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. Section one of  Act Numbered Three  thousand one hundred and fourteen is hereby amended  to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. There  is hereby  appropriated out  of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one million pesos, to be released by the  Governor-General with the approval of the Council of State as aid to regularly  organized  provinces  for the construction, equipment,  operation,  and  maintenance  of  hospitals and other dependencies  thereof, in  said  provinces:  Provided, however, That in order to be entitled to the  aid herein authorized, the province  concerned shall contribute a sum not less than forty per  cent of the  total cost of construction, and equipment of the  hospital, if a first-class province, not less than thirty-five  per cent if a second-class province, and not less than thirty  per cent in the case of other provinces, which money it may either appropriate out of its own  funds or raise by subscription on the  part  of  the  municipalities concerned  or  of  private citizens, or in any  other  manner which shall not be  a  direct or indirect aid on the part of the Insular Government: Provided, further, That the insular aid for the operation  and  maintenance  herein authorized shall  be fifty per cent of the  total cost  of such operation and maintenance for the first  year, and  shall be decreased by five per cent every year, so that said  aid  shall automatically be discontinued  at the end of the tenth year in  which the hospital is in operation.  And provided, further,  That any subprovince desiring to equip, operate, and maintain a hospital in accordance with the provisions of this Act shall be considered a province for the purposes hereof."

SEC.  2.  Section two of Act Numbered Three thousand one hundred  and fourteen is hereby  amended  to  read as follows:

"SEC. 2. In order to provide funds for the operation and maintenance of the hospital constructed under the terms of this Act, the province  shall  set aside annually for said operation and  maintenance a sum of not less than three per cent of  its general  funds.   Each municipality  within the province shall likewise set aside annually a sum to  be fixed by  the provincial board, of not  less  than three nor  more than  five per cent of  its general funds for  said operation and maintenance: Provided, however,  That the municipality in which the hospital is located  shall set  aside annually a sum of  not less than seven per  cent  of  its  general  funds for said purpose.  The sums herein required to be set aside by the province  and the municipalities therein shall be in addition to the sums which said province and municipalities are  required to set aside for the health fund pursuant to existing laws."

SEC.  3. Section three of Act Numbered Three thousand one  hundred and fourteen is hereby amended to read  as follows:

"SEC. 3. The funds thus set  aside in accordance with the preceding section and any Insular aid which may be granted under this Act or  any  other provision of law for the construction, equipment, operation, and maintenance of hospital shall constitute a  part of the health fund now  provided for  by  existing  laws,  and shall be  expended exclusively for the construction, equipment, operation, and maintenance of the hospital and its  dependencies.   These hospitals shall be operated  in accordance  with the  provisions of section one thousand  and twenty-seven  of  the  Administrative Code."

SEC.  4. Section  four of Act Numbered Three thousand one hundred and fourteen is  hereby amended to read as follows:

  "SEC. 4. A physician appointed or designated to  a hospital constructed or operated under this Act may take the examination for  surgeon or senior surgeon and upon passing the same,  shall be commissioned in  the corresponding grade  with  the  salary allotted to  his  position  although greater than that of his grade.  All hospital personnel shall have Insular status, and all receipts of the hospital shall be applied to the operation and maintenance of the  same."

SEC.  5.  The funds  appropriated in section  one of this Act shall be exempt from the effects of Joint Resolution Numbered One of the  Philippine Legislature, approved on March the sixteenth,  nineteen hundred  and twenty-three.

SEC. 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, October  15, 1924.