Act No. 2711

REVISED ADMINISTRATIVE CODE

ARTICLE I

ORGANIZATION OF BUREAU

Section 1843. Chief Official of Bureau of Lands. - The Bureau of Lands shall have one chief (and one assistant chief), to be known (respectively) as the Director of Lands (and the Assistant Director of Lands).

Section 1844. Powers and Functions of Bureau of Lands. - The Bureau of Lands shall be charged with the administration of all laws relative to public lands not classified as timber lands, (the mineral lands), the friar lands, and of all other public real property not placed under the control of any other branch, department, bureau or office of the Government by legislative enactment or competent administrative authority.

As custodian and administrative of the public lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry as non-timber lands, and of other real property of National Government, the Director of Lands, with the approval of the Department Head, shall have power to regulate the occupation or provisional use thereof specifying in its regulation what kinds of licenses shall be issued by the Director of Lands, including licenses for the taking of stone, sand, gravel, and earth from lands of the public domain or from the beds of seas, rivers, streams, creeks, and other public waters, where such taking is not otherwise regulated under existing law; Provided, That the amount which may be collected for licenses to take such materials shall accrue to the road and bridge fund of the province concerned; and provided, further, That for the purposes of this Act, provincial treasurers are designated deputies of the Director of Lands.

The officers and employees of the Bureau of Lands shall have police authority of lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry as non-timber public lands, and other public real property under the custody and control of said Bureau and declared to be of the public domain of the courts, and shall have power to execute the decisions, resolutions decrees of the Bureau of Lands relative thereto, unless such decisions, resolutions and decrees are revoked or suspended by order of the Court of First Instance of the province in which the public land or real property in question is situated.

The said Bureau shall conduct surveys of the public domain and other public property, cadastral surveys, and official surveys of private property and shall exercise such other powers as are hereinafter conferred.

All existing records of Spanish grants and concessions of agricultural (or mineral) lands shall be preserved in the Bureau of Lands.

The Director of Lands shall furnish, or cause to be furnished, to any private person or persons applying for the same, one or more copies of such records in which such person or persons may be personally concerned and to which he or they may be entitled, the same to be accompanied by a certificate of its correctness, if desired, on payment of the following fees:

For each certificate of correctness with seal of office, one peso.

For each 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 a margin, one peso.

Section 1845. Authority of Officers to Administer Oaths and Take Testimony. - The Director of Lands, (the Assistant Director of Lands), and the Chiefs of division in the Bureau of Lands, are authorized to administer oaths and take acknowledgments in matters of officials business, and to take testimony in official investigations conducted under the authority of the laws and regulations relating to the Bureau of Lands.

A local land officer, (mining recorder) and any person designated by the Director of Lands as friar-land agent, chief of a survey party, or inspector of the Bureau of Lands may administer oaths and take acknowledgments as aforesaid, and, when thereunto deputed by the Director of Lands, may exercise the same authority to take testimony as other officers hereinabove named.

ARTICLE II

LAND DISTRICTS

Section 1846. Land Districts. - With the approval of the Department Head, the Director of Lands may establish land districts, which shall be, so far as practicable, coextensive with the territory of the respective provinces; but when the local conditions so require, two or more provinces or parts of provinces may be included in the same land district.

Section 1847. Local Land Officer. - In each land district there shall be a local land officer, who, under the supervision of the Director of Lands, shall perform such duties relative to public agricultural lands as may be prescribed by law or regulation.

When no other officer is designated as local land officer, the provincial treasurer shall perform the duties of such office for the land district which comprises his province; and when two or more provinces or parts of provinces are included in the same land district, the Director of Lands shall designate the provincial treasurer who shall perform such duties.

Section 1848. Mining Recorder. - In land district where there are sufficient mining interest to warrant the appointment, there shall be a mining records, who shall keep such records and perform such duties relative to public mineral lands as may be prescribed by law regulations.

Where no other officer is designated, the duties of mining recorder shall be performed by the secretary of the provincial board.

