ment for not less than six days by printed notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the community where such property is to be sold, or by notices posted a like period in at least four public places, where there is no newspaper published: Provided, That on the authority of the respective heads of Department concerned, public property may be transferred at an appraised valuation between Bureaus, municipalities, or provinces: And provided further, That when in his discretion the public interests will be best served by such action, the Governor-General may authorize the sale of public property at private sale, subject to such restrictions as he may impose in each case. SEC. 67. When public funds or property are shipped from one place to another and the consignee, whether an agent of the Government or otherwise, shall accomplish the bill of lading or receipt therefor without notation thereon of a shortage in or damage to the public property covered by such bill of lading, such consignee shall be held for the full amount and value of such public property in default of competent evidence to the contrary satisfactory to the Auditor, a district auditor, or other committee appointed under the provisions of this Act: Provided, That evidence of the opening or tampering with any package of public property shall bind the carrier for any shortage or damage that may appear therein, and when notation is made upon the bill of lading or receipt of such evidence the burden of proof that the shortage or damage occurred after the shipment left the carrier's possession shall be upon such carrier. PROCEDURE IN CASE OF DEATH OR OTHER INCAPACITATION. SEC. 68. Whenever any officer or agent of the Insular Government responsible for public money or property for which another is accountable dies, absconds, or becomes incapacitated from any other reason, it shall be the duty of the district auditor within the district, with the consent of the proper accountable officer or agent, to take charge of the cash and property of such responsible officer or agent at once, to make an inventory thereof in the presence of one or more disinterested witnesses, and to notify the Insular Auditor forthwith, and to forward as soon thereafter as possible a duly signed and witnessed copy of the inventory taken. In the event that the proper accountable officer or agent can not at once be communicated with, the district auditor shall take charge of such cash and property without the prior consent or approval of the proper accountable officer or agent, but shall inform the latter immediately of the action taken by the quickest and most direct usual means of communication. The district auditor shall retain possession of such money and property until a duly designated successor or acting officer or agent arrives, whereupon he shall turn over to such officer or agent duly designated such money and property and take proper receipts therefor. The district auditor shall render on behalf of the deceased, absconding, or otherwise incapacitated officer or agent his final accounts and take credit therein for the money or property receipted for by his successor. SEC. 69. Whenever any officer or agent who is accountable for public funds or public property dies, absconds, or becomes otherwise incapacitated for the performance of his duties, the Governor-General or proper head of Department, as the case may be, in the case of Insular funds or property, the President of the Municipal Board of the city of Manila in the case of funds or property of that city, the Executive Secretary in the case of provincial funds or property, and the provincial treasurer in the case of municipal, township, or settlement funds or property, as the case may be, shall designate a person to take charge of such funds or property until a successor to such deceased, absconding, or otherwise incapacitated officer or agent is properly appointed and qualified, and shall appoint a committee of one or more persons to count the cash and make an inventory of the property for which such deceased, absconding, or otherwise incapacitated officer or agent was accountable, and determine the responsibility for any shortage in such funds or property. One copy of such inventory and of the report of the committee, duly certified, shall be filed with the Insular Auditor. In case such officer or agent was bonded, his sureties shall have the right to representation on such committee: Provided, That when an officer or agent responsible for public funds or property for which another is accountable dies, absconds, or becomes otherwise incapacitated, the officer or agent accountable for such funds or property intrusted to the care, custody, or use of such responsible officer or agent may appoint a committee as aforesaid, or take any other lawful measures for the protection of his interests: And provided further, That the findings of any committee appointed under the provisions of this section shall not be conclusive until they have the approval of the Insular Auditor or his duly authorized representative. GENERAL PROVISIONS. SEC. 70. The Governor-General, through his authorized agent or agents, shall make, as often as by him deemed advisable, an examination of the books and accounts of the Auditor and Treasurer, and a comparison of the results shown by the same, and also an examination and count of moneys in the hands of the Treasurer, and submit his report thereon to the Secretary of War. 66 SEC. 71. Wherever the term " appropriation" is used in this Act, the appropriations made by the Philippine Commission or other legislative body in the Philippine Islands authorized by the Congress of the United States of America are referred to; wherever the term "Government" is used in this Act, unless otherwise qualified, it shall be understood to mean the Government of the Philippine Islands; and wherever the term officer" or 66 agent" is used in this Act, it shall be understood to mean an officer or agent of the Government of the Philippine Islands, the city of Manila, a provincial, municipal, township, settlement, or other government established under the laws of the Philippine Islands and shall specifically include any officer or enlisted man of the Army or Navy of the United States or any officer or agent of any other department or branch of the United States Government who is performing any duty of or for the Government of the Philippine Islands or any of its branches, whether by its authority or otherwise. SEC. 72. All laws or parts of laws providing for traveling examiners, inspectors, special agents, or for other persons engaged in the examination of accounts, under whatever designation in any Department, Bureau, or Office, except that of the Auditor, are hereby repealed. The Auditor shall have jurisdiction over all examinations of accounts in the offices of the various officers or agents collecting or disbursing funds of the Insular Government and of the provincial governments as provided in this Act, and shall have control over all officers or employees that may be provided for by law to make such office or field examinations of accounts, and all provisions of law in conflict with this section are hereby repealed: Provided, That the Auditor is authorized to employ his examiners or agents in making such administrative investigations for the benefit of other Bureaus or Offices as such Bureaus or Offices may reasonably request. SEC. 73. Acts Numbered Ninety, One hundred and forty-five. Two hundred and fifteen, Three hundred and twenty-eight, Nine hundred and nine, and Fourteen hundred and two of the Philippine Commission and all amendments thereto are hereby repealed; and all other Acts of the Philippine Commission or parts thereof which are in conflict with this Act are likewise hereby repealed: Provided. That nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect existing appointments made under prior Acts nor to require the rebonding of officials or employees except when the Governor-General or the Auditor shall so require. SEC. 74. 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 twentysixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 75. This Act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 1793.] AN ACT To amend Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three by providing a method for enforcing the collection of the land tax in the city of Manila. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Act Numbered One hundred and eighty-three, as amended, is hereby further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sections: "SEC. 73. Fifteen days after the tax shall become delinquent the city assessor and collector shall prepare and sign a certified copy of the records of his office, showing the persons delinquent in payment of their taxes and the amounts of tax and penalty respectively due from them. He shall proceed at once to seize the personal property of each delinquent, and, unless redeemed as hereinafter provided, to sell at public auction, either at the main entrance of the municipal building or at the place where such property is seized, as he shall determine, so much of the same as shall satisfy the tax, penalty, and cost of seizure and sale to the highest bidder for cash, after due advertisement by notice posted for ten days at the main entrance of the municipal building and at a public and conspicuous place in the barrio where the property was seized, stating the time, place, and cause of sale. The certified copy of the city assessor and collector's record of delinquents shall be his warrant for his proceedings, and the purchaser at such sale shall acquire an indefeasible title to the property sold. Within two days after the sale the city assessor and collector shall make return of his proceedings and spread it upon his records. Any surplus resulting from the sale, over and above the tax, penalty, and costs, shall be returned to the taxpayer on account of whose delinquency the sale has been made. "SEC. 74. The owner of the personal property seized may redeem the same from the collecting officer at any time after seizure and before sale by tendering to him the amount of the tax, the penalty, and the costs incurred up to the time of tender. The costs to be charged in making such seizure and sale shall only embrace the actual expense of seizure and preservation of the property pending the sale, and no charge shall be imposed for the services of the collecting officer or his deputy. "SEC. 75. Taxes and penalties assessed against realty shall constitute a lien thereon, which lien shall be superior to all other liens, mortgages, or incumbrances of any kind whatsoever; shall be enforceable against the property whether in the possession of the delinquent or any subsequent owner, and can only be removed by the payment of the tax and penalty, with interest on both at the rate of six per centum per annum from the date of the delinquency. The lien for the taxes shall attach to the real property from the