[ Act No. 2815, March 04, 1919 ]

AN ACT TO REORGANIZE THE GOVERNMENT ORPHANAGE ESTABLISHED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-SIX HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE WHICH SHALL HEREAFTER BE KNOWN AS THE BUREAU OF DEPENDENT CHILDREN, TO DEFINE ITS FUNCTIONS AND AUTHORITY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

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 Government orphanage established in accordance with Act Numbered Twenty-six hundred and seventy-one, entitled "An Act to appropriate' the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pesos or so much thereof as may be necessary, for charitable purposes," is hereby reorganized and -shall hereafter be known as the "Bureau of Dependent Children" and be under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 2. The Bureau of Dependent Children shall have the powers generally exercised by other Bureaus of the Government and shall have a Director and an Assistant Director, who shall receive compensation at the rate of not to exceed five and four thousand pesos respectively, per annum.

These officers may be furnished subsistence and quarters and any other contingent service sanctioned by the Department Head.

SEC. 3. The Bureau of Dependent Children shall, under the direct executive control, direction, and supervision of the Department of the Interior, have the following powers, duties, and functions:

(a) To provide orphaned or needy children with means for their care and education and training in a useful trade or occupation at some suitable institution until they shall be able to begin to earn their own living.    The Director of the Bureau of Dependent Children shall for all legal purposes be the guardian of every child under his care.

(b) To provide the necessary care for children who are invalids since their birth  or  have  become  such  through disease, or who are in need of institutional treatment.

(c) To  care for,  educate,  reform,   and  correct minors admitted to the institution or committed to the same by the courts of justice: Provided, That minors committed by the courts of justice shall not be discharged without the knowledge and consent of the committing court.

(d) The Bureau of Dependent Children shall be authorized to make investigations or request of any agent of the authorities or police officer any assistance or information that may be necessary, and it shall be the duty of such agent to furnish the desired assistance or information.

(e) The schools in the institutions established under the control of the Bureau of Dependent Children shall adopt a curriculum as prescribed by the Director of Education, and the  certificates  issued  by  said   schools  shall  be  recognized and given consideration the same as those issued by other Government schools.
 
(f) The Bureau of Dependent Children shall have general supervision and control over all Insular, provincial, and municipal institutions including those of the chartered cities, whose purposes are the same as those of the Bureau of Dependent Children.

SEC. 4. The necessary expenses for the acquisition of land, construction of buildings, purchase of equipment, and others, shall be. determined and authorized in the appropriations for nineteen hundred and twenty and subsequent years: Provided, however, That with a view to facilitating the preliminary work, the Secretary of Commerce and Communications may, in his discretion, authorize such initial expenses of the Bureau of Dependent Children as may be considered indispensable, in connection with the preparation of plans and, whenever possible, the acquisition of all or part of the land required.

SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby empowered to authorize the operation of the Bureau of Dependent Children and the execution of any of the provisions of this Act whenever the circumstances may require it, and in addition to the authority granted in the last preceding section the Emergency Board and the Public Welfare Board may grant such necessary funds as the Secretary of the Interior may request.

SEC. 6. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, March 4, 1919.

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