Note 47 — Chapter III · THE JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCIA

Complaints were also directed against this state of affairs by Antonio de Morga, lieutenant-governor of the Islands. This official argued that the commonwealth required an audiencia in order to secure a more equitable administration of justice.47 He called attention to the overcrowded docket of the court over which he presided and emphasized the impossibility of the satisfactory termination of the cases waiting to be tried. That the defects referred to in these communications were appreciated at court is evidenced by the cédula of May 26, 1595, which emphasized the necessity of administering justice in the Philippines with “universal equality, mildness and satisfaction.”48