PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES, CODES & ISSUANCES
PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES AND CODES
REPUBLIC ACTS
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 746 - AN ACT TO
AMEND SECTION TWENTY-EIGHT, FIFTY-NINE, SIXTY-ONE, SIXTY-TWO,
SIXTY-FOUR, SIXTY-EIGHT, SEVENTY-THREE, AND ONE HUNDRED, OF
COMMONWEALTH ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN, AS AMENDED,
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE MINING ACT |
Section 1.
Subsection (a) of section twenty-eight of Commonwealth Act Numbered One
hundred thirty-seven, known as the Mining Act, is hereby amended to
read as follows: "Sec. 28. No
prospecting shall be allowed:
Sec. 2. Section fifty-nine of Commonwealth Act
Numbered One hundred thirty-seven, known as the Mining Act, is hereby
amended to read as follows:"(a) In a mineral reserve which has been proclaimed closed to mining locations, and in reservations established for other purposes, except by the Government." "Sec. 59.
Fifty per centum of the fees collected by authority of the preceding
section shall accrue to the province and fifty per centum of the same,
shall accrue to the municipality in which the mining claim is located.
In the case of chartered cities the full amount shall accrue to the
city concerned. The city or municipality and province shall provide
funds for the necessary personnel, postage, supplies and materials, and
equipment needed by the mining recorder in the registration and safe
keeping of mining documents."
Sec. 3. Section sixty-one of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Sec. 61.
Conflicts and disputes arising out of mining locations shall be
submitted to the Director of Mines for decision: Provided, That the
decision or order of the Director of Mines may be appealed to the
Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources within thirty days from
the date of its receipt. In case any one of the parties should disagree
from the decision or order of the Director of Mines or of the Secretary
of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the matter may be taken to the
court of competent jurisdiction within thirty days from the receipt of
such decision or order; otherwise the said decision or order shall be
final and binding upon the parties concerned."
Sec. 4. Section sixty-two of the same Act, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows: "Sec. 62.
Any qualified person making a valid location of a mining claim or
claims, his successors, and assigns, acquires thereby the right of
exploration and occupation from the date of the registry of the claims
in the office of the mining recorder; and if he applies for lease of
said claim or claims and, upon investigation, it shall be found that it
is free of claims and conflicts, or that his application appears to be
prima facie well founded, subject to the rules and regulations that the
Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may prescribe, he shall
be entitled, before the lease is granted as provided in this Act, to a
temporary permit, to be issued by the Secretary of Agriculture and
Natural Resources within forty-five days from the date application for
such permit, accompanied by the necessary technical description and
survey plan of mining claim or claims, is filed, to mine, extract and
dispose of minerals from said claim or claims for commercial purposes,
subject, however, to the payment of royalties provided in the National
Internal Revenue Code, as amended, for claims covered by lease:
Provided, however, That the holders of mining claims located under the
Act of Congress of July one, nineteen hundred and two, as amended, who
may apply for a lease or leases thereon under the provisions of section
sixty-eight of this Act, as amended, subject to the rules and
regulations that the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may
prescribe, may extract minerals therefrom for commercial purposes
without such temporary permit until such time as the leases applied for
are granted subject, however, to the payment of royalties provided for
in the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended, for claims covered
by leases and to the condition that the mining claim or claims to be
developed or exploited shall first be properly surveyed: Provided,
finally, That the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources may at
any time cancel for violation of laws and regulations and after due
hearings the temporary permit granted under the provision of this Act,
and in the case of unpatented mining claims located under the Act of
Congress of July one, nineteen hundred and two, as amended, stop the
extraction of minerals therefrom for commercial purposes, without any
responsibility on the part of the Government as to expenditures for
development works or exploitation purposes that might have been
incurred by the applicants, pending the determination of their
applications for lease."
Sec. 5. Section sixty-four of the same Act is
hereby amended to read as follows:"Sec. 64.
