Section 87
SEC. 87. All applications filed under the provisions of this Act shall be addressed to the Director of Lands.
Act No. 2874 TITLE VI.
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CHAPTER XIV.—Applications, procedure, concession of lands, and
Section 88
SEC. 88. Every application under the provisions of this Act shall be made under oath and shall set forth: (a) The name and post-office address of the applicant, stating, in the case of an individual, his citizenship, and in the case of a corporation, association, or partnership, accompanying a copy of its articles of incorporation or partnership and, if organized outside of the Philippine Islands, also the documentary evidence necessary to show that such corporation, association, or partnership has been organized in accordance with the requirements of the laws of the country or state where it was constituted, and that it is authorized to transact business in these Islands; and if not incorporated, data showing that its members possess individually the qualifications required by this Act. (b) That the applicant has all the qualifications required by this Act in the case. (c) That he has none of the disqualifications mentioned herein. (d) That the application is made in good faith, for the actual purpose of using the land for the object specified in the application and for no other purpose, and that the land is suitable for the purpose for which it is requested. (e) That the application is made for the exclusive benefit of the applicant and not, either directly or indirectly, for the benefit of any other person or persons, corporation, association, or partnership. (f) As accurate a description of the land as may be given, stating its nature, province, municipality, barrio, and sitio where, it is located, and its limits and boundaries, specifying those having reference to accidents of the ground or permanent monuments, if any. (g) Whether all or part of the land is occupied or cultivated or improved, and by whom, giving his post-office address, and whether the land has been occupied or cultivated or improved by the applicant or his ascendant, the name of the ascendant, the relationship with him, the date and place of the death of the ascendant, the date when the possession and cultivation began, and a description of the improvements made, accompanying satisfactory evidence of the relationship of the applicant with the ascendant, and of the death of the latter and the descendants left by him, in case it is alleged that he occupied and cultivated the land first; or whether there are indications of its having been occupied, cultivated, or improved entirely or partially, and if so, in what such indications consist, whether he has made investigations as to when and by whom such improvements were made, and if so, how such investigations were made and what was the result thereof; or whether the land is not occupied, improved, or cultivated either entirely or partially, and there are no indications o| it. having ever been occupied, improved, or cultivated, and in this case, vrhat is the condition of the land. (h) That the land applied for is neither timber nor mineral land and does not contain guano or deposits of /salts or coal.
Section 89
SEC. 89. The statements made in the application shall be considered as essential conditions and parts of any concession, title, or permit issued on the basis of such application, and any false statement therein or omission of facts altering, changing, or modifying the consideration of the facts set forth in such statements, and any subsequent modification, alteration, or change of the material facts set forth in the application shall ipso facto produce the cancellation of the concession, title or permit granted. It shall be the duty of the Director of Lands, from time to time and whenever he may deem it advisable, to make the necessary investigations for the purpose of ascertaining whether the material facts set out in the application are true, or whether they continue to exist and are maintained and preserved in good faith, and for the purposes of such investigation, the Director of Lands shall be empowered to issue supcenas and subpoenas duces tecum and, if necessary, to obtain compulsory process from the courts. In every investigation made in accordance with this section, the existence of bad faith, fraud, concealment, or fraudulent and illegal modification of essential facts shall be presumed if the grantee or possessor of the land shall refuse or fail to obey a subpoena or subpoena duces tecum lawfuly issued by the Director of Lands or his authorized delegates or agents, or shall refuse or fail to give direct and specific answers to pertinent questions, and on the basis of such presumption, an order of cancellation may issue without further proceedings.
Section 90
SEC. 90. Although the maximum area of public land that may be acquired is fixed, yet the spirit of this Act is that the rule which must determine the real area to be granted is the beneficial use of the land. The concession or disposition shall be for less than the maximum area authorized if at the time of the issuance of the patent or of the concession or disposition it shall appear that the applicant is utilizing and is only able to utilize a smaller area, even though the application is for a greater area. For the purposes of this section the Director of Lands is authorized to determine the area that may be granted to the applicant, and to deny or cancel or limit any application for concession, purchase or lease if convinced of the lack of means of the applicant for using the land for the purpose for which he has requested it.
