Act No. 2486




[ Act No. 2486, February 05, 1915 ] AN ACT FIXING A TAX UPON EVERY PERSON OR ENTITY ENGAGED IN RECRUITING OR CONTRACTING LABORERS IN THE PHILIPPINES, AND AMENDING SUBSECTION (A) OF SECTION FIFTY-THREE OF ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that: Section 1. Every person or entity who, directly or indirectly, shall engage in the Philippine Islands in contracting, enlisting, recruiting, or shipment of laborers, shall pay annually, as a tax, to the provincial treasurer of each one of the provinces where laborers are contracted or recruited, and if in Manila, to the Collector of Internal Revenue, the sum of five hundred pesos, which fund shall be subject to the conditions expressed in the following sections: Provided, That when such contracting, enlistment, recruiting, or shipment of laborers is made in representation of a corporation or person, said tax shall be paid by the same and not by each one of its agents or employees: Provided, further, That nothing contained in this Act shall be interpreted or construed in such manner as to permit any contract or recruiting of individuals of non-Christian tribes Exhibition of non-for the purpose of exhibiting same in the Philippines or Christians-in any other foreign country, which is hereby declared prohibited and unlawful: And provided finally, That nothing contained in this Act shall be applied to persons who contract individuals for other personal service or to make up the crew of a vessel. Section 2. Any company or entity engaged in the industry mentioned in the next preceding section shall be obliged to furnish free passage upon the return to these Islands of the laborer or laborers contracted, so soon as the time stipulated in the contract made with him shall have expired in case they shall have complied with the terms and conditions of the contract on their part to be kept and performed, or in case they shall have later become unfit for work on account of physical incapacity. Section 3. Any person or entity referred to by this Act License. shall annually provide himself, before engaging in the industry referred to by this law, with a license issued by the Director of the Bureau of Labor and approved by the Secretary of Commerce and Police, in which shall be expressed the name of the province or names of the provinces where he is to exercise such industry. For the issuance of said license the Director of the Bureau of Labor shall collect the sum of six thousand pesos annually which shall be covered into the Insular Treasury.(awÞhi( Section 4. The Governor-General, with the advice and consent of the Commission, shall from time to time appoint a commissioner or commissioners for service outside of the Philippine Islands, whose duty it shall be to receive and hear the complaints made by Filipino laborers, to arrange the differences between the latter and their employers, to see to the compliance of the contracts made with said laborers, and to look after their interests in general, making a report of the condition thereof to the Governor-General: Provided, That the compensation, traveling and other expenses of such commissioner or commissioners shall be fixed by the Governor-General ; but the total expense for this purpose shall not exceed six thousand pesos in any one year. Section 5. All of the contracts made with laborers shall be supervised by the Director of Labor, whose duty it shall be to permit no contracting of minors under fifteen years, and minors of eighteen years without the written consent of their parents or guardians. Section 6. Any violation of this Act shall be punished by a fine of not to exceed two thousand pesos or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or by both fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court. Section 7. Subsection (a) of section fifty-three of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows: " (a) Customhouse brokers, eighty pesos." Section 8. This Act shall take effect thirty days from the date of its passage. Enacted, February 5, 1915. The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation