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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
Lanao, Sulu and Zainboanga. The number of registered voters is approximately a million.
The provincial and municipal governments are within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior through the Executive Bureau and the Bureau of Non- Christian Tribes, the former exercising authority over the 37 regularly organ- ized provinces and two so-called special provinces of Batanes and Palawan, and the latter over nine specially organized provinces. The chief executive in each province is a provincial Governor, who is elected by popular suffrage except in five specially organized provinces under the Bureau of Non-Christian tribes, namely, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Lanao, Mountain Province and Sulu, where he is appointed by the Governor-General subject to confirmation by the Philippine Senate. With the Pro- vincial Governor are two other members of the Provincial Board, which constitutes the legislative branch of the provincial government. In all regularly organized provinces the two members of the Board are elected by popular vote. In each of the specially organized provinces the Provincial Board is made up of the Provincial Governor, the Provincial Treasurer or the Provincial Secretary-Treasurer (who is an appointive official), and a third member who, in the case of the provinces of Batanes and Palawan, is elected by popular vote, and in the case of the specially organized pro- vinces under the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes is elected by the votes of the councillors and vice-presidents of municipalities and municipal districts. The municipal president is the chief executive in each town or municipality, and the local legislative branch is a municipal council of from 8 to 18 councillors, depending upon the number of inhabitants of the municipality. The president, the vice-president, and the council- lors are all elected by popular vote. In the special provinces under the B.N.C.T. there are still some municipalities with appointive presidents, but the vice-presidents and councillors are elective..
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The Philippine judiciary system consists of the Supreme Court, as the highest tribunal; a Court of First Instance for each judicial district, except the ninth district, which has six judges, the same covering the city of Manila; the Municipal Courts of Manila and Baguio; and a Justice of the Peace court for each municipality. The Supreme Court is composed of one chief justice and twelve associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of the United States Senate. The Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over the Courts of First Instance. An appeal lies from the decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands to the Supreme Court of the United States in certain cases.
EDUCATION AND LITERACY
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Public education in the Philippines is free, secular and co-educational, and the prin- cipal aim is to make the people socially proficient. As a means to this end, emphasis is placed upon the spread of literacy on the basis of a common language English. The Bureau of Education maintains a complete system of public education. Public elementary and high schools are distributed throughout the Islands. Insular schools for special education are maintained. The enrolment of students in the public schools is increasing every year and now exeeds one million. Private schools, patterned after the public schools, besides the old Spanish schools and colleges which still survive, have sprung up in the Philippines in recent years. Practically all these offer instruction in English, and even the old Spanish schools and colleges have included English in their curricula. Upon graduating from the high schools, the students are admitted to higher institutions of learning, among which are the University of the Philippines, established and maintained by the l'hilippine Government, the University of Santo Tomas, the University of San Juan de Letran, the National University, and the University of Manila.
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English and Spanisli are both used as official languages and are widely spoken in the Islands. The English language is becoming the dominant language. There are six established native dialects with some printed literature, namely, the Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Bicol, Pangasinan and Pampangan.
Not including the various dialects of the Mohammedans of Mindanao, and Sulu, or of the Mountain tribes of Northern Luzon, or of various tribes of Pajans.
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AGRICULTURE AND MINERALS
Cane Sugar is by far the most important product of the Islands. Extensive areas of cane are under oultivation in Negros, Panay, Central Luzon, Cebu, and Cotabato,
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