[ Act No. 1150, May 10, 1904 ]
AN ACT FURTHER DEFINING THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH FOR THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND OF THE MUNICIPAL BOARD OF THE CITY OF MANILA IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESERVATION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH OF THAT CITY, AND REPEALING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF LAW RELATIVE THERETO.
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:
Section 1. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands, acting in its capacity as a local board of health for the city of Manila, shall draft and forward, through the Secretary of the Interior, to the Municipal Board for enactment, health ordinances for that city. The Municipal Board shall enact the ordinances so forwarded to it by the Board of Health: Provided, That if the Municipal Board shall consider any health ordinance as drafted by the Board of Health and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, to be unduly prejudicial to private interests or objectionable for other reasons, it shall promptly return such ordinance through the Secretary of the Interior to the Board of Health, together with such amendments as it deems advisable. The Board of Health shall consider the amendments suggested, and shall make such changes in the ordinance, if any, as it may deem advisable, and shall return the same to the Municipal Board. In the event that the amendments, if any, adopted by the Board of Health and approved by the Secretary of the Interior are not satisfactory to the Municipal Board, the Municipal Board may appeal to the Civil Governor, who shall decide the point or points at issue and prescribe the form which the ordinance shall take. His decision shall be final. If the Board of Health shall consider that the Municipal Board is unduly delaying action relative to any health ordinance duly transmitted to it for enactment, it may appeal, through the Secretary of the Interior, to the Civil Governor, who may direct the Municipal Board to act on such ordinance or may himself approve it with such modifications as he may deem advisable, and every ordinance so approved by the Civil Governor shall have the force and effect, of law.
Section 2. The ordinances drafted by the Board of Health shall lie forwarded to the Municipal Board in triplicate. One copy of each such ordinance received by the Municipal Board shall be immediately forwarded to the Advisory Board for its consideration and action. In the event that the Municipal Board shall deem it advisable to return any ordinance to the Board of Health for amendment, it shall act upon the ordinance as returned by the Board of Health without again submitting it to the Advisory Board.
Section 3. The ordinances drafted by the Board of Health may provide for-
a. Entry and inspection at reasonable hours and in a proper manner of all buildings and premises by officers or employees of the Board of Health in the discharge of their duties, and by sanitary police when acting as sanitary inspectors.
b. Cleansing, whitewashing, ventilation, and proper sanitary maintenance of all buildings and premises; the nature and thickness of materials to be used in covering the ground surfaces of all buildings or in covering open surfaces connected with cook houses, latrines, or other places where slops or foul liquids may be thrown or deposited; the conditions under which it shall be lawful to live in, occupy or use, let sublet, or suffer or permit to he used for habitation or occupation any building or part thereof which is in an unsanitary condition, and the cleansing of buildings and forbidding their occupancy until such time as they have been placed in satisfactory sanitary condition prohibition of erection of unsanitary buildings and of the erection of buildings on unhealthful sites.
c. Fixing the maximum number of persons who may be permitted to occupy a dwelling or other building or any part thereof, and the number of lower animals that may he permitted to occupy any stable, corral, pen, pound, or other place or premises.
d. Installation and maintenance of adequate and proper drainage of buildings and premises, including the materials to be used in and the construction of plumbing systems, drains, trappings, water-closets, vaults, latrines, urinals, cesspools, and sanitary fixtures and appliances.
e. Proper sanitary maintenance, scavenging, collection and disposal of refuse, garbage, and manure, the removal and disposal of night soil, and the proper construction of receptacles for such substances, subject to the provisions of section thirty-three of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, as amended by this Act.
f. Maintaining in a proper sanitary condition hotels, restaurants, saloons, tenements, lodging houses, emigration or immigration houses, factories, workshops, jails, prisons, theaters, convents, schools, or other places of public assembly or resort; markets, bakeries, confectioneries, dairies, manufactories of aerated waters or of bottled or other drinks or of ice; food preserving establishments and other places where foods or drinks are prepared or offered for sale securing the healthfulness and purity of foods or drinks sold offered for sale in any such building, establishment, or place, and the sanitary conveyance of the same thereto and therefrom; and for such other purposes relative to their sanitary condition as the Board of Health may deem advisable.
g. Sanitary regulation of the business and fixing the location of tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, soap factories, and other offensive or unwholesome establishments, businesses or occupations which are dangerous to the public health, or the removal of the same when already established, if necessary to secure proper sanitation sanitary maintenance of butcher shops and slaughterhouses; sanitary regulation of the killing of animals thereat and of removal or conveyance of carcasses therefrom or thereto; and such other matters and things as may be deemed desirable for the purpose of securing the proper sanitary conduct of such trades, businesses, manufactories, and occupations.
h. Sanitary control and maintenance of public stables, baths, and laundries.
