The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)Cunningham, Charles Henry
History
The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)
Cunningham, Charles Henry
Philippines -- History -- 1521-1812; Spain -- Colonies -- Administration
While as a rule the residencias of governors were severe,
due largely to the presence of the audiencia, that of Dr. Sande,
the first governor to submit to this investigation, illustrates
the evils of the residencia as conducted before the establishment
of the audiencia. His successor, Governor Ronquillo de Peñalosa,
conducted Sande's residencia and sentenced him to pay a heavy fine,
but he appealed the case to the Audiencia of Mexico, by which tribunal,
in the meantime, he had been commissioned oidor. We have noted in an
earlier chapter Ronquillo's comments on the abject state into which
the administration of justice had fallen when a man could be promoted
to a magistracy in a tribunal which had jurisdiction over his own case
on appeal. [255] However, after the establishment of the audiencia,
and until the close of the nineteenth century, the residencia went
to the other extreme, and was, as a rule, exceedingly rigorous.
We may briefly note a few of the most severe residencias in which the
influence of the audiencia told against the victim. In 1625, Gerónimo
de Silva, temporary governor, was imprisoned by the audiencia because
he failed to pursue the Dutch after their defeat in 1617. The real
difficulty lay in the fact that Silva had incurred the enmity of the
senior oidor, who ultimately conducted the residencia, because Silva's
arrival in the Islands deprived that magistrate of the command of the
military and naval forces of the Islands. Again, Governor Corcuera,
after nine years of very successful rule, during which he distinguished
himself in several campaigns of conquest and incidentally aroused the
hostility and jealousy of the oidores, was arrested on charges made
by the audiencia on the arrival of Governor Diego Fajardo in 1644. An
oidor, who was the personal enemy of Corcuera, was designated to
conduct the residencia, the ex-governor was fined 25,000 pesos and
was imprisoned five years while the magistrates of the audiencia
delayed the transmission of the papers which permitted a rehearing
of the case. At last his defense was sent to the Council, the fine
was remitted, he was given salary for the period of his exile, and
the post of governor of the Canaries was conferred upon him. Although
the audiencia was responsible for the injustice in this case, Fajardo,
as president and governor, was held answerable in his own residencia
for his conduct toward his predecessor.
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