Transfer of existing officers.
Section 19
SEC. 19. Transfer of existing officers.—All physicians now occupying salaried positions under the Bureau of Health as Director, Assistant Director, assistant to the Director, chief of statistical division, medical inspector, district health officers and health officers of subdistricts, chiefs of hospital divisions, and medical assistants and residents in hospitals other than internes, and junior medical inspectors, and physicians employed under any other Bureau of the Government of the Philippine Islands, other than those specifically excepted under this Act, shall be commissioned in the Philippine Health Service in grades carrying as nearly as practicable duties similar to those they may be performing and the pay of which is nearest the salary which they are actually receiving at the time of the passage of this Act; and within each such grade they shall be arranged on a list and given seniority and relative rank therein according to the length of service previously rendered in a medical capacity in any branch of the Government of the Philippine Islands: Provided, That for the purposes of original transfers made under this Act, physicians now under the Bureau of Health and receiving a salary of four thousand pesos or more per annum and not exceeding six thousand pesos shall be graded as deputy chiefs of divisions; those receiving three thousand pesos or more per annum and less than four thousand pesos as medical inspectors; those receiving two thousand pesos or more per annum and less than three thousand pesos as senior surgeons; and those receiving less than two thousand pesos per annum as junior surgeons: Provided further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to legislate out of the service, or to reduce the salary or privileges enjoyed by, any person occupying a position under the Bureau of Health at the time of the passage of this Act: And provided further, That when the Mindanao and Sulu. health service of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu shall come under the direct control of and be merged into the general health service of the Philippine Islands, the then health officer of that department, and the then provincial health officers thereof, other than Constabulary medical officers, acting as such, shall become officers of the Philippine Health Service in accordance with their respective ranks.