QuestionsQuestions (Act No. 1487)
It abolished provincial boards of health, substituted them with district health officers, and defined their powers and duties, while repealing Act No. 307.
Act No. 1487 expressly repealed Act No. 307, which provided for the establishment of provincial boards of health and fixed their powers and duties.
Each province may have a district health officer appointed by the Governor-General, with the advice and consent of the Philippine Commission.
Subject to the approval of the Philippine Commission, the Director of Health may increase the number of district health officers assigned to a province or unite two or more provinces and assign them a district health officer.
Any regularly appointed person holding the office of president of a provincial board of health at the time of passage is eligible for appointment without examination as district health officer for two years from the Act’s effective date.
They are paid monthly from funds set aside for the support of the Bureau of Health.
Each province must deposit in the Insular Treasury, to the credit of the Bureau of Health, on or before January 31 and July 31 of each year its proportion of the district health officer(s) salary and other assigned personnel salaries. The Insular Auditor computes the proportion based on the populations of the provinces from the latest census.
From funds appropriated for the Bureau of Health.
Within their respective provinces, provincial fiscals act as legal advisers to district health officers.
Within their respective districts, district engineers act as sanitary engineers, consult with district health officers regarding sanitary improvements, and have powers/duties conferred from the public works laws for sanitary provincial or municipal improvements.
It must provide clerical assistance and furnish suitable office room, furniture, equipment, supplies, including stationery and blank forms, to conduct the district health officer’s office.
The Director of Health may designate (with approval of the Secretary of the proper Department) a president of a municipal board of health to discharge duties temporarily, granting the district health officer’s salary during substitution but no salary as municipal board president; alternatively, the Director may designate another district or Insular sanitary officer without additional compensation.
He exercises general supervision and control over health and sanitary work and municipal boards of health; can institute proceedings to abate nuisances; can cause prosecutions for violations; can remove the cause of special disease or mortality; and can make and enforce internal quarantine regulations subject to required approvals.
Subject to Director of Health approval, district health officers appoint sanitary inspectors and other employees as authorized by provincial boards, and perform additional duties directed by the Director of Health.
The district health officer must prepare and recommend to the Director of Health suitable regulations to maintain these institutions in a sanitary condition.
When practicable, they must attend persons entitled by law to receive free medical aid and attendance. Upon application of local authorities, when practicable, they must attend free of charge persons confined in provincial or municipal prisons and inmates of other government institutions.
When practicable, provinces or municipalities furnish them. Medicine for indigent poor may be furnished by the Bureau of Health if the Director of Health is satisfied the province/municipality is financially unable.
Upon request of provincial fiscals, a judge of the Court of First Instance, or a justice of the peace, the district health officer must, when practicable, investigate deaths suspected to be caused by unlawful acts or omissions or resulting from foul play, and provide reports as required.
For each offense, a violator may be punished by a fine not exceeding PHP 200 or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, at the court’s discretion.