Section 1849. Designation of Person to Perform Duties of Local Land Officer (or Mining Recorder). - Until other provision shall be made for filling such offices, the President of the Philippines may by executive order impose the performance of the duties of local land officer (or mining recorder) upon any official or employee in the public service.

ARTICLE III

CADASTRAL SURVEYS

Section 1850. Order of Making Cadastral Survey. - When in the opinion of the President of the Philippines, the public interest require that the title to any lands be settled and adjudicated, he may to this end order the Director of Lands to make a survey and plan thereof.

Section 1851. Publication of Notice of Survey. - The Director of Lands shall, thereupon, give notice to persons claiming an interest in the lands, and to the general public, of the day on which such survey will begin, giving as full and accurate a description as possible of the lands to be surveyed. Such notice shall be published in two successive issues of the Official Gazette, and a copy of the notice in the English and Spanish languages shall be posted in a conspicuous place on the chief municipal building of the municipality, or municipal district in which the lands, or any portion thereof, are situated. A copy of the notice shall also be sent to the mayor of such municipality, or municipal district and to the provincial board.

Section 1852. Notice of Commencement Survey. - The surveyor or other employee of the Bureau of Lands in charge of the survey shall give reasonable notice of the day on which the survey of any portion of such lands is to begin, and shall post such notice in the usual placed on the chief municipal building of such municipality or municipal district in which the lands are situated, and shall mark the boundaries of the lands by monuments set up at proper places thereon.

Section 1853. Right of Surveyor to Enter upon Lands. - It shall be lawful for surveyors and other employees of the Bureau of Lands to enter upon the lands whenever necessary for the making of such survey or for the placing of monuments.

Section 1854. Duty of Claimants to Communicate Information Regarding Boundaries. - It shall be the duty of every person claiming an interest in the lands to be surveyed, or in any parcel thereof, to communicate to the surveyor in charge upon his request therefor all information possessed by such concerning the boundary lines of any lands to which he claims title or in which he claims any interest.

Section 1855. Institution of Registration Proceedings. - When the lands have been surveyed and platted, the Director of Lands, represented by the Solicitor-General, shall institute registration proceedings, by petition against the holders, claimants, possessors or occupants of such lands or any part thereof, stating in substance that the public interest requires that the title to such lands be settled and adjudicated.

The petition shall contain a description of the lands and shall be accompanied by a plan thereof, and may contain such other data as may serve to furnish full notice to the occupants of the lands and to all persons who may claim any right or interest therein.

Section 1856. Boundaries and Divisions of Lots. - If the lands contain two or more parcels held or occupied by different persons the plan shall indicate the boundaries or limits of the various parcels as correctly as may be. The parcels shall be known as "lots" and shall, on the plans filed in the case, be given separate numbers by the Director of Lands, which numbers shall be known as "cadastral numbers." The lands situated within each municipality or municipal district shall, as far as practicable, be numbered consecutively beginning with the number "one" and only one series of numbers shall be used for that purpose in each municipality or municipal district.

In cities or townsites a designation of the land holdings by block and lot numbers may be employed instead of the designation by cadastral numbers and shall have the same effect for all purposes as the latter.

Section 1857. Cadastral Survey Funds. - Monthly Statements of Director of Lands. - The Director of Lands shall at the end of each month certify to the Auditor General and the Treasurer of the Philippines a statement showing the amounts reimbursed or collected on cadastral surveys made by the Bureau of Lands and the Treasurer of the Philippines is authorized and empowered to pay to the Bureau of Lands an amount equal to the amounts so certified as having been collected, and the necessary amounts to make such payments are hereby appropriated out of any fund in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated and such amount shall be credited to the appropriation to the Bureau of Lands for further cadastral surveys.

ARTICLE IV

PRIVATE LAND SURVEYS AND SURVEYORS

Section 1858. Private Land Surveys. - The Bureau of Lands may, upon application therefor, make private land surveys, for which a reasonable charge shall be made.

Private land surveys may also be made by private land surveyors, duly qualified as hereinafter provided; but no plan of each survey, whether it be original or subdivision, shall be admitted in land registration proceedings until approved by the Director of Lands.

