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.

130 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Passing on to the present epoch and administration, I believe
that few, if any, persons in this audience are uninformed of
the organization of the bodies or institutions whose mission
it is to watch over the maintenance of the public order and
prevent any disturbance of the tranquillity of the people. The
official reports and existing legislation are competent sources
of information on facts which proclaim to the world the collective capacity of the Philippine people as regards the safety
of life and property and the maintenance of the integrity of the
governmental institutions, and the competency of the people in
the exercise of the powers of self-government, the result of their
secular experience in the performance of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship and the procedures of public administration.
The definitive establishment of civil government under the
American sovereignty in all parts of the country, after an unequal struggle which became guerrilla warfare towards the
end, was affected with the cooperation of the overwhelming
majority of the Philippine people with the constituted government, that cooperation which has everywhere and at all times
been necessary to restore normal conditions, maintain the public
peace, and prevent disorders. In the beginning, however, the
vestiges of the war and the colonial regime still gave trouble
in certain sections, where brigandage, kept up by what we
might call the embers of those two conflagrations, made its
appearance. In those sections there prevailed for some time a
"demoralization of the popular masses" (Report of the Philippine Commission, 1904). Then the Constabulary was organized, the services of which show clearly the cooperation.which the public powers receive from the people when the
latter are entrusted with the responsibilities of self-government
with the powers, rights, preeminences, and benefits attached to
it. In many pueblos it was necessary during the first years
of American sovereignty to require the individual and private
aid of the citizens for the extirpation of brigandage and the
dissolution of irresponsible groups of ignorant and fanatical
people who were also vestiges of the colonial times when the
responsibilities did not go hand in hand with the powers, authority, rights, privileges, and benefits attached thereto, without