Section 3
SEC. 3. The following provisions of Section 8, Article IV of Republic Act 917, as amended, are further amended to read as follows: "SEC. 8. National Aid — Highway Maintenance Fund. — The apportionment for national aid for maintenance of local roads shall be determined as follows: "(a) Provinces shall receive fifty per centum (50%) of the current basic cost of maintenance per equivalent maintenance kilometer of national road, referred to in subsection (1) of the preceding section, for each kilometer of the actual physical length of provincial road whose existence is recommended by the provincial governor and accepted by the Commissioner of Public Highways, "(b) National aid for city roads shall be thirty-three and one-third per centum (33-1/3%) of the current basic maintenance cost per equivalent maintenance kilometer of national road, for each kilometer of city road and street established by the city council and approved by the Commissioner. "(c) National aid for municipalities shall be thirty per centum (30%) of the current basic maintenance cost per equivalent maintenance kilometer of national road, for each kilometer of municipal road whose existence is established by the municipal council and approved by the Commissioner of Public Highways or his designated representative. "(d) In order to qualify for national aid for said maintenance, provinces, cities and municipalities shall be required to submit an annual maintenance program, two months prior to the start of each new financial year, for the entire network of roads under their jurisdiction for approval by the Commissioner of Public Highways. Provinces, cities and municipalities shall also be required, on quarterly basis, to provide certification by the provincial, city or municipal treasurer, respectively, that counterpart road and bridge funds have been appropriated by the municipality, city or province. Certifications made by municipal treasurers shall be attested to by their respective provincial treasurers. The counterpart road and bridge funds to be appropriated by provinces shall be equal to one-half (1/2) of the amount of national aid; the counterpart road and bridge funds to be appropriated by cities shall be twice the amount received as national aid, and the counterpart road and bridge funds to be appropriated by municipalities shall be two-thirds (2/3) of the amount received as national aid. "(e) Notwithstanding these provisions to the contrary, provinces, cities and municipalities whose road and bridge funds are insufficient as certified by the provincial, city or municipal treasurer concerned, to provide the road maintenance counterpart, if all the legally required local road and bridge funds of the municipality, city or province were applied to road maintenance to the extent required to complete their approved maintenance program may, upon certification of the Secretary of Finance, be granted assistance from national funds by the President, subject to an absolute limit on financial assistance and national aid of three-halves, or one-and-one-half (1 ½), the national aid share for provinces three times the national aid share for cities, and five-thirds (5/3) the national aid share for municipalities, as de scribed above in subparagraphs (a) and (b). "(g) If the sum total of national aid and counterpart funds provided to any local government under the provisions of this Section exceeds the approved maintenance program, the program may be expanded to include rehabilitate betterment and improvement works on roads within the jurisdiction of said local government, as approved by the Commissioner of Public High his designated representative."