Section 1. The third paragraph of section six hundred and sixteen of the Administrative Code is hereby amended to read as follows:
"In the city of Manila, all warrants shall be drawn by the Mayor, or by the officer or employee of the city whom he may designate for this duty, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior."
Section 2. Section eight hundred and eighty-eight of the same Act is also amended, to read as follows:
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Section 888.
Mode of making application and acting upon the same. -An application for a personal license to possess firearms and ammunition, as herein provided, made by a resident of the city of Manila, shall be directed to the Mayor of said city, whose duty it shall be to forward the application to the Governor-General, with his recommendation. Applications made by residents of a province shall be directed to the governor of the same, who shall make his recommendation thereon and forward them to the Governor-General, who may approve or disapprove any such application.
"The Governor-General, upon receiving and approving the bond or receiving the certificate of deposit duly indorsed to the order of the Insular Treasurer, shall issue the license and transmit the license direct to the applicant, and shall notify the chief of police of the city of Manila if the applicant resides in Manila, otherwise the senior inspector of Constabulary of the province in which the applicant resides. The Chief of Constabulary shall file the certificate of deposit in his office. It shall be the duty of all officers through whom applications for licenses to possess firearms are transmitted to expedite the same."
Section 3. Section twenty-four hundred and thirty of the same Act is also amended to read as follows:
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Section 2430.
City not liable for damages. -The city shall not be liable or held for damages or injuries to persons or property arising from the failure of the Mayor, the Municipal Board, or any other city officer, to enforce the provisions of this chapter, or any other law or ordinance, or from negligence of said Mayor, Municipal Board, or other officers while enforcing or attempting to enforce said provisions."
Section 4. Section twenty-four hundred and thirty-four of the same Act is also amended so that its provisions shall be modified, divided into three sections, and designated, respectively, as follows:
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Section 2434.
The Mayor; his appointment and compensation. -The Mayor shall be the chief executive of the city, and as such, shall have immediate control over the executive functions of the different departments, subject to the authority and supervision of the Secretary of the Interior.
"The Mayor shall be appointed by the Governor-General with the consent of the Senate, shall hold office for three years unless sooner removed, and shall receive a salary of ten thousand pesos a year.
"With the approval of the Secretary of the Interior first had, the Municipal Board may, in its discretion, provide quarters for the Mayor or commute the same, in addition to his salary.
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Section 5. Section twenty-four hundred and thirty-six of the same Act is also amended, to read as follows:
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Section 2436.
Execution of authorized public works and improvements. - Unless the Secretary of the Interior shall otherwise direct, all public works of construction, repair, and improvement of the city shall be carried on by administration, under the direction of the Mayor. For justified reasons, the Mayor, with the advice and consent of the Municipal Board, may also have said work done totally or partially by contract, upon advertising for bids therefor. In this event the Mayor shall advertise for sealed bids or proposals for the same in two daily newspapers published in Manila, one printed in English and the other in Spanish, for a period of one week, the first insertion to be not less than ten days before the day fixed for opening such proposals. A plan or profile of the work to be done, accompanied by specifications for the performance of the same, shall, before advertisement, be placed in file in the office of the Mayor, or the department of the city government having charge of the work, which plan, profile, and specifications shall, at all proper times, be open for public inspection. All bids shall be opened in the presence of the Mayor at the advertised time and place. Each bid shall be accompanied by a deposit, the amount and character of which shall be fixed by the Mayor and named in the advertisement, and which shall not exceed ten per centum of the estimated cost of the improvement or work to be done where the estimated cost exceeds two thousand pesos, nor be less than two hundred pesos in any case. Such deposit shall be forfeited to the city if the bidder shall neglect or refuse to enter into a contract, with approved sureties, to execute the work for the price mentioned in his bid and according to the plans and specifications, in case the contract shall be awarded to him. The Mayor may reject any or all bids received. Should all bids be rejected, or should it become necessary for any reason to call for new bids, subsequent advertisements shall be for a period of five days before the proposals are opened, and in the manner above prescribed. Bonds, to be approved by the Mayor, shall be taken for the faithful performance of all contracts. Contracts shall be executed in triplicate by the Mayor and by the contractor, and one original shall be filed in the office of the Mayor, one in the office of the Insular Auditor, and the third shall be given to the contractor."
