By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety-six, entitled "An Act to provide for the adjudication and registration of titles to lands in the Philippine Islands," is hereby amended as follows:

(a) By adding to section nine the following: "The clerk and assistant clerk of the court, and any deputy thereof acting as clerk during an adjourned session of the court in any province, are hereby made ex officio notaries public and are authorized to perform within the Philippine Islands all the duties appertaining to the office of notary public."

(b) By striking out the next to the last sentence of section thirteen, which reads as follows: "All fees payable under this Act for services by sheriff or other officer shall be paid to the officer entitled thereto," and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "All fees payable under this Act for services by sheriff 6r other officer or for publication of notices in newspapers shall be paid to the officer or person entitled thereto."

(c) By amending the third and fourth paragraphs of section nineteen to read "fourth" and "fifth," respectively, by inserting the word "five" in lieu of the word "four" in the first line of the next succeeding paragraph, and by inserting as paragraph three of said section nineteen the following:

"Third. The Person or Persons claiming, singly or collectively, to own or hold any land under a possessory information title, acquired under the provisions of the Mortgage Law of the Philippine Islands and the general regulations for the execution of same."

(d) By inserting in parentheses, after the words "fee simple" in the fifth line of the second  paragraph of section twenty-one, the following words: "(or by possessory information title)."

(e) By striking out the words "and also the names and addresses of all adjoining owners and occupants" in the twelfth and thirteenth lines of section twenty-one and inserting lieu thereof the following: "and also the names and addresses of all occupants of the land and of all adjoining owners;" and by striking out paragraph six of the form of application set out in the same section, renumbering the subsequent paragraphs accordingly.

(f) By striking out the word "publication" in the fourth line of section thirty-two and inserting in lieu thereof the word "notice."

SEC. 2. 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.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, July 27, 1903.