The Philippine Assembly is composed of eighty-one elected members, all of whom are Filipinos.  They represent thirty-four of the thirty-nine provinces into which the archipelago is divided.  The two houses of the legislature have equal powers.  Neither has any special privilege in the matter of initiating legislation, and affirmative action by both is required in order to pass it.  The Moro Province, the Mountain Province and the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Agusan are not represented in the assembly, nor are they subject to the jurisdiction of the Philippine Legislature.  The Philippine Commission alone has legislative jurisdiction over them, their population being largely composed of Moros, or members of other non-Christian tribes.

The provinces may be divided into regularly organized provinces governed under the provincial government act, and specially organized provinces, which include the Moro Province, the Mountain Province and the provinces of Mindoro, Palawan, Agusan and Nueva Vizcaya, of which the first is governed under a special law and the remaining four are governed under a different one known as “The Special Provincial Government Act.”

Regularly organized provinces have a governor and a treasurer.  The governor is elected, and the treasurer is appointed by the governor-general with the approval of the commission.  These two officials, with another known as the third member, constitute a provincial board.  The third member is elected.  As the Filipinos usually elect to office men from among their own people, practically all of the elective provincial officers are Filipinos, as are ten of the appointive officers, it having been the policy to appoint Filipinos whenever possible.

Regularly organized provinces are divided into municipalities which elect their own officers and control their own affairs for the most part.  Provincial treasurers have intervention in municipal expenditures, which are approved in advance for each fiscal year, and municipal officers may be removed for misconduct by the governor-general.

All officers of the six special government provinces are appointed by the governor-general with the approval of the commission.

There are four regularly organized municipalities in these provinces, but the remainder of their territory is divided into townships, which elect their own officers, except their secretary-treasurers, who are appointed by the provincial governor; and into rancherias or settlements, with all of their officials appointed by the provincial governor.  This latter form of local government is confined to the more primitive wild people.

The judiciary is independent.  The details of its organization will be found in Chapter XV.

Three of the seven justices of the supreme court, including the chief justice, are Filipinos, as are approximately half of the judges of the courts of first instance and practically all justices of the peace.