Section 6. Section twenty-four hundred and thirty-nine of the same Act is also amended by striking out the words "four years or until their successors are elected and qualified," in the first paragraph of the section, and inserting in lieu thereof "three years," and by substituting for the second paragraph of said section the following:
"The president of the Board shall receive a per diem of forty pesos and the other members shall receive a per diem of twenty-five pesos for each day of attendance on a session of the Board."
Section 7. Section twenty-four hundred and forty-one of the same Act is also amended by substituting in lieu of the words "one thousand eight hundred" appearing in said section, the words "two thousand four hundred."
Section 8. Section twenty-four hundred and forty-four of the same Act is also amended to read as follows:
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Section 2444.
General powers and duties of the Board. - Except as otherwise provided by law, and subject to the conditions and limitations thereof, the Municipal Board shall have the following legislative powers:
"(a) To provide for the levy and collection of taxes for -general and special purposes in accordance with law.
"(b) To fix the tariff of fees and charges for all services -rendered by the city or any of its departments, branches, or officials.
"(c) To provide for the erection and maintenance or the rental, in case of need, of the necessary buildings for the use of the city.
"(d) To provide for the establishment and maintenance-of free public schools for primary instruction and to provide school-houses therefor, subject to the limitations of chapter thirty-six hereof.
"(e) To establish intermediate, secondary, and professional schools; and with the approval of the Director of Education, to fix reasonable tuition fees for instruction therein.
"(f) To provide for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient police force for the maintenance of law and ' order in the city, and make all necessary police ordinances, with a view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants, and prostitutes, and persons convicted of violating any of the ordinances of the city.
"(g) To maintain the municipal courts established by law, which shall have jurisdiction of all criminal cases under the ordinances of the city, and such further jurisdiction as may be herein or hereafter conferred.
"(h) To establish fire limits, determine the kinds of' buildings or structures that may be erected within said limits, regulate the manner of constructing and repairing the same, and fix the fees for permits for the construction, repair, or demolition of buildings and structures.
"(i) To establish and maintain engine houses, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to regulate the management and use of the same.
"(j) To regulate the use of lights in stables, shops, and other buildings and places, and to regulate and restrict the issuance of permits for the building of bonfires and the use of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, candles, skyrockets, and other pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits.
"(k) To make regulations to protect the public from conflagrations and to prevent and mitigate the effects of famine, floods, storms, and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons suffering from the same.
"(I) To regulate and fix the amount of the license fees for the following: Hawkers, peddlers, hucksters, not including hucksters or peddlers who sell only native vegetables, fruits, or foods, personally carried by the hucksters or peddlers; auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, embalmers, collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, shipping and intelligence offices, private detective agencies, advertising agencies, massagists, tattooers, jugglers, acrobats, hotels, clubs, restaurants, cafes, lodging houses, boarding houses, livery garages, livery stables, boarding stables, dealers in large cattle, public billiard tables, laundries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, public warehouses, dance halls, cabarets, circus and other similar parades, public vehicles, race tracks, horse races, bowling alleys, shooting galleries, slot machines, merry-go-rounds, pawnshops, dealers in second-hand merchandise, junk dealers, brewers, distillers, rectifiers, money changers and brokers, public ferries, theaters, theatrical performances, cinematographs, public exhibitions, circuses, and all other performances and places of amusement, and the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, poultry, fish, game, butter, cheese, lard, vegetables, bread, and other provisions.
"(m) To tax, fix the license fee for, regulate the business, and fix the location of match factories, blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, ship yards, the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerin, petroleum, or any of the products thereof, and of all other highly combustible or explosive materials, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety or give rise to conflagrations or explosions, and, subject to the provisions of ordinances issued by the Philippine Health Service in accordance with law, tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, and soap factories.