i. Protection from infection of all public and private water supplies and sources, and prohibition of the use of water of dangerous character for domestic purposes. Ordinances enacted for the purpose, of protecting the purity of the water supply of Manila shall apply to and be enforced over all territory within the drainage area of such water supply or within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct, or pumping station used in connection with the city water service.
j. Prevention and suppression of contagious, infectious, or communicable disease of man or animal; compulsory reporting of a case or cases of any such disease; compulsory inoculation of persons or animals in order to prevent the occurrence or spread of any such disease; cleansing and disinfection of buildings or premises where any such disease has occurred, and disinfection or destruction of bedding, clothing, or other articles contained therein; compulsory vacation, repair, removal, or destruction of any such building; quarantining of any building, premises, or place declared by the Board of Health to be infected with contagious, infectious, or communicable disease of man or animal; regulation of the movements of persons or animals into or from any such infected building, premises, or place, and the removal of the dead or of carcasses, fodder, litter, dung, clothing, utensils, or any other thing into, within, or from any such quarantined buildings, premises, or place; establishment of detention camps and contagious disease hospitals; isolation or removal to hospitals or places of detention of persons or animals which are affected by or have been exposed to any infectious, contagious, or communicable disease, and their detention in their homes, in hospitals, or elsewhere until danger of their developing or communicating such diseases has passed; prohibition of the importing or landing of cattle, carabaos, horses, or other animals, except at such places and times and subject to such restrictions as lo marking, isolation, and subsequent disposal as the Board of Health shall prescribe to prevent the introduction or spread of infectious, contagious, or communicable diseases; maintenance in a sanitary condition of all live stock pens, stables, corrals, and other places of detention or maintenance of animals; condemning, killing, and disposal of animals sick of any dangerous communicable diseases; and disposal of the bodies of animals dying from any such disease.
k. Cleansing and preservation in a sanitary condition of vessels and boats in the harbor of Manila or within the city limits not within or subject to the jurisdiction of the Quarantine Service.
l. Cleansing and preservation in a sanitary condition of the harbor of Manila, and of rivers, esteros, canals, or other water ways and their shores included within the city limits.
m. Destruction of rats, mice, insects, or vermin capable of carrying or communicating any contagious, infectious, or communicable disease, and prescribing the means and precautions to be employed on land or in vessels in port at Manila, to minimize their number and prevent their spreading infection.
n. Humane care of all persons confined or placed in public or private institutions or places of detention within the city because of sickness, deformity, imbecility, poverty, insanity, or other affliction, and provision of sanitary accommodations for persons so con lined or placed.
o. Reporting and registration of marriages, births, deaths, and other-matters deemed by the Board of Health to be of sanitary or statistical importance.
p. Registration and maintenance in a sanitary condition of morgues, undertaking establishments, receiving vaults, and places for embalming or burial of the dead.
q. Shipment, exhuming, burial, or disposal of the dead.
r. Definition, declaration, and prohibition of nuisances dangerous to the public health location and use of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools, and construction and use of private drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools.1aшphi1
s. Cleansing, drainage, or filling in of low lands where such lands are in an unsanitary condition and in the opinion of the Board of Health constitute a serious menace in the public health: Provided, That no order for the cleansing, drainage, or filling in of such lands involving a cost of more than three hundred pesos, Philippine currency, shall be effective without the approval of the Secretary of the interior, who may request from the Sanitary Engineer of the Philippine Islands a report as to the cost of cleansing, drainage, or filling in any such piece of low land, and the Sanitary Engineer shall make such report when so requested.
Section 4. All health ordinances shall he published by the Municipal Board in English, Spanish, and Tagalog. When ordinances relative to the several subjects herein before enumerated have become effective, they shall be published in convenient form for the general information of the public by the Municipal Board in English, Spanish, and Tagalog as the Sanitary Code of Manila. A copy of any health ordinance or of said code, in such one of these languages as he may elect, shall he furnished in application free of charge to any adult resident of Manila.
Section 5. Any member of the Board of Health, or any health officer duly appointed by it is empowered, and it shall he his duty, to make complaint under oath in writing against any person violating any health ordinance before the Municipal Court of Manila, and it shall be the duty of that court to issue a warrant for the arrest of such person so complained of and when arrested to try him as in other cases of violations of city ordinances: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall he construed as preventing any municipal officer or any person from also making such complaint.
