He did not have
the remedy of the writ of habeas corpus nor the writ of prohibition
against an official who attempted to make him the victim of some
unlawful act. His only remedy was to bring a criminal action against
such official, or to sue him for damages. He could not compel public
officials to perform their ministerial duties by mandamus proceedings.
The individual rights conferred by the Philippine Bill, and the
special remedies granted by the Code of Civil Procedure, assure to the
inhabitants of the islands liberties and privileges entirely unknown
to them during the days of Spanish sovereignty, and these liberties
and privileges are adequately safeguarded.
Two things still greatly complicate the administration of justice in
the Philippines.
The first is the dense ignorance of the people of the working class
who for the most part have failed to learn of their new rights,
and even if they know them are afraid to attempt to assert them in
opposition to the will of the _caciques_, whose power for evil they
know only too well.
The other is the unreliability of many witnesses and their
shocking readiness to perjure themselves. It is always possible to
manufacture testimony at small expense. While the criminal libel
suit brought against certain members of the staff of the newspaper
_El Renacimiento_, which libelled me, was in progress the judge
showed me the opinion of the two Filipino assessors [497] in one
of the cases and told me that it was written by an attorney for the
defence.
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