"(n) To tax motor and other vehicles and draft animals not paying the public vehicles license fee or any other Insular tax.
"(o) To regulate the method of using steam engines and boilers, other than marine or belonging to the Federal or Insular Governments; to provide for the inspection thereof, and for a reasonable fee for such inspection, and to regulate and fix the fees for the licenses of the engineers engaged in operating the same.
"(p) To provde for the prohibition and suppression of riots, affrays, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies; houses of ill fame and other disorderly houses; gaming houses, gambling, and all fraudulent devices for the purpose of obtaining money or property; prostitution, vagrancy, intoxication, fighting, quarrelling, and all disorderly conduct; the printing, circulation, exhibition, or sale of obscene pictures, books, or publications, and for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals.
"(q) To prohibit, or regulate and fix the license fees for, the keeping of dogs, and to authorize their impounding and destruction when running at large contrary to ordinances, and to tax and regulate the keeping or training of fighting cocks.
"(r) To establish and maintain municipal pounds; to regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic animals, and provide for the distraining, impounding, and sale of the same for the penalty incurred, and the cost of the proceedings; and to impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of any ordinance in relation thereto.
"(s) To prohibit and provide for the punishment of cruelty to animals.
"(t) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, coal, and other articles of merchandise.
"(u) Subject to the provisions of sections nineteen hundred and four and nineteen hundred and five of this Code, to provide for the laying out, construction, and improvement, and to regulate the use, of streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, wharves, piers, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to regulate, fix license fees for, and prohibit the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awnings, awning posts, the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or hand bills, or the flying of signs, flags, or banners, whether along, across, over, or from buildngs along the same; to prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, offal, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter or matter liable to cause damage, in the streets and other public places, and to provide for the collection and dispostion thereof; to provide for the inspection of, fix the license fees for, and regulate the openings in the same for the laying of gas, water, sewer, and other pipes, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drains, and all structures in and under the same, and the erecting of poles and the stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate cross-walks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name streets without a name and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon or in the interior of the blocks; to regulate traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places; to provide for the abatement of nuisances in the same and punish the authors or owners thereof; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use, of bridges, viaducts, and culverts; to prohibit and regulate ball playing, kite flying, hoop rolling, and other amusements which may annoy persons using the streets and public places, or frighten horses or other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and other animals, motor and other vehicles, cars, and locomotives within the limits of the city; to regulate the lights used on all such vehicles, cars, and locomotives; to regulate the locating, constructing and laying of the track of horse, electric, and other forms of railroad in the streets or other public places of the city authorized by law; to provide for and change the location, grade, and crossings of railroads, and to compel any such railroad to raise or lower its tracks to conform to such provisions or changes; and to require railroad companies to fence their property, or any part thereof, to provide suitable protection against injury to persons or property, and to construct and repair ditches, drains, sewers, and culverts along and under their tracks, so that the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed.
"(v) To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate, the navigation on canals and water courses within the city and provide for the cleansing and purification of the same; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate, the use of public landing places, wharves, piers, docks, and levees, and of those of private ownership; and to provide for or regulate the drainage and filling of private premises when necessary in the enforcement of sanitary ordinances issued in accordance with law.
"(w) To fix the charges to be paid by all water craft landing at or using public wharves, dock, levees, or landing places: Provided, That the provisions of this subsection small not apply to the public wharves, docks, levees, or landing places constructed within the breakwater, on the banks of the canal connecting the Pasig river with the inner basin, and on both sides of said river below the Jones Bridge.
"(x) To provide for the maintenance of waterworks for the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, and for the purification of the source of supply and the places through which the same passes, and to regulate the consumption and use of the water; to fix and provide for the collection of rents therefor; and to regulate the construction, repair, and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns, and reservoirs.
"(y) To provide for the establishment and maintenance, and regulate the use, of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools.
"(z) Subject to the provisions of ordinances issued by the Philippine Health Service in accordance with law, to provide for the establishment and maintenance and fix the fees for the use of, and regulate public stables, laundries, and baths, and public markets and slaughterhouses, and prohibit the establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets and slaughterhouses by any person, entity, association, or corporation other than the city.