Section 91
SEC. 91. Lands applied for under this Act shall conform to the legal subdivisions and shall be contiguous if comprising more than one subdivision. If subdivisions have not been made on the date of the application, the lands shall be rectangular in form so far as practicable, but it shall be endeavored to make them conform to the legal subdivision as soon as the same has been made, provided the interests of the applicant or grantee are protected; and the subdivision assigned to the applicant or grantee shall, so far as practicable, include the land improved or cultivated. The regulations to be issued for the execution of the provisions of this section shall take into, account the legal subdivision to be made by the Government and the inadvisability of granting the best land at a given place the only one person.
Section 92
SEC. 92. In case the legal subdivisions have already been made at the time of the filing of the application, no charge shall be made for the survey; but if the legal subdivisions have not yet been made, the cost of the survey shall be charged to the Government, except in the following cases: (a) In purchases under chapters five and ten of this Act, the cost of the survey shall be charged to the purchaser if the same is a corporation, association, or partnership; in other purchases the purchaser, whoever it be, shall pay the total cost of the survey. (b) In leases, the cost of the survey shall be paid by the lessee; but at any time after the first five years from the approval of the lease, and during the life of the same, the lessee shall entitled to the reimbursement of one-half of the cost of the survey, if he shows to the satisfaction of the Director of Lands that he has occupied and ijnproved a sufficient area of the land or incurred sufficient expense in connection therewith to warrant such reimbursement.
Section 93
SEC. 93. If before the delimitation and survey of a tract of public land the Governor-General shall declare the same disposable or alienable and such land shall be actually occupied by a person other than the applicant, the Director of Lands shall inform the occupant of his prior right to apply for the land and shall give him one hundred and twenty days' time in which to file the applicant or apply for the concession by any of the forms of disposition authorized by this Act, if such occupant is qualified to acquire a concession under this Act.
Section 94
SEC. 94. As soon as any land of the public domain has been surveyed, delimited, and classified, the Governor-General may, in the order issued by him declaring it open for disposition, designate a term within which occupants with improvements but not entitled to free patents may apply for the land occupied by them, if they have the qualifications required by this Act.
Section 95
SEC. 95. If in the case of the two last preceding sections, occupant or occupants have not made application under any of the provisions of this Act at the expiration of the time limit fixed, they shall lose any prior right to the land recognized by this Act and the improvements on the land, if any shall be forfeited to the Government.
Section 96
SEC. 96. All right and interest to, and the improvements and crops upon land for which, an application has been denied or canceled or a patent or grant refused, or a contract or concession rescinded or annulled, shall also be forfeited to the Government.
Section 97
SEC. 97. The Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may order such improvements and crops to be appraised separately, for sale to the new applicant or grantee, or may declare such land open only to sale or lease.
Section 98
SEC. 98. In case the cancellation is due to delinquency on the part of the applicant or grantee, the same shall be entitled to the reimbursements of the proceeds of the sale of the improvements and crops, after deducting the total amount of his indebtedness to the Government and the expense incurred by it in the sale of the improvements or crops and in the new concession of the land.
Section 99
SEC. 99. All actions for the reversion to the Government of lands of the public domain or improvements thereon shall be instituted by the Attorney-General or the officer acting in hia stead, in the proper courts, in the name of the Government of the Philippine Islands.
Section 100
SEC. 100. Any person, corporation, or association may file an objection under oath to any application or concession under this Act, grounded on any reason sufficient under this Act for the denial or cancellation of the application or the denial of the patent or grant. If, after the applicant or grantee has been given suitable opportunity to be duly heard, the objection is found to be well founded, the Director of Lands shall deny or cancel the application or deny the patent or grant, and the person objecting shall, if qualified, be granted a prior right of entry for a term of sixty days from the date of the notice.
