QuestionsQuestions (Acts No. 1876.)
Acts No. 1876 establishes the Province known as the Mountain Province. It includes the subprovinces of Benguet, Amburayan, Lepanto, Bontoc, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Apayao, each with boundaries specified by reference to the then-existing subprovinces/provinces named in the law.
No. The law provides that the organization of the subprovinces as part of the Mountain Province shall in no way affect the present representation in the Philippine Assembly.
The Governor resides and has office at Bontoc, which is the capital of the province. Compensation is “not to exceed six thousand pesos per annum,” with quarters.
The lieutenant-governor of Benguet resides and has office at Baguio (capital of the subprovince) with compensation “not to exceed three thousand six hundred pesos per annum,” with quarters.
The Mountain Province is organized under the Special Provincial Government Act No. 1396 and specifically applies sections 1 to 22 (inclusive) of that Act (as amended), and the provisions of Act No. 1397, the “Township Government Act” (as amended), for townships and settlements, respectively.
Within their respective subprovinces, the lieutenant-governors have the powers and perform the duties prescribed for and imposed upon lieutenant-governors by subdivisions (e) and (f) of paragraph three of section 24 of the Special Provincial Government Act.
Unexpended balances in the Province of Cagayan’s treasury belonging to the subprovince of Apayao; in the Province of La Union’s treasury belonging to the non-Christian inhabitants fund in the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc; and in the Province of Benguet’s treasury; plus ninety percent of all non-Christian inhabitants funds in the treasury of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya are transferred to the Mountain Province and become expendable for its benefit.
Section 5 provides that in lieu of Section 1 of Act No. 1853 (for the provinces of Benguet and Lepanto-Bontoc), the Mountain Province is entitled to its pro rata share of the special fund of ten percent of internal-revenue collections payable to the road and bridge fund of certain provinces.
Section 6 directs that the Auditor consider the total approximate population of the Mountain Province and the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, certified by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the Philippine Commission.
Yes. The law allows correction by the Secretary of the Interior with the approval of the Philippine Commission after an enumeration of the people; then distribution is made based on the corrected certificate.
Nueva Vizcaya is given additional territory inhabited by the Ilongo or Ibilaos formerly within the Spanish comandancia of Binatanagn. The boundaries of the added territory may later be more definitely fixed or changed by executive order of the Governor-General.
Section 9 amends Section 5 of Act No. 867 by changing the Mountain Judicial District from consisting of the provinces of Lepanto-Bontoc, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, and La Union, to consisting of the Mountain Province and the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and La Union.
The Act schedules: (1) Baguio (subprovince of Benguet of the Mountain Province) — first Tuesday of April and October; (2) San Fernando, La Union — first Tuesday of January and July; (3) Bayumbong, Nueva Vizcaya — first Tuesday of June and December; (4) Bontoc, for the subprovinces of Amburayan, Lepanto, Bontoc, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Apayao — first Tuesday of May and second Tuesday of November.
Process is served by the governor of the province where the court is held acting as an officer of the court, or by a sheriff appointed and qualified as in other provinces, or by a deputy appointed by the governor as he may elect.
The court first acquiring jurisdiction has exclusive jurisdiction. This applies both for conflicts between Courts of First Instance, between a Court of First Instance and a justice of the peace court, and between two justice of the peace courts. The proviso states that if the accused/defendant is a member of a non-Christian tribe, the Court of First Instance of the Mountain District (or the justice of the peace courts of the Mountain District or Mountain Province, as applicable) shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
Section 11 provides that all pending criminal or civil cases and judicial proceedings before the Courts of First Instance at the time Section 9 takes effect, which would have had jurisdiction if the limits had not been extended, shall continue until finally disposed of under the jurisdiction of such courts, despite anything in the Act to the contrary.
Section 12 establishes at Bontoc a prison that is a provincial and insular prison for provincial prisoners of the Mountain Province and insular prisoners who are members of non-Christian tribes of the Mountain Province or the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.
Maintenance of insular prisoners detained/constrained at Bontoc and the return transportation to their homes upon discharge are paid from the appropriation for the Mountain Province or that of Nueva Vizcaya, as the case may be.