Section 68
SEC. 68. The short title of this Act shall be "The Public Land Act."
Act No. 926 CHAPTER VII.
Compiled from an official source version. Later amendments or repeals may not be reflected; the official text prevails.・Read the official text ↗
Section 69
SEC. 69. The Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, shall prepare and issue such forms and instructions, consistent with this Act, as may be necessary and proper to carry into effect all the provisions thereof that are to be administered by or under the direction of the Bureau of Public Lands, and for the conduct of all proceedings arising under such provisions.
Section 70
SEC. 70. While title to public lands in the Philippine Islands remains in the Government, the Chief of the Bureau ol' Public Lands, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, shall be charged with the immediate executive control of the survey, classification, lease, sale, and other disposition and management thereof, and the decisions of the Bureau as to questions of fact relating to such.lands shall be conclusive when approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
Section 71
SEC. 71. The Civil Governor, for reasons of public policy, may, from time to time, by proclamation, designate any tract or tracts of public lands in the Philippine islands as nonalienable, and thereafter the same shall be withdrawn from settlement, entry, sale, or other disposition under any of the public land laws of the Islands until again made subject thereto by law of the Islands.
Section 72
SEC. 72. Provincial secretaries and all other persons that may be designated as mining recorders shall, in their capacities as such recorders, be subject to the supervision of the Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands.
Section 73
SEC. 73. All patents or certificates for lands disposed of under this law shall be prepared In the Bureau of Public Lands and shall issue in the name of the United States and the Philippine Government under the signature of the Civil Governor; 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 74
SEC. 74. All persons receiving title to Government lands under the provisions of this Act, shall hold such lands subject to the same public servitudes as existed upon lands owned by private persons under the sovereignty of Spain, 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 75
SEC. 75. The beneficial use of water shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of all rights thereto in said Islands, and patents herein granted shall be subject to the right of the Government of these Islands 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, 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 eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine.
Section 76
SEC. 76. There is hereby reserved from the operation of all patents, certificates, entries, and grants by the Insular Government authorized under this Act, the right 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 running 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 lake 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 for the amount, if any, paid by him to the Government for the land taken from him by 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 land that other private owners enjoy by the laws of the Philippine Islands, 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 to he embodied in a special Act of the Commission until a general law shall be passed concerning the use, lease, or acquisition of such water privilege.
Section 77
SEC. 77. Any person who shall willfully and knowingly submit, or cause to be submitted, any false proof, or who shall make, or cause to he made, any false affidavit in support of any application or claim in any manner respecting the public lands of the Philippine Islands, shall be deemed guilty of perjury and punished accordingly.
Section 78
SEC. 78. The provisions of this Act shall extend and apply to all provinces and places of the Philippine Archipelago except the Moro Province and the Provinces of Lepanto-Bontoc, Benguet, Paragua, and Nueva Vizcaya but the provisions of this Act or of any chapter hereof may at any time, by resolution of the Philippine Commission, he extended over and put in force in any of the provinces or any part thereof hereby excepted from its operation.
Section 79
SEC. 79. When this Act shall have been approved by the President of the United States and shall have received the express or implied sanction of Congress, as provided by section thirteen of the Act of Congress approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, entitled "An Act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," such facts shall be made known by the proclamation of the Civil Governor of the Islands,'and this Act shall take effect on the date of such proclamation. Enacted, October 7, 1903.
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Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines — Philippine laws are public documents (works of the government).