Chapter 14
PASAPORTES STAMPS
(Passports)
The Regulation for enforcement of the cedula tax, which formed a part of the Royal Order of March 6, 1884, provided that the cedula should be substituted for the passport for travel within the Philippines. On March 3, 1885, the Governor General issued the following decree clarifying this provision of the Cedula Tax Law:
 
“Having seen the expediente (papers pertaining to the matter) initiated by the Secretariat of this Central Government concerning the amplification of Article 44 of the Regulation for Personal Cedulas, putting it in harmony with Section 13 of Article 31 of the cited regulation, and in consequence of the suppression of the passport as a necessary document for travel in the interior of this archipelago:

“Having seen the opinions issued in this particular by the General Superintendency of Finance and the Section of Government of the Council of Administration, this Central Government, subject to that which the Government of His Majesty may definitely determine, decrees:

“1. Article 44 of the Regulation for Personal Cedulas of the 30th of June of last year, approved by my decree of the 15th of July of the same year, is corrected in the following form: 

Article 44. The individuals subject to the tax may travel with the cedula in the interior of this Archipelago without the necessity of a passport.”

“2. The Personal Cedula will take the place of the passports in all those requisites which must be satisfied by the Captainship of the Port for the dispatch of every vessel of the coastwise trade which carries passengers.”

“3. In consequence of that determined above, the passport as a necessary document for travel in the interior of this Archipelago is suppressed, except for the Chinese, who must be provided with it in the interim that the special Regulation for the registration of the same is in force.”

“4. The present decree will begin to rule in this Capital five days after having been published in the official Gazette, and in the respective provinces the same number of days after the receipt in them of the publication cited.”

“5. The provincial governors and Judges (alcades mayores) shall order this decree to be published by proclamation, and in the local dialect, in all the villages subject to their respective jurisdiction, reported to this Central Government that it has thus been accomplished.

“Let it be published, let a report of it be made to the Ministry of Colonies, and transmitted to the respective Center (of Government)…JOVELLAR.” [93]

It appears that the provisional 20-centimos stamp which was surcharged PASAPORTES in 1885, was in reality a provisional Derechos de Firma stamp which was issued solely because of the exhaustion of the supply of the current 20-centimos Derechos de Firma stamp. It also seems certain that the 20-centimos “Pasaportes” stamp mentioned in Article 1 of the Royal Decree of May 16, 1886, and abolished by the Royal Order of March 24, 1897, was the 20-centimos Derechos de Firma stamp. Apparently the only specific use for this stamp was in payment of the stamp-tax of 20-centimos on each “visa” authorizing travel from one province to another within the Philippines. Subsequent to July 1, 1884, only Chinese residents were required to obtain a “visa” authorizing interior travel.

As already explained in the chapter devoted to Derechos de Firma stamps, at some time between May 16, 1886, and the end of 1887, the stamp tax on each visa authorizing interior travel of Chinese was increased from 20 centimos to 25 centimos. Since no Derechos de Firma stamp of that denomination was issued, postage stamps were invariably used in payment of the stamp tax which authorized interior travel from 1888 until the end of 1897. Effective on January 1, 1898, the  25 centimos Timbre Movil (Adhesive Stamp) labeled SELLO was used for this purpose.

Because there was no specific use for the 20 centimos Derechos de Firma stamp subsequent to the end of 1887, this stamp was frequently used in lieu of Derechos de Firma stamps of the 1 peso and 2 pesos denomination whenever there was a shortage of the latter. In 1891, the use of five 20-centimos Derechos de Firma stamps on passports to leave the Philippines in lieu of Pagos Al Estado of the 1 peso denomination was authorized. [94]