AN ACT TO REGULATE THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

• Number: Act No. 2245
• Sections: 23

Section 1

Section 1. The following terms used in this Act shall, for the purposes thereof, each have the meaning and signification herein stated:

(a) The "board" shall be the veterinary examining board herein created.

(b) "Veterinary medicine" means the science and practice of healing, curing, treating and killing any and all the animals, whether by and with the use of medicines, drugs or surgery or in any other manner, for fees, pay, hire or compensation; slaughtering animals for food shall not be comprehended in the term "killing" within the meaning of this Act.

(c) "Veterinarian" means every person authorized to practice veterinary medicine as above defined.

(d) "Diploma" includes every certificate, authorization or other document issued by a school, as defined in the next following subsection, in which any person is declared or stated to be or to have been found to be qualified or competent to practice veterinary science or medicine.

(e) "School" includes every school, college, university or other institution of learning legally qualified to teach veterinary science and the practice of veterinary medicine and vested with power and authority to grant or confer the degree of doctor of veterinary surgery or any like degree, or to issue diplomas conferring such degree or permitting, licensing or otherwise authorizing persons to practice veterinary medicine.

(f) "Certificate" means the document which the Board is authorized in this Act to issue or has issued to any person, giving or granting to such person the right to practice veterinary medicine in the Philippine Islands.

(g) "Applicant" means every candidate for admission to practice veterinary medicine and every person who has made application to be examined by the board.

Section 2

SEC. 2. The Governor-General shall appoint three reputable veterinarians to be members of, and to compose a body to be known as the veterinary examining board. The persons so appointed shall be citizens of the United States or of the Philippine Islands and residents of the Philippine Islands and shall each have been granted a diploma by some reputable school of veterinary medicine and shall have practiced or taught veterinary science or medicine for not less than three years.

Section 3

SEC. 3. The three persons first appointed under section two of this Act shall hold office, respectively, one for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, as the Governor-General shall designate; but thereafter the term of office of each member shall be three years or until his successor has been appointed and has qualified. Any member whose term has expired may be reappointed.

Section 4

SEC. 4. Vacancies occurring on the board shall be filled under like conditions for the unexpired terms as those under which original appointments are made.

Section 5

SEC. 5. Any and all members of the Board may by the Governor-General be removed for misconduct, incapacity, neglect of duty or other just and sufficient cause.

Section 6

SEC. 6. Every person appointed as a member of the board shall before entering upon the discharge of the duties of his office take and subscribe an oath or affirmation for the faithful performance of his duties.

Section 7

SEC. 7. That member of the board whose term of office may at any time be shortest shall be the president of the secretary-treasurer, board. The board shall elect one of its members as secretary and treasurer. It shall provide a seal. It shall meet not less frequently than once in each year for the purpose of examining all applicants who may at such time be desirous of undergoing an examination. Of meetings held for this purpose the board shall give notice by publication or announcement in at least two papers published in Manila for not less than four weeks prior to the date of such meetings.

Section 8

SEC. 8. The board may hold such other meetings and at such times as it may determine to be necessary for the proper conduct of its business and for the like purpose and to the like end may adopt rules and methods of procedure and assign duties to its members.

Section 9

SEC. 9. The board is empowered to require oral and written examination from applicants, to prescribe reasonable rules and regulations for the conduct of such examinations and to refuse to permit applicants to take or to continue examinations for any violation of such rules. The examinations shall be prepared and designed to test and establish the knowledge and qualifications of applicants, of and with regard to the following and such further subjects as the Board may deem advisable or desirable:

Comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry, veterinary surgery, obstetrics, pathology, diagnosis, therapeutics, practice, and materia medica.

Section 10

SEC. 10. The board shall prepare questions in each of the subjects named in the last preceding section and in such other subjects, if any, which may have been added thereto, and shall cause a sufficient number of papers bearing such questions, and all other necessary papers, to be printed or otherwise prepared so that each applicant may be supplied; and all written or printed questions at any examination shall be alike and uniform for all applicants taking such examination.

Section 11

SEC. 11. Every applicant for an examination, and every applicant for a certificate to practice veterinary medicine shall submit verified statements or such other proof as the Board may require that he is a person of good moral character, that he has studied and duly passed examination in at least the subjects specified in section nine of this Act, or holds a certificate or diploma from some recognized and reputable school of veterinary science. No person who has been convicted by a competent court of a crime involving immoral or dishonorable conduct shall be permitted to take an examination or shall be given or granted a certificate to practice veterinary medicine. The board may refuse to examine or grant a certificate to practice veterinary medicine, or revoke a certificate already issued, for serious and justified reasons, in which case the interested person shall be so informed and what he has to say in his defense heard, and an appeal shall lie to the Governor-General.

