Directory_and_Chronicle_1930 — Page 1492

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PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

The Philippine legislative body is composed of two Houses-the Senate and the t House of Representatives. There are in all 93 representatives and 24 senators, re presenting the City of Manila and the 48 provinces of the archipelago, all of whom are elected by popular vote with the exception of nine representatives and two senators who are appointed by the Governor-General to represent the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Mountain Province, Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Sulu and Zainboanga. The number of registered voters is approximately a

million.

An extra-legal body, the Council of State, created by virtue of an executive order of the Governor-General, forms the binding link between the executive and the legislative branches of the insular Government, and represents the people's counsel int the administration of the government. The Council of State is composed of the Governor-General, as president, the Presidents of both Houses of the Legislature, and the Secretaries of the Departments-

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The provincial and municipal governments are under the direct supervision of the Department of the Interior through the Executive Bureau and the Bureau of Non-c 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 f specially organized provinces the Provincial Board is made up by the Provincia k Governor, the Provincial Treasurer or the Provincial Secretary-Treasurer (who is am appointive official), and a third meinber who, in the case of the provinces of Batanes and Palawan, is elected by popular vote, and in the case of the specially organized prok 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 municipa president is the chief executive in each town or nunicipality, and the local legislative branch is a municipal council of from 8 to 18 councillors, depending upon the numbed 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. ther are still some municipalities with appointive presidents, but the vice-presidents anys councillors are elective.

The Philippine judiciary system consists of the Supreme Court, as the highes tribunal; a Court of First Instance for each judicial district, except the ninth distric which has six judges, the same covering the city of Manila; the Municipal Courts da Manila and Baguio; and a Justice of the Peace court for each municipality. ThT Supreme Court is composed of one chief justice and eight associate justices, all di 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 th Courts of First Instance. An appeal lies from the decision of the Supreme Court 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 th! principal aim is to make the people socially efficient. As a means to this end, emphasisd is placed upon the spread of literacy on the basis of a common language-Englis The Bureau of Education maintains a complete system of public education. Puble elementary and high schools are distributed throughout the Islands. Insular school for special education are maintained. The enrolment of students in the public school f is increasing every year and now exeeds one million. Private schools, patterned aft the public schools, besides the old Spanish schools and colleges which still survive, ha sprung up in the Philippines in recent years. Practically all these offer instruction English, and even the old Spanish schools and colleges have included English in the curricula. Upon graduating from the high schools, the students are admitted to hight institutions of learning, foremost among which is the University of the Philippin established and maintained by the Philippine Government.

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