Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Sections forty-five and forty-seven of Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred forty-one, otherwise known as the Public Land Act, as amended by Republic Act Numbered One hundred seven, are further amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 45. The President, upon recommendation by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, shall from time to time fix by proclamation the period within which applications for free patents may be filed in the district, chartered city, province, municipality, or region specified in such proclamation, and upon the expiration of the period so designated, unless the same be extended by the President, all the land comprised within such district, chartered city, province, municipality, or region subject thereto under the provisions of this chapter may be disposed of as agricultural public land without prejudice to the prior right of the occupant and cultivator to acquire such land under this Act by means other than free patent. The time to be fixed in the entire Archipelago for the filing of applications under this chapter shall not extend beyond December thirty-one, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, except in the provinces of Agusan, Cotabato, Bukidnon, Lanao, Davao, Sulu, and Mountain Province, where the President of the Philippines shall determine or fix the time beyond which the filing of applications under this chapter shall not extend. The period fixed for any district, chartered city, province, or municipality shall begin to run thirty days after the publication of the proclamation in the Official Gazette. A certified copy of said proclamation shall be furnished to the Director of Lands and to the provincial board and the municipal board or city council affected, and copies thereof shall be posted on the bulletin board of the Bureau of Lands at Manila and at conspicuous places in the provincial building and the municipal building. It shall, moreover, be announced by crier in each of the barrios of the municipality."

"SEC. 47. The persons specified in the next following section are hereby granted time, not to extend beyond December thirty-one, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight within which to take advantage of the benefit of this chapter: Provided, That the several periods of time designated by the President in accordance with section forty-five of this Act shall apply also to the lands comprised in the provisions of this chapter, but this section shall not be construed as prohibiting any of said persons from acting under this chapter at any time prior to the period fixed by the President."

SEC. 2. The new time limit established in this Act for the filing of applications for free patents and for the judicial confirmation of imperfect or incomplete titles shall also apply to the reopening of judicial proceedings on parcels of land declared public land pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act Numbered Nine hundred thirty-one.

SEC. 3. The requisite of previous payment of real estate taxes shall not be a condition precedent to the filing of the applications or petitions for reopening provided for herein.

SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 13, 1958.