"(aa) To regulate, inspect, and provide measures preventing any discrimination or the exclusion of any race or races in or from any institution, establishment, or service open to the public within the city limits, or in the sale and supply of gas or electricity, or in the telephone and street-railway service; to fix and regulate charges therefor where the same have not been fixed by Act of Congress or of the Philippine Legislature; to regulate and provide for the inspection of all gas, electric, telephone, and street-railway conduits, mains, meters, and other apparatus, and provide for the condemnation, substitution or removal of the same when defective or dangerous.
"(bb) To declare, prevent, and provide for the abatement of nuisances; to regulate the ringing of bells and the making of loud or unusual noises; to provide that owners, agents or tenants of buildings or premises keep and maintain the same in sanitary condition, and that in case of failure to do so, after sixty days from the date of serving a written notice, the cost thereof be assessed to the owner to the extent of not to exceed sixty per centum of the assessed value, which cost shall constitute a lien against the property, and to regulate or prohibit the use of property on or near public ways, grounds, or places, or elsewhere within the city, for a display of electric signs or the erection or maintenance of billboards or structures of whatever material, erected, maintained, or used for the display of posters, signs, or other pictorial or reading matter, except signs displayed at the place or places where the profession or business advertised thereby is in whole or part conducted.
"(cc) To provide for the enforcement of the regulations of the Philippine Health Service, and by ordinance to prescribe penalties for violations of such regulations. ℒαwρhi৷
"(dd) To extend its ordinances over all waters within the city, over the Bay of Manila three miles beyond the city limits, and over any boat or other floating structures thereon; and for the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity of the water supply of the city, over all territory within the drainage area of such water supply, and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct, or pumping station used in connection with the city water service.
"(ee) To enact all ordinances it may deem necessary and proper for the sanitation and safety, the furtherance' of the prosperity, and the promotion of the morality, peace, good order, comfort, convenience, and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, and such others as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this chapter; and to fix penalties for the violation of ordinances which shall not exceed a two hundred peso fine or six months' imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, for a single offense."
Section 9. Section twenty-four hundred and fifty-eight of the same Act is also amended by adding, at the end thereof, the following:
"With the previous approval of the Mayor in each case, he may order the removal of buildings and structures erected in violation of the ordinances, or the removal of the materials employed in the construction or repair of any building or structure made in violation of said ordinances."
Section 10. Article XII of chapter sixty of the same Act is also amended, to read as follows:
"ARTICLE XII.-Special assessments for public improvements.
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Section 2507.
Power to levy special assessments for certain purposes. -The Municipal Board may, by ordinance duly approved, provide for the levying and collection, by special assessments of the real estate comprised within the district or section of the city especially benefited, of a part not to exceed sixty per centum of the cost of laying out, opening, constructing, straightening, widening, extending, grading, paving, curbing, walling, deepening, or otherwise establishing, repairing, enlarging, or improving public avenues, roads, streets, alleys, sidewalks, parks, plazas, bridges, landing places, wharves, piers, docks, levees, reservoirs, waterworks, water mains, water courses, esteros, canals, drains, and sewers, including the cost of acquiring the necessary land. Within the meaning of this article, all real estate comprised within the district benefited, except lands or buildings owned by the United States of America, the Government of the Philippine Islands, or the city of Manila, shall be subject to the payment of the special assessment, based upon the valuation of such real estate as shown by the books of the city assessor and collector, or its present value as fixed by said officer in the first instance if the property does not appear of record in his books according to the valuation whereof the special tax has to be made, computed, and assessed.
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Section 2508.
Contents of a special assessment ordinance. - The ordinance providing for the levying and collection of a special assessment shall describe in terms of reasonable accuracy the nature, extent, and location of the proposed improvement; the probable cost of the improvement; the rate per centum of the cost to be defrayed by special assessment; the district which shall be subject to the payment of the said rate per centum of the proposed improvement, delimiting the same by metes and bounds, and the number of annual installments, which shall not be less than five, in which such special assessment shall be paid without any interest. The Municipal Board shall not be required to fix one uniform rate per centum for all the taxable real estate in the entire district, but may fix different rates for real estate in different parts or sections of the same, according as said property will derive greater or less benefit from the contemplated improvement.
