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

131

which the idea of public order according to modern standards
is perverted. In certain provinces, the people's aid was unconditional, bodies of volunteers being organized who cooperated with the Constabulary in the suppression of brigandage
and of the bands of fanatics and disturbers of the peace,
The representative democratic government under which we
are now living has made the people of the Philippines exclusively and absolutely responsible for the public order. The
administration of justice, from the oral trial of a suit for a
few pesos and the preliminary investigation of crimes in the
pueblos, to the decision of appeals in important cases in the
last instance, except cases in which the amount involved is exceptionally great or which involve the Constitution, is in the
hands of the Filipinos. The public administration is vested
in the various local authorities and central departments in which
the natives of the Islands have almost complete authority, the
government of the Philippines being an autonomous one in
which the people are responsible and exercise the powers necessary and consecrated by the usage and experience of the independent or practically independent nations as far as the safety
of the State is concerned. Our political and administrative
code contains all the elements of responsibility and authority
relating to the integrity of the public order and the enforcement
of the laws by each of the elements concerned, the governing
as well as the governed. The provincial governor is responsible for the public order in his province and the municipal
president in his municipality, the warden in the jail, the chief
of the customs guards in the custom house, each of these officers
being vested with the proper authority and the ample powers
assigned to him by law as indispensable for the performance
of his duties.
We shall not proceed to examine and analyze or describe the
means and ways which we have in our country for maintaining
the public order and protecting the functions of government,
because everybody knows them and to pass them in review
would be to tire my benevolent audience. It will be sufficient
for me to state once more that our country has until now responded to all calls of duty as regards public order, obedience
to the law, and respect for the rights of nationals and foreigners,