[ Act No. 3203, December 03, 1924 ]

AN ACT RELATING TO THE CARE AND CUSTODY OF NEGLECTED AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN; PROVIDING PROBATION OFFICERS THEREFOR; IMPOSING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF ITS PROVISIONS 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. Any public institution, Insular, provincial, or municipal, including those of  chartered  cities, established or that  may hereafter be established for the care,  custody, correction,  education,  and  training  of orphan, homeless, neglected, abused, defective,  and delinquent children, shall be  under the  supervision and  administration of the Office of the Public Welfare Commissioner, and the system of instruction to be adopted therefor shall be conducted  as part of the school  system under the control and  jurisdiction of the Office of the Public Welfare Commissioner.  These institutions shall be known as industrial schools or by other appropriate names, but not as reformatories or correctional institutions.SEC. 2. Any private institution or any benevolent or charitable society  incorporated under the  laws  of the Philippine Islands and duly authorized therefor by the Secretary of the Interior, upon recommendation of the Public Welfare Commissioner, the purposes of which are the same as those of  the  institutions mentioned  in  section one hereof, shall be  under the  general  inspection  and supervision  of the Office of the  Public Welfare Commissioner and the rules and regulations adopted by such institutions shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, upon the recommendation  of the  Public Welfare  Commissioner.SEC.  3. Whenever any boy or girl less than eighteen years of  age  shall  be accused in any  court of an  offence not punishable by life imprisonment or death, the court, before passing sentence of conviction, shall  suspend all  further" proceedings in the case and shall commit  such minor to the custody  of any of the institutions mentioned  in sections one and two of this Act, until said minor shall have reached his majority or for such less period as to the court may seem  proper, subject to the conditions  provided in section seven hereof, or may allow him to remain and be cared for elsewhere, under  probation  and subject to visitation and supervision of a probation  officer,  as  hereinafter provided, whom the court may require to report from time to time on the case: Provided, That the court prior to making the commitment of any minor to any private institution shall take into consideration the religion of  the minor and that of his parents or  next of kin,  and avoid  his  commitment of to any private institution not under the control and supervision of the religious sect or denomination  to which such minor or his parents  or next of kin belong.SEC. 4. The charges, affidavits, testimony or judgments against a  minor committed under this Act shall not be a bar to the exercise  of his rights  as a citizen and to his holding public office or employment.SEC. 5. Minors at present confined in  any Insular, provincial or municipal jail  who were  under  the age of eighteen years on the date of  their conviction,  may be transferred by executive order of  the  Governor-General  for the period of the unexpired portion of their sentences to any of the institutions mentioned in the  preceding  sections of  this Act: Provided, That any prisoner transferred by virtue of this section may, upon recommendation of the  Public Welfare  Commissioner, be  retransferred  by  executive order of the Governor-General to the prison or  jail from which he was transferred, there  to be confined for the unexpired portion of his sentence: Provided, further, That before the transfer of these minor prisoners herein provided, they shall not be made  to remain in the same room or inclosure where adult  convicts  are confined.  Such  minor prisoners shall  be provided  with a  suitable room for their confinement.   All reasonable and actual expenses incurred in connection with the transfer for the transportation, guarding, and  subsistence of such minor prisoners shall be borne by the province or municipality in  which they were sentenced, if they  be provincial or municipal prisoners, or by the appropriation for the Office of the Public Welfare  Commissioner if they be Insular prisoners.SEC. 6. Any institution to which minors  are committed in accordance with this  Act  shall  be entitled to  receive such sum as may  be fixed by the Public Welfare Commissioner with  the approval of the Secretary of the Interior for the care, maintenance,  instruction,  and reformation of each minor so committed.  Except as  otherwise specially  provided, the expense of the maintenance of minor delinquents shall  be borne as follows: in the case of a municipal or chartered city minor delinquent, by the city or municipality in which the offense with which the minor is charged was committed; in the case of a provincial minor  delinquent, by the  province in which  the offense was committed; and in the case of an Insular minor delinquent, by the  Office of the Public  Welfare Commissioner:  Provided, That the court may require the maintenance, in  whole or in part, of a minor delinquent committed to any institution in accordance with  this Act, by his  relatives  or those liable and able to  support and educate  him.SEC.  7. Any minor delinquent  committed to an  institution  in  accordance with sections three and five of this Act  or  allowed to stay elsewhere, may  be paroled by the head of the institution, under such conditions as the  latter may prescribe subject to the approval  of the  Public Welfare Commissioner,  or may  be returned to  the court for either sentence or dismissal.   The probation period of the minor allowed to  stay at a place other than the institutions mentioned  in sections  one and two  of  this Act shall rest with the probation officer and at  its termination he shall return such minor to the court for either sentence or dismissal.SEC. 8. Any minor arrested for an offence not punishable by life imprisonment or death shall not be kept for a period of more than twenty-four hours in  any jail or room in a police station where adult convicts are confined.  Any violation of this section shall be punishable by  a  fine of not more than one  hundred pesos.SEC. 9.  The Secretary of the Interior, upon  the recommendation  of the Public Welfare Commissioner, is hereby authorized to appoint and fix the compensation of the technical  and  administrative  personnel,  including  probation officers, of the industrial  schools mentioned in section one hereof,  until such positions shall have been included in the Appropriation Act.SEC. 10.  A probation officer shall have the following powers and duties:  (a)  he shall have the powers of a sheriff and police  officer; (b) he shall make or order such  investigations as may  be required by the court; (c)  he  shall be present in  court in order to  represent the interests of the minor when a case is heard in which such minor is a party; (d) he shall furnish the court such information and assistance as the judge may require;  (e)  he shall  take charge of the minor before and after trial  as  may be directed by the court;  and (f) he shall  bring his charge to the  court with or without warrant when such action is necessary.SEC. 11.  The Public Welfare Commissioner, subject  to the approval of the Secretary of the  Interior,  shall have the following  powers and duties:  (a) he shall have the powers of a police officer, and  shall have authority to designate persons who, because of the  nature  of  their  official duties, have to exercise the same powers;  (b)  he  shall make  investigations upon all matters relating to his  official duties; (c) he  shall prescribe  the authority to  be exercised by the head or superintendent of each industrial school over the other officers and employees thereof;  (d)  he shall fix the curricula for all  industrial schools under his jurisdiction; and  (e) he shall approve plans  for  the construction  of industrial school buildings to be built by the municipalities, provinces,  and chartered cities, and  fix the amount of land required in each  case.  The  Public Welfare  Commissioner or other person conducting any investigation authorized by him may  administer oaths and take testimony in connection therewith.SEC.  12. The boys' and girls' reformatories of the City of Manila  and  any other public institution  already  established for minor delinquents, shall be reorganized in accordance  with this Act  by administrative order  of the Secretary of the Interior.SEC. 13. Any unexpended balances from the appropriations of the Office of the Public Welfare Commissioner for nineteen hundred and twenty-four and nineteen hundred and twenty-five shall, at the request of the Public Welfare Commissioner, be made available by  the  Secretary of the  Interior for the purposes of this Act and shall not be reverted to the general funds in the Insular Treasury.SEC. 14. All provisions of this Act and other laws applicable  to  minors shall  be  liberally construed and the judgment of the court and the care, custody, and  discipline of  the  children by the persons in  charge of  them  shall approximate that  which they should receive from  their parents and they shall  be  treated, not as criminals, but as in need of aid, encouragement, and guidance. Sec. 15. All and each of the  acts inconsistent herewith are hereby  repealed.SEC. 16. This Act shall take  effect  on  its approval.Approved, December 3, 1924.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library