Local government in the Philippine islands,

"MOROLAND" AND SPECIAL PROVINCES

169

organized provinces and thereby secure uniformity of local
administration throughout the Archipelago.208
Departmental Organization.-Like the provinces, the
Department was made a public corporation and as such
was authorized to sue and be sued, to have and use a corporate seal, to acquire and convey property, to make contract for labor and material needed in the construction of
public works, and to incur such other obligations as were
authorized by law.
The chief department officers were the Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, Attorney, and Delegate, all of whom
were appointed by the Governor-General by and with the
consent of the Philippine Commission. All of these officials
constituted the Administrative Council which acted as an
advisory board to the Governor with the additional power
(a) to appropriate and expend public funds of the department, (b) to adopt rules regulating the laws of labor and em208 The purpose of the enactment of Act 2408 is stated in its
Preamble, which is quoted as follows:
"Whereas the change of government in the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, effected in January last, necessitates certain reforms, and not only is the time ripe for these reforms, but they
are insistently demanded by present conditions in said department; and
"Whereas it is the desire of the people of the Islands to promote the most rapid moral, material, social, and political development of the inhabitants of said department in order to accomplish
their complete unification with the inhabitants of other provinces
of the Archipelago; and
"Whereas for the accomplishment of this purpose the extension
thereto of the general laws of the country and of the forms and
procedures of government followed in other provinces, under certain limitations in harmony with the special conditions now prevailing in said department, is among other measures advisable and
necessary, but always with the understanding that such limitations
are temporary and that it is the firm and decided purpose of the
Philippine Commission to abolish such limitations together with
the departmental government as soon as the several districts of
said region shall have been converted into regularly organized
provinces: Now therefore...."