AN ACT AMENDING IN SEVERAL PARTICULARS ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THREE, ENTITLED "AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE CITY OF MANILA."

• Number: Act No. 267
• Sections: 19

Section 1

SECTION 1. Section twelve of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, entitled "An Act to incorporate the city of Manila," is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"Provided, nevertheless, That the City Attorney and his assistant, and the Prosecuting Attorney and his assistants, and their successors, shall be appointed by the Civil Governor subject to the advice and approval of the Commission."

Section 2

SEC. 2. Section seventeen of said Act is hereby amended so that paragraph "dd" thereof shall read as follows:

"To enforce the regulations of the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands, and by ordinance to prescribe fines and penalties for violations of such regulations."

Section 3

SEC. 3. Section twenty of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"But contracts for completed work of any kind for the use of the city, or any of the department or offices thereof, involving both labor and materials, where the materials are furnished by the contractor, not by the city, shall not be deemed to be within the provisions of this section, but such contract shall be made in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this Act."

Section 4

SEC. 4. Section twenty-three of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The clerical force and assistants and laborers in the office of the City Superintendent of Schools shall be paid by the city of Manila, as well as the office expenses for supplies and material incident to carrying on said office."

Section 5

SEC. 5. Section twenty-four of said Act is hereby amended by striking out the last sentence thereof, which reads: "All construction or repairs of schoolhouses ordered by the Municipal Board, subject to the limitations of Act Numbered Seventy-four, shall be carried on under the Department of Engineering and Public Works, and the care and custody of school buildings shall be under the Superintendent of Buildings and Illumination," and substituting therefor the following words:

"The Department of Engineering and Public Works shall have the care and custody of school buildings, and shall have charge of the construction and repair of schoolhouses ordered by the Municipal Board, subject to the limitations of Act Numbered Seventy-four."

Section 6

SEC. 6. Section twenty-five of said Act is hereby amended by striking out the word "first" in the seventeenth line thereof and inserting in lieu thereof the word "tenth."

Section 7

SEC. 7. Section thirty-three of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"He shall supervise the laving of mains and connections for the purpose of supplying gas to the inhabitants of the city. He shall have power, subject to the approval of the Municipal Board, to cause buildings dangerous to the public to he made secure or torn down, and shall supervise and regulate the locations and use of engines, boilers, forges, and other manufacturing and heating appliances in accordance with the law and ordinance relating thereto."

Section 8

SEC. 8. Section thirty-four of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"In addition to the employees authorized in the office of the City Engineer by section three of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-five, there may be employed in his office two building inspectors of class nine; one inspector of weights and measures, Class I; one clerk for building inspection work, Class H; one clerk for building inspection work, Class I; one clerk for weights and measures, Class I."

Section 9

SEC. 9. Section thirty-nine of said Act is hereby amended, by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The Prosecuting Attorney shall cause to be investigated the causes of sudden deaths which have not been satisfactorily explained and when there is suspicion that the causes arose from the unlawful acts or omissions of other persons, or from foul play. For that purpose, he may cause autopsies to be made in case it is deemed necessary, and shall be entitled to demand and receive for purposes of such investigations or autopsies the aid of all surgeons connected with the police force of Manila. In case the Prosecuting Attorney shall deem it necessary to have further assistance for the successful accomplishment of the purpose last above stated, he shall make application to the Commissioner of Public Health for the detail of the Chief Health Inspector to assist in such investigation, and the Commissioner of Public Health shall thereupon make such detail, and the Chief Health Inspector shall assist in the investigations herein provided.

"All laws and orders establishing a 'medical-legal department' in the city of Manila are hereby repealed."

Section 10

SEC. 10. Section forty of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The clerk of each court shall execute a bond to the city of Manila in the penal sum of five thousand dollars, with sufficient surety or sureties to be approved by the judge of the court, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office by himself and his deputies, and for the payment to the City Assessor and Collector of all sums of money officially received by him or them, in accordance with law. The bond shall be lodged and filed in the office of the Insular Treasurer. Each clerk may require sufficient bonds of indemnity to be executed to him by his deputies.

"In case of a temporary vacancy in the office of judge by reason of sickness or absence by the judge, the Civil Governor, by and with the consent of the Commission, may appoint an acting judge to preside during the disability or absence of the regular judge, and such acting judge shall have all the powers given by law to the regular judge, and shall receive a compensation during the time that he shall act at the same rate as the regular judge. During the period when such acting judge is performing the duties of a regular judge, the regular judge shall receive no salary, except such as he might be entitled to by reason of an earned leave of absence under existing law.

"The limitations upon the criminal jurisdiction of the municipal courts hereinbefore stated are subject, nevertheless, to the proviso that said courts shall also have concurrent jurisdiction with the Courts of First Instance over all criminal cases arising under the laws relating to gambling and management of lotteries, and to assaults where the intent to kill is not charged or evident upon the trial, to larceny and embezzlement where the amount of money or property stolen or embezzled does not exceed the sum or value of one hundred dollars, to the sale of intoxicating liquors, to falsely impersonating an officer, to malicious mischief, to trespass on Government or private property, and threatening to take human life; but in all such cases an appeal to the Court of First Instance upon proper application shall be allowed as in other cases."

