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SECTION 1. (a) The pueblos of the Philippine Islands shall be recognized as municipal corporations with the same boundaries as now existing de jure or de facto, upon organization under the provisions of this Act. (b) This Act shall not apply to the city of Manila, for which special legislation shall be enacted. (c) This Act shall not apply to the settlements of non-Christian tribes, for which special legislation shall be enacted.
SEC. 2. (a) Pueblos incorporated under this Act shall be designated as municipalities (municipios), and shall be known respectively by the names heretofore adopted. Under such names they may sue and be sued, contract and be contracted with, acquire and hold real and personal property for the general interests of the municipality, and exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred upon them. (b) All property and property rights vested in any pueblo under its former organization shall continue to be vested in the same municipality after its incorporation under this Act.
SEC. 3. The government of each municipality established under this Act is herein vested in a president, a vice-president, and a municipal council. The president and the councilors, together with the vice-president, shall be chosen at large by the qualified electors of the municipality, and their term of office shall be for two years from and after the first Monday in January next after their election and until their successors are duly chosen and qualified: Provided, That the president and vice-president elected in nineteen hundred and one shall bold office until the first Monday in January, nineteen hundred and three, or until their successors are duly chosen and qualified and that the councilors elected in nineteen hundred and one shall divide themselves by lot into two classes. The seats of those of the first class shall be vacated on the first Monday of January, nineteen hundred and two and those of the second class one year thereafter, or when their successors are duly chosen and qualified, so that one-half of the municipal council shall be chosen annually.
SEC. 4. (a) Incorporated municipalities shall be of four classes, according to the number of inhabitants. Municipalities of the first class shall be those which contain not less than twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and shall have eighteen councilors of the second class, those containing eighteen thousand and less than twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and shall have fourteen councilors of the third class, those containing ten thousand and less than eighteen thousand inhabitants, and shall have ten councilors; of the fourth class, those containing less than ten thousand inhabitants, and shall have eight. (b) Municipalities of less than two thousand inhabitants may be incorporated under the provisions of this Act, or may, upon petition signed by a majority of qualified electors thereof, be attached as a barrio to an adjacent and incorporated municipality, if the council of the latter shall grant said petition. (c) A barrio or barrios with an aggregate population of more than two thousand may be incorporated under the provisions of this Act as a separate municipality, upon the granting by the Commission of a petition signed by two-thirds of the qualified electors thereof. (d) In case of controversy, the Commission shall determine to which class a town, shall belong, and thereafter, if its population shall sufficiently increase or diminish, it shall pass to a higher or lower class by order of the provincial board.
SEC. 5. The municipality shall be divided into barrios, or wards, and the limits of such barrios shall be clearly defined, as hereinafter provided in section thirty-six. For administrative purposes, the barrios may be grouped into districts. The number of such districts in the municipality shall be equal to the number of councilors, including the vice-president.
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).