Emilio Aguinaldo's instructions on June 27, 1898

by Emilio Aguinaldo

INSTRUCTIONS.

Desirous of carrying out to the full extent the decree of the 23d instant, and of arranging that the formation of the administrative expedience may not signify in the future the paralysis of the public business, but, on the contrary, may constitute the best guarantee of the regularity, promptitude, and opportunity in the performance of the public service, I give the present instructions, and I decree:

Rule 1. The central offices will be installed in a building that will be in charge of a janitor or controller, and he will at the same time be at the head of the persons who perform material services, and as such he will keep a list of these persons.

The janitor will have the charge of conducting those who present any claims or submit any business or negotiation to the corresponding centres, and he will take charge as well of sending out the despatches to each centre after they are recorded in a register which he will keep to that effect, and also to deliver the correspondence that he shall receive.

Rule 2. The offices of the provinces and towns will be installed in a form similar to the central, and it is well understood that the despatches of each provincial council will be addressed to a section and those of each delegate of town to a "negociado."

Rule 3. For each affair the assistance of the "negociados" will form the expediente, or brief, in which shall be united all the proofs that are necessary, asking of the interested parties themselves, or to other offices by means of official communications with the chiefs of provinces or towns to sign. When the necessary proofs have arrived the assistant will make a digest or extract, specifying with clearness the subject-matter of the business and the evidence that may result for or against same. With this digest or extract the brief will be passed to the official in charge, who will indorse on it a note of his observations and considerations, and his opinion regarding the resolution will be adopted, delivering the brief itself to the director.

He will examine the brief and he will put himself in communication with the secretary to edit the resolution in the form of a decree, that will be ultimately submitted to the approbation and signature of the president of the government if it is not necessary to consult congress previously.

The officers of the provinces and towns will observe similar rules in their business.

Rule 4. The resolutions or actions of the town offices can be appealed from to the provincial offices, and from these to the central offices. The resolutions or actions of the last are without appeal.

Rule 5. The officials in charge will be the custodians of the records and archives of their respective sections, arranging them in packages and numbering the briefs enclosed. The archives of the provinces and towns will be in the charge of the respective chief, assisted by fit and proper persons.

Rule 6. The directors and chiefs of the provinces and towns will take care that the interests of all of the applicants shall be served and attended to with promptness and courtesy, without the distinction of persons, reprimanding at once those who cause an unjustifiable delay. The recurrence of each shall be indorsed on his record of service. If the faults continue to be recorded he will be discharged.

Rule 7. As a base for the installation of the official centres the following plan will be observed:

1. The secretary of foreign affairs will only be established for the time being as the centre of diplomacy, which will embrace two sections.

First. On the correspondence and formation of the diplomatic corps, secretary, and interpreters.

Second. The means or methods that shall be adopted with reference to the press.

For the time being, centres of marine and commerce will not be established, but in their place a section charged with all despatches concerning the expeditions for the purchase of arms and provisions and other duties belonging to said branches. This section will remain provisionally established in the centre of diplomacy.

2. At the office of the secretary of war two centres will be established embracing four sections.

One. Section of campaign will embrace two negociados, one who undertakes the formation of the plan of operations and diaries of the same, uniting all the details and information relative to the engagements and movements of the troops, both national and those of the enemy, to publish the countersign, and the editing of the general orders of the army, and the reports from the engagements, and another who will be charged with the record of the details and services of all those who serve in the militia, their promotion to a higher rank, and the organization and discipline of the militia.

Two. The section of military justice, one negociado, who will have charge of the appointment of the auditors and assessor for the council of war, the editing of the general proclamations, the instructions upon the diplomacy and policy of the army, and despatches of other affairs of a judicial military character.

Three. The section of military administration will have under its charge the negociado who undertakes all concerning subsistence and the acquiring and supplying the materials of war.

Four. The section of military sanitation will direct the negociado, who will appoint the medical staff and their assistants to the hospitals as well as to the ambulances, and he will keep a record of all of the sick that exist in one or the other, and of all others that refer to this service.

The centre of public works will embrace three sections, of which the first deals with all concerning the works of fortifications, roads, bridges, and other elements that military operations require, in accordance with the plans. The second, of all that relates to the works for the common use of the provinces and towns; and a third, the branches of communications.

3. The secretary of the interior will be established for the time being in one centre, which will embrace three sections: First, police and interior order; second, justice, civil register, and census; third, under instruction of public health.

4. The secretary of the treasury will exist for the time being as a sole centre, divided into five sections: First, to levy and collect the taxes; second, ordering the payments and distribution of funds and forming the estimates; third, keeping the accounts by double entry in books; fourth, the custody of the funds of the central treasury; fifth, register of cattle, fixed properties, issuing patents of inventions and trade marks, and other details concerning the development of the agricultural and manufacturing industries.

Rule 8. In each centre and under the immediate charge of the director will be a negociado, who will keep a book where there will be entered an extract of all correspondence and claims that come in and all that go out, another copy-book of letters and superior instructions, and another book in which will be registered all personal and general employees in each centre and the services of each one.

This negociado will be charged, besides, with the distribution of works and despatches.

These negociados in the provincial towns and offices will be under the control of their respective chiefs.

Rule 9. Each negociado may take or employ a number of assistants and clerks that he considers necessary in view of his work.

Rule 10. The secretaries and directors will study the instructions, which must be complied with to systematize the despatches of the different affairs confided to their care.

(Signed) EMILIO AGUINALDO.

CAVITE, June 27th, 1898.

Source: Memorials from Señor Felipe Agoncillo and Constitution of the Provisional Philippine Government.. Anti-Imperialist League. 1899.