Section 72
SEC. 72. Upon receipt of the application, and provided that the requirements of this Act have been substantially complied with, the Director of the Bureau of Mines shall publish a notice that such application has been made, once a week for a period of three consecutive weeks, in the Official Gazette and in two newspapers, one published in Manila either in English or Spanish, and the other published in the municipality or province in which the mining claim is located, if there is such newspaper, otherwise, in the newspaper published in the nearest municipality or province. The first publication of such notice shall be made within thirty days after the filing of the application for lease, if such application is accompanied by an official plan and technical description of the claim or claims covered by the application, and thirty days after the filing of the official plan and technical description of the claim or claims covered by the application, if such application was filed in advance of the filing of such plan and technical description. The Director of the Bureau of Mines shall also cause to be posted on the bulletin board of the Bureau of Mines the same notice for the same period. The applicant shall post for the same period a copy of the plat of the claim or claims applied for, together with a notice of such application for lease, in a conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat, on the bulletin board, if any, of the municipal building of the municipality, and also in the office of the mining recorder or district mining officer of the province or district in which the claim or claims are located and shall file with the Director of the Bureau of Mines the affidavit of at least two persons stating that such notice has been duly posted in the places above specified. At the expiration of the period of publication the applicant shall file with the Director of the Bureau of Mines an affidavit showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicuous place on the claim or claims concerned and in the places above specified during such period of publication, and thereupon, if no adverse claim shall have been presented to the Director of the Bureau of Mines, it shall be conclusively presumed that no adverse claim exists and thereafter no objection from third parties to the granting of the lease shall be heard; and the lease shall within forty-five days be granted to the applicant, or to his successor or assigns, by the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, provided that all amounts then due to the Government of the Philippines, or any of its branches or subdivisions, under the provisions of this Act, shall have been paid. Section73. At any time during the period of publication, any adverse claim may be filed under oath with the Director of the Bureau of Mines, and shall state in full detail the nature, boundaries, and extent of the adverse claim, and shall be accompanied by all plans, documents, and agreements upon which such adverse claim is based. Upon the filing of any adverse claim all proceedings except the publication of notice of application for lease and the making and filing of the affidavits in connection therewith, as herein prescribed, shall be stayed until the controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of competent jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the duty of the adverse claimant, within forty-five days after filing his claim, to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to determine the controversy and to prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment, and a failure to do so shall be considered as a waiver of his adverse claim. After such judgment shall been rendered, the party whose right to a lease on the mining claim in controversy, or any portion thereof, shall have been established thereby, may, without giving further notice, file a certified copy of the judgment with the Director of the Bureau of Mines, and the description required in such cases, together with the proper fees, whereupon a lease may forthwith be granted thereon on such mining claim or on such portion thereof as the applicant may be entitled to under the decision of the court. If the decision of the court is that several parties are entitled to leases upon separate and different portions of the mining claim, the subject matter of the application, and such parties have theretofore applied therefor, leases may forthwith be issued to the said several parties according to their respective rights as determined by the decision. If in any action brought pursuant to this section a right to a lease upon any of the claim in controversy shall not be established by any of the parties, the courts shall so find and judgment shall be entered accordingly. In such case the clerk of the court rendering judgment shall file a certified copy of the judgment with the Director of the Bureau of Mines, whereupon the proceedings under the lease application shall be dismissed and the application denied.