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.

1 18 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

my opinion the present system does not manifest serious fundamental defects, and it is fairly adequate to enable honest men
to manage properly the affairs of our provinces and municipalities as they are now. Under present conditions, there is no
imperative necessity to advocate and carry out radical changes.
Then there is no denying the fact that we have had sufficient
training in the art of local self-government, and judged by
our experience during the last thirty years of American occupation, it will not be too presumptuous to believe that when it
comes to provincial and municipal administration we are already
out of danger. Our people at this moment are sufficiently
enlightened in respect to the working of local institutions, and
there is no fear that we will be thrown back to the point where
we started at the beginning of the introduction of the system
of autonomous local government in the Islands. In other
words, I believe we have already passed the period of apprenticeship and that we are sufficiently prepared to steer our local
governments with an expectation of reasonable safety for the
people.
When our much-coveted political emancipation supervenes,
naturally there will be need of readjustment in many ways.
and undoubtedly we will have to turn our-attention, among
other things, to the field of municipal government. For, independent political status will give rise to problems with which
we are not confronted today, problems which will call for
satisfactory solution in order to preserve and maintain the
equilibrium of the different organs of our governmental scheme.
At the outset, the problem will be whether the existing system
fits into the general scheme of an independent government,
recognizing the fact that each of our local units is a vital part 4
of the entire governmental machinery. Ordinarily, a nation
which has just gained its freedom from foreign control emphasizes centralization in government and subjects the local units
to a more rigorous control, the idea being to forestall anything
which might weaken the national structure. This we will
do if necessary. But if our local units would continue to be
in the same peaceful condition as they are now, there would be
no immediate necessity of changing the present system of their
government; it would be sufficient to introduce gradually such