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.

114 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

have shown commendable spirit by voluntarily contributing
money, material, and labor. The schools today are filled to
their utmost capacity and there are-according to the last
official report —,163,039 children attending. This number
does not include the almost one hundred thousand students in
private schools. The schools provide not only instruction to
the children in academic and industrial subjects, but also give
the municipalities adequate playgrounds. There is no municipality of importance today in which there is not a well-cared
playground for the children to use. But the schools have given
more than these bounties. They are giving the country a common language. It is no exaggeration to say that now wellnigh all provincial boards and municipal councils have adopted
and are using the English language with success.
Until 1928, the municipalities were in need of authority with
which to enable them to obtain more funds to satisfy their
needs and help their further development. The remedy in
my opinion was not to grant the municipalities a greater participation in the internal revenue taxes as was suggested by
some of the local papers and some friends of mine. The internal revenue taxes are collected primarily for the Insular
Government. It is true that the local governments help in
their collection but this does not mean that this revenue should
be converted into local funds for our municipalities, nor does
it give the municipalities a right to share in the same. I do
not advocate an autonomy for our local governments which
will hamper the powers that the Insular Government ought
to possess. When I advocate more autonomy for our provinces
and municipalities, I advocate an autonomy compatible with
the highest interests of the entire nation or of the Insular
Government.
I must say that personally I prefer an arrangement whereby
there is a central government, efficient and capable to take care
of the general needs of the country even with local governments impotent and without autonomy or anything to a
scheme under which the central government is impotent and
anemic, incapable to meet the more important problems of the
nation but with local governments enjoying complete autonomy and freedom from higher interference as the cities of the