Section 13
SEC. 13. In the event of the appropriates not organizing in accordance with the provisions of the next preceding section, the organization. system shall be temporarily administered under this Act as follows: (a) By the municipal council, when the system affects one municipality alone; (b) By the provincial board, when it affects two or more municipalities of a province; (c) By the Director of Public Works, when it affects two or more provinces. The regulations issued for the administration, use, and distribution of waters shall be previously approved by the Irrigation Council and in the preparation of these regulations all the persons interested shall be given a hearing. The cost of this service shall be a lien upon the crops, in the service; first place, and in the second place upon the land of the water users and ditch owners, in accordance with the distribution thereof, as shown by the accounts of the municipal council, the provincial board, or the Director of Public Works, which distribution shall be based upon the quantity of water consumed by each appropriator or ditch owner, in proportion to the total quantity delivered to all: Provided, however, That the funds necessary to defray the administration expenses prior to the expiration of each agricultural year (the period intervening between the beginning of the planting and the completion of the harvesting of the crops), in accordance with the appropriation, shall be advanced by the municipality or the province out of their funds, or by the Director of Public Works, out of the irrigation fund, and shall be reimbursed at the end of each year with interest at the rate of four per centum: And provided further, That in the event of the municipalities or provincial board being without funds to cover these expenses the administration of such systems shall be given to the Director of Public "Works for such time as the funds advanced to meet said expenses are paid from the Insular Treasury. The municipal and provincial treasurers shall, in the performance of their official duties, collect the charges for administration expenses for each year upon the completion of each harvest, acting in this respect as delegates of the Director of Public Works. Such lien shall have preference over all other liens except that for taxes on the land and any mortgage lien in favor of the Philippine Agricultural Bank, and such preferred lien shall not be removed until all charges are paid or the property is sold for payment thereof. Within one year after default of payment on an installment payable on any parcel of land, the municipal president, the provincial governor or the Director of Public Works shall file with the clerk of the Court of First Instance of the district in which the land is situated, a list of all lands upon which default has been made. The clerk of the court shall thereupon publish in the manner provided for the publication of the summons in a civil action, a list of the lands so filed by the Director of Public Works, accompanied by a notice requiring the owners to file an answer thereto within thirty , days after the completion of the publication. Upon the filing of an answer by the person interested, the action in respect to such person shall proceed to judgment, as provided for other actions by the Code of Civil Procedure. Upon termination of such thirty days, judgment shall be entered against, such persons as have not answered, and their lands, or the portion thereof deemed necessary, shall be sold, after ten days" public notice, at public auction by the sheriff to satisfy such preferred lien. Any excess over the amount of said lien and the cost of such procedure shall be returned to the interested person, who shall have one year thereafter to redeem his land by payment of the amount of the judgment, and costs with interest at six per centum: Provided, however, That in the event of the cost of maintenance being exceptionally high in any year that it exceeds fifty per centum of the net profits, such exceptional cost shall be distributed in an equitable manner, over two or more years, but not more than five: And provided further, That in the cases in which a crop is unharvested at the time of the execution of the lien, the execution shall be levied first on said crop. In the preparation of the regulations mentioned in this and the next preceding section, the customs and usages of each locality shall be taken into consideration, and in these regulations one day of the year shall be fixed for a meeting of all the persons interested for the purpose of preparing an estimate of expenditures for the next succeeding year.