[ Act No. 523, November 17, 1902 ]
AN ACT REPEALING SECTION FORTY-FOUR OF ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX, AMENDING SECTION FORTY-FIVE OF SAID ACT BY PROVIDING FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, AND AMENDING SECTION FORTY-SEVEN OF SAID ACT, AS AMENDED BY ACTS NUMBERED THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE AND THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-EIGHT, BY PROVIDING FOR FIVE ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS AND FOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW IN THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:
Section 1. Section forty-four of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the organization of courts in the Philippine Islands," is hereby repealed.
Section 2. Section forty-five, subsection (i), of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
" (i) The Attorney-General shall give his opinion in writing to the legislative body of the Islands, the Chief Executive, the heads of the four Executive Departments, and the Chiefs of the Bureaus organized thereunder, the trustee of any Government institution, and any provincial fiscal, when requested in writing, upon any question of law relating to their respective offices. All opinions rendered by the Solicitor-General shall be signed by him and approved by the Attorney-General, and skill have the same force and effect as opinions signed by the Attorney-General.1aшphi1 All other opinions shall be signed by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General shall, under the supervision of the Secretary of Finance and Justice, from time to time, edit or cause to be edited, such of the opinions of his office as the Secretary of Finance and Justice may deem valuable for preservation in volumes, and cause to be printed by the Public Printer of the Philippine Islands, in the English and Spanish languages, an edition of five hundred copies thereof, which volumes shall contain not less than seven hundred and fifty pages of printed matter, and, as to quality of paper, printing, and binding, shall be uniform in style and appearance with the Philippine Reports, and shall be numbered in the order of the volumes published. Each volume shall contain proper head-notes,a full and complete index,and such footnotes as the Attorney-General may approve. The volumes, when printed, shall be delivered to the Librarian of the Philippine Commission, who shall deliver one copy to the Chief Executive of the Islands, to the head of each of the four Executive Departments of the Government of the Philippine Islands, to the Chief of each Bureau organized thereunder, to each judge of a Court of First Instance, to each provincial secretary, to the clerk of the Supreme Court, to each provincial fiscal, to the City Attorney of the city of Manila, to the Prosecuting Attorney of the city of Manila, and two copies to the Supreme Court Library, which volumes shall not be sold or disposed of by the officials to whom they are delivered, but shall be public property appertaining to the several offices named, and remain as a part of the public documents thereof for the use of the successors of the officials named and of the public. At least ten copies shall be retained at all times in the Library of the Philippine Commission, and five copies shall be sent to the Congressional Library at Washington. The remaining volumes above the number herein provided for distribution shall be kept for exchange and for sale by the Librarian. The price per copy shall be fixed by the Secretary of Finance and Justice, and the proceeds from the sale of such remaining volumes shall he covered into the general funds of the Insular Treasury. "
Section 3. Subsections (b) and (d) of section forty-seven of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, as amended by section one of Act Numbered Three hundred and twenty-five and by section one of Act Numbered Three hundred and seventy-eight, are hereby amended, respectively, to read as follows:
" (b) There shall be five assistant attorneys, who shall be appointed by the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Philippine Commission, whose salaries shall be as follows: One at two thousand four hundred dollars per annum, one at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per annum, two at one thousand eight hundred dollars per annum, each, and one at one thousand six hundred dollars per annum. If shall be their duty to render such services in the performance of the duties of the Attorney-General as may be assigned to them.
" (d) The Attorney-General shall, whenever in his opinion the public interest requires it, upon the approval, of the Secretary of Finance and Justice, employ and retain in the name of the Philippine Islands such attorneys and counselors-at-law as he may deem necessary to assist him in the discharge of his duties, and shall stipulate with such assistant counsel with regard to their compensation, and shall have supervision of their conduct and proceedings. In addition to the compensation provided for by agreement with the Attorney-General, such special attorneys and counselors shall receive their actual and necessary traveling expenses incurred when in the performance of their duties. "
Section 4. The salary provided for one employee of class four in the office of the Attorney-General by Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety shall be payable to the assistant attorney herein provided for whose salary is fixed at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and after the appointment of such assistant attorney the Attorney-General shall not have authority to employ the employee of class four provided for in said Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety.
Section 5. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage, of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.
Section 6. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, November 17, 1902.
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