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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Sections one thousand fifty-eight, one thousand fifty-nine, one thousand sixty, one thousand sixty-one, one thousand sixty-two, one thousand sixty-three, one thousand sixty-four, one thousand sixty-five, one thousand sixty-six, one thousand sixty-seven, one thousand sixty-eight, one thousand sixty-nine, one thousand seventy and one thousand seventy-one, of article fifteen of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven, are hereby amended to read as follows:


"ARTICLE XV.—Control of Leprosy

"SEC. 1058. Segregation or isolation of persons with leprosy.—The Director of Health or his authorized representative is empowered to cause all persons with leprosy or suspects in the Philippines to be subjected to the medical inspection and diagnostic procedure necessary to determine the presence or absence of leprosy. If it be found that the suspected person is positive bacteriologically for mycobacterium leprae, the Director of Health or his authorized representative shall turn him over to the Director of Hospitals or his authorized representative for isolation and segregation; and if it be found that the suspected Person does not have leprosy, the Director of Health or his authorized representative shall assist in his conveyance to the place at which he was taken, at government expense, unless other satisfactory arrangements are made.

"SEC. 1059. Verification of diagnosis.—If the diagnosis is Questioned, no person shall be removed to place of segregation until the diagnosis of leprosy had been verified positive bacteriologically.

"SEC. 1060. Security of property of persons with leprosy.—When the treatment, isolation, or segregation of persons with leprosy shall involve the security of property and money belonging to or held by said persons, the provincial treasurer or city treasurer as the case may be or such person as he may designate shall act as guardian pending the appointment of a lawful guardian in the province where such person resides.

"SEC. 1061. Duty to report cases of leprosy.—It shall be the duty of every police officer or other peace officer or any other person having reason to believe that any person is afflicted with leprosy to report the fact forthwith to the district health officer or any health authority of the district in which the case is found.

"SEC. 1062. Harboring of persons with leprosy.—No person shall knowingly conceal or harbor in premises under his control, or shall in any manner conceal or assist in concealing any person afflicted with leprosy, with the intent that such person be not discovered or delivered to the Director of Health or his authorized representative or shall support or assist in supporting any person with leprosy living in concealment.

"SEC. 1063. Establishment of hospitals and Sanitaria—Medical treatment.—The Director of Hospitals is authorized to establish for persons with leprosy hospitals and sanitaria and other suitable institutions at such places as may be necessary, and where such hospitals and sanitaria and other suitable institutions are established he shall order the treatment of the patients and with the concurrence of the Director of Health or his authorized representative he may discharge such patients deemed cured or free from leprosy.

The Director of Hospitals may permit any legally and technically qualified physician to engage in the treatment of persons with leprosy or any person supposed to have leprosy in any place under conditions and regulations prescribed by the Director of Hospitals with the concurrence of the Director of Health and the approval of the Secretary of Health,

"SEC. 1064. General regimen of patients.—The Director of Hospitals or his authorized representative may require from patients such amount of labor as may be considered reasonable, and the said Director may further make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem advisable for the amelioration of the condition of persons with leprosy.

"SEC. 1065. Control over persons living with persons with leprosy.—Voluntary helpers or friends while living with segregated or isolated persons with leprosy shall be under the control of the Director of Hospitals and may thereafter be subjected to observation for a period to be prescribed by him.

"SEC. 1066. Jurisdiction of Department Head over Culion reservation.—The Department Head shall have administrative control, to be exercised through the Director of Hospitals, over the Culion reservation and he shall have authority to make, promulgate, and enforce in and for said reservation, and in or upon the waters thereof, such rules and regulations, consistent with law, as may be necessary for the efficient control, protection, and management of the Culion Sanitarium.

"SEC. 1067. Justice of the peace for Culion reservation.—The Justice of the Peace for Culion reservation shall be appointed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and of Republic Act Numbered Two hundred and ninety-six and shall receive an annual compensation of two thousand four hundred pesos: Provided, however, That he is not a person suffering from leprosy.

"SEC. 1068. Control of shipping and travel in Culion reservation.—It shall be unlawful for any owner, master or other person in charge of any vessel, boat, or other craft to land passengers, discharge cargo, or receive passenger or cargo, or permit the same to be done at any place in within the jurisdiction of Culion reservation until a permit in writing has been obtained from the Director of Hospitals or the chief of the Culion Sanitarium; and it shall be unlawful for any person to land on or visit within said jurisdiction without permission from said Director or chief.

"SEC. 1069. Articles for transportation to member confined in Sanitaria.—The family of any person with leprosy confined in any sanitarium may deliver to the chief of provincial hospital or his authorized representative, once in three months, packages or parcels containing food clothing, tobacco, letters, pictures and generally all sorts of documents or papers, and nothing else, to be sent, at the expense of the Bureau of Hospitals, to the member of said family in the sanitarium for his personal use, provided the total gross weight of each such shipment to a person with leprosy shall not exceed forty kilograms; but other articles or a greater quantity can be sent upon payment of the expense of transportation by the sender.

"Family of any person with leprosy," as herein used, shall include the parents, spouse, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters of any person with leprosy confined as aforesaid; and it shall be the duty of the chief of the provincial hospital or any authorized representative of the Director of Hospitals to ascertain and assure himself of such relationship in every instance before dispatching the articles.

"SEC. 1070. How received and dispatched.—The articles above mentioned shall be received at the provincial capital or other place in the province most convenient for shipment; and it shall be the duty of the chief of the provincial hospital or authorized representative of the Director of Hospitals by means of notices in English, Spanish, and the local dialect, posted at the door of every municipal building in the province, to give information as to the date or dates when such articles will be received at the place or places indicated in such notices. Such dates shall be fixed with a view to the making of proper connection with the inter-island steamers or other means of transportation. Receipts shall be given for all articles delivered for the purpose aforesaid, and such articles shall be shipped without delay to any sanitarium by the most practicable transportation route.

"SEC. 1071. Supply stores for Sanitaria.—The Director of Hospitals may maintain a general store for the purpose of furnishing merchandise required by the residents of any sanitarium, and for the purchase of supplies, and the reimbursement of services which such residents may, under the authority of the Department Head, supply or render such sanitarium.

"The supply-store fund shall be reimbursable, the receipts from the business of the supply store being available for the payment of the expenses incident to the conduct of the same, without reappropriation."

SEC. 2. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 18, 1952.