- Author:
- Lala, Ramon Reyes
- Publication Info:
-
New York:
Continental publishing company,
1899,
pg 65
Text on page 65
The Spanish Colonial Government.
6 7
The dilatoriness of the courts has become proverbial. It is, in fact, years before a case can be brought to a close. Meantime, the litigant has been fleeced out of an amount perhaps a hundred times the value of the article under litigation. The islands are full of native pettifoggers from the law schools of Manila, who have learned too well the meaning of the Spanish manana. A suit can never be considered as disposed of ; for another judge, scenting the faint possibility of a fee, may again have it retried. Thus I have seen the lives of acquitted persons again brought into jeopardy by the meddlesome officiousness
a business street in old manila,
and the grasping greed of a new judge. He that goes to court in the Philippines must not do so without reckoning the cost.
Commenting on this, a recent English traveler says : 41 Availing one self of the dilatoriness of the Spanish law, it is possible for a man to occupy a house, pay no rent, and refuse to quit on legal grounds during a couple of years or more. A person whoCommenting on this, a recent English traveler says : 41 Availing one self of the dilatoriness of the Spanish law, it is possible for a man to occupy a house, pay no rent, and refuse to quit on legal grounds during a couple of years or more. A person who