Act No. 698 Authorizing the Loan of $15,000 to Batangas, 1903
The Province of Batangas still reeling, in 1903, to the after effects not only of the Philippine-American war but also other tragedies such as droughts, locust infestations, disease outbreaks and the rinderpest plague, the Philippine Commission passed Act Numbered 698 with authorized the load of $15,000 or its equivalent in local currency to the Province of Batangas.
The contents of this act are provided in their entirety below:
AN ACT authorizing the loan of fifteen 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 fifteen thousand dollars in money of the United States or its equivalent in local currency at the authorized ratio, to be expended by the provincial board in the improvement and construction of and bridges in said province and to furnish labor to the suffering poor. The sum thus borrowed shall be repaid to the Insular Treasury, without interest, in annual installments of three thousand dollars beginning two years from the date of the loan. 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 fifteen 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, March 23, 1903.