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.

ECONOMIC.SECTION

41

The development of budgetary systems has kept pace with
the advances of democracy. After frequent and intense struggles through the ages, the control by the people of the disposal
of the public funds has at last been established. "No taxation without representation" is a principle now accepted as incontrovertible, and it is indicative of the effective intervention
of the representatives of the people in the administration of
the public finances.
In the Philippines, no representative elected by the people had
any intervention in the disposal of the funds of the Insular
Government until the Philippine Assembly was inaugurated in
October, 1907, to share the legislative power with the Philippine Commission. Lack of agreement between the Assembly
and the Commission then resulted in the approval of the appropriations by the Governor-General alone who, by means of an
"advice" addressed to the Insular Treasurer, disposed of the
public funds at his pleasure. It was not until the enactment
of the Jones Law in 1916 that the chosen representatives of
the people controlled the Legislature and consequently the passage of the appropriations.
The former budgetary practice of the United States was not
the best model to engender a coordinated method for the preparation and approval of the appropriations in the Philippines.
Consequently, there existed no unified financial program nor
any means by which the Legislature and the public could inform themselves of the condition of the public coffers, the
expenses incurred, -and those which were proposed.
On the other hand, the so-called reimbursable account system under which each bureau chief was authorized to disburse
certain kinds of income, and the transfers of funds from one
bureau to another by the Governor-General on his own authority, made the expenses appear much smaller than what they
really were. In 1913, out of a total of disbursements of
P50,000,000, only P29,000,000 were submitted to legislative
action, and P21,000,000 were disbursed by the bureaus out of
their receipts without any intervention by the Legislature which,