Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

An act decreeing that all the officials of the royal Audiencia shall take copies of the royal ordinances.

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-first day of the month of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas, in one of the royal ordinances, it is ordered that all the officials of this royal Audiencia, and other persons whom they concern, shall keep in their possession a copy of the said ordinances; therefore they ordered, and they did so order, that within thirty days after the publication of this act, each of the said officials shall take a copy of the said royal ordinances and keep it in his possession; and each one, so far as he is concerned, shall observe and execute them, as his Majesty orders therein, under the penalties therein contained—­under the penalty that if, after the expiration of said time, the said copy has not been made, they shall be immediately convicted and fined in the sum of six pesos of common gold, the latter being applied to the court-rooms of this royal Audiencia.  By this act they so declared, ordered, and decreed.

Before me: 

Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

An act decreeing that no alcalde-in-ordinary, notary, commissioner, attorney, or any other official of this royal Audiencia, or of the ordinary court, shall go outside this city without license.

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-first day of the month of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas the alcaldes-in-ordinary of this city, notaries, commissioners, attorneys, and other officials, both of this royal Audiencia and of the ordinary court, whenever they see fit, leave the city without license—­whence results much harm to the litigants, on account of the delay and unsatisfactory conduct of their business, beside many other inconveniences resulting therefrom:  therefore, to remedy this evil, they decreed and ordered that, now and henceforth, no alcalde-in-ordinary, commissioner, attorney, notary-public, or other official of this royal Audiencia or of the ordinary court, shall go anywhere outside of this city, without the express permission of this royal Audiencia, under a penalty of a fine of six pesos of common gold, in which sum anyone adjudged guilty of the contrary shall be immediately fined—­one-half for the poor in the prison, and the other half for the poor in the Spanish hospital—­beside the loss and interest which may result to the parties concerned on account of the delay in justice.  By this act they so proclaimed, ordered and decreed.

Before me: 

Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

Ordinances and laws for the Sangleys.