Bureaucracy in the Philippines - Book Review

view as Review The administrative officialism in the Philippines Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz - prove of cosmos governance University of the Philippines, 1957. 268 pp. This hold in is roughly the administrative muniment of the bureaucratism in the Philippines. It spans from the 1560s when Spain to a lower placetook to accord the affairs of the indigenouss of the archipelago to the 1950s when the Philippines assumed the province of self- governing.The fountain presented the significant configurations in the growth of our administrative machine to identify the big characteristics of the current globenequin and functions of the courtly serve of the Philippine policy-making science. In Chapter 1, Dr. Corpuz depict the native life of the inhabitants sooner the arrival of the Spaniards. These inhabitants were not strangers to progress and civilization. Although the pre-Spanish Philippines were in a separate of hea then matureness, it was maturity at a low level.It wa s a stage of cultural inadequacy base on an doddering and simple frame take shape.The origin in brief discussed the regeneration of the Philippine bureaucratism from the snip that were still a dependance of inappropriate nations to the time that the Philippines became an autonomous republic. The reservoir reconstructed, in Chapter 2, the setting in which Spains compound bureaucratism appe ard nigh the middle of the sixteenth century. The fountain as well as depict how the Spanish compound rootageities drumd the colony in Filipinas.Also discussed was the pilgrimage headed by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 21 November 1564, how his quiet diplomacy won the allegiance of umpteen subjects and the arrangement of manila as a city and Legazpis capital. Chapter 3 discussed the twain concepts on how bureaucratism whitethorn be viewed (1) as an presidential term or utensil (2) as a collection of one-on-one bureaucrats, placing more(prenominal) focus on the second co ncept of bureaucratism the realities of bureaucratic behaviour.The chapter is apply to a education of Spanish bureaucrats. The reference besides discussed the sp ar-time activity a. how bureaucrats atomic number 18 found in Filipinas and in Spain the processes and criteria involved in obtaining the powerfulnesss favor b. how to spring up/purchase an blank space where many bureaucrats obtained their flecks c. elaborate conditions downstairs which Spanish bureaucrats as a whole lived and worked and d. ow the administrative organization was aboriginalized in capital of the Philippines for control and communications purposes. The next devil chapters are employ in foreground the essentials of life and work of the highest-ranking bureaucrats the Presidente-Gobernador (Governor-General), the Oidores, Fiscales, and Reales Oficiales who conventional the political bureaucracy in manila. The origin, in Chapter 4, described the governor- full general of Filip inas which had the attri exactlyes of a super-bureaucrat.Also discussed, in general, was the performance of the varied governor-general appointed in Filipinas and illustrated the conflict amidst the clergy and the governors and the instability of the governorship which military position was considered as an probability for cloistered framework profit. Chapter 5 is consecrate to the discussion of the Audiencia of Manila and its bureaucrats and the Royal officials. The Audiencia performed functions of a superior juridic tribunal the highest act of justice in the colonies.The writer discussed the conditions, restrictions, the legislative and judicial functions and the organisational alterations of the authority. Also discussed are the functions and conditions of the Royal Official (Reales Oficiales) or the oficial de la real hacienda who are the administrators of the kings personal res publica or the olympian hacienda. It should be remembered that the versatile dominions /colonies in the Indias are considered as the kings personal property or kingdom. As a monarch, he entrusted the organisation of his kingdoms and provinces to wrong-doingroys, governors-general, and Audiencias.As a proprietor, he entrusted the giving medication of his estate and revenues to the royal officials. The morphological defects and administrative helplessness of the bureaucracy is brought nigh by the pervasion and rottenness of the office of men who besides saw the position as a means for private personal gain. In Chapter 6, the author then discussed the conditions, restrictions and all the functions and duties of the tike presidency and the tike officers/bureaucrats commonly cognize as alcade-mayor. The alcaldes are the tyke equal/counterpart of the governor-general of the archipelago.The author withal highlighted how the alcalde-mayor was in addition the judge with peasant jurisdictions and since these bureaucrats ca-ca no background in the law and hav ing arrived in the province with question fit motives, it is on that pointfore express that the booster c adequate to(p) vice of province organisation is the absence of square(a) justice. The author emphasized that peasant formation has no direction since the brass of concentration of functions is in one man and this has disadvantageously rendered the bureaucrat inefficient. This inefficiency neglect or non-performance of duties easily turned into oppression.The alcadeship educated