Section 13
SEC. 13. It shall be the duty of the provincial board: (a) To fix the rate per centum of ad valorem taxation to be imposed upon the real estate for the province for provincial purposes within the limits hereinafter prescribed. (b) To provide by construction or purchase or renting suitable offices for the provincial officers, and a court house containing a room or rooms suitable for the holding of court and for offices for the court officers and a provincial jail in the municipality fixed by law as the capital of the province. (c) To furnish a suitable vault or safe to the provincial treasurer in which he shall keep the provincial and other public funds as long as they are in his custody, except as hereinafter provided. (d) To order, in its discretion, the construction, repair, or maintenance of roads, bridges, and ferries within the portions of the province fixed under section ten of this Act as within its control on the recommendation of the provincial supervisor, and to approve or reject contracts for such construction and repair, and the construction and repair of provincial buildings let by the provincial supervisor. (e) To agree upon the recommendation of the provincial supervisor with the provincial board of an adjoining province on the terms within the limitations of law, upon which roads forming the boundary between the two provinces, and bridges and ferries crossing streams forming such boundary shall be constructed, repaired, maintained under the joint control of the two provincial governments. (f) To direct, in its discretion, the bringing or defense of suits on behalf of the provincial government and to compromise the same upon the recommendation of the provincial fiscal and the approval of the judge of First Instance for the province. (g) To order the monthly payment of all salaries provided by law and the payment of all lawfully 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 board authorizing it, and the page of the minutes of the board's proceedings in which it is recorded. Should the provincial treasurer deem any warrant drawn to be for an unlawful or unwarranted purpose, he may suspend payment of the warrant and refer the question to the Treasurer of the Islands, whose decision shall be mandatory upon him. (h) To authorize the provincial treasurer to deposit so much of the provincial funds as may not be needed in the near future for public use in a bank of deposit of approved standing in the Islands. All interest paid on such deposit shall inure to the benefit of the provincial treasury and no funds shall be deposited in the bank by the treasurer until there shall be spread upon the minutes of the board a resolution reciting and approving the exact terms of the contract of deposit in the bank. The bank shall certify the weekly balances of provincial funds held by it to the provincial governor and to the Treasurer of the Islands. (i) To levy upon the real estate of the province for provincial purposes, an annual tax of not exceeding three-eighths of one per cent upon the value of the same as assessed in accordance with the Municipal Code. Of the three-eighths of one per cent thus permitted to be levied, one-eighth of one per cent shall be levied in any event only for the construction and repair of roads and bridges in the province, and even if the board fails to levy the same, the treasurer is required to collect it, and, when collected, it shall be used only for the purpose for which it is levied: The remaining two-eighths of one per cent, or any part thereof, may be levied in the discretion of the board and applied to any purpose authorized by this Act. (j) To hold regular weekly meetings upon a day to be fixed by the board, and special meetings upon the call of the governor. The meetings of the board shall be open to the public. (k) To provide for the appointment of other subordinate employees under the various provincial officers and to fix their salaries, but such order of the board shall not have effect until notice thereof shall have been given to the Treasurer of the Islands and it shall receive his approval. (l) To adopt rules regulating the hours of employment of the subordinates in the various provincial offices. (m) To provide a seal for the province.