Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/815

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. the commission. From time to time the commission instituted civil governments in the localities as circumstances required, until in 1903 more than 700 localities had local governments suited to their conditions. In June, 1901, the civil and military administration of the islands were separated by the appointment of Judge Taft as civil governor, thereby relieving the military governor of his civil duties in the pacified provinces. Shortly thereafter the commission was increased from 5 to 8 by the addition of three natives and was reorganized so as to place each member at the head of an administrative department. By an act of the commission dated June 11, 1901, the judicial system was reorganized. A Supreme Court was created to consist of seven justices, four American and three native; and sixteen Courts of First Instance, over which natives presided, were established. A considerable portion of the minor criminal jurisdiction was transferred to justices of the peace. A new code of civil procedure, authorizing the use of either English or Spanish in judicial proceedings, went into effect September 1, 1901. The city of Manila, the capital, is governed by a board of three commissioners somewhat after the manner in which the city of Washington is governed. In addition to the above measures the present constitution of government for the Philippines consists of the order of April 7, 1900, creating the Philippine Commission and defining its powers: that of June 21, 1901, creating the offices of Governor and Vice-Governor; an act of the Philippine Commission of September 6, 1901, organizing the departments of the interior, of commerce and police, of finance and justice, and of public instruction; and the important act of July 1, 1902, for the temporary government of the Philippines, which continued the government established under the above-mentioned orders and acts.

The act of July 1, 1902, defined the citizenship of the Philippines as including all the inhabitants of the islands who were citizens of Spain at the date of the ratification of the treaty with Spain, February 6, 1899, and declared that as such they should be entitled to the protection of the United States. The substance of the bill of rights of the Federal Constitution, except the right of maintaining a militia and the right of trial by jury, was extended to the Philippines. The act directed the President of the United States to have a census of the islands taken, and within two years thereafter, if peace prevailed in the islands, a legislative assembly should be called into existence. This body is to consist of two chambers, the Philippine Commission constituting the upper one, while the Lower House is to consist of from fifty to one hundred popularly elected delegates apportioned among the provinces on the basis of population, except that each province shall be entitled to at least one member. Persons qualified to vote for delegates include those who have held office under the Spanish régime or who own property of the value of $250 or pay taxes amounting to $15 or over, or who speak, read, and write Spanish or English. Two resident commissioners to the United States are to be chosen by the Legislature, and both commissioners and delegates are to be chosen biennially. The Legislature is to hold annual sessions; but if at any session the Legislature refuses to vote the necessary supplies for the support of the Government, the executive

may appropriate sums equal to the amount last appropriated.

The Supreme Court, the Courts of First Instance, and the Municipal Courts as established by order of the Philippine Commission June 11, 1901, are continued. The United States Supreme Court is given appellate jurisdiction over all judgments of the Philippine Supreme Court in cases involving more than $25,000, or whenever the Constitution, the laws, or any right or title claimed under the authority of the United States is drawn in question. The Governor, Vice-Governor, members of the Philippine Commission, heads of executive departments, and the justices of the Insular Supreme Court are to be appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate. Congress reserves the power to annul all laws passed by the Philippine Legislature, and the Philippine Commission is directed to make annual reports of all receipts and expenditures to the Secretary of War. The Division of Insular Affairs instituted by the War Department is continued as the Bureau of Insular Affairs, and to this bureau are committed all matters pertaining to civil government in the insular possessions of the United States subject to the jurisdiction of the War Department. By a proclamation of July 4, 1902, the President of the United States declared the Philippine insurrection at an end everywhere except in the Moro territory and abolished the office of military governor, his authority in civil matters being superseded by that of the Philippine Commission.

The inhabitants are unequally divided between blacks, browns, yellows, and whites, and there is also a slight representation of reds. The blacks comprise native tribes, with descendants of African negroes and Papuans introduced by Spaniards. The native blacks are of Negrito type, commonly called Aeta, from a principal tribe; they are dwarfish in stature, and dwell in remote parts of the archipelago. They are usually regarded as the aborigines, and as remnants of a pigmy race; some students consider them degraded Papuans. There are only twenty thousand of them. The brown race, either pure or mixed, constitutes nine-tenths of the population. A fraction are related to the Polynesians; yet the distinctness of this type is problematical, and the ethnologist finds his surest identities in the vast numbers of Malay peoples in the islands. The first immigrants were uncultured savages, whose descendants are now represented in the interior and the outskirts of the islands by living tribes. These were followed by incursions in historic times of Malay peoples having alphabets and a primitive culture. About 200 came the ancestors of many head-hunting tribes. The immigration of the Tagal, Visaya, Vicol, Ilocano, and other industrial tribes is assigned to 100-500. Third and last came the Islamitic or Moro invasion, occurring in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of our era, and brought to an end by Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. At present the brown Malay is mixing with white and yellow peoples. The yellow or Mongoloid type exists in the Philippines partly as pure-blooded Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, and Cambodians, but principally in mixtures of various sorts. The Chinese held sway in Luzon for centuries, and after their rule was thrown off trade continued between them and the natives.