CHAPTER XXVII

THE PHILIPPINE LEGISLATURE

From September 1, 1900, to October 16, 1907, the Philippine Commission was the sole legislative body. The Act of Congress of July 1, 1902, temporarily providing for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, had provided for the taking of a census after the insurrection should have ceased and a condition of general and complete peace should have been certified to by the commission. It had provided further that two years after the publication of the census, if such condition of peace had continued in the territory not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes, and was certified to the President by the commission, the President should direct the commission to call, and the commission should call, a general election for the choice of delegates to a popular assembly to be known as the Philippine Assembly, and that after said assembly should convene and organize all the legislative power theretofore conferred on the commission in all that part of the islands not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes should be vested in a legislature consisting of two houses, the Philippine Commission and the Philippine Assembly.

The first of the certificates required of the commission was issued on September 8, 1902. President Roosevelt on September 23, 1902, issued an order for the taking of the census.

On March 28, 1905, Governor-General Wright proclaimed the publication of the census. On March 28, 1907, the commission issued the second of the certificates required of it. [149]

The following day a cablegram was received from the President directing the commission to call a general election for the choice of delegates, and on March 30, 1907, the commission adopted the necessary resolution calling such election to be held on July 30, 1907, in accordance with an election law previously passed on January 9 of the same year. This law provided for eighty-one delegates proportioned among thirty-five provinces according to population, except that each province entitled to representation was allotted at least one delegate, no matter how few people it might have. Cebú, the most populous of all, was given seven. The Mountain Province, the Moro Province, Nueva Vizcaya and Agusan were left without representation because of the predominance of Moros or other non-Christians among their people. On April 1, 1907, the governor-general issued a proclamation embodying the resolution of the commission.

The election was duly held, and on October 16, 1907, the first session of the Philippine Legislature was opened, under authority of the President, by Mr. Taft, then secretary of war, who had returned to the Islands for this and other purposes.

The action of the commission in issuing its second certificate has been criticized on account of conditions which arose subsequent to the publication of the census, in Cavite, La Laguna and Samar. These conditions were referred to in the commission resolution. There was no desire to conceal or misrepresent them. As we have already seen, the trouble in Samar was stirred up by abuses among the hill people. It has been claimed that they were not members of any non-Christian tribe. There are a limited number of genuine wild people in Samar, but the great majority of the so-called pulájanes were in reality remontados [150] or the descendants of remontados.

In La Laguna and Cavite disorder caused by wandering ladrone bands at one time had become so serious that it was deemed advisable temporarily to suspend the writ of habeaus corpus and to authorize the reconcentration of the law-abiding inhabitants of certain regions to the end that they might be adequately protected and to make it easier to distinguish between good citizens, and thieves and murderers.

Whether these occurrences were or were not to be considered as of such a nature as to render it impossible to certify that a condition of "general and complete peace, with recognition of the authority of the United States" had continued to exist in the Philippine territory not occupied by Moros or other non-Christians, was a matter of judgment, and the commission exercised the best judgment it possessed.

During the Spanish days ladronism had always been rampant, affecting every province in the islands and being especially bad in the immediate vicinity of Manila. When we issued our certificate we had little hope of promptly ridding the archipelago of ladrones, as has since been done. On the contrary we expected that a certain amount of ladronism would continue for many years. We did not think that it should be considered public disorder within the meaning of the act of Congress. Furthermore, we were all anxious to encourage the Filipinos and to give them a chance to show what they could do. I for one hoped that by this act of liberality we might win the good-will, and secure the real coöperation, of many of the Filipino politicians. It is always easy to look back and see one's mistakes. I now know that nothing could have been more futile than the hope of gaining the good-will of the men with whom we were dealing by any concessions whatsoever, yet the attempt was worth making. It is the wild men in the hills and the good old taos [151] in the lowland plains who appreciate and are grateful for fair treatment when they realize that they are receiving it.

The politicians of the present day are a hungry lot. The more they are fed, the more their appetites grow, and the wider their voracious maws open. Most of them are without gratitude or appreciation, and regard concessions as evidences of weakness on the part of those who grant them. Philippine officials and lawmakers might as well make up their minds to do what is right because it is right, and let it go at that. By the same token they should refrain from doing what is questionable in the hope that the good-will resulting will more than counterbalance the possible evil effect of doubtful measures.

