Compiled from an official source version. Later amendments or repeals may not be reflected; the official text prevails.・Read the official text ↗
SEC. 394. Collectors of customs, deputy collectors, surveyors, and other customs officers acting in such capacities are required, to keep true, correct, and permanent records of their official transactions, to submit the same to the inspection of authorized officers at all times, and to turn over all records and official papers to their successors or other authorized officers.
SEC. 395. Any person not an employee of the Philippine customs service who shall wear the uniform of that service, or any part thereof, or shall in any manner impersonate or represent himself to be such officer or employee, shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, in the discretion of the court.
SEC. 396. The Insular Collector shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to prevent smuggling through the medium of the foreign mails arriving in the Islands, and to collect the lawful duty on dutiable articles imported in such mails, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Finance and Justice.
SEC. 397. No merchandise of any kind whatsoever can be legally introduced into the Philippine Archipelago without passing through the custom-house duly established for this purpose, all such merchandise requiring to be presented at the custom-house for examination and payment of customs duties, if to such liable. Customs employees shall have the right to proceed, not only to open all packages and concealed spaces, but also to remove false bottoms or partitions, or bulkheads, and so forth, which prevent them from assuring themselves that the hidden empty spaces, contain no dutiable object, nor shall such proceedings give any right to a claim for damages which may have been thus caused to merchandise or vessel. All expenses incurred by the customs service for the carriage, storage, and other necessary operations in connection with the merchandise shall be charged against the merchandise.
SEC. 398. Importation by sea begins with the moment the importing vessel enters the jurisdictional waters of a port of entry with intention to unlade therein, and is not completed until the duties due upon the merchandise have been paid or secured to be paid and the legal permit for withdrawal shall have been granted, or, in case said merchandise is free of duty, until it has legally left the jurisdiction of the customs.
SEC. 399. Where goods and wares consigned to a port in the Philippine Archipelago are landed in error at a different port in the Philippine Archipelago, and the collector at the original port of landing of such merchandise, and so forth, on investigation is convinced by the manifest and other evidence of such error, he may permit the reshipment of said merchandise, and so forth, to its proper destination under transportation bond and regulations governing same. Said bond may be executed by designated agent or owner of the merchandise, or agent of the vessel landing the merchandise, and so forth, in error. The merchandise shall be transshipped on another vessel of the same line, unless in the judgment of the collector this will cause unnecessary delay, in which case he may permit the transshipment by a vessel of any regular line. The collector at the final port of destination, on receiving such merchandise, and so forth, will officially notify the collector at the original port of landing where transportation bond was executed, which official notice shall be the authority for the canceling of the "transportation bond." Merchandise, and so forth, thus transported in bond must be examined at the original port of landing, in order to establish that the landing was in error and not with intent to defraud. The collector at the first port of landing will inform the collector of the port of destination of the result of the examination. The collector at the port of destination of such merchandise, and so forth, transported in bond, shall require same to be regularly entered for consumption and collect duties on same after appraisal. All merchandise, and so forth, thus transported in bond shall be corded and sealed by the collector at the original port of entry at expense of the consignor; and all vessels acting as common carriers for the transportation of such merchandise in scaled packages in bond shall be held responsible for their safe delivery at the port of destination, and shall have same noted on the vessel's manifest as "merchandise in bond."
SEC. 400. Articles of easy identification which it may be desired to export from the Philippine Archipelago for the purpose of being repaired may be, upon application to the collector of customs, identified at the custom-house through which exported, and may be subsequently reimported free of duty on reidentification under proper restrictions to be prescribed by the Collector of Customs for the Philippine Archipelago. Such articles are dutiable, however, to the extent of any repairs that may have been made thereon, at the rate of twenty-five per centum ad valorem.
SEC. 401. Boats, launches, lighters, vessels, and other water craft, except in a knocked-down condition, measuring more than five hundred cubic feet, are not dutiable as importations of merchandise.
SEC. 402. Such vessels measuring more than five hundred cubic feet, duly licensed for the Philippine coastwise trade, may proceed to a foreign port for repairs, and upon their return to the Philippine Islands neither the vessels nor the repairs thereon shall be dutiable.
SEC. 403. Parts of the machinery or other equipment of such , vessels measuring more than five hundred cubic feet, duly licensed for the Philippine coastwise trade, may be sent to a foreign port for repairs, and upon the return of said parts or equipments to the Philippine Islands the same shall not be dutiable.
SEC. 404. Parts of the machinery or other equipments of vessels, measuring loss than five hundred cubic feet, duly licensed for the Philippine coastwise trade, may be exported for repairs, and such pairs or equipments upon their return to the Philippine Islands shall be dutiable in accordance with the provisions of section four hundred of this Act.
SEC. 405. Articles of prohibited importation, as defined in section six of the Tariff Revision Law of nineteen hundred and one, when seized by the customs authorities, shall be disposed of as follows: (a) Dynamite, gunpowder, and similar explosives, and firearms of all descriptions and detached parts therefor, shall be held, pending instructions in each case from the Civil Governor, as to the disposition to be made thereof; (b) Books, pamphlets, or other printed matter, paintings, or illustrations, figures, or other objects, of an obscene or indecent character, shall be held by the customs authorities, and shall be destroyed as soon as their status as articles of prohibited importation shall have been finally established; (c) Roulette wheels, gambling layouts, dealing boxes, and all other machines, apparatus, or mechanical devices used in gambling, or used in the distribution of money, cigars, or other articles, when such distribution is dependent upon lot or chance, shall be held by the customs authorities for a period of thirty days, pending the presentation of evidence satisfactory to the collector that they were sought to be imported bona fide, and in ignorance of the law, failing which the articles shall be destroyed in accordance with the regulations prescribed by this Act for the disposition of articles dangerous to the public health. If, however, evidence satisfactory to the collector shall be presented, showing that the articles were imported bona fide, and in ignorance of the law. they may be permitted to be entered for immediate reexportation in bond, under the usual formalities for such case prescribed.
SEC. 406. All existing decrees, laws, regulations, or orders relating to the administration of the Philippine customs service, are hereby repealed, such repeal to take effect as of the date when this Act shall go into force and effect: Provided, however, That nothing in this section shall in any way affect any suit, criminal prosecution, or other legal proceeding, or cause of action or criminal prosecution existing before this Act shall go into effect, but as to any such suit, criminal prosecution, legal proceeding, or cause of action or prosecution, the existing laws shall remain in full force and effect.
SEC. 407. This Act shall take effect at the port of Manila at twelve o'clock, midnight, on February seventh, nineteen hundred and two, and at each of the other ports and subports in the Philippine Archipelago at twelve o'clock, midnight, following the day when an official copy thereof, duly certified by the Insular Collector, shall first be received and promulgated by the chief customs officer, or inspector, stationed thereat, as the case may be. Enacted, February 6, 1902. Appendix A.—Revised Statutes of the United States, second (eighteen hundred and seventy-eight) edition.
Provisions on this page are reproduced verbatim from official open data. See the attribution line.
Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines — Philippine laws are public documents (works of the government).