Author Topic: Bohol Governance During the Spanish Period  (Read 1110 times)

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Bohol Governance During the Spanish Period
« on: July 21, 2008, 07:03:52 PM »
By Engineer Jes Tirol
Columnist
Bohol Chronicle

Proem

When the first governor of Bohol, Captain Guillermo Kirkpatrick, arrived in Bohol his first project was construction of a jail. On October 26, 1854 the construction of the jail was started and became functional on July 5, 1856.

The reason forwarded by Governor Kirkpatrick was to imprison those who did not perform their polo service. However, as time went by many kinds of "crimes" were the causes of imprisonment.

Poor Man's Prison

Majority of those who were put in prison were the poor. Eventually the jail was known as Poor Man's Prison.

On 3 March 1874, the Politico-Military Governor of Bohol Joaquin Bengoechea made a report to the Director General de Administration Local de Filipinas (Director General for Local Administration in the Philippines). The report has the following prefatory statement, Relacion de los presos pobres destinados por medida gubernativa (Information regarding the poor prisoners imprisoned by order of the government). In the report were the names of the prisoners, their crimes, their sentences, and the time they were actually detained.

Types of Crimes

First on the list was Don Domingo Gomapac. His crime was Mal creacion de caudales or bad way of creating wealth. He was imprisoned for one year, 6 months and 24 days.

We do not know what is meant by "bad way of creating wealth." Basically it is the same as today's crime of "unexplained wealth." So even during Spanish times in Bohol, it was already a crime for a poor man to become wealthy.

Herewith is the list of other crimes:
1. Failure to pay debt
2. Failure to pay tribute-tax and personal (polo) service
3. Occultism and demon worship
4. Undocumented
5. Malversation of wealth
6. By order of the government
7. Failure to give assistance
8. Slight physical injuries
9. Thief of cattle
10. Committing abuse to a private gentleman
11. Desertion from the military draft

Among the eleven crimes listed above the longest sentence was for "Slight physical injuries," which was for 1 year, two months and 10 days. It was followed by "Failure to pay debt," which merited 11 months and one day, followed by "Desertion from military draft," which merited 10 months and six days. It was followed by "Thief of cattle," which merited 5 months and six days.

"Malversation of wealth," merited 6 months. Being "Undocumented," merited an imprisonment of 5 days. The "Abuse to a private gentleman," which is practically equivalent to present day "libel" or "slander," merited 13 days imprisonment.

The most arbitrary crime was "by order of the government." It merited a penalty of 5 days. The other crimes were only for some days.

Comment

The major crimes like murder, etc. were put in another part of the jail and were usually tried in Cebu or Manila.

The most "common crime" was being "undocumented." It was followed by "failure to pay tribute or render polo service."

Even though there were only two cases of "by order of the government," we can still see that this type of "crime" really existed in Bohol during Spanish times.

To my mind, the most oppressive "crime" was "Bad way of creating wealth" or "Unexplained wealth." Any rich Boholano who would resist giving away a wealth that a Spaniard covets can be accused of this crime and be put in prison for more than a year.

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