[ Act No. 3220, January 19, 1925 ]

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE RECLAMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PORT OF PULUPANDAN, PROVINCE OF OCCIDENTAL NEGROS, PROVIDING FOR THE PAYMENT OF SUCH WORK, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:

SECTION 1. The Governor-General is hereby authorized and empowered to enter into an  agreement on  behalf of the Government of the Philippine Islands with  the Maao Sugar Central  Co.,  Inc., a  corporation duly  organized under the laws of the Philippine Islands, whereby the said corporation, its successors and assigns, shall be authorized, under the terms and  conditions hereinafter set forth, to undertake the development and improvement of the Port of Pulupandan by constructing such breakwaters and sea walls as may be necessary, by dredging the harbor formed thereby, and by reclaiming portions of the foreshore not exceeding thirty hectares in area; all of the said work to be  around the present  pier built  by  the said  corporation  on the fore shore of the municipality  of Pulupandan, Province of Occidental Negros, Philippine Islands.

SEC. 2. The agreement referred to in the preceding section, in addition to the usual provisions for the  protection of Government interests,  shall provide the following:

(a) The total cost of the reclamation to be solely for the account of the Maao Sugar Central  Co., Inc.,  its successors and assigns,  the  Government to incur thereby no expense whatsoever.

(b) The total cost of the development and improvement, such as the construction of breakwaters, sea  walls, piers, and dredging the harbor  formed thereby, in a sum not to exceed a total of seven  hundred  fifty  thousand pesos to be advanced by the Maao Sugar Central Co., Inc., its  successors and assigns,  and  repaid by the  Government from year to year as hereinafter provided, deducting the cost of needed dredging for the reclamation work to be solely for the account of the corporation as provided in the preceding subsection.

(c) The work of reclamation and development to be done under the supervision of the Director of Public Works in accordance with plans and specifications  to be  agreed upon between the  said Maao Sugar Central Co., Inc.,  or  its  successors and assigns,  and the Director  of Public  Works, subject  to  the approval  of  the  Governor-General  upon recommendation of the Secretary  of  Commerce and Communications.

(d) The Government shall retain control and remain the owner of all breakwaters or sea walls, bulkheads, piers, and such other strips of  land as may  be indicated in the plans agreed upon as hereinbefore provided.

(e) The  Government shall retain control of the harbor to be formed by virtue of the reclamation and development herein authorized;  and said harbor  as well  as all piers, docks, and other port works to be constructed shall be administered and regulated  under such general  laws  as  may be in force  in the  Philippine Islands concerning  harbors, piers, docks, and other port works.

(f) In consideration of the Maao Sugar Central Co., Inc., bearing the total cost of reclamation work done under this  Act, one-half of all areas which may have been filled in and reclaimed, and not herein reserved to the  Government, shall thereby become the property of the Maao Sugar Central Co., Inc., its successors and assigns, in fee simple, and  the  Chief Executive of the Philippine Islands shall confirm the corporation's title thereto by appropriate instruments in writing: Provided,  That the other half of  all reclaimed  areas  shall continue to be the  property of  the Government of the Philippine Islands  to be administered in accordance with the provisions of the Public Land  Act then in force.

SEC. 3. There  is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of seven hundred fifty thousand  pesos or  so much thereof as  may be necessary, to be used for the  payment, with interest at the rate of four and one-half per  cent per annum, to the Maao Sugar Central Co., Inc., its successors and  assigns, of such sums as  the said corporation may have advanced for the work of development and improvement of the Port of Pulupandan as set forth in subsection  (b)  section one hereof.   The payments herein provided  shall be made from time to time upon the certificate of the  Director of Public Works as to the value of the work accomplished in accordance with the usual practice followed on other Government constructions: Provided, That there shall  be available for  payment for each year the  sum  of one  hundred fifty thousand pesos  only:  And provided,  further, That interests  of the sum to be advanced  shall be computed and  paid in accordance with  the usual commercial practice governing bank overdrafts.

SEC. 4. The Chief Executive of the Philippine Islands is hereby  authorized and empowered on behalf  of the Government of the Philippine Islands to execute from time to time such deeds and other instruments as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 5. This Act shall  take effect on the date of its approval insofar as it refers to the development and improvement of  the Port of Pulupandan and the appropriation to pay for such work, and, with respect to the reclamation oi thirty hectares of the foreshore of the  municipality of Pulupandan,  Province of Occidental Negros,  when  this Ad shall have been  approved, expressly or impliedly,  by the President of the United States as provided in  section nine of the Act of Congress  of  August twenty-nine,  nineteen hundred sixteen, known as the Jones Law, such fact shall be made known  by proclamation by the Governor-General of the  Philippine  Islands,  and  it then  shall take effed with respect to  such  reclamation as of the date  of such proclamation.[1]

 Approved, January 19, 1925.



[1] "Declared in force by Proclamation No. 7 (1925).  See  Appendix