It cannot be denied that the issuance by the commission of its certificate of March 30, 1907, was a somewhat doubtful measure, involving a rather strained construction of the words "general and complete peace, with recognition of the authority of the United States" in the Act of Congress of July 1, 1902. I am now firmly of the opinion that in thus giving the Filipinos the benefit of the doubt we erred, with the result that the Philippine Assembly came at least ten years too soon. Its creation in 1907 has resulted in imposing a heavy financial burden on the country for which there has been no adequate compensating return.

In the Philippine Legislature neither house enjoys any special privileges, and either may originate any bill which the legislature is authorized to pass. The assembly has been characterized as "a harmless little debating society" and the government of the Philippines has been called "a toy government" because it was claimed that no real powers were given to the lower house. The commission has exclusive power to legislate for certain non-Christian territory. In all other legislative matters the assembly and the commission have equal power. The passage of legislation requires affirmative action by both houses, a condition which is certainly sufficiently common in legislative bodies composed of two houses, and one that does not ordinarily evoke criticism.

Of late the assembly has claimed for itself the exclusive right to initiate appropriation bills, but there is not a vestige of legal authority for such a claim, and even the so-called "Jones Bill" does not confer such right on the lower house. It shares, with the upper house, one power of deadly effectiveness. It can prevent legislation on any subject whatsoever. It has not hesitated to employ this power, when occasion arose, to obstruct the passage of many important and desirable measures, either in the hope of being able in the end to make a trade and thus securing the passage of acts of more than doubtful utility, or because of a purpose to prevent the enactment of laws dealing with the matters in question.

The most striking instance of the blocking of important legislation by the assembly is afforded by its action in tabling four anti-slavery acts passed by the commission at successive legislative sessions. This matter has already been fully discussed. [152]

The history of the Cadastral Survey Act affords an example of the holding up by the assembly of a measure of undoubted and undenied utility in order to attempt to force the passage of positively vicious acts.

The case of the would-be landowner who has occupied land for years under such conditions that he could have completed an unperfected title to it, and who finally desires for one reason or another to do so, has been a rather hard one, as the cost of the necessary survey is chargeable to him and when a survey party has to be sent a long distance to measure a little tract of land the ratio of such cost to the value of the land is often very high. Cost of surveys can be materially reduced if all the privately owned land parcels in a given area are surveyed consecutively, and this procedure has the further great advantage of effectively delimitating the public domain in the area in question.

In the interest of small property owners, advantage has been taken of provisions of the Public Land Act which make it possible to compel the survey of private lands under certain conditions in cases of doubt as to ownership. As soon as the people concerned could be made to understand our object in doing this they became enthusiastic about it, but the legal procedure authorized was by no means adequate or satisfactory, and there was great need of the passage of a carefully drafted Cadastral Survey Act providing the necessary legal machinery for accomplishing the desired end with the least possible delay and at the lowest possible expense, and providing further for the distribution of such expense between the insular, provincial and municipal governments and the property owners. All are interested parties, the insular government because it learns what land in a given region belongs to the public domain; the provincial and municipal governments because the collection of taxes is facilitated, and accurate maps of towns and barrios are made.

Such an act was passed by the commission. It was clearly and indisputably designed expressly for the benefit of poor Filipinos. No legitimate objection could be made to it. The treatment accorded it by the Philippine Assembly conclusively demonstrates the irresponsibility of that body, and its unfitness to deal with great questions which vitally affect the common people. Realizing that the commission, and especially the governor-general, were earnestly desirous of securing its passage, the assembly refused to pass it. It was duly reintroduced at the next session of the legislature.

I was a member of the commission conference committee appointed to meet a similar committee from the assembly and discuss it. The assembly committee informed us at the outset that a sine qua non for the discussion of the bill was that we should agree to an amendment which would admit, without examination, to the work of making public land surveys Filipino so-called surveyors, known to be utterly incompetent, who could not make correct surveys under the most favourable circumstances. But this was not all. It was generally understood that an additional requirement was to be an amendment to the Judiciary Act providing for a number of new judges. The commission committee believed that they were unnecessary, and were asked for with a view to making places for political appointees. Needless to say, the Cadastral Survey Act failed in conference. In the session of 1912-1913 it finally passed, with practically all of these objectionable features eliminated, but it is at present much less useful than it might be for the reason that an act amending the Judiciary Act so as to provide more judges in the Court of Land Registration, where they are badly needed, instead of for courts of first instance, where no such necessity exists, was killed in the assembly.