The Director of Mines may designate competent mineral or deputy mineral
land surveyors to survey mining claims for any necessary purpose under
the provisions of this Act. He is also hereby empowered to fix the
bonds of duly qualified deputy mineral land surveyors and to issue the
necessary regulations governing the execution and verification of
surveys of mineral lands in the Philippines. All applications for
official surveys of mining claims shall be filed with the Director of
Mines before or upon the filing of the lease application, and the
necessary survey of the mining claim or claims shall be made within a
reasonable time thereafter, and the expenses of such surveys shall be
paid by the applicants. They shall be at liberty to employ any such
deputy mineral surveyor to make the survey at the most reasonable rate."
Sec. 6. Section sixty-eight of the same Act, as amended is hereby further amended to read as follows: "Sec. 68.
Application for a lease on a mining claim shall be fixed within four
years from the date of the recording of the claim in the office of the
mining recorder. Failure to file such application within the period
above-mentioned shall be deemed an abandonment of the mining claim, and
the land embraced within such claim shall thereupon be open to
relocation in the same manner as if no location of the same had ever
been made: Provided, That the original locator, his heirs, or his
assigns, who has or have thus failed to file a lease application on the
claim shall not be entitled to relocate, directly or indirectly, the
land embraced within such claim, or any part thereof."
Sec. 7. Section seventy-three of the same Act is
hereby amended to read as follows:"Sec. 73. At
any time during the period of application, any adverse claim may be
filed under oath with the Director of Mines, and shall state in full
detail the nature, boundaries, and extent of the adverse claim, and
shall be accompanied by all plans, documents, and agreements upon which
such adverse claim is based: Provided, however, That no adverse claim
from any person, association, partnership or corporation, whose protest
filed under section sixty-one of this Act has already been finally
decided by the Director of Mines and/or the Secretary of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, shall be entertained. Upon the filing of any
adverse claim all proceedings except the publication of notice of
application for lease and the making and filing of the affidavit in
connection therewith, as herein prescribed, shall be stayed until the
controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of competent
jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the duty of the
adverse claimant, within thirty days after filing his claim, to
commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to determine
the controversy and to prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to
final judgment, and a failure to do so shall be considered as a waiver
of his adverse claim. After such judgment shall have been rendered, the
party whose right to a lease on the mining claim in controversy, or any
portion thereof, shall have been established thereby, may, without
giving further notice, file a certified copy of the judgment with the
Director of Mines, and description required in such cases, together
with the proper fees, whereupon a lease may forthwith be granted
thereon on such mining claim or on such portion thereof as the
applicant may be entitled to under the decision of the court. If the
decision of the court is that several parties are entitled to leases
upon separate and different portions of the mining claim, the subject
matter of the application, and such parties have theretofore applied
therefor, leases may forthwith be issued to the said several parties
according to their respective rights as determined by the decision. If
in any action brought pursuant to this section a right to a lease upon
any of the claim in controversy shall not be established by any of the
parties, the court shall so find and judgment shall be entered
accordingly. In such case the clerk of the court rendering judgment
shall file a certified copy of the judgment with the Director of Mines,
whereupon the proceedings under the lease application shall be
dismissed and the application denied."
Sec. 8. Section one hundred of the same Act is
hereby amended to read as follows:"Section 100.
Any person who, without a mines temporary permit or mining lease shall
extract minerals and dispose of the same for commercial purposes,
belonging to the Government or from a mining claim or claims leased,
held or owned by other persons without the permission of the lawful
lessee, holder or owner thereof, or shall steal ores or the products
thereof from mines or mills, shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned from
six months to six years or pay a fine of from one thousand pesos to
twelve thousand pesos, or both, in the discretion of the court, besides
paying compensation for the damage caused thereby: Provided, That in
the case of association, partnership, or corporation, the president or
manager thereof shall be responsible for the acts committed by such
association, partnership or corporation."
Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect upon its approval. Approved: June 18, 1952 |