Extension of Provisions of Provincial Government Act and Municipal Code to Oriental Negros

April 20, 1901

ACT NO. 120

AN ACT EXTENDING THE PROVISIONS OF THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT ACT AND THE MUNICIPAL CODE TO THE PROVINCE OF ORIENTAL NEGROS

SECTION 1. Provincial and Municipal Government, Oriental Negros. — All the provisions of an Act entitled "A general Act for the organization of provincial governments in the Philippine Islands," enacted February sixth, nineteen hundred and one, shall apply to and govern the establishment of a provincial government in the territory of the Island of Negros known under the Spanish sovereignty as the Province of "Oriental Negros" with such exceptions, modifications, and supplementary provisions as are hereinafter contained.

SECTION 2. Officers' Compensation: Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, Supervisor, Fiscal Monthly Payments and Traveling Expenses. — The compensation to be paid for the provincial officers of the province of Oriental Negros shall be at the following rate per year, in money of the United States:

For the provincial governor, two thousand dollars;

For the provincial secretary, one thousand two hundred dollars;

For the provincial treasurer, two thousand dollars;

For the provincial supervisor, one thousand eight hundred dollars;

For the provincial fiscal, one thousand two hundred dollars.

The salary of provincial officers shall be payable monthly so that one twelfth of the annual salary shall be paid on the last day of each calendar month.

Each provincial officer shall be allowed his necessary and actual traveling expenses, not exceeding two dollars and fifty cents per day, while absent from the capital of the province on official business. The allowance shall be made by the provincial board upon the certificate of the officer that the travel was necessary for the public business, and shall not be paid until the account, accompanied by the resolution of the board approving the same, shall be forwarded to the Insular Treasurer and by him approved.

SECTION 3. Treasurers Bond; Military Officers, No Bond, etc. — The bond of the provincial treasurer shall be fifteen thousand dollars, until the first day of March, nineteen hundred and two, when, in view of the collection of the land tax, the Commission may require a new bond or an additional bond to cover the probable increase of the funds of which the provincial treasurer shall have custody at any one time. The bond to be given shall be conditioned that the provincial treasurer shall faithfully perform the duties of his office and shall account for the internal-revenue collections coming into his hands as internal-revenue collector, the taxes collected by him for each municipality, for the province, and for the Central Government. The form of the bond shall be prescribed by the Insular Treasurer. If, upon the request of the Commission, the Military Governor shall detail any military officer to fill a provincial office, no bond shall be required of him and no salary shall be paid him until after July first, nineteen hundred and one.

SECTION 4. Meetings. — The presidents or alcaldes of the municipalities of the province shall meet on the third Monday in January, April, July, and October to consider improvements needed in the province and for the provincial government, and to make recommendations to the provincial board. The convention shall be called together by the provincial secretary and shall elect a chairman for each quarter's session. The provincial secretary shall act as secretary of the convention, and shall certify its recommendations to the provincial board.

SECTION 5. Capital. — The capital of the province shall be, as formerly, at the town of Dumaguete.

SECTION 6. Oaths of Office. — The oaths of the provincial officers may be administered by a member of the Commission, by a judicial officer, or by the provincial governor.

SECTION 7. General Order 30 Amended. — All of General Order Number Thirty, issued by the Military Governor of the Philippine Islands July twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, except sections seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one, relating to the judiciary, and section twenty-four, relating to the collection of customs, postal matters and Philippine inter-island trade and commerce, is repealed, and all legislation enacted by the existing advisory council and approved by the military governor of the government of the Island of Negros under and by virtue of the powers conferred upon such council by that part of said General Order Number Thirty, of July twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, now repealed, is also hereby repealed, but such repeal shall not affect individual rights of property or contract which have vested under and by virtue of lawful and authorized enactments of such advisory council.

SECTION 8. General Order 40; Teachers, How Affected. — The repeal of section twenty-two of General Order Number Forty, authorizing the establishment of free public schools in the Island of Negros, together with the legislation enacted by authority of such section by the legislative council, shall not affect the employment of the teachers now engaged in teaching the public schools of Negros under such article and legislation, but the same persons shall continue as public school teachers with their salaries as fixed by laws in force at the time of this enactment, subject to the supervision of the General Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Philippine Islands, and any division superintendent of the territory appointed by him under the Act establishing a Department of Public Instruction in the Philippine Islands, and such schools are hereby made a part of the public school system established by that Act.

