Section 1
SECTION 1. Section fifteen of Commonwealth Act Numbered Five hundred twenty, as amended, is further amended to read as follows: "SEC. 15. General powers and duties of the Board.-Except as otherwise provided by law, and subject to the conditions and limitations thereof, the Municipal Board shall have the following legislative powers: (a) To provide for the levy and collection of taxes for general and special purposes in accordance with law including specifically the power to levy real property tax not to exceed two per centum ad valorem. (b) To make all appropriations for the expenses of the government of the city. (c) To fix the number and salaries of officials and employees of the city not otherwise provided for in this Act. (d) To authorize the free distribution of medicines to the employees and laborers of the city whose salary or wage does not exceed one hundred eighty pesos per month or six pesos per day; of fresh or evaporated native milk to indigent mothers residing in the city and of bread and light meals to indigent children of ten years or less of age residing in the city, the distribution to be made under the direct supervision and control of the Mayor. (e) To fix the tariff of fees and charges of all services rendered by the city or any of 'its departments, branches, or officials. (f) To provide for the erection and maintenance or the rental of the necessary buildings for the use of the city. (g) To establish and maintain schools as provided by law and with the approval of the Director of Public Schools or Vocational Education, to fix reasonable tuition fees for instruction therein. (h) To establish or aid in the establishment and maintenance of vocational schools and institutions of higher learning conducted by the National Government or any of the Director of Public Schools or Vocational Education, to fix reasonable tuition fees for instruction in the vocational schools and in those higher institutions supported entirely by the city. (i) To establish and maintain an efficient police force and make all necessary police ordinances, with a view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants, prostitutes, and persons convicted of violating any of the ordinances of the city. (j) To establish and maintain an efficient fire force and provide engine houses, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to regulate the management and use of the same. (k) To establish fire zones, determine the kinds of buildings or structures that may be erected within their limits, regulate the manner of constructing and repairing the same, and fix the fees for permits for the construction, repair, or demolition of buildings and structures. (I) To regulate the use of lights in stables, shops, and other buildings and places, and to regulate and restrict the issuance of permits for the building of bonfires and the use of fire crakers, fireworks, skyrockets, and other pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits. (m) To make regulations to protect the public from conflagration and to prevent and mitigate the effects of famine, floods, storms, and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons suffering from the same. (n) To regulate and fix the amount of the license fees for the following: Hawkers, peddlers and hucksters, not including hucksters or peddlers who sell only native vegetables, fruits or foods, personally carried by the hucksters or peddlers; auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, shipping and intelligence offices, private detective agencies, advertising agencies, beauty parlors, massagists, tattooers, jugglers, acrobats, hotels, clubs, restaurants, cafes, lodging houses, boarding houses, livery garages, livery stables, dealers in large cattle, public billiard tables, laundries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, public vehicles, race tracks, horse races, bowling alleys, shooting galleries, merry-go-round, pawnshops, dealers in second-hand merchandise, junk dealers, brewers, distillers, rectifiers, money changers and brokers, public ferries, theaters, theatrical performances, cinematographs, public exhibitions, circuses, and all other performances and places of amusements, and the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, poultry, fish, game, butter, cheese; lard, vegetables, bread, and other provisions. (o) To tax and fix the license fees on dealers in new automobiles or accessories or both, and retail dealers in new merchandise, which dealers are not yet subject to the payment of any municipal tax. For the purpose of taxation, those retail dealers shall be classified as (A) retail dealers in general merchandise, and (B) retail dealers exclusively engaged in the sale of (a) textiles including knitted wares, (b) hardwares including glasswares, cooking utensils, electrical goods and construction materials, (c)groceries including toilet articles except perfumery, (d)drugs including medicines and perfumeries, (e) books including stationery, paper, and office supplies, (f) jewelry, (g) slippers, (h) arms, ammunitions, and sporting goods. (p) To tax, fix the license fee for, regulate the business and fix the location of, match factories, blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber' yards, ship yards, the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglicerin, petroleum, or any of the products thereof, and of all highly combustible or explosive materials, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety or give rise to conflagrations or explosions, and, subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health in accordance with law, tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, embalmers and funeral parlors, bone factories, and soap factories. (q) To impose tax on motor and other vehicles, and draft animals not paying any national tax; provided, that all automobiles and trucks belonging to the National Government or to any provincial or municipal government and automobiles and trucks not regularly kept in the city shall be exempt from such tax. (r) To regulate, the method of using steam engines and boilers, and all other motive powers other than marine or belonging to the Government of the Philippines; to provide for the inspection thereof, and for a reasonable fee for such inspection, and to regulate and fix the fees for the licenses of the engineers engaged in operating the same. (s) To enact ordinances for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals. (t) To regulate and fix the license fees for the keeping of dogs, to authorize their impounding and destruction when running at large contrary to ordinances, and to tax and regulate the keeping or training of fighting cocks. (u) To establish and maintain municipal pounds; to regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic animals, and provide for the distraining, impounding and sale of the same for the penalty incurred, and the cost of the proceedings; and to impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of any ordinance in relation thereto. (v) To prohibit and provide for the punishment of cruelty to animals. (w) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, coal, and other article of merchandise. (x) To prohibit the establishment or operation of dance halls, cabarets, and cockpits. (y) Subject to the provisions of existing law, to provide for the laying out, construction, and improvement, and to regulate the use of streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to regulate, fix license' fees for, and prohibit the use of the same for processions; signs, signposts, awning, awning posts, the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or handbills, or the flying of signs, flags, or banners, whether along, across, over or from buildings along the same; to prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, offal, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter or matters liable to cause damage, in the streets and other public places, and to provide for the inspection of, fix the license