Mr. ROXAS. Senator Osmena is from Cebu; Senator Montinola and I come from Panay; Representative Sabido is from Albay, and Representative Tirona is from Cavite, which is about 25 miles from Manila.

PHILIPPINE POLITICAL EDUCATION

I shall now touch upon our "political education." In other words, the progress of democracy in the Philippines. I shall try to go over the subject very briefly, because the committee will find in previous hearings and many books that this subject has been very fully covered. During 1898-1900 the government of the Philippines was military. From September 1, 1900, to June, 1901, there was a commission appointed by the President of the United States with legislative functions, the Taft commission, but the executive department of the government remained in the hands of the United States Army. Then in 1901 Mr. Taft was inaugurated as the first civil governor of the Philippine Islands, and, on his inauguration, civil government was established in the Philippines, although a few Provinces still remained under the military government for the simple reason that they were not completely pacified. In 1901 and 1902 municipal governments were placed in the hands of Filipinos. The people were permitted to elect their municipal officials and, later on, in 1903, the Provinces were permitted to elect the provincial governors. There was a provincial board in each Province composed of the governor and two members. At first the two members of the provincial board were appointive officials. Later on the entire board was elective, so that, by 1907, the municipal and provincial governments were placed completely in the hands of the Filipinos. The local government was in the hands of Filipino-elected officials. In 1907, in accordance with the provisions of the Cooper bill of 1902, the first elective assembly was inaugurated. The legislature at that time was composed of an elected assembly as the lower house and a commission presided over by the Governor General as the upper house.

Later on, in 1913, the Filipinos were given a majority on the commission, which, for practical purposes, placed the legislature in their hands. When the Jones Act was passed in 1916, the upper house and the elective senate were made the sole legislative bodies, and the Governor General became an executive official exclusively. As you remember, he presided over the Philippine commission which was the upper house of the legislative body. Under the Jones Act the Filipinos are in control and actually have in their own hands their local government and the legislative branch of the insular government. The Governor General is an executive official, but under the Jones Act, executive functions are performed through the executive departments of the government. The secretaries of the departments are Filipinos, with the exception of the vice governor, who is secretary of the department of public instruction. The effort to democratize the executives in order to carry out the spirit of the Jones Act, which, as the preamble stated, was designed to place in the hands of the Filipinos as large a measure of self-government as they could assimilate, or as was compatible with the sovereign rights of the United States, has been a long tedious process carried on over a period of several years in the Philippines. The legislature was empowered by the Jones Act to reorganize the government and it provided that the

secretaries of the departments be appointed at the end of every general election to hold office for three years. The purpose was this: After each general election, the Governor General would be able to determine what party was in power in the legislature and make his appointments from men who had the confidence of the majority party in the legislature. This was necessary not only because he had to submit his appointments to the senate for confirmation, but in order to make the Filipino secretaries of departments responsive to the legislature and to obtain the necessary cooperation between the executive and the legislative branches of the government.

I shall now describe the procedure followed in the appointment of the secretaries of the departments. Upon the inauguration of the legislature and the determination of the party in power, the Governor General calls into conference the majority leaders in the legislature and requests them to submit a list of secretaries of departments. He makes his selection from that list and sends his nominations to the Senate for confirmation. If there is disagreement between the Governor General and the leaders of the legislature on certain nominations, other names are discussed until an agreement is reached. After an agreement is reached, the men selected by the Governor General are confirmed by the Senate. This situation makes the secretaries of the department politically responsible to the legislature in so far as they represent the majority party of the legislature, but still makes them legally responsible to the Governor General, as that - legal responsibility is prescribed and imposed by the organic act. When the system functions normally, as it has during the last three years, we have actually a fairly democratized executive, because executive functions are performed mostly by executive departments which represent the political complex of the party in power in the legislature. That is the present form of government existing in the Philippine Islands. This democratization of the executive has been termed by a Governor General of the Philippine Islands the estabment of cabinet responsibility in so far as this can be done within the provisions of the Jones Act.

There is another important political institution in the Philippines which should be mentioned, and that is the council of state. The council of state is a body appointed by the Governor General for the purpose of advising the executive on fundamental questions of policy. The Governor General does not impose limitations in his power of selection, and the council of state up to the present has been composed of the secretaries of departments, the presiding officers of both houses of the legislature and the majority leaders of both houses of the legislature. The council of state has been found useful in ironing out differences between the legislature and the executive on fundamental questions of policy, especially on matters of legislative policy. The reports of Governors General, especially that of former Governor General Stimson, attest to the success and usefulness of the council of state. I should like to quote from the report of the Governor General of the Philippine Islands for 1930 as to the efficiency of the secretaries of the departments. He says:

The secretaries here conducted the affairs of their departments with diligence, intelligence and courage. I wish to express my appreciation of the loyal cooperation with my administration by the members of the cabinet, individually and collectively.

