Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

'98 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

after that commonly found in the United States. Thus, the
fundamental doctrines of our public corporations are substantially similar to those applied in the United States. The intervention, however, of some local talents, such as Don
Cayetano S. Arellano and Don Florentino Torres, in the formulation of the original plan of local government under the
American regime made possible the inclusion of some of the
Spanish. features.
For the purposes of local administration, five political units
are recognized; namely, the provinces, the sub-provinces, the
chartered cities of Manila and Baguio, municipalities, and
municipal districts.
The unit immediately below the Insular Government is the
province. The province is divided into two classes: the reg-.ular provinces which are thirty-nine in number and the special
provinces of which there are ten. The regular provinces are
inhabited by Christian Filipinos, although in some of these
provinces is found a non-Christian element forming, however,
an insignificant minority. The special provinces are peopled
mostly by non-Christians who are less progressive than the
rest of the Filipinos from the'intellectual and economic viewpoints. The special provinces do not come under the general
provincial law but are governed by different provisions. The
form of government of a regular and special province is substantially the same, the only main difference being that in the
latter there is more centralization in point of administrative
control because some of the officials are appointive and because
they are, to some extent, dependent for funds upon the Insular
Government. The policy of the government is to convert the
special provinces into regular provinces as soon as it is found
that they could be more or less self-supporting and that their
inhabitants are of sufficient culture to enable them to select
wisely their own local officials. Provinces are also classified
according to income and the classification in this respect determines the scale of salaries of provincial officials.
Each province, whether regular or special, is a public corporation with the usual powers and liabilities of such a body
and in this respect it is similar to a county in America. In