Section 6. Sanitary inspection shall he made under the general supervision and control of the Commissioner of Public Health by district medical inspectors of the Board of Health, by such members of the police force of the city of Manila as shall he designated as sanitary police by the Chief of Police, and by such sanitary inspectors as may be authorized by law. Sanitary police and sanitary inspectors shall make sanitary inspections under the immediate direction of district medical inspectors, to whom they shall report the results of such inspections: Provided, That the city engineer of Manila or his duly authorized agent shall inspect and supervise the construction, repair, removal, and safety of buildings, and the ventilation, drainage, and plumbing of buildings and premises, and shall report to the Commissioner of Public Health any violations of ordinances relative to ventilation, drainage, and plumbing: And provided further, That the Board of Health shall have power to make inspections through its duly authorized agents in order to ascertain whether such ordinances are being enforced, and to initiate complaints against violators of such ordinances after consultation with the city engineer.
Section 7. Should the Board of Health find that excreta, garbage, refuse, the contents of closets, vaults, cesspools, or any other unhealthful or dangerous substance is being collected, disposed of, or allowed to accumulate by the city authorities in such a manner as to endanger the public health, it shall make complaint through the Secretary of the Interior to the Municipal Board, and should the Municipal Board fail to take seasonable and suitable measures to remedy the evil, the Board of Health shall make complaint through the Secretary of the Interior to the Civil Governor, who shall issue to the Municipal Board such instructions as he may deem necessary in the interest of the public health.
Section 8. When, in the opinion of the Board of Health, the city of Manila is threatened with an epidemic of infectious, contagious, or communicable disease, the Commissioner of Public Health shall so inform the Civil Governor, through the Secretary of the Interior, and may request the Civil Governor to issue an executive order declaring that the city is threatened with an epidemic and vesting the Board of Health with emergency powers. The Civil Governor may, in his discretion, issue such order, and in the event of his doing so, the Board of Health shall have the following emergency powers:
a. Power to enact, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, such emergency health ordinances as it may deem necessary to prevent the occurrence or spread of infectious, contagious, or communicable diseases. Such ordinances shall have the same force and effect and be enforced in the same manner as if enacted by the Municipal Board.
b. Power to appoint such temporary emergency employees as may be authorized by law. The provisions of the Civil Service Act and its amendments shall not necessarily apply to the appointment of such temporary emergency employees.
Section 9. When, in the opinion of the Civil Governor, the danger of an epidemic has passed, he shall so declare by executive order. Upon the publication of such order, all emergency health ordinances shall become of no effect, unless the Civil Governor shall in such executive order specifically declare that one or more emergency health ordinances shall remain in effect for a further period to be by him prescribed.
Section 10. Subsections (l), (u), (x), (y), and (z) of section seventeen of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three are hereby amended to read as follows:
"(l) To regulate the business and fix the location of match factories, blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, shipyards, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety by giving rise to conflagrations or explosions; to regulate the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerine, petroleum, or any of the products thereof, and of all other highly combustible or explosive materials."
"(u) To construct, maintain, and regulate the navigation of canals and water courses, and to cleanse and purify the same; to drain and fill private premises when necessary in the enforcing of ordinances enacted under the authority of paragraph (s) of section three of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and fifty."
"(x) To establish and maintain public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools."
"(y) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (h) of section three of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and fifty, to provide for the establishment of public laundries, stables, and bath houses and regulate their use."
"(z) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (g) of section three of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and fifty, to establish public markets, market houses, and slaughterhouses and regulate their use; to regulate or prohibit the establishment of such institutions by any person, firm, or corporation; to regulate the business and fix the location of tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, and soap factories."
Section 11. Section thirty-three of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, entitled "An Act to incorporate the city of Manila," is hereby amended by striking out the clause: "shall supervise the collection and disposition of all garbage, refuse, the contents of closets, vaults, and cesspools, and all other offensive and dangerous substances within the city," and by substituting therefor the clause: "shall collect and dispose of all garbage, refuse, the contents of closets, vaults, and cesspools, and all other offensive and dangerous substances within the city."
Section 12. Subsection (a) of section seven of Act Numbered One hundred and fifty-seven, entitled "An Act providing for the establishment of a Board of Health for the Philippine Islands," is hereby amended to read as follows:
"(a) The Sanitary Engineer shall inspect buildings, plumbing, waterworks, drainage and sewer systems, streams, and esteros within the limits of the city of Manila, reporting the result of such inspection to the Board of Health, and at the request of the Board of Health shall submit plans and estimates of the cost of remedying unsanitary conditions discovered by him. He shall further, at the request of the Board of Health, prepare and submit to the Board plans and estimates of the cost of improving the general sanitary condition of unhealthful districts in Manila, and shall perform such other sanitary engineering work in the city of Manila for the Board of Health as the Board may direct."
Section 13. Paragraph (h) of section four of Act Numbered One hundred and fifty-seven, entitled "An Act providing for the establishment of a Board of Health for the Philippine Islands," so far as it refers to the city of Manila, section twenty-one of Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, entitled "An Act to incorporate the city of Manila," and all other Acts or parts of Acts which are in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.
Section 14. 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 15. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, May 10, 1904.
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