Section 117
SEC. 117. Collectors of customs may issue a certificate of protection entitling the vessel to which it is issued to the protection and flag of the United States in all ports and on the high seas, if the vessel is owned by— (a) A citizen of the United States residing in the Philippine Islands; (b) A native inhabitant of the Philippine Islands, upon taking the oath of allegiance to the United States; (c) A resident of the Philippine Islands before April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, hitherto a subject of Spain, upon abjuring his allegiance to the Crown of Spain and taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.