Establishment of Siquijor as an Independent Province

September 17, 1971

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6398

AN ACT SEPARATING THE SUBPROVINCE OF SIQUIJOR FROM THE PROVINCE OF ORIENTAL NEGROS AND ESTABLISHING IT AS AN INDEPENDENT PROVINCE

SECTION 1. The Subprovince of Siquijor is hereby declared separated from the Province of Oriental Negros and constituted into a separate and independent province, to be known as the Province of Siquijor, with the Municipality of Larena as the temporary capital of the new province: Provided, That the new province shall acquire corporate existence following a plebiscite to coincide with the national or local elections immediately following the approval of this Act wherein a majority of the votes cast in the Subprovince of Siquijor favor its separation from the Province of Oriental Negros to be constituted into a regular province: Provided, further, That in the said plebiscite the matter of a permanent capital of the new province shall be decided by the registered electors therein. In said plebiscite, the registered electors of said province shall be asked: "Which of the six municipalities of the Province of Siquijor do you choose as the capital of the Province of Siquijor?", and each registered elector shall write the name of the municipality which he chooses to be the capital of said province. The municipality chosen by the highest number of votes, as certified by the Commission on Elections, shall be proclaimed by the President of the Philippines as the capital of said province within thirty days after receipt of said certification. casia

SECTION 2. The governor, vice-governor and members of the provincial board of the Subprovince of Siquijor elected in the general elections of nineteen hundred and seventy-one shall automatically become the provincial officials of the Province of Siquijor and shall hold office until their successors shall have been elected and qualified.

SECTION 3. The Province of Siquijor shall compose the present territory of the Subprovince of Siquijor. The provisions of the Administrative Code and other laws, insofar as they are applicable to a regularly organized province, shall apply to the government and operation of said province and to the election, appointment and remuneration of the officers thereof.

SECTION 4. The Member of the House of Representatives for the Province of Siquijor shall be elected in the next presidential elections: Provided, That the present Representative for the Second District of the Province of Oriental Negros shall, during the term of office as Representative, continue to represent the new Province of Siquijor.

SECTION 5. The funds and obligations and property of all kinds owned by and/or to be assigned to the Subprovince of Siquijor shall, upon the establishment of the new Province of Siquijor, become the property of and/or be assigned to the latter.

SECTION 6. The fiscal, sub-provincial assessor, division superintendent of schools, and district engineer of the Subprovince of Siquijor shall become the fiscal, assessor, division superintendent of schools, and district engineer of the new Province of Siquijor.

SECTION 7. All other appointive officials of the Subprovince of Siquijor shall continue to hold their respective offices in the province herein created, except that the heads of the various offices therein shall continue to be such heads with corresponding changes in their official designations.

SECTION 8. The new province shall commence its corporate existence upon the election of the officials of the new province in the general elections for local officials in nineteen hundred and seventy-one, it being understood that Siquijor shall not be entitled to any delegate as a separate province in the Constitutional Convention, but shall continue as part of the Second Congressional District of the Province of Negros Oriental. acd

SECTION 9. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent herewith are repealed.

SECTION 10. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: September 17, 1971

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 68, No. 7, p. 1315 on February 14, 1972