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· Of the legislature the Governor General said in his report:

The third and final session of the eighth legislature began on July 16 and closed on November 8. The largest number of bills in the history of the Philippine Government was approved in this session. Much of this legislation was highly constructive and indicated a high degree of leadership on the part of the responsible leaders of the legislature. Of equal importance was the attitude of the legislature in carefully considering and rejecting a considerable amount of unwise and unnecessary legislation. By informal conferences between members of the legislature and the executive departments a great deal was accomplished in avoiding legislation which would have necessitated unfavorable action by the Governor General if enacted. The members of the legislature displayed a very commendable desire to work in harmony for the best interests of the government.

And with regard to the cooperation which the legislature has given the Governor General, especially with regard to judicial appointments, he says:

All judicial apopintments were confirmed by the senate, as were practically all appointments to minor offices. This is the first time that this has happened in a long period of years. The legislature deserves high praise for its cooperative spirit in confirming executive appointments.

We can not speak of democracy and a democratic government without referring to political parties. I venture to say that our success in democracy is due very largely to the fact that there are two and only two national political parties in the Philippine Islands. The names of these parties are the Nationalist Party, the acting president of which is my colleague, and acting president of the senate, Senator Osmena, and the Democratic Party, the leader and president of which is my bitter political enemy, for we come from the same island, Senator Montinola. I fought him and defeated him four times, but at last he was elected and I am glad to work with him now. These two political parties have existed in the Philippine Islands for many years. The Nationalist Party was organized before the election of the first assembly, and the Democratic Party in 1914. Their points of cleavage as to their political philosophies are apparent in their respective platforms. However, they are united on one thing-on the matter of independence. If there is any difference, it is in the desire of one to exceed the other in the advocacy of independence.

Our elections have always been orderly. Following the example of America, there is a readiness on the part of minorities to accept the result of elections. I shall quote from the Wood-Forbes report again. It says:

Interest in the election was widespread.

The report refers to the 1919 election.

Election day passed without any serious disturbance. There was a wide general acceptance by the minority of the result of the popular vote.

Mr. UNDERHILL. Have you any educational qualifications for voters?

Mr. ROXAS. I shall describe them. I shall state first how many voters there are in the Philippine Islands. In 1931, our last general election, there were registered 1,009,125 voters, and the registry lists show that 983,406 actually voted, and I assure you there were no repeaters. This proportion between the registered voters and those who actually voted, as you will see, is very high. I do not believe

that at any election in the Philippine Islands that proportion has gone below 80 or 85 per cent.

There is suffrage for men only in the Philippine Islands. Women do not vote. There is now some agitation in favor of women's suffrage, and just before we left the Philippine Islands, at the last session of the legislature, a bill granting suffrage to women was passed in the lower house. It is now pending in the Senate of the Philippine Islands. Any man 21 years of age who possesses any of the following qualifications may vote:

He must be able to read and write Spanish, English, or any of the local dialects; own property of an assessed value of 500 pesos; pay an annual tax of 30 pesos, or, if he had occupied one of the so-called. municipal official positions during the Spanish sovereignty.

Mr. UNDERHILL. There is no poll-tax requirement?

Mr. ROXAS. No. That is not a requirement, but there is a general poll tax in the Philippine Islands. All males of 18 years of age or more in the Philippine Islands pay a poll tax of 2 pesos a year, but that is not a qualification in elections.

PHILIPPINE EDUCATION, HEALTH, SANITATION

Mr. Roxas. I shall now cover very briefly the subject of education, health, and sanitation in the Philippines. I shall ask to have printed in the record the statistics prepared by the director of education of the Philippine Islands for 1930, showing that there were enrolled in the public schools, as of September, 1929, 1,213,711 students, and in private schools, 102,413. There are to-day 7,821 public schools and 621 private schools, making a total of 8,442 schools. Before America came to the Philippine Islands there were about 2,000 schools actually in operation in the different parts of the islands. The difference between this number and the number of schools we now have shows the progress of education in the Philippines. But it is important to know that real interest in education in the Philippines was manifested immediately after the organization of the elective assembly. The first bill passed by the assembly was an appropriation for school purposes. I shall also request permission to put in the record the daily attendance in our several schools.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection that will be entered in the record.

Mr. ROXAS. I shall also ask permission to put in the record a statement as to the number of teachers in the different schools, and, for your information, I would like to state that there are to-day 25,151 Filipino municipal teachers and 263 American teachers for our different schools. This number of American teachers does not include five specialists in the bureau of education, 33 division superintendents, and six division superintendents on special detail in the general office.

Summary showing the total annual public-school enrollment and the percentage of school population enrolled in public schools for the last five years, and for 1915 and 1920

1 The figures for total population by divisions were obtained from the office of vital statistics of the Philippine Health Service, Manila.

The school population is estimated by dividing the total population by 3.8, which is the ratio of the total population 6 to 17 years of age in the islands, to the total population as reported by the 1918 census. 3 December.

The enrollment for Itbayat, Batanes, for July 1927, is used.

Summary showing, for the islands, the enrollment and percentage of enrollment by grades and sexes during the month of September, 1930

Summary showing, for the islands, the percentage of the total enrollment in primary, intermediate, and secondary grades for the past five years, based on the enrollment for the month of September for each year