Section 12

SEC. 12. Every person of good moral character not less than twenty-one years of age who is a resident of the Philippine Islands, and who by verified statements satisfies the Board to that effect shall upon application be admitted to take examination with a view of becoming a certified veterinarian, but not until he has paid to the secretary-treasurer of the board the sum of twenty-five pesos as a fee for such examination. No such fee shall be returned to any person unless he decides before he has begun the examination to retire or withdraw therefrom.

Section 13

SEC. 13. The board is authorized to issue or to refuse to issue to any applicant after examination a certificate to practice veterinary medicine, according as such applicant has been found to possess or to fail of the necessary knowledge and qualifications.

Section 14

SEC. 14. The board is further empowered to issue without prior examination a certificate to any person over twenty-one years of age who has heretofore taken and passed a civil service examination as a veterinarian for service in the Government of the Philippine Islands.

Section 15

SEC. 15. It shall be the duty of the board to cause to be prepared and kept a permanent record in which all persons to whom certificates have been issued shall be registered, and in which such other information as to the board may seem desirable shall be noted or recorded.

Section 16

SEC. 16. The secretary-treasurer of the board shall keep minutes of the meetings of the board, shall be the custodian of office of the members, and of the seal, records, books and other property of the board, and shall collect and pay into the Treasury all fees and moneys so received, and account therefor to the Insular Auditor.

Section 17

SEC. 17. Every certificate issued under the provisions of this Act shall be regarded as conferring authority on the person to whom the same was issued to practice veterinary medicine in any province, city or municipality in these Islands subject to the provisions of section eighteen hereof, and this authority and the conditions prescribed in the next succeeding section shall be set forth on the face of such certificate.

Section 18

SEC. 18. Nothing in this Act contained requiring the payment of a fee for a certificate to practice veterinary medicine shall exempt any person who practices veterinary medicine from the payment of the internal revenue occupation tax of twenty pesos as fixed and prescribed in paragraph numbered ten of section one hundred and forty-four of Act

Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine, entitled "The Internal Revenue Law of Nineteen hundred and four." The collector of Internal Revenue shall from time to time report to the secretary of the board the name and address of every person to whom an internal revenue tax receipt has been issued for the practice of veterinary medicine.

Section 19

SEC. 19. Upon proof satisfactory to the board that any certificate issued by it under this Act has been lost or destroyed it may issue a duplicate certificate to the person to whom the first certificate was issued, after payment of a fee of five pesos for such duplicate.

Section 20

SEC. 20. Nothing in this Act shall apply to veterinarians employed in the United States military service while they remain in the employ of the Government of the United

Section 21

SEC. 21. The members of the veterinary examining board herein provided for shall receive a fee of five pesos each for each person examined for registration as a veterinarian.

Section 22

SEC. 22. The Director of Agriculture is hereby authorized subject to existing provisions of law to furnish the necessary books, forms, supplies and equipment for the proper conduct of the business of the board and to provide a place for its meetings and examinations.

Section 23

SEC. 23. All persons falling within one of the following classes shall upon conviction be punished for each offense by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one thousand pesos, or imprisonment of not less than one month nor more than two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court:

(a) Every person who, claiming to have been authorized and empowered to practice veterinary medicine under laws or regulations in force prior to the passage of this Act shall practice or attempt to practice veterinary medicine or hold himself out to be a veterinarian after three months have elapsed from the date of the promulgation of this Act, without having obtained a certificate from the board under section fourteen of this Act;

(b) Every other person who practices or attempts to practice veterinary medicine after the passage of this Act without having first obtained a certificate under section thirteen or fourteen of this Act;

(c) Every person practicing or attempting to practice veterinary medicine under a false or assumed name or holding himself out under a false or assumed name to be a veterinarian, and every person in any way falsely and fraudulently impersonating any veterinarian to whom a certificate has been issued;

(d) Every person who sells a certificate or diploma, every person who lends or permits another to have or use a certificate or diploma with a false or fraudulent purpose or intent, or knowing or having cause or reason to know or believe that such certificate is intended to be used for a false or fraudulent purpose;

(e) Every person who buys a certificate or diploma, or borrows the same with a false or fraudulent intent or purpose, or steals the same or acquires the same in any false, fraudulent or unlawful manner;

(f) Every person who, with the intent to deceive the board, presents to the same as and for his own any diploma issued to another person ;

(i) Every person who presents or exhibits to the board a forged or false diploma, or a diploma falsely or fraudulently obtained, knowing such diploma to be false or to have been obtained in a false or fraudulent manner, with the intent to deceive the board;

(h) Every person who presents or exhibits as a lawful certificate any forged or false certificate or any certificate obtained in a false or fraudulent manner knowing the certificate to be false or to have been falsely or fraudulently obtained;

(i) Every person who knowingly practices veterinary medicine or attempts to do so, or holds himself out to be a veterinarian under cover of a false or forged certificate or of a certificate falsely or fraudulently obtained.

Enacted, February 11, 1913.