Appropriation for Public Works and Improvements

Funding source and total appropriation

Section 1 appropriates the sums specified out of any funds in the Insular Treasury from the sale of bonds for public works or permanent improvements.
Section 1 further directs that, in default of such bond-sale funds, appropriations shall come out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Section 1 appropriates funds for public works and permanent improvements as enumerated in Section 1(a) to (s) and other subsections stated in Section 1.
The total appropriation made by Section 1 is PHP 2,621,000.00.

Public health appropriations

Section 1(a) appropriates PHP 4,000.00 for the extension of permanent improvements on the property of the “Gota de Leche.”
Section 1(b) appropriates PHP 15,000.00 for the purchase of the land and buildings used as a leper station at Cebu.
Section 1(b) provides that, in consideration of the PHP 15,000.00 sum, the Government shall have the right to take over the specified buildings and land to the extent such right refers to the title of the present possessors, who must expressly renounce all claims against the Government, including unpaid rentals during the last fifteen years and payments made by the possessors to the Bureau of Lands.
Section 1(c) appropriates PHP 5,000.00 for the construction of a dispensary building for the Southern Islands Hospital, Cebu.
Section 1(d) appropriates PHP 9,000.00 for the construction of a hospital building at Cuyo, Palawan.

Philippine General Hospital and forestry projects

Section 1(e) appropriates PHP 25,000.00 for the construction of an annex to the Dispensary of the Philippine General Hospital.
Section 1(f) appropriates PHP 10,000.00 for the completion of the administrative building of the Forest School at Los Banos and the purchase of necessary equipment.
Section 1(g) appropriates PHP 8,000.00 for the construction of quarters for the students of the School of Forestry at Los Banos.

Bureau of Public Works appropriations

Section 1(h) appropriates PHP 1,000,000.00 for the construction, improvement, and maintenance (where necessary) of roads and bridges in provinces that accept Act No. 1652.
Section 1(h) requires that acceptance be supported by a resolution of the provincial board that guarantees by continuing annual appropriations the establishment of a system of maintenance in the judgment of the Director of Public Works for all first-class roads at present constructed or which may be constructed and declared first-class by the Director.
Section 1(h) extends coverage to Mindoro, Palawan and Batanes provinces organized under the Special Provincial Government Act, and to provinces organized under Act No. 2408, with apportionment in proportion to the number of inhabitants of each province.
Section 1 also appropriates PHP 400,000.00 for similar road and bridge purposes in the same accepting provinces, with apportionment in the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Police.
Section 1 provides a mechanism to prevent shortfall where provinces already received prior allocations: amounts necessary must be allotted to provinces that already received their regular allotment under Act No. 2534 to cover the excess of their apportionment under subsection (h) of Act No. 2583.
Section 1 appropriates PHP 100,000.00 for the construction, improvement, and maintenance of interprovincial roads and bridges between provinces accepting Act No. 1652, apportioned in the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Police, and supported by resolutions guaranteeing continuing annual appropriations for maintenance as needed in the judgment of the Director of Public Works.
Section 1 further authorizes the use of appropriations under subsections (h), (i) and (j) for second and third-class roads, trails and temporary bridges, wherever “most useful and proper for the public interest,” upon approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Police.

Ports, waterworks, irrigation applications

Section 1(k) appropriates PHP 400,000.00 for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, investigations and surveys of ports, wharves, piers, retaining walls, jetties, dams and dredgings in different districts of the archipelago, including the purchase of necessary equipment.
Section 1(k) also includes the continuation of wharves and other improvements projected by former laws, and the construction and maintenance of roads across Insular lands adjacent to wharves and roads leading to such lands, with apportionment in the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Police.
Section 1(l) appropriates for (i) drilling artesian wells (including equipment), (ii) studying and constructing municipal systems of waterworks, and (iii) investigating, constructing, reconstructing, or extending baths and other sanitary improvements for the development and exploitation of properly tested and approved mineral springs in places of public resort.
Section 1(l) ties eligibility to local cost-sharing: provinces or municipalities concerned—including those organized under Act No. 2408 and under the Special Provincial Government Act—must adopt resolutions for appropriation of funds covering the cost of one-third part of the work.
Section 1(l) requires the local one-third funds to be covered into the Insular Treasury when the Director of Public Works fixes the amount.
Section 1(l) mandates repayment to local governments where the project fails: any municipality or province that incurs expense for an artesian well resulting in failure must have the amounts expended returned to it.
Section 1(l) imposes a funding cap: the Secretary of Commerce and Police shall in no case assign to any municipality or project as Insular aid a sum in excess of 250,000 pesos.
Section 1(m) appropriates PHP 15,000.00 for expenses in the investigation of applications for irrigation or water rights submitted to the Irrigation Council.