As it will take the Court of Land Registration something like three years to finish hearing the cases already in hand, the preparation of a large additional number for it, as a result of the application of the Cadastral Act, will not materially help the present situation unless the number of its judges is increased. There is reason to fear that future attempts to bring this about will be met by demands that there be more judges of first instance, and that they be given jurisdiction in land cases, which should be decided by specially trained and qualified men.

One who examined only the laws actually passed by the legislature might gain the impression that the assembly had done good work. It should be remembered that 312 acts passed by that body have been disapproved by the commission. Had they become laws there would have been a very different story to tell. One hundred and seven acts passed by the commission have been disapproved by the assembly. A careful study of these two groups of acts will be found worth while, but in order to make the picture complete it should be supplemented by detailed consideration of the amendments to assembly bills made by the commission before they have been passed, which have sometimes involved the striking out of everything after title, and the insertion of practically new provisions. It should further be remembered that many really good measures, which have apparently originated as assembly bills, have been drafted by members of the commission, or under their direction, and then first presented in the assembly in order to facilitate their passage.

Had some one of the several gentlemen who have made brief visits to the Philippines and then expressed their views as to the fitness of the Filipinos for early independence devoted himself to the line of study above outlined, he would have gained valuable information on their present fitness to legislate, and we should perhaps now be profiting by the practical results of an experiment already made, instead of embarking on a new and dangerous one.

I cannot here do more than briefly call attention to the nature of a few of the bills killed by the commission and the assembly respectively. For convenience of reference, I refer to these bills by session and number.

FIRST LEGISLATURE

Inaugural Session

Assembly Bill 117 was "An Act to extend the period within which provincial boards organized under the Provincial Government Act may remit the collection of the land tax in their respective provinces."

This was the first of a very long series of assembly measures designed to abolish or reduce existing taxes, or indefinitely to postpone the time for their collection. Provincial boards, with a majority of their members elective, were very amenable to influence in the matter of "postponing" the collection of the land tax.

The per capita rate of taxation is lower in the Philippines than in any other civilized country. Money is badly needed for education, health work and the improvement of means of communication, and all of these measures were ill-advised.

First Session and Special Session of 1908

Assembly Bill 23 provided for the appointment of jurors in courts of first instance and justice of the peace courts. Under it the provincial boards were to select the eligibles from a list of names submitted by the municipal councils of the provincial capitals. This would in effect have put the administration of justice in the hands of the political party in power.

Assembly Bill 104 was entitled "An Act amending Act numbered fifteen hundred and thirty-seven of the Philippine Commission on horse-races in the Philippine Islands."

Gambling is the besetting sin of the Filipinos, and in the city of Manila gambling in connection with horse racing had grown to be such a scandal that the commission had been compelled to take action limiting the days on which it was permitted to legal holidays and one Sunday per month. The evil had reached large dimensions. Several race-tracks were maintained in one small city, and the money that went through the totalizer, or gambling machine, had reached the enormous sum of $3,500,000 per year. Even poorly paid clerks were leaving their work to bet on the races, and then stealing in order to recoup themselves for their losses. The morals of the community were being rapidly undermined. The act passed by the commission interfered with the business of conducting daily crooked races. It certainly left plenty of opportunity to indulge in horse-racing as a legitimate sport. The amendment proposed by the assembly permitted horse-racing on all Sundays, on three days prior to Lent and on all legal holidays except Memorial Day, Rizal Day and Thursday and Friday of Holy Week. If passed it would have protected certain vicious interests and opened the way to a prompt extension of the gambling business.

Assembly Bill 134 reduced the tax on distilled intoxicating liquors one-fourth. The tax was already low. The rate proposed by the assembly was a concession to the demand of powerful interests and its attitude was worthy of severe condemnation.

Assembly Bill 136 abolished provincial boards of health, substituted therefor district health officers and took important powers away from the director of health and gave them to provincial boards. Substantial progress had been made in improving provincial sanitary conditions through provincial boards of health, under the control of the director of health. As was to be anticipated in a country like the Philippines, many necessary health measures were unpopular. This bill, vitally affecting one of the most imperative needs of the islands, would if concurred in by the commission have resulted in widespread disaster.

