Section 19
SEC. 19. (a) There is hereby imposed, for the purpose of protecting, improving, and extending the roads and trails of the province and of constructing public works, an annual tax of two pesos on every male inhabitant of the province over eighteen years and under sixty years of age, except soldiers and sailors of the -United States Army and Navy, civilian employees of the military branch of the United States Government in the Philippine islands, consular and diplomatic representatives and of officials of foreign powers in the Philippine Islands, paupers, insane persons and persons serving a sentence of more than one year in a public prison. This tax shall be collected by the provincial treasurer and his deputies. It shall be deemed to be delinquent after the first day of February of each year: Provided, That the amount of taxes due and payable for the period from the date of this Act to the first day of January, nineteen hundred and seven, shall be two pesos: And provided further, That this amount shall be due and payable on the first day of December, nineteen hundred and five, and shall become delinquent on the first day of January, nineteen 'hundred and six: And provided further, That persons liable to pay this tax not residents of the province prior to .February first of any year, but who enter and reside in the province after that date, may pay the tax within thirty days after their arrival in the province. (b) Any person who becomes delinquent in the payment of this tax shall, in lieu of such payment, work fur ten days on the roads, trails, or public works in the province, under the direction of the provincial supervisor, either performing such work' in person or providing a substitute to perform it: Provided, That at any time after he or his substitute shall have begun work he may secure release from obligation to work by payment of the amount of the tax originally due in full. The provincial board shall also fix the period within which the inhabitants of each township who are delinquent in the payment of this tax shall work it out, and the road, trail, or c public work upon which they shall labor: Provided, That when any delinquent in the payment of this tax is obliged to perform work outside the township in which he resides lie shall be furnished subsistence by the province while engaged in such work and during the usual and necessary time consumed in going from his home to the place where such work is performed and in returning from such c place to his home: And provided further, That he shall be credited with the usual and necessary time consumed in. traveling from his home to the place where the work is performed and returning therefrom as a part of the time required of him, such usual and necessary time to be determined by the provincial board. Any person delinquent in the payment of this tax who shall refuse or fail, either in person or by a substitute furnished by him, to work it out within the period fixed, by the provincial board, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be punished by a line not exceeding ten pesos or by imprisonment not exceeding twenty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. (c) When, in the opinion of the provincial board, the inhabitants of any township or settlement have not advanced sufficiently in civilization to make the collection of this fax practicable, or hi the public interest, the; board may, by resolution, with the approval of the Secretary of the interior first had, exempt the inhabitants of such township or settlement from the payment of this tax. (d) The provincial board is hereby authorized in its discretion to expend such amounts as may appear necessary for the purchase of rice to be sold at cost to laborers actually at work on the roads and bridges of the province. Payments on 'this account shall be made from the road and bridge fund of the province and all money derived from sales shall be deposited in the provincial treasury to the credit of said fund.