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

SECTION 1. The third paragraph of Section two of Republic Act Numbered One thousand eight hundred eighty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 2. The Commissioner on National Integration shall have the rank and pay of a Secretary of Department and shall be a member of the Cabinet. Each of the Associate Commissioners shall receive an annual compensation of seven thousand eight hundred pesos."

SEC. 2. The first paragraph of Section three of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 3. The Chairman of the Commission shall be the chief executive thereof and shall have the powers conferred generally on heads of Departments. He shall equitably distribute the work of the Commission among the Associate Commissioners and the other employees thereof and see that these perform their duties to the best of their abilities: Provided, however, That the Commission shall meet as a body for consultation in matters of special importance connected with its work, functions or aims. In such meetings, the majority members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business."

SEC. 3. Subsection (i) of Section four of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. The Commission shall have the following powers, functions, and duties:

"(i) To acquire, lease or own such real and personal property as it deems necessary and to sell or otherwise dispose of the same."

SEC. 4. Four new sub-sections (n), (o), (p) and (q) are added to Section four of the same Act to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. The Commission shall have the following powers, functions,  and  duties:

"(n) To approve all conveyances of real property, whether registered or unregistered, situated in provinces inhabited by national cultural minorities according to the latest official population census, and/or real rights thereon where the conveyor or transferor is illiterate or, if literate, cannot understand the language of the instrument of conveyance or encumbrance.

"(o) To authorize trial lawyers of the Commission to assist indigent members of the cultural minorities accused in criminal cases involving their landholdings.

"(p) To authorize any proper personnel of the Commission to administer oaths in connection with investigations as the Commission may undertake in the discharge  of its powers,  functions  and  duties.

"(q) To promulgate rules and regulations as may be necessary for the successful implementation of the provisions of this Act."

SEC. 5. Section five of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 5. The Commission shall be the exclusive custodian and administrator in charge of the subdivision, allocation and distribution of public lands reserved or which may hereafter be reserved by the President of the Philippines for settlements, townsites, and roads; agricultural lands in the municipalities, provinces and cities predominantly inhabited by members of the national cultural minorities according to the latest official population census, which have been or may be surveyed, and sub-divided under Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred and ninety-one, as amended; areas released from the forest zone upon petition by members of the national cultural minorities or by the Commission on National Integration; and lands within a forest zone declared by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources to be found more suitable for agricultural than for timber purposes which have been actually occupied by members of the national cultural minorities since July four, nineteen hundred forty-five."

SEC. 6. Section seven of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 7. There is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of not less than five million pesos for the following purposes:

"(c) Three million seven hundred thousand pesos shall be used for the establishment, operation and development of agricultural settlements, the establishment of industrial and agricultural enterprises, cottage industries, the extension of loans and credit facilities, the purchase of necessary supplies and equipments to be used in such settlements and enterprises, and other related purposes as the Commission shall determine. 

"The sum of not less than five million pesos shall be included annually, for a period of ten years beginning with the fiscal year nineteen hundred sixty-four in the General Appropriations Act."

SEC. 7. Any or all Acts, laws, rules and regulations and executive orders contrary to or inconsistent with any of the foregoing provisions are hereby repealed.

SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, May 4,  1964.