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Section 2509.
Publication of the proposed special assessment' ordinance, and public hearing on the same. -The proposed special assessment ordinance shall be published for the period of one week in two daily newspapers published in the city, one in the English and one in the Spanish language, before its adoption by the Board. The secretary of the Municipal Board shall, upon request, furnish a copy of the proposed ordinance free of charge to each owner affected or his agent, and shall in so far as possible send each of them a copy of said proposed ordinance, by ordinary mail or otherwise. At the request of any owner, made within three days from the last publication of the proposed ordinance, or at its own motion, the Board or the committee thereof in charge of the project shall hold a public hearing on the same and hear all pertinent arguments and evidence offered by the persons interested or their attorneys, and such arguments and evidence shall be attached to the record of the project.
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Section 2510.
Transmitted of the ordinance and papers in connection therewith to the Mayor. -The special assessment ordinance shall be sent to the Mayor for approval as in other cases, but upon forwarding the proposed ordinance passed by the Board, all papers pertaining to the same shall also be transmitted to the Mayor, and the time for the approval or vetoing thereof shall run only from the date of the receipt of the last paper lacking. The Mayor may consider the protest of the persons claiming to be affected if signed by a majority of said persons representing more than one-half of the total assessed value of the property which, according to the proposed ordinance, would be subject to the special assessment, and before approving or vetoing said ordinance, he may propose to the Municipal Board such amendment or amendments to the same as he may see fit.
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Section 2511.
Assessment of the special tax against the real estate affected. -Upon the approval of the special assessment ordinance, the city assessor and collector shall forthwith proceed to determine the special tax payable by each realty each year during the period fixed in the ordinance, upon the basis of the estimated cost of the work and the total and parcel value of the real estate comprised within the district especially benefited, and shall notify each owner by ordinary mail of the special tax assessed against each property owned by him in the district benefited; but if upon the completion of the improvement, it should appear that the cost has been less or more, the city engineer shall forthwith certify this fact to the assessor and collector, who shall thereupon proceed to rectify the assessment, reducing or increasing, as the case may be, the special tax upon each property affected for the unpaid remainder of the annual installments, or, if all are paid, fixing the amount to be credited to or the special additional tax to be collected from the realty, as the case may be, and shall notify the persons interested of such rectifications.
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Section 2512.
Appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals. -Any owner considering himself aggrieved by any decision of the city assessor and collector, may appeal from the same to the Board of Tax Appeals within the same time and in the same manner as prescribed by law for cases of assessment and valuation of real estate for the ordinary tax.
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Section 2513.
Payment of the special assessments. -All sums and amounts due from any owner or owners as a' result of any action taken by virtue of the authority conferred in this article shall be due and payable to the city assessor and collector in the same manner as the annual tax levied on real estate under the provisions of the last preceding article hereof, and shall be subject to the same penalties for delinquency, and enforceable by the same remedies, as such annual tax; and all such sums and amounts, together with any such penalties incurred, shall from the date on which they were assessed constitute liens on the property against which the same were assessed and shall take precedence over any and all other liens which may exist upon such property excepting only such as may have attached as a result of the nonpayment of said annual tax."
Section 11. All claims respecting the levying of taxes by special assessments by reason of any improvement filed prior to the date on which this Act takes effect shall continue to be disposed of in conformity with the provisions of sections twenty-five hundred and eleven and twenty-five hundred and twelve of the Administrative Code, as if the same had not been amended by this Act.
Section 12. Sections twenty-four hundred and thirty-seven and twenty-four hundred and thirty-eight of the said Act and all Acts or parts of Acts and all ordinances or regulations or any parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed.
Section 13. This Act shall take effect on its approval.
Approved, March 9, 1918.