An Act Declaring that the Presence of Locusts in Various Provinces of the Islands so Threatens the Food Supply for the Coming Year as to Present a Public Emergency Requiring Radical Action, and Authorizing and Providing for the Appointment of a Board in Each Province with Full Powers to Call Upon All Able-Bodied Inhabitants thereof to Take United Action to Suppress the Pest, and for Other Purposes

August 3, 1903

ACT NO. 817

AN ACT DECLARING THAT THE PRESENCE OF LOCUSTS IN VARIOUS PROVINCES OF THE ISLANDS SO THREATENS THE FOOD SUPPLY FOR THE COMING YEAR AS TO PRESENT A PUBLIC EMERGENCY REQUIRING RADICAL ACTION, AND AUTHORIZING AND PROVIDING FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A BOARD IN EACH PROVINCE WITH FULL POWERS TO CALL UPON ALL ABLE-BODIED INHABITANTS THEREOF TO TAKE UNITED ACTION TO SUPPRESS THE PEST, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

WHEREAS, the presence of locusts in various provinces of the Philippine Archipelago so threatens the entire food supply of the Islands for the coming year and presents such an emergency and danger to the welfare of the whole people as to require prompt and radical action for its suppression: Therefore,

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Under the presidency of the provincial governor a board is hereby created in each province for the purpose of suppressing the locust pest, such board to be made up of the members of the provincial board and three agriculturists to be appointed by the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Commission, and to be known as the Locust Board. The provincial secretary shall act as secretary of the locust board without additional compensation. It shall be the duty of the locust board to enforce the provisions of this Act.

SECTION 2. In every province in which a plague of locusts is threatened or exists every able-bodied inhabitant, subject to such regulations and limitations as the board constituted under this Act may adopt, is hereby declared to be liable to service in suppressing the locust pest. The board is hereby empowered to issue regulations directing the conduct of the persons summoned for the purposes of this Act and to control their operations, either directly or through the municipal officers of the various municipalities who are hereby in respect to the scope of this Act, made subordinates of the board hereby constituted. The regulations of the board may require that the inhabitants shall work en masse or in such force and in such manner as may be deemed by the board not efficacious to the end in view, or the board may require that each inhabitant subject to this Act shall collect a given quantity of locusts, fixing the amount thereof in "gantas" or "cavanes." It is hereby declared to be the intent of this Act to give the board hereby constituted full discretion in the manner of suppressing the locust pest.

SECTION 3. It shall be the duty of municipal councilors and of all other municipal officers upon the appearance of locusts within their respective barrios to bring the fact at once to the attention of the municipal president, whose duty it shall be to take the necessary steps prescribed by the regulations of the board hereby constituted and to bring the fact to the notice of the board through the provincial governor.

SECTION 4. Where any persons summoned under this Act to the public service herein required shall, by reason of their poverty, be unable to support themselves with food during their service, the board hereby constituted may authorize the municipality to furnish them with sufficient rice from the store of rice sent to the province by the Civil Governor and paid from the "Congressional relief fund," reporting at once to the Civil Governor, and by telegram where possible, the amount needed for such purpose.

SECTION 5. Every person liable under this Act to the lawful orders of the board hereby constituted who shall fail to comply with the same shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined or imprisoned, or both, in the discretion of the municipal president, in accordance with the regulations to be provided by the board: Provided, however, That the penalty shall not exceed in any case ten dollars' fine or ten days' imprisonment or both.

SECTION 6. The moneys accruing from fines for violations of this Act shall constitute a special fund to be deposited with the municipal treasurer of the municipality in which such violation occurs for the purpose of being applied by him in payment for the hoppers or "loctones" turned over to him by such persons as have already fulfilled the requirements of the obligation imposed upon them by virtue of the provisions of section two of this Act. The price to be paid for this purpose shall be determined and fixed in the regulations to be adopted by the board constituted under this Act.

SECTION 7. The board constituted by this Act is hereby authorized to purchase the number of galvanized-iron sheets considered indispensable in the suppression of the locusts by the method of destroying them in trenches, reporting the amount needed at once by telegram to the Civil Governor, who is hereby authorized to expend such amount as in his discretion is needed for the purchase of such galvanized-iron sheets. The provincial supervisor or supervisor-treasurer of the province is required to take up such galvanized-iron sheets upon his property return and to duly account for the same. aScITE

SECTION 8. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, August 3, 1903.