SPANISH COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

“Spanish Colonial Government”
The Spaniards invade the Philippines for over 300 years ago. For that many years the Spaniards have done lot of things including the government.
The Spanish government led the Philippines . The Philippines was very easy to invade because we have lack of unity , the Spaniards won friendship, don’t have superior military weapons and they had classical attitudes. During the Spanish time they apply a colonial government to the Philippines . The highest position is the king of Spain. The king of Spain sent a governor general to the Philippines as his substitute, act this governor general act like a king of Spain in the Philippines. He has a vast power includes executive , legislative, judicial, military and religious power. In executive power he has the power to signed the laws . In legislative power he implement the laws , in the military power he acts like commander –in – chief .In judicial he acts like archbishop of Manila . The governor general created the law “ power of cumplase” . This is the kind of the law that opposes the laws that will not benefits the country. This was issued by Mexican Viceroy they are the law makers. The archbishop of Manila is the second highest position next to the governor general. He leads the church and he can be the substitute to governor general. The encomiendos is called the provincial government . The provincial government is divided into two the alcaldia and the corregminientos. The alcaldia is the peaceful government while the corregminientos is the rebellion, they are against the government . The one who lead the alcaldia is the alcalde mayor. He was appointed by governor general and he is not elected . The alcalde mayor acted like tax collector and judge. The trading privilege is the Indulto de Commercio. This is the commerce in the provinces. The ayuntaminiento is the city government . It was governed by 12 councilors or the cabildo . In this time it was called the senators. The first established city is the Cebu. In the big cities, it was heade by alcaldes ordinares , regidores and the alguaciles. The other kind of government is the pueblo or municipal government . The pueblos is also known as towns . It was headed by gobernadorcillo. The gobernadorcillo is the highest position that the Filipino can handle during Spanish era. In the barangay government, it was headed by cabeza de barangay this time it was called barangay captain.They were the datus. The polo is the forced labored done by the Filipino’s. The cabeza de barangay was exempted for this polo. This is the salary of the cabeza. The Royal Audiencia was the highest court in land. During this, it is the supreme court. The Residencia is the special court headed by a Juez de Residencia, for now it is the ombudsman. The visita is like the residencia,it is the investigation done of the leaders of government,for this time it is the impeachment. The visitador is the royal official.
Many Filipino said that the government of Spaniards was very cruel. They are very unfair for the Filipinos & they are maltreating our ancestors. The person that can only be placed in the higher rank is only the elite Spaniards while the Filipinos don’t have a right to lead in the higher position.