Section 4
SEC. 4. Section twenty of Act Numbered Five, entitled "The Civil Service Act," is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 20. The requirements of this act for entrance into the civil service, or for promotion by competitive examination, shall not apply to the selection of the Executive Secretary; the secretary of the United States Philippine Commission; the Treasurer for the Islands; the Auditor for the Islands; the Collector of Customs for the Islands; the deputy collector of customs for the Islands; the Collector of Inland Revenue for the Islands: the Director of Posts for the Islands; the head of the Bureau of Forestry; the head of the Bureau of Mines; the Superintendent of Public Instruction; the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics; the members of the Civil Service Board; the Insular Purchasing Agent; the Superintendent of the Government Cold Storage and Ice Plant: the officer in charge of the improvement of the port of Manila; the Chief of the Weather Bureau, his three assistants, and the secretary of the Bureau; the members of the Board of Health of the Philippine Islands; the Superintendent of Government Laboratories and directors of laboratories; or of one private secretary for the Civil Governor and for each member of the United States Philippine Commission, except the President. But, after eighteen months from the date when the Board shall certify that it has a sufficient list of eligibles to supply vacancies, vacancies occurring in all the foregoing offices, except in the private secretaryships above described, and in the offices of the Officer in Charge of the Improvement of the Port of Manila, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, the three assistants, and secretary of such Bureau, the members of the Board of Health of the Philippine Islands, and of the Superintendent and directors of Government Laboratories, shall be filled without examination from a class to be composed of the first, second, and third assistants in all the foregoing offices, or Bureaus, the intention of this provision being that the appointing power may, by virtue hereof, transfer from one office to another a person deemed competent to fill the vacancy. In case there are no assistants in the foregoing offices designated as such by law, the Civil Service Board may in its discretion, include in such eligible list, by rule, one of the subordinates in such office ranking next to the head thereof."