[ Act No. 2674, March 09, 1917 ]

AN ACT MAKING CERTAIN PROVISIONS RELATIVE TO THE OPERATION OF THE BUREAU OF NON-CHRISTIAN TRIBES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:SECTION 1. The Bureau of non-Christian Tribes established by section twenty-two of the Act of the Congress of the United States of August twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, entitled "An Act to declare the purpose of the people of the United States as to the future political status of the people of the Philippine Islands, and to provide a more autonomous government for those Islands," shall have a chief, to be known as Director of the Bureau of non-Christian Tribes, who shall be appointed by the Governor-General, by and with the consent of the Philippine Senate, and shall receive the salary fixed for the position by the Salary Law. The Governor-General may, whenever he shall deem it advisable, designate, with the approval of the Senate, any other civil officer of the Government to assume at the same time the office of Director of the Bureau of non-Christian Tribes; but he shall not receive any additional compensation therefor. In case of the absence or temporary incapacity of the Director of the Bureau of non-Christian Tribes, the Under Secretary of the Interior shall take charge of said Bureau.SEC. 2. The supervision and control conferred by the existing laws and heretofore exercised over the government of the provinces, municipalities, and other local political divisions of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, the Mountain Province, and the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, shall hereafter be exercised by the Bureau of non-Christian Tribes, which shall operate under the immediate executive authority, direction, and supervision of the Department of the Interior.SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the Bureau of non-Christian Tribes to continue the work for advancement and liberty in favor of the regions inhabited by non-Christian Filipinos and foster by all adequate means and in a systematical, rapid, and complete manner the moral, material, economic, social, and political development of those regions, always having in view the aim of rendering permanent the mutual intelligence between and complete fusion of all the Christian and non-Christian elements populating the provinces of the Archipelago.SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect on its approval.Approved, February 20, 1917.

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