Bureau of Lands powers and functions
- Section 1 amends Section 1844 of the Administrative Code to define the Bureau of Lands as the office charged with administering laws relative to public lands not classified as timber lands, mineral lands, friar lands, and other public real property not placed under other government control by legislative enactment or competent administrative authority.
- The Bureau of Lands, with the approval of the Department Head, may regulate the occupation or provisional use of properties that are:
- custodied and administered by the Bureau as non-timber lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry, and
- other real property of the Insular Government.
- Where the taking of certain products is not otherwise regulated, the Bureau of Lands may specify in its regulations what kinds of licenses will be issued, including licenses for taking of stone, earth, and other products.
- The officers and employees of the Bureau of Lands have police authority over:
- non-timber public lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry, and
- other public real property under Bureau custody and control that courts have declared to be of the public domain.
- Bureau officers and employees may execute the Bureau of Lands’ decisions, resolutions, and decrees relating to such lands, unless these are revoked or suspended by an order of the Court of First Instance of the province where the land or real property is situated.
- The Bureau of Lands must conduct surveys of the public domain and other public property, including cadastral surveys and official surveys or private property surveys.
- The Act requires preservation of all existing records of Spanish grants and concessions of agricultural or mineral lands within the Bureau of Lands.
- The Director of Lands must furnish, or cause to be furnished, to private persons applying for records one or more copies of records in which they may be personally concerned and entitled, accompanied by a certificate of correctness if desired, upon payment of the following fees:
- PHP 1.00 per certificate of correctness with seal of office.
- PHP 1.00 per folio, or fraction thereof, consisting of a sheet approximately two hundred and sixteen by three hundred thirty millimeters with proper heading, double space, and approximately three centimeters margin.
Cadastral survey fund approvals and payments
- Section 2 restores and amends Section 1857 of the Administrative Code to provide for a cadastral survey fund.
- The Director of Lands must, at the end of each month, certify to the Insular Auditor and the Insular Treasurer a statement showing the amounts reimbursed or collected on cadastral surveys made by the Bureau of Lands.
- The Insular Treasurer is authorized to pay the Bureau of Lands an amount equal to the amounts so certified as collected.
- Necessary amounts to make these payments are appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
- The amounts paid are to be credited to the appropriation of the Bureau of Lands for further cadastral surveys.
Approval requirement for private land surveys
- Section 3 amends the second paragraph of Section 1858 of the Administrative Code.
- Private land surveys may be made by private land surveyors duly qualified under the provisions governing them.
- No plan of such survey—whether original or subdivision—may be admitted in land registration proceedings unless it is approved by the Director of Lands.
Prohibitions on interfering with surveys
- Section 4 amends Section 2753 of the Administrative Code to penalize interference and violations of Bureau decisions, resolutions, and decrees.
- Section 2753(a) penalizes any person who interferes with:
- the making of any survey undertaken by the Bureau of Lands, or
- the placing of any monument connected with such survey,
- or who defaces, destroys, or removes any monument placed, or alters the location of any such monument,
- or who destroys or removes any notice of survey posted on the land pursuant to law.
- Under Section 2753(a), the penalty is a fine of not more than one hundred pesos or imprisonment of not more than thirty days, or both.
- Section 2753(b) penalizes any person who:
- interferes with, violates, or abets in the interference or violation,
- in any manner is instrumental in the interference or violation,
- or resists enforcement of any valid decision, resolution, or order of the Bureau of Lands affecting a concession or disposition of any portion of the public domain.
- Under Section 2753(b), the penalty is a fine of not more than one hundred pesos or imprisonment of not more than thirty days, or both, and the person must also reimburse the party entitled by virtue of the decision or resolution for damages to the party’s interest in the tract of public land and for damages to crops and other improvements sustained due to the violation or interference.
Repeal of inconsistent laws and effectivity
- Section 5 provides that all acts or parts of acts, proclamations, executive orders, circulars, and regulations inconsistent with Act No. 3077 are amended.
- Section 6 provides that Act No. 3077 takes effect on its approval (March 16, 1923).