Providing for an Issue of Bonds to Provide Funds for the Construction of Works and Improvements in the Port of Manila

March 23, 1920

ACT NO. 2908

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR AN ISSUE OF BONDS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS IN THE AMOUNT OF SIX MILLION DOLLARS, GOLD MONEY OF THE UNITED STATES, OR TWELVE MILLION PESOS, PHILIPPINE CURRENCY, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING FUNDS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF WORKS AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PORT OF MANILA

SECTION 1. Pursuant to the provisions of section eleven of the Act of Congress approved August twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, entitled "An Act to declare the purpose of the people of the United States as to the future political status of the people of the Philippine Islands, and to provide a more autonomous government for those Islands," the Governor-General of the Philippine Islands is hereby authorized to issue, in the name and on behalf of the Government of the Philippine Islands, bonds in the amount of six million dollars, gold money of the United States, or twelve million pesos, Philippine currency, as may be most advisable, for the purpose of providing funds for the construction of works and improvements in the port of Manila. The bonds hereby authorized shall be issued and dated on such date as the Council of State may direct; shall bear interest at an annual rate, not exceeding six per centum, to be determined by the Governor-General, with the consent of the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature, and payable quarterly; shall be redeemable at the pleasure of the Government of the Philippine Islands, after ten years from date of issue, and payable thirty years after said date. Both principal and interest shall be payable in gold coin of the United States or its equivalent, in the discretion of the Insular Treasurer in Manila, if the bonds are sold in the Philippine Islands, or in gold coin of the United States in the United States Treasury, if sold in the United States. The said bonds shall be in registered form, in denominations of one hundred dollars or one hundred pesos or any multiples of one hundred dollars or one hundred pesos, as the Governor-General may determine to suit the purchasers thereof, and shall be registered and transferrable at the office of the Insular Treasurer in Manila, or of the Bureau of Insular Affairs at Washington, records on whether they were sold in the Philippine Islands or in the United States. Said bonds are exempt from the payment of any tax established by the Government of the United States or of the Philippine Islands or any authority, branch, division, or political subdivision thereof, which fact shall be stated upon their face, by virtue of section one of the Act of Congress approved February sixth, nineteen hundred and five, in accordance with which and with the Act of Congress approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, and with this Act, the said bonds are issued. AcICHD

SECTION 2. The Governor-General is further authorized to sell said bonds on such terms as are most favorable to the Government of the Philippine Islands and to deposit the proceeds of such sale or sales with an authorized depository of the Government of the Philippine Islands.

SECTION 3. The proceeds of the sale of said bonds shall be placed by the Insular Treasurer to the credit of the "Manila Port Works and Improvements Bond Issue" and shall be disbursed only upon appropriation by the secretary of Commerce and Communications, with the approval of the Council of State, for the purposes mentioned in this Act.

SECTION 4. Commencing with the fiscal year ending December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and twenty, and each succeeding year thereafter until said bonds shall have been paid, there is hereby appropriated a continuing annual appropriation, to be paid out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, of such sums as may be necessary to meet the annual interest payments upon the bonds issued and to make up the sinking fund herein provided for.

SECTION 5. A sinking fund shall be created for the payment of the bonds issued, in such manner that the total thereof at each annual date of the bond issue shall be equal to the total of an annuity of nineteen thousand three hundred and seventy-one pesos and thirty-three centavos for each million pesos of bonds outstanding, with interest at the rate of three and one-half per centum per annum, to commence with the date of issue of said bonds. This sinking fund shall be under the custody of the Insular Treasurer, who shall invest it in such manner as the Secretary of Finance may approve.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, March 23, 1920.