Preamble
Whereas the change of government in the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, effected in January last, necessitates certain reforms, and not only is the time ripe for these reforms, but they are insistently demanded by present conditions in said department; and Whereas it is the desire of the people of the Islands to promote the most rapid moral, material, social, and political development of the inhabitants of said department in order to accomplish their complete unification with the inhabitants of other provinces of the Archipelago; and Whereas for the accomplishment of this purpose the extension thereto of the general laws of the country and of the forms and procedures of government followed in other provinces, under certain limitations in harmony with the special conditions now prevailing in said department, is among other measures advisable and necessary, but always with the understanding that such limitations are temporary and that it is the firm and decided purpose of the Philippine Commission to abolish such limitations together with the departmental government as soon as the several districts of said region shall have been converted into regularly organized provinces: Now, therefore, By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: ARTICLE 1.—Preliminary provisions. ARTICLE 8.—Preliminary provisions ARTICLE 14.—General provisions.