Assembly Bill 148 provided for the teaching of the local native dialects in the public schools. This would have had the effect of doing away with the teaching of English, or preventing its inauguration, in many places; would have emphasized and perpetuated the different native dialects; would have helped to keep the people speaking these several dialects apart, and would thus seriously have hampered progress toward national unity. One of the most important and useful things that the American government is doing is to generalize the knowledge of the English language, which not only gives the several peoples of the archipelago a common means of communication, but opens up new fields of knowledge to them and makes it easy for them to travel. Even during the days of the Filipino "republic" Mabini advocated making English the official language. [153]

Assembly Bill 197 abolished the Bureau of Civil Service and organized in its stead a division attached to the Bureau of Audits. This bill, ostensibly an economy measure, was designed to minimize the usefulness of one of the most important bureaus of the government. In the early days of the American régime Filipinos who had served the government were often deeply offended that appointments were not given to members of their families or to their near relatives, absolutely irrespective of their fitness for office. Naturally they disapproved of the civil service law when they found that it prevented such appointments.

Second Session

Assembly Bill 201 prohibited the employment of foreigners as engineers or as assistant engineers on vessels in the Philippine Islands. There were at this time an extremely limited number of Filipinos capable of filling such positions, which were largely held by Spaniards and other Europeans who had married native women and had lived in the islands for years. This measure would have crippled shipping companies and would have been a grave injustice to the men above referred to.

Assembly Bill 278, which heavily reduced taxes on distilled spirits and cigarettes, was another attempt to make concessions to certain large tobacco and liquor interests, which could perfectly well afford to pay at the rates then prescribed. It would have decreased the annual insular revenues about $1,000,000 at a time when it was anticipated that free trade with the United States, resulting from the passage of the Payne Bill, would greatly reduce customs duties. Such a loss would seriously have crippled the administration of the islands.

Assembly Bill 352 exempted all uncultivated land, except land in Manila, from the payment of the land tax for a period of five years. The excuse given for its passage was the alleged lack of draft animals. Its real purpose was to exempt valuable property from taxation. It would have encouraged the continued holding of great tracts of uncultivated land and was in the interest of large landowners whose land taxes were likely to be burdensome if they did not come to a reasonable agreement with their tenants and bring their holdings under cultivation.

Assembly Bill 360, "specifying the responsibility in a publication and amending certain sections of the existing libel law," would have rendered that law abortive by making it possible for a newspaper to employ as a "libel editor" some irresponsible person who would be glad to go to jail upon occasion for a consideration.

The Philippines has a fairly good libel law and it was imperatively needed, for in oriental countries especially, the tendency of a public press which has been subjected to the strictest censorship is to run to license when complete liberty suddenly comes.

Assembly Bill 370, creating the new province of Zamboanga, embodied an attempt on the part of that body to legislate for territory inhabited by Moros and other non-Christian tribes, over which it had no jurisdiction. If passed, it would have led to bloodshed between Moros and Filipinos.

Assembly Bill 433 was an act prohibiting the use of lumber imported from foreign countries in the construction of public buildings. It was not then possible to get enough native lumber to erect the public buildings authorized and needed. The passage of this act under the circumstances showed lack of business sense.

Assembly Bill 487 provided for compulsory school attendance. It was so worded as to make it largely inoperative, and if operative it would have been impracticable, as there were something like 1,200,000 children of school age in the islands and there were neither teachers enough to instruct them, schoolhouses enough to hold them, nor funds available with which to pay for new buildings and additional teachers. Its passage showed lack of business sense.

Assembly Bill 547 amended the so-called "bandolerismo [154] act." Up to the time of the American occupation brigandage had been a crying evil throughout the islands. The amendment proposed would not only have greatly weakened the act under which it had been very successfully suppressed, but would have turned loose 1156 criminals, many of whom were desperate and hardened, seriously disturbing the tranquillity of the country and necessitating the early hunting down of many of them.

Assembly Bill 567 was "An Act empowering the Secretary of Commerce and Police to make contracts with silk producers, insuring them the purchase of their silk at a price not to exceed $9 per pound." The Bureau of Science had conclusively demonstrated the possibility of establishing a silk industry in the Philippines. This extraordinary measure would have made it possible for an executive officer to provide for the expenditure of all the revenues of the government in case of a great development of the silk industry. Its passage showed lack of business sense.

Assembly Bill 558 was "An Act to provide for a permanent annual appropriation of $15,000 to reward the inventor of a steam plough or any mechanical engineer who shall perfect a ploughing machine." It was a foolish measure, as there were various successful steam ploughs and other motor-drawn ploughs then in use, and there was no good reason for offering a reward for the invention of a thing which already existed.

