Section 1. Whereas it is
claimed that, in view of the novelty of the procedure, inexperience of
the officials, ignorance of property holders as to the methods to be
pursued in remedying any injustice done in the assessment of lands and
buildings, and the failure to give or receive proper notice of appeals,
the assessment of real estate and improvements thereon throughout the
Archipelago has not in all cases been just or according to the true
value of the property assessed:
There is hereby created a provincial board of revision, which shall
consist of the three members of the provincial board and two other
residents of the province and taxpayers to be appointed by the Civil
Governor, by and with the consent of the Commission. A majority of the
board shall constitute a quorum, and the action of the board shall be
in accordance with the vote of majority of a quorum. The board of
revision shall be organized on the fifteenth day of February, nineteen
hundred and three, and shall forthwith give notice to the municipal
council of each municipality in the province, that, as a board of
revision, it will receive and hear all complaints against the existing
assessment or valuation of land, and improvements thereon, in the
several municipalities at the time and place stated in the notice.
Sec. 2. The notice required in the preceding
section shall be in writing, and shall be immediately transmitted to
the municipal council of each of the municipalities in the province.
The time fixed for receiving and hearing complaints shall be not
earlier than the twentieth day of February, nineteen hundred and three,
and not later than the twentieth day of May, nineteen hundred and
three. A date, within the limits in this section named, shall be fixed
for hearing complaints from each municipality.
Sec. 3. Upon receiving the notice hereinbefore
stated, it is hereby made the duty of the municipal council of each
municipality immediately to post a copy of such notice in a conspicuous
place in the municipal building, and to cause to be delivered a copy
thereof to each taxpayer in the municipality whose property has been
assessed for the purpose of taxation at a sum greater than one hundred
dollars in money of the United States.
Sec. 4. At the time and place named for hearing
complaints that may be presented, the board of revision shall receive
all evidence that may be tendered in regard to the just value of the
property in question, and shall determine the same from the evidence
presented, but may examine the property themselves, if such examination
shall be considered necessary. It shall be competent for the municipal
council through its president or other official designated by the
municipal council for that purpose, to make such representations as it
may see fit in regard to the just valuation of any piece of property in
the municipality under consideration. All valuations shall be in money
of the United States.
Sec. 5. If the board of revision, on hearing,
shall determine that the general valuations in any municipality are
excessive, it may reduce such valuations so that they shall be fair and
just and make an equality between the municipality in question and the
other municipalities in the province in that respect. Should the board
of revision determine that the valuations in any municipality are less
than the true value of the real estate and improvements thereon, it
shall increase such valuations so that they shall be fair and just
valuations and make an equality between the municipality in question
and the other municipalities in the province in that respect. Before
the general values of any municipality shall be increased or decreased
the municipal council, by its president, or its representatives duly
authorized for that purpose, shall be entitled to be heard upon the
question of such increase or reduction.
Sec. 6. The board of revision shall in accordance
with law fix the just value in money of the United States of every
parcel of land and the improvements thereon which shall be brought
before it for consideration in the manner in this Act provided. It
shall also reduce to money of the United States all valuations on lands
and improvements thereon in all municipalities not brought before the
board for revision but the values of which were fixed in local currency
at the time of the original valuation. The reduction from local
currency to money of the United States in all cases shall be upon the
basis of the official ratio existing between local currency and money
of the United States at the time the several valuations were made, so
that all valuations of land and improvements thereon in all the
provinces and municipalities shall be upon a uniform basis of money of
the United States.
Sec. 7. The board of revision shall not be
required to assess the value of lands and the improvements thereon
exempted by law from taxation, nor shall the board have the power to
review the exemptions that have been made by the existing tax
authorities of the municipalities.
