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By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Section one of Act .Numbered Five hundred and eighteen, entitled "An Act defining highway robbery or brigandage and providing for "the punishment therefor," is hereby amended so as read as follows:

"SECTION 1. Whenever three or more persons, conspiring together, shall form a band of robbers for the purpose of stealing carabaos, cattle, horses, rice, or personal property of any description, or for the purpose of abducting persons, either for the purpose of extortion or obtaining ransom, or for any other purpose, by means of force and violence, and shall be armed with deadly weapons for this purpose, they shall be deemed highway robbers, or brigands, and every person engaged in the original formation of the band, or joining it thereafter, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by death or imprisonment for not less than twenty years, in the discretion of the court."

SEC. 2. Section two of said Act Numbered Five hundred and eighteen is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 2. To prove the crime described in the previous section, it shall not be necessary to adduce evidence that any member of the band has in fact committed robbery or theft or abduction, but it shall be sufficient to justify conviction thereunder if, from all the evidence, it can be inferred beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was a member of such an armed band as that described in said section one."

SEC. 3. Section four of said Act Numbered Five hundred and eighteen is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. Every person knowingly aiding or abetting such a band of brigands as that described in section one by giving them information of the movement of the police or Constabulary or other peace officers of the Government, or of the forces of the United States Army when acting in aid of the Government, or by securing or receiving stolen property from such brigands, or by procuring for them supplies of money, food, clothing, arms, ammunition, or other property of any kind, or by furnishing the same to them, or by knowingly hiding, lodging, or harboring in his house or assisting in any way in the escape of  member of such a band of robbers as defined in section one, shall, upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten years and not more than twenty years."

SEC. 4. Section five of Act Numbered Seven hundred and eighty-one, entitled "An Act amending Act Numbered One hundred and seventy-five, entitled 'An Act providing for the organization of an Insular Constabulary and for the inspection of the municipal police,' and Acts Numbered Six hundred and ten, Six hundred and eighteen, and Six hundred and nineteen amendatory thereof," is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words: "Municipal policemen shall be deemed to be municipal officers for the purpose of this  section."

SEC. 5. 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. 6. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, April 27, 1904.