I ask mainly because it seems to me like such vast territories would require a flexible governance strategy. You can't for instance expect a senator from the north to travel to the south in Manila (or wherever the capital at the time would've been) to travel for 5-6 days at a time to the capital to govern could you? How autonomous were provinces? How were claims to territory enforced on more remote islands, if at all? How differing were the governments (Spanish, Americans, etc) in their ideas on how to govern the islands?