Sec. 8. When the revision of the assessed value of
all lands and improvements thereon in the province shall have been
completed by the board of revision in accordance with the provisions of
this Act the members of such board shall, on or before the fifth day of
June, nineteen hundred and three, certify over their signatures a list
of the changes made by them in the previous assessments, together with
a list of the assessments of the taxable lands and improvements in each
municipality, and the municipal council of each municipality in the
province shall file the same in the office of the secretary of the
municipality, and the list so certified shall be a substitute for the
one now existing and shall thereafter be the legal list of assessments;
and upon the list so certified thereafter collections of taxes shall be
made. The original of the revised list of assessments shall be
certified by the board and delivered to the treasurer of the province
and remain in his office, and upon this list he shall thereafter make
his collections: Provided, That the requirement of section twenty-four
of the Municipal Code that all taxes shall be payable within the three
months ending May thirty-first shall not apply to any land taxes
collected for the year nineteen hundred and three, but that, for the
year nineteen hundred and three, payment of land taxes shall be made
within a period of three months ending September first, nineteen
hundred and three.
Sec. 9. The revised tax list so made shall
constitute the lawful assessment of real property and improvements in
the several municipalities of the province until another general
assessment shall be provided by law. The provisions of existing law in
relation to the assessment and collection of taxes upon real estate and
improvements shall be applicable to the assessment and collection of
taxes upon the values in this Act provided for, so far as consistent
with this Act.
Sec. 10. No member or the board of revision shall
sit in consideration of the assessment of property in which he or any
member of his family, or any relative within the fourth degree of
consanguinity or affinity shall have an interest. In cases where any
member or members of the board shall be disqualified to act by reason
of this section, the remaining members of the board are hereby
authorized to act in such cases as a full board.
Sec. 11. Before entering the performance of their
duties each member of the board of revision shall take and subscribe
the following oath before any officer authorized to administer oaths:
"I
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will well and truly revise all the
assessments and valuations of the value of real estate and improvements
thereon, and will well and truly assess new improvements not before
assessed, all according to their true value in money and make due
certificate of the same to the treasurer of the province and to the
municipal board of each municipality as to the lands and improvements
thereon in such municipality, in accordance with the provisions of an
Act entitled An Act to provide for the partial revision of the
assessments upon real estate in the municipalities in the Philippine
Islands outside the city of Manila, being Act Numbered Five hundred and
eighty-two of the Philippine Commission. So help me God.
(In case of affirmation the last
four words to be stricken out.)
(Signature) "_______________"
"Subscribed and sworn to (or
affirmed) before me this ________ day of ______________, 19____
"________________________________"
(Signature of the officer
administering oath.)
The oaths shall be filed in the
office of the provincial secretary.
Sec. 12. The provincial secretary shall act as
secretary to the board of revision, without additional compensation. He
may employ in his office, to assist in the work of the board of
revision as his subordinates, such number of clerks and at such
salaries as shall be fixed by the provincial board. The provisions of
the Civil Service Law shall not apply to the subordinates thus
temporarily appointed, and their term of service shall end on the fifth
day of June, nineteen hundred and three, or sooner if the work required
by this Act shall have been sooner completed.
Each of the two members of the board of revision appointed by the Civil
Governor, by and with the consent of the Commission, shall receive for
each day's session of the board upon which he was in actual attendance,
the sum of five dollars, in money of the United States, and his actual
expenses for travel and subsistence, not exceeding two dollars a day,
in money of the United States, while in attendance upon the board and
its meetings, from the time he leaves his usual place of residence
until he returns to the same. In cases where the usual place or
residence of such member shall be so far distant from the capital as to
make it impracticable for him to go to his home on Sunday and return
upon Monday, he shall be allowed the per diem for Sunday, as well as
the days when the board is in actual session.
Sec. 13. The salaries and expenses lawfully
incurred in pursuance of this Act by the Board of Revision shall be
paid out of the provincial funds.
Sec. 14. The board of revision shall cease to
exercise any power under this Act on and after the fifth day of June,
nineteen hundred and three.
Sec. 15. This Act shall take effect on its
passage.
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