Section 11

SEC. 11. Section forty-two of said Act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 42. Appeals to Courts of First Instance.—An appeal shall lie to the Court of First Instance next to be held within the city, in all eases where line or imprisonment is imposed by a municipal court. To perfect an appeal, the party desiring to appeal shall, within two hours after the rendition of the judgment by the municipal court, file with the clerk of the court a written statement that he appeals to the Court of First Instance. The filing of such statement shall perfect the appeal. The judge of the court from whose decision appeal is taken, shall, within five days after the appeal is taken, transmit to the clerk of the Court of First Instance a certified copy of the record of the proceeding and all the original papers and process in the case, and the clerk of the Court of First Instance shall docket the appeal in that court. A perfected appeal shall operate to vacate the judgment of the municipal court, and the action, when duly entered in the Court of First Instance, shall stand for the trial de novo upon its merits in accordance with the regular procedure in that court, as though the same had never been tried and had been originally then commenced. Pending an appeal, the defendant shall remain in custody unless released upon sufficient bail, in accordance with the rules and regulations now or hereafter in force, to await the judgment of the appellate court."

Section 12

SEC. 12. Section forty-three of said Act. relating to the duties of the sheriff of Manila, is hereby amended by striking out the first four lines and substituting in lieu thereof the following words:

"The sheriff of the city of Manila, appointed under section twenty-five of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, providing for the organization of courts, shall receive a salary at the rate of three thousand dollars per year."

Said section forty-three is also hereby further amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"All expenses incident to the repair and alteration of the buildings used by the Supreme Court in the city of Manila, and for the purchase of equipment and supplies of the Supreme Court, including the necessary books and stationery, shall be paid by the Insular Government, and the necessary estimates for repairs, furniture, and equipment of that portion of the Supreme Court building occupied by the Supreme Court shall be made by the sheriff of the city of Manila. Estimates for the purchase of necessary stationery and books for the use of that court shall be made by the clerk of that court. All that part of Act Numbered One hundred and fifty-two relating to the custody of court-houses that is inconsistent with this section is hereby repealed."

Section 13

SEC. 13. Said Act is hereby amended by inserting an additional section between sections forty-four and forty-five, and relating to the Law Department of the city of Manila. Said new section shall be numbered section forty-four (a) and shall read as follows:

"SEC. 44a. Assessors in courts in Manila.—The aid of assessors in the trial of any civil or criminal action in courts of justices of. the peace, municipal courts, or Courts of First Instance, within the city of Manila, may be invoked in the manner provided in the Code of Civil Procedure. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Board to prepare one list of the names of twenty-five residents of the municipality best fitted by education, natural ability, and reputation for probity to sit as assessors in the trial of actions in the municipal courts and courts of justices of the peace, and a like list of persons to sit as assessors in the trial of actions in the Courts of First Instance within the city. The Advisory Board may at any time strike any name from the list so prepared, by reason of the death, permanent disability, or unfitness of the person named; and in case names are so stricken out other names shall be added in their place, to be selected as in this section provided. Parties desiring to avail themselves of the use of assessors in courts of justices of the peace or municipal courts shall proceed as provided in sections fifty-eight to sixty-two, inclusive, of the Code of Procedure in Civil Actions and Special Proceedings, in force October first, nineteen hundred and one, and the method of summoning assessors and the compensation and oath and duties of assessors shall be as provided in those sections. Parties desiring to avail themselves of the use of assessors in Courts of First Instance shall proceed as provided in sections one hundred and fifty-four to one hundred and sixty-one, inclusive, of said Code of Civil Procedure; and the method of summoning assessors, enforcing their attendance, excusing them from attendance, their compensation, oath, duties, and effect of dissent from the opinion of the judge shall be as provided in the last-named sections."

Section 14

SEC. 14. Section forty-five of said Act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 45. Duties of Chief of Fire Department.—There shall be under the Board, a Chief of the Fire Department, He shall have the management and control of all matters relating to the administration of the Department as herein provided, and the organization, government, discipline, and disposition of the fire force; shall have charge of fire-engine houses, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, trucks, and all other fire apparatus; shall have full police powers in the vicinity of fires; shall have authority to remove any building or other property whenever it shall become necessary to prevent the spreading of fire or to protect adjacent property; shall investigate and report upon the origin and cause of all fires occurring within the city. He shall inspect all buildings erected or under construction or repair within the city and determine whether they provide sufficient protection against fire and comply with the ordinances relating thereto; shall have charge of the city telegraph, telephone, and fire-alarm service; shall supervise and regulate the stringing, grounding, and installation of wires for all electrical connections with a view to avoiding conflagrations, interference with public traffic or safety, or the necessary operations of the Fire Department; shall supervise and regulate the manufacture, storage, and use of petroleum, gas, acetylene, gunpowder, and other highly combustible matter and explosives, and shall see that the ordinances relating to these subjects are enforced."

Section 15

SEC. 15. Section sixty is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The cedula tax for the year nineteen hundred and one shall be due and payable on the first day of December, nineteen hundred and one, and the cedilla tax for nineteen hundred and two and succeeding years shall be due and payable as other taxes, within three months prior to July first of each year."

Section 16

SEC. 16. Section sixty-four is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The urban a and frontage taxes for the years eighteen hundred and ninety-nine and nineteen hundred referred to in this section are hereby declared to be the urbana and frontage taxes for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred, respectively."

Section 17

SEC. 17. All sections of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three and of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-five, and of other Acts relating to the city of Manila wherever the words "Department of Fires and Building Inspection" appear, are so amended that the words "Fire Department" shall be substituted in lieu thereof.

Section 18

SEC. 18. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

Section 19

SEC. 19. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, October 17, 1901.