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.

POLITICAL SECTION

129

cising its powers of police and public order. The Government
hastened to reorganize the public services under the new constitution and establish those required by the new situation in
which the Philippine people enjoyed the indispensable rights
incidental to popular representative government. No time was
lost in reestablishing the health service and improving it in
accordance with the most advanced standards, and in restoring
the postal and telegraph service and public instruction in all
grades, including universitarian education. Strict orders were
issued for the repair and maintenance of the highways. All
forms of recreation were regulated and cockfighting was absolutely prohibited —a truly extraordinary measure as it involved a traditional national pastime.
To be brief, normal conditions were reestablished in all
orders of economic and political life. Of course, the Government gave preferential attention to the most important: the
administration of justice. A commission of Congress was constituted into a Supreme Court and the new provincial councils
were vested with the administration of justice in the first
instance. The municipal administration was reorganized along
the lines of the system established some years before by the
so-called Maura Law, the presidents being designated justices
of the peace and notaries public for the authentication oT extrajudicial documents and acts. The maintenance of the public
order was left in the hands of the local organizations, continuing the tradition as to the moral influence exercised by the
same upon the people. Notwithstanding the implantation of
a very radical reform, namely, freedom of worship, and the
differences with regard to ecclesiastic and municipal property
to which this innovation gave rise, the order was not disturbed
in a manner that could be considered as affecting the integrity
of the new institutions.
We c.n, therefore, proudly affirm that the practical experience
in the exercise of the police power and the maintenance of the
public order by the Philippine people, to which we have made
reference, was again demonstrated and enabled the country to
emerge victorious from that tremendous trial.
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