fees for, and regulate the openings in the same for the laying of gas, water, sewer, and other pipes, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drains, and all structures in and under the same, and the erecting of poles and the stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate crosswalks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name streets without a name and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon or in the interior of the blocks; to regulate traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places; to provide for the abatement of nuisances in the same and punish the authors or owners thereof; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use, of bridges, viaducts, and culverts; to prohibit or regulate ball playing, kite flying, hoop rolling, and other amusements which may annoy persons using the streets and public places, or frighten horses or other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and other animals; motor and other vehicles, cars, and locomotives within the limits of the city; to regulate the lights used on such vehicles, cars, and locomotives; to regulate the locating, constructing, and laying of the track of horse, electric, and other forms of railroad in the streets or other public places of the city authorized by law unless otherwise provided by law, to provide for and change the location, grade, and crossings of railroads, and to compel any such railroad to raise or lower its tracks to conform to such provisions or changes; and to require railroad companies to fence their property, or any part thereof to provide suitable protection against injury to persons or property, and to construct and repair ditches, drains, sewers, and culverts along and under their tracks, so that the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed. (z) To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the navigation on, canals, ,and watercourses, within the city and provide for the clearing and purification of the same; unless otherwise provided by law, to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use, of public landing places, and to those of private ownership; and to provide for or regulate the drainage and filling of private premises when necessary in the enforcement of sanitary rules and regulations issued in accordance with law. (aa) Subject to the provisions of existing law, to exercise the power of eminent domain for the following purposes; the construction or extension of roads, streets, sidewalks, boulevards, or airfields, the construction of public buildings including schoolhouses and the making of necessary improvements in connection therewith, the establishment of parks, playgrounds, plazas, market places, artesian wells, or systems for the supply of water, irrigation, canals and dams, and the establishment of nurseries, breeding centers for animals, health centers, hospitals, cemeteries, drainage systems, cesspools, or sewage systems and abattoirs. (bb) To provide for the maintenance of waterworks for the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, and for the purification of the source of water supply and the places through which the same passes, and to regulate the consumption and use of the water, to fix, subject to the provisions of the Public Service Law, and provide for the collection of, rents therefore; and to regulate the construction, repair and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns and reservoirs. (cc) To provide for the establishment and maintenance and regulate the use, of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools. (dd) Subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health Services in accordance with law, to provide for the establishment, maintenance and regulation and fix the fees for the use of public stables, laundries and baths, and public markets and prohibit the establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets by any person, entity, association, or corporation other than the city. (ee) To establish or authorize the establishment of slaughterhouses, to provide for their veterinary or sanitary inspection, to regulate the use of same, and to charge reasonable slaughter fees. No fees shall be charged for veterinary or sanitary inspection of meat from, large cattle or other domestic animals slaughtered outside the city, when such inspection was had at the place where the animals were slaughtered. (ff) To regulate, inspect, and provide measures preventing any discrimination or the exclusion of any race or races in or from any institution, establishment, or service open to the public within the city limits; to regulate and provide for the inspection of all gas, electric, telephone, and street-railway, conduits, mains, meters, and other apparatus, and provide for the condemnation, substitution, or removal of the same when defective or dangerous. (gg) To declare, prevent, and provide for the abatement of nuisances; to regulate the ringing of bells and the making of loud or unusual noises; to provide that owners, agents, or tenants of buildings or premises keep and maintain the same in sanitary condition, and that, in case of failure to do so after sixty days from the date of serving a written notice, the city health officer shall cause the same to be kept in a sanitary condition, and the cost thereof to be assessed to the owner to the extent of not to exceed sixty per centum of the assessed value, which cost shall constitute a lien against the property; and to regulate or prohibit or fix the license fees for the use of property on or near public ways, grounds, or places, or elsewhere within the city, for a display of electric signs or the erection or maintenance of billboards or structures of whatever material, erected, maintained, or used for the display of posters, signs, or other pictorial or reading matter, except signs displayed at the place or places where the profession or business advertised thereby is in whole or part conducted. (hh) To provide for the enforcement of the rules and regulations of the Director of Health Services, and by ordinance to prescribe penalties for violations of such rules and regulations. (ii) To extend its ordinances over all waters within the city, over any boat or other floating structures thereon and, for the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity of the water supply of the city, over all territory within the drainage area of such water supply, and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct, or pumping station used in connection with the city water service. (jj) To tax, fix the license fee for, and regulate the sale, trading in or disposal of, alcoholic or malt beverages, wines, and mixed or fermented liquors including tuba, basi, tapuy, offered for retail sale. (kk) To regulate any other business or occupation not specifically mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, and to impose ,a license fee upon all persons engaged in the same or who enjoy privileges in the city. (ll) To grant fishing and fishery privileges subject to the provisions of the Fisheries Act. (mm) To fix the date of the holding of a fiesta in the city not oftener than once a year and to alter, not oftener than once in three years, the date so fixed for the celebration thereof. (m-l) To provide for the establishment and maintenance of a telephone, gas, electric, heat and power systems, and, subject to the provisions of the Public Service Law, to fix the charges for the use of said service. (nn) To enact all ordinances it may deem necessary and proper for the sanitation and safety, the furtherance of the prosperity, and the promotion of the morality, peace, good order, comfort, convenience, and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, and such others as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this Act, and to fix the penalties for the violation of ordinances, which shall not exceed a two hundred peso fine or six months imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, for a single offense."