Act No. 3077

"SECTION   1844. Powers and functions of the Bureau of Lands. The Bureau of Lands shall be charged with the administration of all laws relative to public lands not classified as timber lands, the mineral lands, the friar lands, and of all other public real property not placed under the control of any other branch, department, bureau or office of the Government by legislative enactment or competent administrative authority.

"As custodian and administrator of public lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry as non-timber lands, and of other real property of the insular Government, the Director of Lands, with the approval of the Department Head, shall have power to regulate the occupation or provisional use thereof, specifying in the regulation what kinds of licenses shall be issued by the Director of Lands, including licenses for the taking of stone, sand, gravel, and earth from lands of the public domain or from the beds of seas, rivers, streams, creeks, and other public water, where such taking is not otherwise regulated under existing law: Provided, That the amounts which may be collected for licenses to take such materials shall accrue to the roads and bridges fund of the province concerned: And provided, further, That for the purpose of this Act, provincial treasurers are designated deputies of the Director of Lands. (Sec. 1, Act No. 3852)

"The officers and employees of the Bureau of Lands shall have police authority over lands classified by the Bureau of Forestry as non-timber public lands, and other public real property under the custody and control of said Bureau and declared to be of the public domain by the courts, and shall have power to execute the decisions, resolutions, and decrees of the Bureau of Lands relative thereto, unless such decisions, resolutions or decrees are revoked or suspended by order of the Court of First Instance of the province in which the public land or real property in question is situated.

"The said Bureau shall conduct surveys of the public domain and other public property, cadastral surveys, and official surveys of private property and shall exercise such other powers as are hereinafter conferred.

"All existing records of Spanish grants and concessions of Agricultural or mineral lands, shall be preserved in the Bureau of Lands.

"The Director of Lands shall furnish or cause to be furnished, to any private person or persons applying for the same, one or more copies of such records in which such person, or persons may be personally concerned and to which he or they may be entitled, the same to be accompanied by a certificate of its correctness, if desired on the payment of the following fees:

"For each certificate of correctness, with seal of office, one peso.

"For each folio, or fraction thereof, consisting of a sheet approximately two hundred and sixteen by three hundred thirty millimeters with proper heading, double space and approximately three centimeters margin, one peso."

"SECTION 1857. Cadastral Survey Funds. Monthly statements of the Director of Lands. The Director of Lands shall at the end of each month certify to the Insular Auditor and the Insular Treasurer a Statement showing the amounts reimbursed or collected on cadastral surveys made by the Bureau of Lands and the Insular Treasurer is authorized or empowered to pay the Bureau of Lands an amount equal to amounts so certified as having been collected, and the necessary amounts to make such payments are hereby appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and such amounts shall be credited to the appropriation of the Bureau of Lands for further cadastral surveys.

"Private land surveys may also be made by private land surveyors, duly qualified as hereinafter provided; but no plan of such survey, Whether it be original or subdivision shall be admitted in land registration proceedings until approved by the Director of Lands."

"Sec. 2753. Interference with surveys and monuments, and violation of the decisions, resolutions or decrees of the Bureau of Lands. a) Any person who shall interfere with the making of any survey undertaken by the Bureau of Lands, or shall interfere with the placing of any monument in connection with any such surveys, or shall deface, destroy, or remove any monument so placed, or shall alter the location of such monument, or shall destroy or remove any notice or survey posted on the lands pursuant to law, shall be punished by fine of not more than one hundred pesos or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days or both. (b) Any person who shall interfere, violate or abet in the interference or violation or in any manner whatsoever is instrumental in the interference or violation of any valid decision, resolution or order of the Bureau of Lands affecting the concession or disposition of any portion of the public domain or shall resist in any manner whatsoever the enforcement of such decision or resolution shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred pesos or by imprisonment of not more than thirty days, or both, and shall also reimburse the party entitled by virtue of said tract of public land or to his crops and other improvements thereon as might have been sustained by him because of such violation or interference. (c) Any person who for commercial purposes and without proper licenses, takes directly stone, gravel, sand and earth from lands of the public domain or from the beds of seas, rivers, streams, creeks, and other public waters, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred pesos or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days or by both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court." (Sec. 2, Act No. 3852)