Section 1859. Procedure Incident to Making of Survey Notice to Adjoining Owners. - The surveyors employed to make surveys for registration purposes, or to prepare maps and plats of property in connection therewith, shall give due notice in advance to the adjoining owners whose addresses are known, of the data and hour when they should present themselves on the property for the purpose of making such objections to the boundaries of the properties to be surveyed as they consider necessary for the protection of their rights.

Surveyors shall report all objections made by adjoining property owners and occupants or claimants of any portion of the lands at the time of the survey and demarcation, giving a proper description of the boundaries claimed by such owners, occupants or claimants.

Section 1860. Demarcation of Boundaries. - Surveyors shall define the boundaries of the lands, surveyed for registration purposes, by means of moment placed thereon and shall indicate on the maps or plats the respective boundaries designated, both by the applicant for the survey and adverse claimants of adjoining properties; but the work of survey and demarcation of the boundaries of the lands as occupied by the said applicant need not be suspended because of the presentation of any complaint or objection.Section 1861. Expenses of Rectification of Errors. - If, in any registration preceding involving such survey, the court shall find the boundary line designated by an adverse claimant to be incorrect and that designated by the applicant to be correct, the expense of making any extra survey over that required by the applicant shall be assessed by the court as costs against the adverse claimant.

Section 1862. Regulations Relative to Private Surveyors. - Private land surveyors employed in making a survey hereinabove contemplated shall be subject to the regulations of the Bureau of Lands in respect to such surveys and shall execute the same in accordance with current instructions relative thereto as issued by the Director of Lands. Promptly upon contemplating their work, it shall be their duty to send their original field notes, computations, reports, survey maps, and plats of the property in question to the Bureau of Lands, for verification and approval.

ARTICLE V

APPRENTICE AND JUNIOR SURVEYORS

Section 1866. Certification of Students to be Trained as Surveyors. - At the beginning of each school year, the Director of Education shall certify to the Director of Lands the names of such number of students as may be provided for in the annual appropriation Acts and as may be best qualified to receive and profit by a course of instruction and education in surveying, for a term of five years, under the direction of the Bureau of Lands.

To be eligible for certification, a student must be of sound physical condition, of good moral character, and not less than seventeen years of age. He must also have education qualifications such as are obtained by the satisfactory completion of the second year of instruction in the Manila High School or the second year high school work in a provincial school, normal school, or the Philippine Nautical School.

Section 1867. Appointment as Apprentice Surveyor. - Each student so certified may be appointed as apprentice surveyor in the Bureau of Lands at such annual compensation as may be fixed by law; and when so appointed he shall continue in such school as the Secretary of Education shall determine, and during forenoons shall pursue therein a special course of study to be prescribed by the Director of Public Schools.

During the afternoons of school days, as well as during regular office hours on Saturdays, and during school vacations, apprentices shall be employed in the Bureau of Lands, perform such duties as may be assigned to them by the Director of Lands, such as office work, drawing, platting, practical computing, use of instruments, and similar work.

Section 1868. Examination after Completion of One Year of Service - Appointment as Junior Surveyor. - Upon the completion of one year's service as apprentices, student surveyors shall be examined by the Bureau of Civil Service as to their qualifications for appointment as junior surveyors, be required to sign an agreement, approved by his parents or guardian, if he be under twenty-one years of age, to the effect that he will remain with the Bureau of Lands for the term of four years from date of appointment as junior surveyor and perform such duties as may be prescribed by the Director of Lands, unless sooner released.

Section 1869. Completion of Three Year's Service. - Appointment as surveyor. - Upon the completion of three year's service as junior surveyor, students shall be examined by the Bureau of Civil Service as to their qualification for appointment as surveyors. Students qualifying in such examination shall be eligible for appointment as surveyors at such salaries as may be determined by competent authority. Students failing to qualify shall continue on the same basis until such time as they shall qualify as surveyors in the manner herein prescribed or until separated from the service.

Section 1870. Consequences of Violation of Contract. - Upon the expiration of their contracts, students may leave the service of the Government without prejudice; but any student separating himself from the service during his term of contract without the approval of the Department Head shall be debarred thereafter from holding any position in the Philippine Civil Service.