Section 13
SEC. 13. It shall be the duty and within the power of the legislative council: (a) To provide, by construction or purchase or sale, suitable offices at the capital of the province for provincial offices and suitable offices for the district officers hereinafter provided for at the capitals of the districts, for court-houses containing rooms suitable for the holding of court and for the officers of the court at every place in the province where a court is held, a provincial jail at the capital of the province, and such district jails at the respective capitals or other places in the. district as may seem necessary to the legislative council. (b) To furnish suitable vaults or safes to the provincial treasurer and to the district treasurers hereinafter authorized in the various districts in which the provincial and other public funds, as long as they shall be in the custody of the provincial treasurer or the district treasurers, shall be kept, except as hereinafter provided. (c) To order monthly payments of all salaries which by law shall be paid from the provincial treasury and the payment of all lawfull contracted indebtedness by directing the issue of warrants upon the provincial treasurer. Every warrant shall be drawn by the governor and countersigned by the secretary, and shall recite the cause and purpose of drawing the same, the date of the resolution of the legislative council authorizing it, and the page of the minutes of the council's proceedings in which it is recorded. (d) To provide for the appointment and employment of the necessary subordinate employees under the various provincial and District officers and to fix their salaries, and to adopt rules regulating the hours and employment in the various offices in the province and districts. (e) To provide a seal for the province. (f) To provide by law, in its discretion, for the raising of revenue additional to that herein provided, by the imposition of taxes on property, persons, or businesses, by the imposition of excise taxes or stamp taxes, or by any other form of taxation which shall not infringe the restrictions of the Act of Congress entitled "An Act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil-government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," and to specify in such laws the beneficiary or beneficiaries of such taxes, whether the provincial government, the district governments, or the municipal governments, and where there is more than one beneficiary the proportion in which such governments shall enjoy the proceeds of the tax, and to provide in such laws the procedure for the collection of the tax, including proceedings for the satisfaction of the tax and penalties out of the goods or property of the delinquent, and if it is deemed wise, by imprisonment. Until the legislative; council shall make other provision, the land tax, the internal-revenue taxes, and the cedula taxes as now enforced in the municipalities organized under the Municipal Code within the Moro Province shall continue in force, and it shall be the duty of the provincial treasurer and the district treasurers to see to their collection, arid the proceeds of such taxes shall be distributed between the municipalities and the provincial treasury in the same proportions in which they are distributed under the Municipal Code and the Provincial Government Act with their amendments. The legislative council shall exercise no legislative power to amend either the Customs Administrative Act or the act for the collection of fees for the cutting of wood or the collection of forest products in the public forests of the province, except as provided in paragraph (m) hereof. (g) To enact laws, in its discretion, for the organization and support of a public-school system, providing therein, if it is deemed wise, for special industrial schools for non-Christians, for the construction and control of school buildings, and for general rules for the instruction of Moros and other non-Christians, and for the levy of a special local school tax for the support of particular schools in particular localities suited to the local conditions. The legislative council shall not be required to pass a uniform school law regulating the primary schools of the entire province, but shall have power to make special provision to meet special requirements in the matter of public education for any particular dictrict or locality. (h) To enact laws for the creation of local governments among the Moros and other non-Christian tribes, conforming as nearly as possible to the lawful customs of such peoples, and vesting in their local or tribe rulers as nearly as possible the same authority over their people as they now exercise, consistent with the Act of Congress entitled "An Act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands and for other purposes," and following as nearly as possible in the provisions of these laws any agreements heretofore made by the United States authorities with such local or tribe rules concerning the power and privileges which under American sovereignty they are by such agreements to enjoy: Provided, That they have not by their conduct and the broach of the agreements forfeited such powers and privileges. (i) To enact laws investing the district governors in their respective districts, or other provincial or district officers, with the power of adjusting, under the supervision of the provincial governor, all differences between sultans, dattos, and any independent local authorities, and of enforcing their decisions upon such differences. (j) To enact laws which shall collect and codify the customary laws of the Moros as they now obtain and are enforced in the various parts of the Moro Province among the Moros, modifying such laws as the legislative council think best and amending them as they may be inconsistent with the provisions of the Act of Congress entitled "An Act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," and to provide for the printing of such codification, when completed, in English, Arabic, or the local Moro dialects as may be deemed wise. The Moro customary laws thus amended and codified shall apply in all civil and criminal actions arising between Moros. In all civil and criminal actions arising between members of the same non-Christian tribe other than Moros, unless otherwise provided by the legislative council, the customary laws of such non-Christian tribe, if consistent with the Act of Congress above mentioned and if defined and well understood, shall govern the decision of the cause arising, but if there be no well-defined customary laws or they are in conflict with such Act of Congress then the cases shall be determined by the criminal or civil code according to the laws of the Philippine Islands until the legislative council shall make other provision. In actions, civil or criminal, arising between a Moro and a member of a non-Christian tribe, or between a Moro and a Christian Filipino, or an American or a subject or citizen of a foreign country, the Criminal Code and the substantive civil law of the Philippine Islands shall apply and be enforced. (k) To enact laws for the organization and procedure of district courts, to consider and decide civil and criminal actions arising between Moros, between members of non-Christian tribes, and between Moros and members of other non-Christian tribes. The district court shall be presided over by the secretary of the district, and the other members of the court shall be appointed by the district governor and shall vary with the race or tribe of the litigants, so that where the action arises between Moros, there shall be at least two and not more than four Moros upon the court; when it arises between members of other non-Christian tribes there may be, if practicable, upon the court members from such non-Christian tribes, and when the litigation arises between Moros and members of other non-Christian tribes there shall be at least one Moro member of the court and at least one member from the tribe of the pagan litigant: Provided, however, That judgments of said courts shall not be given effect unless approved by the governor of the district in which the court is held: And provided further, That in case of sentence of death or imprisonment for a longer period of time than ten years, such sentence shall not be executed unless approved by the provincial governor. But the legislative council may, when it thinks proper, provide by law that civil and criminal actions arising between a Moro and a member of another non-Christian tribe shall be tried in the Court of First Instance or in the court of a convenient justice of the peace, according to the nature of the action and the proper and usual jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance or the justice of the peace. The legislative council shall prescribe a simple procedure for the district courts and require a written record of its proceedings. (l) To enact laws for the abolition of slavery and the suppression of all slave hunting and slave trade. (m) To regulate by statute the use, registration, and licensing of boats of Moro or pagan construction of less than ten tons measurement which shall be followed by collectors of customs in the Moro Province, the provisions of the Customs Administrative Act and regulations of the Insular Collector of Customs to the contrary notwithstanding.