first day of January of the year in which the taxes are due. "SEC. 76. In addition to the procedure prescribed in section seventy-five, the city assessor and collector may, upon the warrant of the certified record required in section seventy-three, within twenty days after delinquency, advertise the real estate of the delinquent for sale, or so much thereof as may be necessary to satisfy all public taxes upon said property as above, and costs of sale, for a period of thirty days. "This provision shall be retroactive so far as to apply to all taxes heretofore assessed but not collected. "The advertisement shall be by posting a notice at the main entrance of the municipal building and in a public and conspicuous place in the barrio in which the real estate lies, and by publication once a week for three weeks in a newspaper of general circulation published in said city, if any there be. The advertisement shall contain a statement of the amount of the taxes and penalties so due and the time and place of sale, the name of the taxpayer against whom the taxes are levied, and a short description of the land to be sold. At any time before the day fixed for the sale the taxpayer may discontinue all proceedings by paying the taxes, penalties, and interest to the city assessor and collector. If he does not do so the sale shall proceed and shall be held either at the main entrance of the municipal building or on the premises to be sold, as the city assessor and collector may determine. Within five days after the sale the city assessor and collector shall make return of the proceedings and spread it on his records. The purchaser at the sale shall receive a certificate from the city assessor and collector from his records, showing the proceedings of the sale, describing the property sold, stating the name of the purchaser, and setting out the exact amount of all public taxes, penalties, and interest. "SEC. 77. Within one year from the date of sale the delinquent taxpayer, or anyone for him, shall have the right of paying to the city assessor and collector the amount of the public taxes, penalties. and interest thereon from the date of delinquency to the date of sale, together with interest on said purchase price at the rate of fifteen per centum per annum from the date of purchase to the date of redemption; and such payment shall entitle the person paying to the delivery of the certificate issued to the purchaser and a certificate from the city assessor and collector that he has thus redeemed the land, and the city assessor and collector shall forthwith pay over to the purchaser the amount by which such land has thus been redeemed, and the land thereafter shall be free from the lien of such taxes and penalties. "SEC. 78. In case the taxpayer shall not redeem the land sold as above provided within one year from the date of sale, the city assessor and collector shall, as grantor, execute a deed in form and effect sufficient under the laws of the Islands to convey to the purchaser so much of the land against which the taxes have been assessed as has been sold, free from all liens of any kind whatsoever, and the deeds shall succinctly recite all the proceedings upon which the validity of the sale depends. "SEC. 79. In case there is no bidder at the public sale of such land who offers a sum sufficient to pay the taxes, penalties, and costs, the city assessor and collector shall declare the land forfeited to the municipality, and shall make, within two days thereafter, a return of his proceedings and the forfeiture, which shall be spread upon the records of his office. 66 SEC. 80. Within one year from the date of such forfeiture thus declared the taxpayer, or anyone for him, may redeem said land, as above provided in cases where the land is sold. But, if the land is not thus redeemed within the year, the forfeiture shall become absolute and the city assessor and collector shall execute a deed, similar in form and having the same effect as the deed required to be made by him in case of a sale, conveying the land to the municipality. The deed shall be recorded as required by law for other land titles and shall be filed with the municipal secretary, who shall enter it in his record of municipal property. "SEC. 81. The assessment of a tax shall constitute a lawful indebtedness from the taxpayer to the municipality which may be enforced by a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction, and this remedy shall be in addition to all the other remedies provided by law. "SEC. 82. No court shall entertain any suit assailing the validity of a tax assessed under this Act until the taxpayer shall have paid. under protest, the taxes assessed against him, nor shall any court declare any tax invalid by reason of irregularities or informalities in the proceedings of the officers charged with the assessment or collection of the taxes, or of a failure to perform their duties within the times herein specified for their performance, unless such irregularities, informalities, or failures shall have impaired the substantial rights of the taxpayer: nor shall any court declare any tax assessed under the provisions of this Act invalid except upon condition that the taxpayer shall pay the just amount of his tax as determined by the court in the pending proceeding. "SEC. 83. No court shall entertain any suit assailing the validity of a tax sale of land under this Act until the taxpayer shall have paid into the court the amount for which the land was sold, together |