Philippines in 19th Century
For administrative purposes, the Philippines was divided into provinces and special districts. The provinces were known as alcaldias, each governed by an alcalde mayor. The special districts, representing unpacified regions, were known as corregimientos, each under a corregidor, usually an army officer.
The alcalde mayor of the province exercised both executive and judicial functions. He received a low salary, but his office was lucrative because of his privilege to engage in trade. This privilege was greatly abused so that it was abolished by law in 1844. Finally, in 1886, the alcalde mayor was made simply a judge, and a civil governor was appointed chief executive of the province.
The provinces were divided into pueblos (towns). Each pueblo was administered by a gobernadorcillo (petty governor). He was popularly called capitan and his wife, capitana. At first, he was elected annually byu all married males of the town; later, in the 19th century, he was elected by 13 electors headed by the outgoing gobernadorcillo. Other town officials besides the gobernadorcillo were the teniente mayor (chief lieutenant), juez de sementeras (justice of the fields), juez de ganados (justice of cattle), juez de policia (justice of police) and the directorcilla (municipal secretary).
Spain introduced the European system of education in the Philippines the first schools to be established were parochial schools, with the Spanish missionaries as teachers. Filipino children were taught the catholic doctrine, the three R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic), music and various arts and trades.