Assembly Bill 395 was a most extraordinary and dangerous measure. The Spanish law fixed the age of consent of women at twenty-three, which is about ten years after the time when young girls in the Philippines begin to turn their thoughts toward marriage. Whenever a man had sexual relations with a woman under twenty-three he was liable to go to jail for rape unless pardoned by the parents, grandparents or guardian. This provision of law was continually taken advantage of in blackmailing persons. Suit would be brought and the necessary proof provided. Pardon would be offered for a consideration. The crime was known as a private crime, not a crime against the public. The commission had amended the Penal Code, making it a public crime so that once complaint was made no pardon on the part of the interested persons could stop the proceedings. There had been a consequent noticeable falling off in the number of cases brought for the purpose of extorting money. Assembly Bill 395 was designed to change this state of affairs and restore the old conditions. It was a vicious measure.

Special Session 1910

Assembly Bill 396 authorized the use of certain kinds of sledges on improved roads, although it had been abundantly demonstrated that they were veritable road destroyers. The commission had passed a law prohibiting their use and the natives had been compelled to substitute for them carts with wide-tired wheels that turned freely on their axles, and improved the roads instead of ruining them. This bill was an effort to authorize a return to the road-wrecking practices which had previously prevailed.

Assembly Bill 481, "An Act prohibiting the admittance of women and of minors under eighteen years of age into cock-pits established in the Philippine Islands," was a measure encouraging vice, masquerading in the guise of a reform. By inference it permitted the entrance of women and minors more than 18 years of age to cock-pits for the purpose of gambling, and it provided that women and minors could go as sightseers!

Assembly Bill 491 authorized certain classes of people to have firearms irrespective of their individual characteristics. The presence of firearms in the hands of irresponsible people had been a source of great trouble and the granting of gun licenses was then restricted to persons in whom the government had entire confidence. This had been an important factor in suppressing brigandage and highway robbery, and the proposed change in the law was highly undesirable.

Second Session

Assembly Bill 141, "An Act repealing the last paragraph of Act Numbered 1979," took away from the governor-general authority to approve suspension of the additional cedula tax for road purposes, and gave it to provincial boards. The need of improved highways was very great as the inadequate system which had existed under the Spanish régime had gone to pieces during the war. A comprehensive plan of highways for the islands had been worked out and was being put into effect as rapidly as possible. This act would have allowed provincial boards to determine whether funds should be collected for road construction and maintenance, thus bringing this fundamentally important question into the domain of local politics.

Assembly Bill 168 provided that "the Spanish language shall continue to be the official language of the courts until such time as the Philippine Legislature shall provide otherwise."

The reasons why the generalization of English was desirable in the Philippines have already been stated. Under then-existing provisions of law it was to become the official language of the courts in 1913. Assembly Bill 168 would have had the effect of leaving Spanish the official court language for an indefinite time, thus discouraging the use of English and discriminating against young lawyers who had made every effort to obtain a good knowledge of it because of its supposed certainty of usefulness to them.

A novel and objectionable feature of Assembly Bill 947, which appropriated $375,000 for the construction of roads and bridges, was that it made executive action of the secretary of commerce and police subject to the approval of a committee of the legislature.

First and Special Sessions of 1913

Assembly Bill 91 was "An Act prohibiting the exhibition of inhabitants of the non-Christian tribes, and establishing penalties for its violation."

This act grew out of the desire of the assembly to conceal the fact of the existence of wild peoples in the Philippines. It prohibited the publication of indecent photographs of non-Christians, and the appearance at any fair or carnival of a member of a non-Christian tribe clothed in such a manner as to offend against public morals. The commission committee which had this Act under advisement stated, as a part of their report on it, that:--

"It is obvious that no indecent or immoral picture should be published, irrespective of whether the person or persons depicted are Christian or non-Christian. It is equally evident that no person should be allowed to appear at any exposition, fair or carnival in a costume which offends against morality, whatever may be his religious beliefs or his tribal relationships. Your committee is of the opinion that there now exists on the statute books adequate legislation properly penalizing the one offense and the other."

This act also attempted to limit the right of non-Christians to enter into contracts.

Assembly Bill 130, "An Act declaring invalid the confession or declaration of a defendant against himself, when made under certain circumstances," provided that courts should not give any value to a confession or declaration, oral or written, of any defendant against himself made before the agents of the constabulary, municipal police, judicial or executive officers, or before any other person not vested with authority, during his preventive detention, or while in their custody, unless ratified by the defendant himself in proper style before a competent court.

