April 5, 1904

ACT NO. 1108

AN ACT AMENDING SEVERAL SECTIONS OF

Section six of cCAIDS

"Any judge at large of the Court of First Instance, appointed by virtue of Act Numbered Three hundred and ninety-six, may likewise be required to perform the duties of judge of the Court of

Section twelve of said Act is hereby amended by striking out the word "fifteen" in the third line thereof and by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"In case no examiner of titles has been appointed for a judicial district, or in other cases where such action is deemed advisable, the Secretary of Finance and Justice may issue an order that the register of deeds or the provincial fiscal of any province shall perform the duties of examiner of titles within his province, either permanently or until a regular examiner of titles shall be appointed for the judicial district within which the province lies; such order may be revoked at any time by the Secretary of Finance and Justice. In case such order is issued, the register of deeds or the provincial fiscal, as the case may be, shall be entitled, in addition to his regular salary as register of deeds or as fiscal, to receive from the clerk of the court one-half the fee of five dollars provided by law for an examination of title, and the remainder of the fee and the percentage on the value of the land shall be paid into the Insular Treasury, notwithstanding the provisions of section thirteen of this Act or any other provisions of existing law."

The first sentence of section thirteen of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows: cCTESa

"The salary of the judge of the Court of

Section fourteen of said Act is hereby repealed and a new section fourteen is hereby inserted, to read as follows:

"Sec. 14. Every order, decision, and decree of the Court of Provided, however, That no certificates of title shall be issued by the Court of And provided further, That the Court of And provided also, That the certificates of judgment to be issued by the Supreme Court, in cases passing to it from the Court of And provided also, That in the bill of exceptions to be printed no testimony or exhibits shall be printed except such limited portions thereof as are necessary to enable the Supreme Court to understand the points of law reserved. The original testimony and exhibits shall be transmitted to the Supreme Court.

"(a) Where the associate judges, or the judge and an associate judge, sitting together in any proceeding in the Court of

Section seventeen of said Act is hereby amended by inserting in the fourth line, after the words "in the Courts of First Instance" and before the words "and, upon the request of the judge of the Court of STEacI

Section nineteen of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end of the fourth paragraph thereof the following:

"The Government of the United States, or of the Philippine Islands, or of any province or municipality therein, may make application through any agency by it respectively and duly authorized. Foreign corporations may apply for and secure registration of title to lands in the name of the corporation, subject only to the limitations applied or to be applied to domestic corporations. Article eighteen of the royal decree of February thirteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, concerning the adjustment and sale of public lands in the Philippine Islands, and article seventy-seven of the regulations for the execution of the same, together with any other provision or provisions of existing law limiting or prohibiting the holding of land in the Philippine Islands by aliens or by foreign associations, companies, or commercial bodies, are hereby repealed."

Section nineteen of said Act is further amended by adding after subsection (d) the following paragraph:

"(e) Instruments known as pacto de retro, made under sections fifteen hundred and seven and fifteen hundred and twenty of the Spanish Civil Code in force in these Islands, may be registered under this Act, and application for registration thereof may be made by the owner who executed the pacto de retro sale under the same conditions and in the same manner as mortgagors are authorized to make application for registration."

Section twenty-four of said Act is hereby amended by changing the first sentence thereof to read as follows:

"Sec. 24. The application may include two or more contiguous parcels of land, or two or more parcels constituting one holding under one and the same title, if within the same province or city, and likewise two or more parcels constituting one holding and within the same province or city, though not under one and the same title, nor contiguous, in cases where neither of the several parcels of land included in the one application exceeds one hundred dollars in value."

Section thirty-six of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The surveying required by the provisions of this section, or by any rules and directions of the Court of

Section one hundred and fourteen of said Act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

"The fee thus collected shall be apportioned as follows: After payment by the clerk of cost of publication where the property is situated in the city of Manila, and of sheriff's fees where situated outside of the city of Manila, and also the examiner's fee where the examination has been made by a fiscal or register under section one of this Act, the remainder shall be deposited by the clerk of the court, one-half to the credit of the Insular Government and one-half to the credit of the city of Manila or of the province where the land lies, as the case may be, the amount in the latter case to be remitted to the treasurer of the particular province interested. The clerk in each such instance shall furnish a certificate to the register of deeds and sheriff of the city of Manila, or to the register of deeds of a province, as the case may be, setting forth the special character of the applicant, which certificate shall be authority for a waiver of his usual fees by the sheriff of the city of Manila and for the free entry of the original certificate of title and the issuance of one duplicate thereof by the registers of deeds."

The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 11. This Act shall take effect on its passage. DcaCSE

Enacted: April 5, 1904