Posts, customs, and communications lines

Section 1 appropriates PHP 100,000.00 for the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of telegraph lines and submarine cables, and for wireless telegraph stations and buildings.
Section 1 provides that the appropriation of fifty thousand pesos for the purchase of cable and construction of cable lines authorized under Act No. 2494 is likewise available for the maintenance of cable lines.
Section 1 authorizes telephone support when public interest requires it: provincial boards of provinces organized under Act No. 83, including Batanes, Mindoro and Palawan, may appropriate funds for establishing telephone lines, and the appropriation herein made is available to aid such provinces in a sum not to exceed fifty per centum of the cost of each project.
Section 1(o) appropriates PHP 25,000.00 for the construction and reconstruction of lighthouse-station buildings, lighthouses and beacons, the purchase and placing of buoys, and the substitution of acetylene apparatus for oil lights.

Education and UP projects

Section 1 appropriates funds for central and intermediate school buildings in municipalities organized under Act No. 82 in provinces organized under Act No. 83, allotted in the discretion of the Secretary of Public Instruction.
Section 1 states that in very special cases, the same item may be employed for the construction or reconstruction of farm and high school buildings in regularly organized provinces, with the amount stated as PHP 150,000.00.
Section 1(q) appropriates PHP 50,000.00 as aid to municipalities and barrios for the construction of school buildings of Philippine woods with galvanized iron roof, to be distributed in the discretion of the Secretary of Public Instruction.
Section 1(r) appropriates PHP 25,000.00 for the construction of buildings at the Central Luzon Agricultural School, Nueva Ecija.
Section 1(s) appropriates PHP 30,000.00 for the construction of an agronomy laboratory building for the College of Agriculture, Los Banos, Laguna.

Continuations, reversions, and executive suspension

Section 2 continues in force Subsection (u) of Section One and Section Two of Act No. 2494, in relation with Subsections (c), (d) and (e) of Section Two of Act No. 2378, so that appropriations made in (c), (d), (e) and (u) by those Acts are available as if they had been made by Act No. 2583.
Section 2 provides an exception for the appropriation made in said Subsection (c): it may be set aside for the expenses of the construction of a waterworks system in the municipality of Naga, Ambos Camarines, provided the municipality covered one-third of the cost of the project.
Section 3 requires that all balances of the different appropriations unexpended on the thirtieth of June, nineteen hundred and seventeen revert to the unappropriated funds in the Insular Treasury.
Section 3 provides that thereafter such balances shall not be available for withdrawal or expenditure except upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Section 4 authorizes the Governor-General: when the Governor-General believes the probable revenues of the Insular Government will be insufficient to cover the projects, the Governor-General may suspend in whole or in part temporarily or definitely the construction of specified projects “until otherwise ordered by the Legislature,” through the end of the fiscal year.

Sanctions and repeals

Act No. 2583 prescribes no criminal penalties, fines, or administrative sanctions for non-compliance with its appropriation conditions.

Transitory and funding limits

Section 1(b) conditions the Government’s takeover right on express renunciation by present possessors, including claims for unpaid rentals during the last fifteen years and payments made to the Bureau of Lands.
Section 1(l) limits Insular aid to a maximum of 250,000 pesos for any municipality or project.
Section 1(l) requires local funding of one-third part of the work for eligible water, wells, and mineral-spring projects.
Section 4 limits the Governor-General’s project-suspension authority to the end of the fiscal year and allows restoration “until otherwise ordered by the Legislature.”