Only persons familiar with the extreme timidity of many Filipino witnesses, and with the frequency with which they deny in court true statements previously made by them, can appreciate the dangerous character of this measure.

Assembly Bill 170, "An Act obliging manufacturing, industrial, agricultural, and commercial enterprises in the Philippine Islands to provide themselves with a duly qualified physician and a medicine chest for urgent cases of accident and disease among their laborers, and for other purposes," would have had the effect of forcing the employment of a large number of incompetent Filipino physicians for the reason that no one else would have been available to fill many of the positions in question.

Assembly Bill 172, "An Act protecting the plantation of the cocoanut tree," prohibited the damaging, destroying, uprooting or killing of any cocoanut plant or plants without the owner's consent. There was then going on a large amount of highway construction and widening. This bill would have strengthened the position of certain persons disposed to ask exorbitant prices for land needed for rights of way. At about this time the Manila Railroad Company was compelled to pay a large sum for orange trees on a piece of land through which its road was to pass. On investigation the orange trees proved to be cuttings from branches, or young seedlings, recently stuck into the ground, many of them being already dead.

Assembly Bill 250 would if passed have had the effect of depriving agents of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of the power to make arrests, and of compelling the payment of all fines imposed and collected through the efforts of the society into the insular treasury, so that the society would have been dependent upon direct appropriations for funds with which to prosecute its work. For three successive years there had been no appropriation bill. The Filipinos have little sympathy with the work of this society, and this was a scheme to kill it. Under the existing law one-half of the fines in question go to it for use in promoting its objects.

Assembly Bill 251, "An Act to create rural guards in all the municipalities organized under Act No. 82, and for other purposes," would seriously have interfered with the maintenance of a proper state of public order. The duties which it proposed to vest in rural guards are now performed most satisfactorily by the Philippine Constabulary. The effect of the bill would have been to restrict the administrative authority of the director of constabulary over the movements of his force, and to interfere with the administrative authority of municipal presidents to utilize their police as in their judgment the public interests require.

Assembly Bill 262 contained the following:--

"Provided: That the Director of Agriculture or his agents shall not adopt quarantine measures in provinces organized under Act No. 83 without previous agreement with the Provincial Boards concerned."

For many years no more serious problem has faced the insular government than that of stamping out the contagious diseases which were decimating the horses and cattle of the islands and threatening to render agriculture almost impossible. The director of agriculture was necessarily given wide authority in the matter of establishing proper quarantines. This act would have taken necessary powers from him and vested them in provincial boards. Quarantining was very unpopular with the very people who were benefited most by it, hence the passage of this act.

Assembly Bill 282 was designed to do away with the public improvement tax in the provinces of Palawan, Mindoro and Batanes, and to substitute therefor the so-called double cedula tax. This would have resulted in decreasing by one-half the amount of money available for the construction of public works in those provinces and increasing in the same amount that available for paying salaries of officials and employees.

Assembly Bill 312, amending "The Philippine Road Law" "so as to punish the violent occupation of land on both sides of any public highway, bridge, wharf, or trail at present occupied by other persons, since prior to the passage of such Act," would have prevented the recovery by the government of highway rights of way where they had been encroached upon by abutting owners during the long period of neglect of road maintenance attendant upon war.

Assembly Bill 319, entitled "An Act to prohibit, and punish judges for the issuance of orders of arrest at hours of the night or on days other than working days," was a most extraordinary measure, the object and effect of which are apparent from merely reading its title. There are 365 nights and 63 legal holidays in the year, so that the time during which judges could issue orders of arrest without exposing themselves to punishment would have been somewhat restricted.

Assembly Bill 324, entitled "An Act amending certain articles of the Penal Code of the Philippine Islands," had for its object the reduction of the age of consent of women to the crimes of abduction and seduction.

Assembly Bill 348 provided for the formation of a "poor list," and regulated "gratuitous medical attendance at public dispensaries and hospitals in the city of Manila and the municipalities, or public hospitals in the provinces."

