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Higher Officials in the Philippine Civil Service
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
In his instructions to the second Philippine Commission, President McKinley designated “the establishment of a system to secure an efficient civil service” as one of the first tasks that this body should undertake upon its assumption of legislative power in September, 1900. Pursuant to the direction of the president, one of the earliest statutes enacted by the Commission—the fifth—was a civil service law. Many other statements and actions reveal that virtually all of the Americans who were primarily responsible for the establishment of modernized political institutions in the Philippine Islands recognized that a civil service based upon the merit system and divorced from politics was essential to the success of the program of the United States in its great Oriental dependency. Today the character of the Philippine civil service is one of the criteria by which the results of that program may be judged.
As part of a study of this institution, the writer has made inquiry into the antecedents, the education, and the careers of the higher administrative officials of the Philippine government. Data were secured from the service records of 56 of the under-secretaries, bureau chiefs, and assistant chiefs, and in almost every instance was supplemented by a personal interview.
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References
1 Annual Reports, War Department, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1900, No. 2, p. 74 (House Doc. No. 2, 56th Cong., 2d Sess., 4070).
2 Act No. 5, Philippine Commission, September 9, 1900. The purpose of the act was declared in Section 4 thereof to be “the establishment and maintenance of an efficient and honest civil service in all the executive branches of the government of the Philippine Islands, central, departmental, and provincial, and of the city of Manila, by appointments and promotions according to merit and by competitive examinations where the same are practicable. …”
3 As early as April, 1899, the first, or Schurman, Philippine Commission announced in a proclamation addressed to the Filipino people: “There shall be guaranteed to the Philippine people an honest and effectual civil service, in which, to the fullest extent practicable, natives shall be employed.” Report of the Philippine Commission, I, p. 5 (Washington, January 31, 1900)Google Scholar. In its report to the president, the Schurman Commission said: “Of course the merit or business system must be adopted and lived up to; the patronage or spoils system would prove absolutely fatal to good government in this new Oriental territory.” Ibid. I, p. 112. In his inaugural address as civil governor, Mr. Taft said: “The civil service act is the bulwark of honesty and efficiency in the government. It avoids the most marked evil of American politics, the spoils system. Without it, success in solving our problem would be entirely impossible”. Report of the Philippine Commission, 1901, II, p. 284Google Scholar. The Taft Commission reported on November 30, 1900, that it had “passed a law which it believes goes further than any civil service law of any state or of the United States in carrying out the theory of the merit system.” Reports of the Taft Philippine Commission, p. 21 (Senate Doc. No. 112, 56th Cong., 2d Sess., Washington, 1901)Google Scholar.
4 A few of the officials in the categories listed could not be reached personally because they were away from Manila, ill, or for other reasons inaccessible during the summer of 1931 when the study was made. Their number, however, was not great enough to reduce materially the validity of the conclusions reached. The five American bureau chiefs were not included in the survey.
5 Administrative Code (Act No. 2711, March 10, 1917, as amended by Act No. 2803, February 28, 1919), Sec. 79. The Code provides that there shall be in each department one or more under-secretaries as the appropriation acts may provide. At present, there are two under-secretaries in the Department of Finance (one in charge of the budget) and in the Department of Commerce and Natural Resources.
6 Ibid., Secs. 65, 66.
7 In 1928, the salaries of the under-secretaries were fixed at P8,500 per annum (Act No. 3437, November 28,1928). The bureau chiefs receive a maximum of P7.500. The economic depression has caused a substantial reduction in these and other civil service salaries, which may or may not be permanent.
8 See Lowden, Frank O., “Permanent Officials in the National Administration of the United States”, in this REVIEW, Vol. 21, p. 531 (Aug., 1927)Google Scholar.
9 Report of the Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, 1923, p. 37Google Scholar.
10 Governor-General Wood sought to appoint all of them full secretaries of department in 1925, but was blocked by the Philippine senate. Ibid., 1925, p. 4.
11 Ibid., 1923, p. 3.
12 All statistics as of July, 1931. On December 5, 1932, Governor-General Theodore Roosevelt approved the “Reorganization Act of 1932,” a measure that provided for the reorganization of the departments, bureaus, and offices of the insular government (Act No. 4007, December 5, 1932). In accordance with the terms of this law, departments and bureaus have been renamed, functions have been reallocated, and personnel reduced. The reorganization, however, does not seem to have altered the status or the characteristics of the higher officials of the civil service.
13 Dr. Alexandra Albert, the universally respected under-secretary of education was appointed to that post in 1917 after having served for 17 years on the faculty of the Liceo de Manila.
14 This was one of the reasons given for the reorganization of the executive departments under the Jones Act. See The Filipino Appeal For Freedom, p. 22. House Doc. No. 511, 67th Cong., 4th Sess.
15 The Philippines, Past and Present, Hayden, Ralston, ed. (New York, 1930), p. 700Google Scholar.
16 For the facts concerning this phase of “Filipinization,” with estimates of its results, see Worcester, op. cit., Chap, XXXVI; Forbes, W. C., The Philippine Islands (Boston, 1928), Vol. IIGoogle Scholar, Chap, XXI; Williams, D. K., The United States and the Philippines (New York, 1926)Google Scholar, Chap, VII; Harrison, F. B., The Corner Stone of Philippine Independence (New York, 1922)Google Scholar, Chap, VI; Kalaw, M. M., The Development of Philippine Politics, 1872–1920 (Manila, 1926)Google Scholar, Chap, XII; “Report of the Governor-General, July 1, 1913 to December 31, 1914”, in Report of the Philippine Commission, 1914, pp. 14–31Google Scholar; Ibid., 1915, pp. 27–31.
17 Coastal provinces west and to the north of Manila Bay in which Tagalog influences are strong.
18 Sec. 679. Positions of under-secretary, bureau chief, and assistant chief are specifically excluded from the classified service. Administrative Code, Secs. 65, 66, 671.
19 Judge Serafin Hilado, appointed chief of the bureau of lands in 1929, and Tomas Confesor, made chief of the bureau of commerce and industry in 1930.
20 Most of the 10 who have never pursued formal study beyond the secondary grade were poor boys who entered the civil service in subordinate positions during the early days of the American occupation. Twenty-four members of the entire group have studied in American colleges or universities, and a few have supplemented this work by additional training in European institutions. Forty-four of these officials have received a professional education.
21 Aguinaldo headed the revolution against Spain at the age of 26. Of the three outstanding political chieftains of the present period, President Quezon was governor of Tayabas at 28 and floor leader of the Philippine assembly a year later; Senator Osmeña became governor of Cebu when 26 and was elected speaker of the Philippine Assembly when 29; Mr. Roxas, the present speaker of the house of representatives, was elected to that position at the age of 30, and was governor of the province of Capiz at 27.
22 The Government of England, Vol. I, p. 147Google Scholar.
23 “No,” one of the Masons said, “the Church does not approve of Masonry. But the priest knows that he can do nothing about it, so he just doesn't know that I am a Mason.” Filipino women are apt to be more fully under the domination of the Church than are the men.
24 In a good many instances, this non-official income is earned by teaching in one of the Manila colleges, or is brought into the family by the wife.
25 Thirty-nine members of the group belong to the Philippine Columbian Association, which has a beautiful and well-equipped club house at one of the finest locations in the city; 10 are members of the aristocratic Club Filipino; 15 play golf at Wack Wack, the fine new country club with an international membership; 15 or 20 belong to tennis clubs; three are Rotarians; three are members of the Casino Español.
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