Act No. 470 Authorizing the Load of $10,000 to the Province of Batangas, 1902
By April 1902, with the surrender of General Miguel Malvar to the American authorities, the Philippine-American war was for all intents and purposes ended. Batangueños erstwhile living in concentration camps enforced by the United States Military under the instructions of General J. Franklin Bell could, therefore, return to their homes and civilian lives.
Rebuilding their lives was not going to be easy since the crops of these people had been left unattended for months. Moreover, Batangas was beset by diseases for both humans and animals and was even affected by droughts and locus infestations. As such, to help civilian governance and help civilians resume their lives, the Philippine Commission passed Act Numbered 470 authorizing the loan of US$10,000 to the Province of Batangas.
The contents of the act provided in their entirety below:
AN ACT authorizing the loan of ten thousand dollars in money of the United States or its equivalent in local currency at the authorized ratio to the Province of Batangas
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:
SECTION 1. The provincial board of the Province of Batangas is hereby authorized to borrow, by resolution, from the Insular Government, the sum of ten thousand dollars in money of the United States, or its uivalent in local currency at the authorized ratio, to be expended by the provincial board for the general purposes of the provincial government in accordance with the provisions of “The Provincial Government Act.” The sum thus appropriated shall be repaid to the Insular Treasury in three equal annual installments on the first days of January of the years nineteen hundred and four, nineteen hundred and five, and nineteen hundred and six, without interest. The amount of the loan shall be paid to the provincial treasurer upon receipt of the resolution of the provincial board, and shall be by him disbursed upon order of the provincial board as in other cases.
SEC. 2. There is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of ten thousand dollars in money of the United States or its equivalent in local currency at the legal rate, in order to comply with the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 3. 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.
SEC. 4. This act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, October 6, 1902.