One of the great things which the American government has done for the Philippines is to bring medical and surgical service of a high order within the reach of a very large number of poor persons. By the proposed bill free service to Filipinos was limited to those who declared themselves to be paupers. Many of the deserving poor would have preferred to perish miserably rather than make such a declaration. Most of the self-respecting poor of the islands are not paupers. Free service could be rendered to foreigners only on presentation of certificates of poverty from their consuls, usually residing in Manila, which would have worked great hardship on such persons living in remote parts of the islands and in need of immediate attention. Charitable free service furnished by the government was objected to by certain Filipino physicians, who hoped to get paid for attending the persons thus relieved. The practical result of the bill would have been to force the poor to depend on these people, and to pay their charges, which are frequently very exorbitant.

COMMISSION BILLS DISAPPROVED BY THE ASSEMBLY

SECOND LEGISLATURE

Commission Bill 55, amending "The Philippine Administrative Act by including vessels within the provisions of Sections 322 and 323 of said Act," was designed to make vessels responsible for the transportation of contraband cargo, or for smuggling merchandise, in the same degree that attached to vehicles for land transportation, the attorney-general having held that the word "vehicle" used in the existing law could not be construed to include vessels. This measure was important in connection with the suppression of opium smuggling.

Commission Bill 59 amended an act providing for the punishment of perjury "by changing the punishment for perjury and by punishing persons who endeavour to procure or incite other persons to commit perjury." Its object was to remedy a defect in existing law under which there is no punishment provided for subornation of perjury in official investigations.

Commission Bill 60, "An Act defining habitual criminals and providing additional punishment for the same," had for its object the breaking up of petty thieving, the records of the Bureau of Prisons showing that one hundred twenty-nine persons had been convicted twice, twenty a third time and one as high as thirty-two times. It would unquestionably have been a very useful measure.

The Supreme Court of the United States had found that certain punishments of the Spanish Penal Code, particularly with reference to the falsification of public and private documents, were cruel and unusual, and under its decisions a number of criminals, who should have served moderate sentences, were turned loose because the sentences actually imposed were admittedly too severe. The Penal Code fixed the penalties in such cases and gave no option to the judge to impose lesser ones. This decision of the Supreme Court of the United States had the practical effect of making it impossible to penalize certain crimes at all. Commission Bill 61 remedied this situation by providing moderate penalties. The bill was asked for by the secretary of finance and justice, who is a Filipino, and by the president of the code committee, but the assembly would not pass it.

THIRD LEGISLATURE

First Session and Special Session

Commission Bill 59 provided "more severe punishment for illegal importers and dealers in opium."

Great difficulty has been experienced in endeavouring to check the use of opium in the islands.

Commission Bill 70 provided for gradually restricting cock-fighting by decreasing from year to year the number of days on which it was allowed. It imposed annual license fees of $5 on each fighting cock or cock in training, prohibited persons under 18 years of age and women, except tourists, from entering cock-pits, and forbade all games of chance of any kind on the premises of a cock-pit.

This very cursory review of some of the acts which have failed of passage will serve to show, in a general way, the attitudes of the two houses toward a number of important questions.

Had the commission not prevented the passage of much dangerous and vicious legislation approved by the assembly the public service would have suffered seriously, and public order would have been endangered.

Heretofore the commission has prevented the enactment of really vicious legislation. By giving the Filipinos a majority in this body a very important safeguard has been removed.

Another serious result will follow. It was undoubtedly the will of Congress, when its Act of July 1, 1902, was passed, that Americans should control legislation for the Moros and other non-Christians; hence the power to legislate for the territory which they inhabit was reserved by Congress for the commission. Under the new arrangement Filipinos will control in this matter also, and so the will of Congress will be defeated, although the letter of the law is not violated. The outlook for the backward peoples of the islands, under these circumstances, cannot fail to arouse grave apprehension among all who are genuinely interested in them.

The elections for delegates to the assembly have caused endless trouble in many of the provinces. Neither the people at large nor the candidates themselves have as yet learned cheerfully to accept the will of the majority, and the number of protested election cases is out of all proportion to the number of delegates.

In many towns, like Cuyo, these elections have given rise to serious feuds which have brought their previously rapid social and material progress to a standstill, divided families against each other, and in general have produced very disastrous results. Many of the best people of Cuyo are now begging to have the right to elect an assemblyman taken from their province, on the ground that otherwise there is no hope for the restoration of normal conditions.

The assembly is the judge of the qualifications of its members. It has seen fit to admit a number of very disreputable characters. In my opinion neither the character of its members nor that of the legislation passed by it has justified its establishment, much less the "Filipinization" of the commission.

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