions.
o Foremost innovation—establishment of Intendencia de Ejerto (Intendanct of the Army)
and the Superintendencia de Hacienda (Superintendency of Finance).In essence, new
system (until 1853) removed responsibility for financial management from the governor
and his subordinates and placed it under an independent government organization
headed by an intendant-general.
 Colonial institutions also hampered by a confusion of functions as well as duplication of
administrative powers. Various reforms were undertaken to address them during the final
decades of Spanish rule:
o 1861- the overlapping executive and judicial powers and responsibilities of the governor
and audiencia were separated.
o Civil registry offices were set up in each municipality pursuant to Royal Order No. 250
o Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines official integrated into colonial regime as
component part of the Department of Grace and Justice
o This bureaucratic reorganization was accompanied by an array of laws enacted in
Madrid:
 Court of First Instance created in 1860
 Local Justice-of the-Peace courts were established 30 years later
 Education Decree of 1863 launched a program for more widespread education
o First compilation of laws relating to taxation in 1867

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 The Civil Code of Spain was extended to the colony and a Code of Civil
Procedure ensued
 Code of Commerce and a Notarial Law were promulgated
 Municipal reforms were decreed
o Regime’s ultimate legal and bureaucratic frameworks for allocating natural resource
rights were established
 Inspeccion General de Montes with jurisdiction over land and forests
 Inspeccion General de Minas with legal authority over mines and mineral
deposits (under supervision of the Direcion General de Administracion Civil)
 Law of Waters, Mining Law, Definitive Forest Laws and Regulations for the
Philippine Forest Service
o Colony-wide land registration law
 Law on Mortgage and Registration of Property provided for registration offices
in each provincial capital or municipality where there was CFI
 Opportunities to register property rights—abruptly terminated by the Royal
Decree (Maura Law)
 Laws enacted in Madrid during the final years of Spanish Philippine sovereignty were ostensibly
designed to modernize general and local administration.
 However, this was hampered by a shortage of professional personnel.
o Inspeccion General Montes- was unable to function 7 years after its establishment
because a qualified inspector had to come from Spain
o UST- was the only educational institution authorized to offer college-level education
 Legal reforms and the increasing reliance on native and Chinese mestizo professionals, however,
failed to correct colonial bureaucracy’s fundamental weakness.
 Onofre D. Corpuz, Bureaucracy in the Philippines- identified this weakness as a product of the
internal moral corruption of its members.
o The cumulative sins of the colonial bureaucrats, including the governors and oideres,
were critical and decisive factor behind the overall failure of the colonial regime to live
up to the noble principles enunciated by the home government.
o The problem was exacerbated by the colony’s position as a dumping ground for persons
who were unfit for the service in Spain.
o Rapid turnover of colonial personnel contributed to the overall malaise, as did the
recurrent instability in Madrid.
 Efforts to upgrade the quality of the colonial civil service (Royal Decree of June 3, 19866)
ultimately failed.

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