Section 1.
Section thirteen of Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred and fifty-two, as
amended by Act Numbered Thirty-five hundred and twenty-three and
Republic Act Numbered One hundred and five, is further amended to read
as follows:
"Section 13. In
the event of the appropriations not organizing in accordance with the
provisions of the next preceding section or during the time in which
the rights of using the public water which have been appropriated are
being determined and adjudicated the system shall be temporarily
administered under this Act as follows:
"(a) By the municipal council, when the system
affects one municipality alone;
"(b) By the provincial board, when it affects two or
more municipalities of a province;
"(c) By the Director of Public Works, when it affects
two or more provinces.
"The regulations issued for the administration, used and distribution
of waters shall be previously approved by the Irrigation Council, and
in the preparation of those regulations all the persons interested
shall be given a hearing.
"The cost of this service shall be a lien upon the crops, in the first
place, and in the second place, upon the land of the water users and
ditch owners, in accordance with the distribution thereof, as shown by
the accounts of the municipal council, the provincial board, or the
Director of Public Works, which distributions shall be based upon the
irrigable area held by each appropriator or ditch owner, in proportion
to the total area served by the system: Provided, however, That the
funds necessary to defray the administration expenses prior to the
expiration of each agricultural year (the period intervening between
the beginning of the planting and the completion of the harvesting of
the crops), in accordance with the appropriation, shall be advanced by
the municipality or the province out of its funds, or by the Director
of Public Works, out of any unappropriated funds in the National
Treasury, and shall be reimbursed by the landowner or ditch owner at
the end of each year with interest at the rate of four per centum;
Provided, further, That the funds that may be advanced by the Director
of Public Works shall not exceed one million six hundred thousand pesos
in any one year: Provided, finally, That in the event of the
municipalities or provincial boards being without funds to cover these
expenses the administration of such system shall be given to the
Director of Public Works for such time as the funds advanced to meet
said expenses are paid from the National Treasury.
"The municipal and provincial treasurers shall, in the performance of
their official duties, collect the charges for administration expenses
for each year upon the completion of each harvest, acting in this
respect as delegates of the Director of Public Works. Such lien have
preference over all other liens except that for taxes on the land and
any mortgage lien in favor of the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation,
or its successor, and such preferred lien shall not be removed until
all charges are paid or the property is sold for payment thereof.
Within one year after default of payment on an installment payable on
any parcel of land, the municipal mayor, the provincial governor or the
Director of Public Works shall file with the clerk of the Court of
First Instance of the District in which the land is situated, a list of
all lands upon which default has been made. The clerk of the court
shall thereupon publish in the manner provided for the publication of
the summons in a civil action, a list of the lands so filed by the
Director of Public Works, accompanied by a notice requiring the owners
to file an answer thereto within thirty days after the completion of
the publication.
"Upon the filing of an answer by the person interested, the action in
respect to such person shall proceed to judgment, as provided for other
actions by the Rules of Court. Upon termination of such thirty days,
judgment shall be entered against such persons as have not answered,
and their lands, or portion thereof, deemed necessary, shall be sold,
after ten days' public notice, at public auction by the sheriff to
satisfy such preferred lien.
"Any excess over the amount of said lien and the cost of such procedure
shall be returned to the interested person who shall have one year
thereafter to redeem his land by payment of the amount of the judgment
and cost with interest at six per centum: Provided however, That in the
event of the cost of maintenance being so exceptionally high in any
year that it exceeds fifty per centum of the net profits, such
exceptional cost shall be distributed in an equitable manner, over two
or more years, but not more than five: And provided, further, That in
the case in which a crop, is unharvested at the time of the execution
of the lien the execution shall be levied first on said crop.
"In the preparation of the regulations mentioned in this and in the
next preceding section, the customs and usages of each locality shall
be taken into consideration, and in these regulations one day of the
year shall be fixed for a meeting of all persons interested for the
purpose of preparing an estimate of expenditure of the next succeeding
year."
Sec. 2. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 18, 1952
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