Note 25 — The Spanish Friars, After 1898

Since the American advent the Administration of Justice has been greatly accelerated, and Municipal Court cases, which in Spanish times would have caused more worry to the parties than they were worth, or, for the same reason, would have been settled out of court violently, are now despatched at the same speed as in the London Police Courts. On the other hand, quick despatch rather feeds the nativeʼs innate love for litigation, so that an agglomeration of lawsuits is still one of the Governmentʼs undesirable but inevitable burdens. There is a complaint that the fines imposed in petty cases are excessive, and attention was drawn to this by the Municipality of Manila.25 After stating that the fines imposed on 2,185 persons averaged $5 per capita, and that they had to go to prison for non-payment, the Municipality adds: “It shows an excessive rigour on the part of the judges in the imposition of fines, a rigour which ought to be modified, inasmuch as the majority of the persons accused before the Court are extremely poor and ignorant of the ordinances and the laws for the violation of which they are so severely punished.” Sentences of imprisonment and fines for high crimes are justly severe. During the governorship of Mr. W. H. Taft, 17 American provincial treasurers were each condemned to 25 yearsʼ imprisonment for embezzlement of public funds. In February, 1905, an army major, found guilty of misappropriation of public moneys, had his sentence computed at 60 years, which term the court reduced to 40 yearsʼ hard labour. The penalties imposed on some rioters at Vigan in April, 1904, were death for two, 40 yearsʼ imprisonment and $10,000 fine each for twelve, 30 yearsʼ imprisonment for thirty-one, and 10 yearsʼ imprisonment for twenty-five.