An Act to Amend Act Numbered Thirteen Hundred and Ninety-Three, Entitled "An Act Providing for the Widening of the Streets and the Adjustment of Ownership of Land Located within Certain Specified Limits in the Municipality of Cebu, Province of Cebu," by Granting Larger Powers to the Committee Thereby Created

May 19, 1909

ACT NO. 1913

AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED THIRTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE, ENTITLED "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE WIDENING OF THE STREETS AND THE ADJUSTMENT OF OWNERSHIP OF LAND LOCATED WITHIN CERTAIN SPECIFIED LIMITS IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CEBU, PROVINCE OF CEBU," BY GRANTING LARGER POWERS TO THE COMMITTEE THEREBY CREATED

SECTION 1. Section one of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. The Governor-General, with the consent of the Philippine Commission, is hereby authorized to appoint a committee of five persons to continue the work of the committee appointed by resolution of the Commission of March twenty-first, nineteen hundred and five, to provide plans for the widening of such streets as may be desirable and proper and to lay out new streets within the so-called "burnt area" in the municipality of Cebu, Province of Cebu, to adjust all questions of ownership of all land within the said burnt area, and to make such equitable allotment and adjustment of the land within the said burnt area as may be necessary and practicable, caused by the widening of existing streets and in the laying out of new streets. All future vacancies on the committee hereby established shall be filled by appointment by the Governor-General. The committee heretofore appointed under the provisions of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three is hereby discharged from further duty and shall turn over all books, papers, records and accounts to the committee appointed in accordance with this Act. The Governor-General is hereby authorized to confirm and approve the acts of the Director of Public Works, Sergio Osmena, provincial governor of Cebu, T. Warren Allen, district engineer, and the president of the municipality of Cebu, acting instead of the committee authorized by Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three. 

"Said committee shall from time to time, as may be necessary, prepare suitable building and sanitary ordinances for the said burnt area and submit them to the Governor-General for approval who shall modify, amend or approve the same and transmit them through said committee to the municipal council of Cebu, and upon receipt thereof by said council such ordinances shall be and have all the force of municipal ordinances within said burnt area. Said committee may also in like manner and subject to the same approval prepare ordinances for the purposes set forth in subsections (f), (h), (i), (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), (p), (q), (s), (u), (v), (aa), (dd), and (jj), of section thirty-nine of Act Numbered Eighty-two and in subsections (e), (g), (h) of section forty of said Act Numbered Eighty-two, and such ordinances when so as aforesaid approved and transmitted to the municipal council shall have full force and effect as ordinances within said area and it shall be the duty of each and all of the officers and employees of the municipality to enforce the same as ordinances of the municipality of Cebu. HEITAD

"Said committee is further empowered by resolution approved by the Governor-General to suspend and remit the taxes which have been or may be imposed upon real estate within said area by general laws from the time of the conflagration therein until such time as in the discretion of said committee may be proper, not to exceed, however, the time when said committee shall have completed its duties or shall have been discharged by law."

SECTION 2. Section four of said Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. The municipality of Cebu is hereby authorized to grant and convey to said committee, for the purpose specified, all esteros, streets, alleys, and other property owned by said municipality within said burnt area and to accept and authorize the new streets and widening of such existing streets as are shown on the map referred to in the preceding section. The municipality of Cebu and the committee hereby created are each of them authorized and empowered to condemn the lands of private persons or corporations not conveying their property to the said committee, and the procedure to be followed in such cases of condemnation shall be the same as that provided in the Code of Civil Procedure for the exercise of the right of eminent domain: Provided, That in condemnation proceedings begun by said committee it shall not be necessary to file any deposit or security for payment of costs, damages or purchase price of the land and real estate sought to be taken and no such deposit or security shall be demanded or required by any court or judge, but after beginning proceedings for the condemnation of any real estate within the said area said committee, its agents and servants, may at once enter upon such real estate and treat the same in all respects as public land within said area."

SECTION 3. The Governor-General is hereby authorized to grant, at his discretion, to the committee created by Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three, for the purpose specified in the same Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ninety-three, any part or parts of the reclaimed land in the port of Cebu, the total extension granted not exceeding two thousand square meters.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED: May 19, 1909.