into an office of blackguard since there were no checks to the alcaldes excesses and frauds. He is the judge administrator military commandant of the province an march once against him is futile. However, unsnarls were undertaken to improve the establishment in the provinces. except these reforms werent able to bear harvest-time for the main source that they were enacted too late. Discussed alike were the native bureaucrats and the brass of local government the principalia which was a tender and political magnanimousness on the hamlet level the lucubrate of its participation and the conditions under which it was actually exercised.The author withal described the undeniable sour or sex act power of the clergy in civil and political life, them being more unified than the root of the bureaucrats. In Chapter 7, the author summarized the weaknesses of the Spanish compound bureaucracy, fundamental of which was the indispensable moral corruption of its members made worse by the fact that the Madrid government placed its political faith not in the bureaucracy scarce in the church. Discussed also as the futile strives to reform the colonial bureaucracy and the general bodily structure of the central administration and the budgetary practices of the central government in Manila. Chapter 8 is a discussion of the principal events and factors that shaped the juvenile era that constituted the basis upon which the naked as a jaybirdfound political admin istration was established, and that provided the context for the new-fashioned bureaucracy and the new bureaucrats. The author discussed Aguinaldos action and the general features of the scheme to organize the town and provincial governments.The new institutions under the R ontogenyary administration were closely imitate later the earlier scheme of the Spanish administration due(p) to the lack of time for conceptions, but the local authorities and institutions were immediately more popularly based and autonomous. Discussed also was the principal features of the Malolos administration of 1899 which was an admirable work of innateism, considering the difficult conditions of the time and the inexperience of its authors. perfect as it may seem, the first attempt to self-government was aborted as the Philippines was once again under a colonial regime now in the hands of the Americans. tally to the author, the American argumentation of the Philippines is generally pointed show up as a major phase in the evolution of modern colonial policy and colonial administration. During this time, there were change magnitude economic activities in agriculture, manufacturing and commerce much(prenominal) that the colony enjoyed vastly improved standards of subsisting and for the first time, the large number adjudge a chance to be given from poverty. The author also studied the p farthermostic period, from 1900 to 1913, of the new bureaucracy.The author identified the salient features of this advanced civil military function musical arrangement which is in great magnitude assorted from that of the old Spanish system. In Chapter 9, the author focussed on the period from 1913 to 1935 in which the civil armed service continued to evolve and which was respected by both American authorities and Filipino officials and politicians. But the evolutionary development was unremarkable. It was a steady but rather life-threatening-for-naught process, unmark ed by basic morphologic alteration or dramatic innovation in the service itself. During this period, both houses of the legislation bodies were under Filipino control.This period also marked the get down of Filipinization of the civil service. In Chapter 10, the author discussed how the Philippine Civil Service, from 1935 to 1955, passed with brief but basic evolutionary governments. First discussed was the establishment of the Philippine people Government (November 15, 1935) which undefiled the gradual rapture of government functions to Filipinos. The Philippine Government was a 10- class transitional government republican in form, Filipino in personnel and has shore leave in internal affairs to be superseded by the land of the Philippines on July 4, 1946.Further discussed were the constitutional changes and phases of which the civil service is also undergoing namely First, the phase of integration and win expansion, dogged until the Japanese violation Second, the ph ase of hoo-hah and demoralization cover the war and earliest postwar long time and Third, the phase of reconstructive memory and modernization. The author, in the last chapter, summarized the important phases in the bureaucracy in the Philippines from the pre-Spanish period to the year 1955 which was discussed in head in the introductory chapters. Also discussed briefly were the weaknesses and characteristics of the bureaucracy.This work of Dr. Onofre Corpuz is a vital parting to the study of Public Administration. I have but good words for this work. The topics were well-organized and clearly written. He was able to piece unneurotic different historic data and I was impressed by the historical teaching presented in this book and his sources which dates from early 1600s. Because of this book, the ratifier will have a correct background and clearer sympathy of the current conditions of the bureaucracy. I hope there could be further study on the conditions of the bureaucracy , if significant change has been attained after 1955.