Section 101
SEC. 101. All the proofs, affidavits, and oaths of any kind required or necessary under this Act may be made before the justice of the peace of the municipality in which the land lies, or before the judge or clerk, of the Court of First Instance of the province in which the land lies, or before any justice of the peace or notary public of the province in which the land lies, or before any officer or employee of the Bureau of Lands authorized by law to administer oaths. The fees for the taking of final evidence before any of the officials hereinbefore mentioned shall be as follows: For each affidavit, fifty centavos. For each deposition of the applicant or the witnesses; fifty centavos.
Section 102
SEC. 102. Any owner of uncultivated agricultural land who knowingly permits application for the same to be made to the Government and the land to be tilled and improved by a bona fide grantee without protsting to the Bureau of Lands within one year after cultivation has begun, shall lose all right to the part of the land so cultivated and improved, unless he shall bring action in the proper court before such action for recovery prescribes and obtains favorable judgment therein, in which case the court shall, upon its decision having become final, order the payment to the grantee, within a reasonable period, of the indemnity fixed by said court for the cultivation and improvement.
Section 103
SEC. 103. If at any time the applicant or grantee shall die before the issuance of the patent or the final grant of the land, or during the life of the lease, or while the applicant or grantee still has obligations pending towards the Government, in accordance with this Act, he shall be succeeded in his rights and obligations with respect to the land applied for or granted or leased under this Act by his widow, who shall be entitled to have issued to her the patent or final concession if she shows that she has complied with the requirements therefor, or, in case he has left no widow or the widow refuses the succession, he shall be succeeded by the person or persons who are his heirs by law and who shall be subrogated in all his rights and obligations for the purposes of this Act.
Section 104
SEC. 104. If at any time after the approval of the application and before the issuance of a patient or the final concession of the land, or during the life of the lease, or at any time when the applicant or grantee still has obligations pending with the Government, in accordance with this Act, it appears that the land applied for ip necessary, in the public interest, for the protection of any source of water or for any work for the public benefit that the Government wishes to undertake, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may order the cancellation of the application or the nonissuance of the patent or concession or the exclusion from the land applied for of such portion as may be required, upon payment of the value of the improvements, if any.
Section 105
SEC. 105. All patents or certificates for lands granted under this Act shall be prepared in the Bureau of Lands and shall issue in the name of the Government of the Philippine Islands under the signature of the Governor-General, countersigned by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, but such patents or certificates shall be effective only for the purposes defined in section one hundred and twenty-two of the Land Registration Act; and the actual conveyance of the land shall be effected only as provided in said section.
Section 106
SEC. 106. No patent shall issue nor shall any concession or contract be finally approved unless the land has been cession, surveyed and an accurate plat made thereof by the Bureau of Lands.
Section 107
SEC. 107. In no case shall any land be granted under the provisions of this Act when this affects injuriously the use of any adjacent land or of the waters, rivers, creeks, foreshore, roads, or roadsteads, or vests the grantee with other valuable rights that may be detrimental to the public interest.
Section 108
SEC. 108. Patents or certificates issued under the provisions of this Act shall not include nor convey the title to any gold, silver, copper, iron, or other metals or minerals, or other substances containing minerals, guano, gums, precious stones, coal, or coal oil contained in lands granted thereunder. These shall remain to be property of the Government.
Section 109
SEC. 109. All persons receiving title to lands under the provisions of this Act, shall hold such lands subject to the provisions hereof and to the same public servitudes as exist upon lands owned by private persons, including those with reference to the littoral of the sea and the banks of navigable rivers or rivers upon which rafting may be done.
Section 110
SEC. 110. Said lands shall further be subject to a right of way not over twenty meters in width and of such length as may be necessary for the public road which the Government may in due season find it necessary to build upon such land, with damages for the improvements only.
