BRIDGING THE GAP
Government under the Spanish rule
The arrival of Magellan in the Philippines in 1521 and the conquest of the islands by Legazpi forty-five years later resulted to Spanish colonization for 333 years. Spanish rule ended only in 1898 when the Treaty of Paris provided the cessation of hostilities between the United States and Spain, and the transfer of the Philippines to the former.
The Spaniards, upon their conquest of the Philippine Archipelago, established one central government headed by the Spanish gobernador-general. He had tremendous powers and could make laws by himself, aside from exercising executive, administrative, and judicial functions. As Capitan-General, he was the commander-in-chief of all the Spanish armed forces in the Philippines. As vice-royal patron of the Catholic Church, he was vested with certain religious powers. For a long time, until 1861, he was also the president of the Royal Audiencia, the Spanish Supreme Court in the country.
The supreme governing body that administered the Philippines from Spain was the Consejo de los Indios or Council of the Indies, which was considered a very powerful body vested with all government powers -- legislative, executive and judicial. This council transmitted to the governador-general the royal decrees of the king of Spain that guided every governador-general's administration of the Philippines. In 1863, the Ministro de Ultramar (Minister of Overseas) took over the functions of the Consejo.
The Royal Audiencia, which was established in 1583, was the highest court of the colony, and equivalent to the Supreme Court of today. It also served as an advisory body to the governador-general or governor-general and, at the same time, was also empowered to check the abuses of the governador-general in the exercise of his functions. It governed the country temporarily when the governador-general died or became incapacitated.
Prior to the establishment of the provincias, the Philippine archipelago was divided into encomiendas, in so far as the pacified areas were concerned. This was the earliest political subdivision organized around the barangay or group of households. An encomendero was assigned to an encomienda and was given the responsibility to collect tribute and to utilize the services and expertise of the people for government and church projects. However, the system became a source of abuse and corruption because the encomendero was free to increase the amount of tribute to be collected from the people.
With the establishment of the provincia or alcaldia as additional tiers of local government in places where peace and order had already been established, a civil official called alcalde-mayor was put in place. On the other hand, the unpacified zone or corrigimiento, was headed by a corregidor. Only a Spaniard could be an alcalde-mayor or a corregidor.
The cities had their own government known as ayuntamiento or cabildo and was headed by an alcalde. The provinces were in turn divided into municipalities or pueblos. The governadorcillo or "little governor" (replaced by the capitan municipal in 1894) headed the municipio. Any Spaniard, native or Chinese mestizo served as gobernadorcillo. The barangay government, on its part, rested on the native cabeza de barangay whose main function was the collection of taxes and other contributions.