QuestionsQuestions (Act No. 849)
To protect buoys and beacons used as aids to navigation in Philippine waters (and beacons erected on land) that are placed by authority of the Light-House Establishment of the Philippine Islands, by penalizing acts that interfere with them.
Mooring any vessel/boat/raft or part of a raft to a buoy or beacon; hanging on with any such craft to a buoy or beacon; willfully removing, damaging, or destroying any buoy or beacon; and cutting down, removing, damaging, or destroying beacons erected on land.
It identifies the protected buoys/beacons as those specifically installed to aid navigation in bays, channels, harbors, rivers, arms of the sea, or other Philippine waters by the Light-House Establishment.
Yes. It covers both (1) mooring vessels/boats/rafts to buoys or beacons and (2) in any manner hanging on with a craft to such buoy or beacon.
For willful removal, damage, or destruction of a buoy or beacon, the law expressly requires the act to be “willfully.”
The text covers cutting down, removing, damaging, or destroying beacons erected on land by the Light-House Establishment; the provision uses the phrase “shall cut down, remove, damage, or destroy,” which is within the same penalty clause.
A misdemeanor punishable by: (1) a fine of not more than PHP 1,000, or (2) imprisonment in the provincial jail of not less than one nor more than six months, or (3) both, at the court’s discretion.
One-third of the fine goes to the informer and two-thirds goes to the Light-House Establishment for repairing or replacing the buoys or beacons.
The legally ascertained cost of repairing or replacing a misplaced/damaged/destroyed buoy or beacon becomes a lien upon the vessel/boat/raft/scow that caused the damage.
By recovering against the craft and its owner(s) in an action of debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.
The cost of repairing or replacing the buoy or beacon misplaced, damaged, or destroyed by the vessel/boat/raft/scow being made fast to the same.
The damaged buoy/beacon leads to a lien on the specific craft that was made fast to it and caused the damage, supporting recovery in debt.
It states that passage was expedited for public good, following the procedure under Section 2 of “An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws” (passed September 26, 1900).
It takes effect on its passage.
Because the protection and penal provisions apply specifically to buoys/beacons installed by the authorized Light-House Establishment; proving such authorization helps establish that the object is legally protected under the Act.
It includes both: buoys/beacons in waters and beacons erected on land in the Philippines.