Section 111
SEC. 111. The beneficial use of water shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of all rights thereto, and the patents herein granted shall be subject to the right of the Government to make such rules and regulations for the use of water and the protection of the water supply, and for other public purposes, as it may deem best for the public good. Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, or by the laws and decisions of the courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same, and all patents granted under this Act shall be subject to any vested and accrued rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may have been acquired in the manner above described prior to April eleven, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine.
Section 112
SEC. 112. There is hereby reserved from the operation of all patents, certificates, entries, and grants by the Government authorized under this Act, the fight to use for the purposes of power any flow of water in any stream running through or by the land granted, the convertible power from which at ordinary low water, exceeds fifty horse power. Where the convertible power in any stream running through or by land granted under the authority of this Act thus exceeds fifty horse power, and there is no means of using such power except by the occupation of a part of the land granted under authority of this Act, then so much land as is reasonably necessary for the mill site or site for the power house, and for a suitable dam and site for massing the water, is hereby excepted from such grant, not exceeding four hectares, and a right of way to the nearest public highway from the land thus excepted, and also a right of way for the construction and maintenance of such flumes, aqueducts, wires, poles, or other conduits as may be needed in conveying the water to the point where its fall will yield the greatest power, or the power from the point of conversion to the point of use, is reserved as a servitude or easement upon the land granted by authority of this Act: Provided, however, That when the Government or any concessionaire of the Government shall take possession of land under this section which a grantee under this Act shall have paid for, supposing it to be subject to grant under this Act, said grantee shall be entitled to indemnity from the Government or the concessionaire, as the case may be, for the amount, if any, paid by him to the Government for the land taken from him hy virtue of this section: And provided further, That with respect to the flow of water, except for converting the same into power exceeding fifty horse power, said grantee shall be entitled to the same use of the water flowing through or along his land that other private owners enjoy under the law, subject to the governmental regulation provided in the previous section. Water power privileges in which the convertible power at ordinary low water shall exceed fifty horse power shall be disposed of only upon terms established by Act of the Legislature concerning the use, lease or acquisition of such water privilege.
Section 113
SEC. 113. All the lands granted by virtue of this Act and the improvements thereon, except homesteads, shall, even though the title remains in the Government, be subject to the ordinary taxes which shall be paid by the grantee beginning with the year next following the one in which the application or concession has been approved or the contract signed, as the case may be.
Section 114
SEC. 114. The appraisal or reappraisal of the lands or improvements subject to concession or disposition under this Act shall be made by the Director of Lands, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Director of Lands may request the assistance of the provincial treasurer of the province in which the land lies or may appoint a committee for such purpose in the province or in the municipality in which the land lies. In no case shall the appraisal or reappraisal be less than the expense incurred or which may be incurred by the Government connection with the application or concession.
Section 115
SEC. 115. All sums due and payable to the Government under this Act shall draw interest at the rate of six per centum per annum from and after the date in which the debtor shall become delinquent. The Director of Lands may however, remit such interest in the case of applicants for homesteads if it shall appear that the delinquency is due to no fault or neglect on their part.
Section 116
SEC. 116. Lands acquired under the free patent or homestead provisions shall not be subject to encumbrance or alienation from the date of the approval of the application and for a term of five years from and after the date of issuance of the patent or grant, nor shall they become liable to the satisfaction of any debt contracted prior to the expiration of said period; but the improvements or crops on the land may be mortgaged or pledged to qualified persons, associations, or corporations.
Section 117
SEC. 117. Every conveyance of land acquired under the free patent or homestead provisions, when proper, shall be subject to repurchase by the applicant, his widow, or legal heirs, for a period of five years from the date of the conveyance.
Section 118
SEC. 118. Conveyances and encumbrances made by persons belonging to the so-called "non-Christian tribes," when proper, shall not be valid unless duly approved by the Director of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes.
Section 119
SEC. 119. No corporation, association, or partnership may acquire or have any right, title, interest, or property right whatsoever to any land granted under the free patent or homestead provisions or to any permanent improvement on such land.
