[ Act No. 898, September 24, 1903 ]

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE CLOSING OF THE PORT OF APARRI AS A PORT OF ENTRY, CREATING THE PORTS OF BONGAO, CAPE MELVILLE, BALABAC ISLAND, AND PUERTO PRINCESA PORTS OF ENTRY, AND AMENDING SECTION THREE HUNDRED AND ONE OF ACT NUMBERED THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:SECTION 1. The port of Aparri, in the Aparri collection district, is hereby discontinued as a port of entry and sections two and three of Act Numbered Three hundred and ninety-four, creating Aparri a port of entry and providing for customs employees thereat, are hereby repealed.SEC. 2. The port of Bongao, in the Jolo collection district, and the ports of Cape Melville, Balabac Island, and Puerto Princesa, in the Manila collection district, are hereby created ports of entry.SEC. 3. The following employees are hereby authorized at each of said ports: One collector of customs of class six, who shall act as disbursing clerk without additional compensation; one clerk of Class D, and such number of boatmen of Class K as may be necessary to the proper conduct of the customs business at each port.SEC. 4. Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to prohibit the retention of Aparri as a port open to the Philippine coastwise trade.SEC. 5. The Insular Collector of Customs is hereby authorized, upon it appearing to him that the good of the service does not require the maintenance of a custom-house and all or any of the employees provided for any port of entry created by this Act, to close any or all of said ports as ports of entry for a period not to exceed six months and to withdraw any or all of said employees: Provided, That notice of such closing shall be posted at the office of the collector of the port to be closed at least forty days before the date fixed for closing the port. During the time that any of said ports are thus closed, they shall be held to be coastwise ports, and the importation of merchandise thereat shall subject both vessels and cargo to seizure and forfeiture under the provisions of section three hundred and one of Act Numbered Three hundred and fifty-five, as amended by the following section of this Act.SEC. 6. Section three hundred and one of Act Numbered Three hundred and fifty-five of the Philippine Commission is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 301. The importation of merchandise from any port or place outside of the Philippine Islands into any port or place in the Philippine Islands, except through such ports of entry as have been or may hereafter be established by competent authority, or such importation of merchandise in a vessel of less than thirty tons burden, shall subject both vessel and cargo to seizure and forfeiture: Provided, That the importation of merchandise at the entry ports of Bongao, Cape Melville, Balabac Island, and Puerto Princesa may be made in vessels of Philippine construction of five or more tons burden without subjecting said vessels to seizure and forfeiture."

SEC. 7. 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. 8. This Act shall take effect October fifteenth, nineteen hundred and three.Enacted, September 24, 1903.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library