SECTION 9. Continuance of Municipal Governments; Additional Councilors Reducing the Council; Titles and Powers; Proviso; Funds on Hand. — Municipal governments established by law of the advisory council of the government of the Island of Negros under and by virtue of section fifteen of said General Order Number Forty, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, shall continue in existence with the powers and under the limitations of law in accordance with which they were established, except that the functions to be performed in respect thereto by the military governor of the Island of Negros shall hereafter be performed by the governor of Oriental Negros to be appointed under this act. Such municipal governments on and after the first day of June, nineteen hundred and one, shall become subject to the provisions of the Municipal Code. Where the governor shall find that by the terms of the Municipal Code, organized towns have such a population that the existing number of councilors is not equal to that required by the Municipal Code, he shall certify the fact to the existing municipal council, which shall, by a majority vote, elect the additional councilors required by law, and where the number of councilors in the towns as now organized exceeds the number to which the governor shall find the town is entitled under the Municipal Code the existing councilors shall, by lot, determine those of their number who shall cease to be councilors, and the result of the lot having been spread upon the minutes of the council, the members excluded thereby shall thereafter cease to exercise the functions of municipal councilors. After June first, nineteen hundred and one, the officers of the towns as organized shall be known by the titles of the corresponding officers provided in the Municipal Code, and shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties prescribed for such officers in the Municipal Code, and the limitations of law upon the action of the municipal officers, councils, and corporations shall be as provided in the Municipal Code: Provided,however, That where municipal councils of existing corporations shall have directed the levy of taxes authorized under the laws of their creation and not authorized by the Municipal Code, and part of such taxes shall have been collected, such corporation, after it shall pass under the provisions of the Municipal Code, may nevertheless continue the collection of the taxes thus levied against all the persons liable to pay such taxes under the existing provisions of law. The funds on hand in the treasury of each municipality shall pass to the new municipality in which it is merged, to be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Code.

SECTION 10. Cedula Tax, 1901 Abolished. — The cedula tax of three dollars, heretofore levied by the advisory council for the year nineteen hundred and one, is abolished, and all money collected thereunder and paid by persons residing in Oriental Negros shall be returned by the provincial treasurer to the persons paying the same.

SECTION 11. Cutting Timber. — The regulations for the cutting of timber contained in General Order Number Ninety-two shall apply in the Island of Negros in place and instead of existing acts of the advisory council of the government of the Island of Negros creating forestry regulations.

SECTION 12. Internal-Revenue Taxes, etc. — From and after the passage of this Act, all internal-revenue taxes, including the industrial tax, urban tax, forestry licenses and the stamp taxes, shall be collectible in the Province of Oriental Negros by the provincial treasurer as in other provinces, and shall be distributed between the provincial and the municipal governments as provided in the General Provincial Act. They shall be levied as from the first of April, nineteen hundred and one, for three-quarters of the year nineteen hundred and one.

SECTION 13. Distributing Funds; Oriental and Occidental Negros, Shares; Cedula Taxes; Committee on Distribution; Controversies, How Settled. — The method of distributing, between the two provincial governments of Occidental and Oriental Negros, the funds in the treasury of the present government of the Island of Negros, shall be as follows: It shall first be determined how much cash will remain in its treasury after all the obligations of the government of the Island of Negros shall have been paid. This sum, together with the amount of taxes due down to May first, nineteen hundred and one, but not collected from both Occidental and Oriental Negros, under the law, shall constitute the fund for distribution. The shares to be distributed to Occidental Negros shall bear the same ratio to the share to be distributed to Oriental Negros, as the total amount of taxes collected or due by law from Oriental Negros for the year nineteen hundred and the first four months of nineteen hundred and one bears to the total amount collected or due by law from Occidental Negros for the same period; and in the distribution of such fund, the right to collect the taxes due from Oriental Negros shall be assigned and transferred to the government of Oriental Negros hereby established; the right to collect the taxes due from Occidental Negros shall be assigned and transferred to the government of Occidental Negros to be established, and the remainder of the shares of each shall be paid in cash. In the calculations to be made under the foregoing rule, the cedula taxes collected for the year nineteen hundred and one under the existing laws shall not be considered as funds of the Island of Negros, but shall be treated as obligations of the present government of the Island of Negros to the persons from whom the same were collected, nor shall such cedula taxes for the year nineteen hundred and one, uncollected, be considered as taxes due by law. For the purpose of determining the date upon which the foregoing calculation and distribution shall be made, in accordance with the rule hereinbefore fixed, the matter is referred to the committee consisting of Don Jose R. de Luzuriaga, auditor of the island, as the representative of Occidental Negros, and Don Demetrio Larena, secretary of public instruction, as the representative of Oriental Negros, and upon their certificate, the treasurer of the present government of the Island of Negros shall make the distribution. Should any difference of opinion arise between the two gentlemen constituting the committee, the difference shall be referred to Don Victorino Mapa, of the town of Iloilo, in Panay, whose decision shall be final.

 SECTION 14. Inconsistencies Repealed. — All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 15. Act, when in Effect. — Except as herein otherwise specifically provided, this Act shall take effect on the first day of May, Nineteen Hundred and One, but the appointments hereunder may be made before such date so that the officials appointed may qualify upon the first day of May and at once begin the discharge of their functions.

Enacted: April 20, 1901