Section 120
SEC. 120. No land originally acquired in any manner under the provisions of this Act, nor any permanent improvement on such land, shall be encumbered, alienated, or transferred, except to persons, corporations, associations, or partnerships who may acquire lands of the public domain under this Act; to corporations organized in the Philippine Islands authorized therefor by their charters, and, upon express authorization by the Philippine Legislature, to citizens of countries the laws of which grant to citizens of the Philippine Islands the same right to acquire, hold, lease, encumber, dispose of, or alienate land, or permanent improvements thereon, or any interest therein, as to their own citizens, only in the manner and to the extent specified in such laws, and while the same are in force, but not thereafter.
Section 121
SEC. 121. No land originally acquired in any manner under the provisions of the former Public Land Act or of any other Act, ordinance, royal order, royal decree, or any, other provision of law formerly in force in the Philippine Islands with regard to public lands, terrenos baldios y realengos, or lands of any other denomination that were actually or presumptively of the public domain, or by royal grant or in any other form, nor any permanent improvement on such land, shall be encumbered, alienated, or conveyed, except to persons, corporations, or associations who may acquire land of the public domain under this Act, to corporate bodies organized in the Philippine Islands whose charters may authorize them to do so, and, upon express authorization by the Philippine Legislature, to citizens of the countries the laws of which grant to citizens of the Philippine Islands the same right to acquire, hold, lease, encumber, dispose of, or alienate land or permanent improvements thereon or any interest therein, as to their own citizens, and only in the manner and to the extent specified in such laws, and while the same are in force, but not thereafter: Provided, however, That this prohibition shall not be applicable to the conveyance or acquisition by reason of hereditary succession duly acknowledged and legalized by competent courts, nor to lands and improvements acquired or held for industrial or residence purposes, while used for such purposes: Provided, further, That in the event of the ownership of the lands and improvements mentioned in this section and in the last preceding section being transferred by judicial decree to persons corporations or associations not legally capacitated to acquire the same under the provisions of this Act, such persons, corporations, or associations shall be obliged to alienate said lands or improvements to others so capacitated within the precise period of five years, under the penalty of such property reverting to the Government in the contrary case.
Section 122
SEC. 122. Any acquisition, conveyance, alienation, transfer, or other contract made or executed in violation of any of the provisions of sections one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and eighteen, one hundred and nineteen, one hundred and twenty, and one hundred and twenty-one of this Act shall be unlawful and null and void from its execution and shall produce the effect of annulling and canceling the grant, title, patent, or permit originally, issued, recognized, or confirmed, actually or presumptively, and cause the reversion of the property and its improvements to the Government.
CHAPTER XV.—Penal provisions.
Section 123
SEC. 123. Any person who presents or causes to be presented, or cooperates in the presentation of, any false application, declaration, or evidence, or makes or causes to be made or cooperates in the making of a false affidavit in support of any petition, claim, or objection respecting lands of the public domain, shall be deemed guilty of perjury and punished accordingly.
Section 124
SEC. 124. Any person who voluntarily and maliciously prevents or hinders or attempts to prevent or hinder the presentation of any application for public land under this Act, or who in any manner attempts to execute or executes acts intended to dissuade or discourage, or aid to dissuade or discourage, the acquisition of public lands, shall be deemed guilty of coercion and be punished accordingly.
Section 125
SEC. 125. Any person who sells forms issued and distributed gratuitously under this Act or who, being an officer charged with distributing them, refuses or fails, without sufficient reason, to furnish the same, shall be punished for each offense by a fine of not more than one hundred pesos, or by imprisonment for not more than three months, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Section 126
SEC. 126. Any person who, without having the qualifications required by this Act, shall by deceit or fraud acquire or attempt to acquire lands of the public domain or other real property, or any right, title, or interest, or property right of any class to the same, and any person aiding and abetting him therein or serving as a means or tool therefor, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand pesos, or by imprisonment for not more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court.
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