Section 2
SEC. 2. A joint committee is hereby created, composed of not to exceed seven members of the Philippine Commission, to be pointed by the President thereof, and seven members of the Philippine Assembly, to be appointed by the Speaker thereof, which committee shall have power and authority to consider all petitions for the relief of sufferers from general conflagrations, typhoons, floods, earthquakes, famine, pestilence, epidemics, and other disasters which amount to public calamities. Said joint committee shall, out of the appropriation provided for in section one of this Act, make the award and determine the sum which it may deem necessary for the temporary relief of sufferers from said disasters, and may expend such sum for such relief or may authorize the sum