Opinion of Secretary of Justice -Establishment of public libraries

Title

Language

English

Year

1949

Subject

Public libraries. Philippines.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[This contains the opinion of the Secretary of Department of Justice regarding the establishment of public libraries in any province, town, or city without the intervention and supervision of the Bureau of Public Libraries]

Fulltext

Opinion of Secretary of Justice-,ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES Republic of the Philippim~s DE!P ARTMENT OF JUSTICE Manila 7th lndorsement April 28, 1948 Respectfully returned to the Director of Public Libraries, Manila, thru the Honorable, the · Secretary of Education. Opinion is requested as 'lo whether public libraries may be organized' by any province, town, or city without the intervention and su·pervision of th ~ Bureau of Public Libraries. Attention is invited to section 1693 of the Revised .Administrative Code, which provides that "to the Philippine Library and Museum shalll pertain not only books, librarie3, and library materials acquired for its immediate use bu·h also all books, libraries, and library material belonging to the Insular Government or to any Department, Bureau, Office, or subdivision thereof, subject to action by · ihe GovernorGeneral under section Oll'e thousand six hundred and ninety-one hereof." Executive Order No. 94 has changed the name of the office to Bureau of Public Libraries. It would seem that by virtue of this section, all public libraries in the iPhilippines, including those of provinces, towns, and cities, these being subdivisions of the Government, are under the supervision of lhe Bureau of 1 Public Libraries. Section 1691 of the same Code to ·Nhich section 1693 refers provid;es., however, that "the Governor-General shall have authority to direct that pictures, paintings, photographs, books, documents, manuscripts, pamphlets, , monographs, maps, and a• ll objects of artistic, historical, or sci-entific value of any kind, of any Bureau, Office, or dependency of the Government, which are not absolutely necessary for the work and current official use of the Office, Bureau, or dependency concerned, shall be transferred, upon propel· imentory, to the Philippim~ LiMARCH, 1949 brary and Museum 1o be preserved and [\dministered by the office, bureau or depend·ency concerned, and it is only tipon their transfer to the .Bureau of Public Libraries that they are placed under the administration of the latter. This is proof that the law contempla'les cases where a public library may not be under the supervision of the Bureau of Public Libraries. Section 1696, paragraph 2·, . of the Code furthermore provides that "the property responsibility for such portions of the library as are housed in a Bureau or Office not under the control of the Philippine Library and Museum shall rest upon the Bureau or Office having th.e custody thereof; and the employees occupied in cataloguing and caring for the books shall be employees of such Bureau. or Office." This means that such public library :s not under the supervision of the Bureau of Public Libraries since the properly responsibility therefor rests exclusively upon the Bureau or Office concerned and the employees are con6idered employees of t·he bureau or office in which the library is housed. Supp}ementing this provision, section 1697, paragraph 2, directs that "the purchase of books for branches of the ~ibrary in the keeping of other Bureaus and Offices shall be fimmced· by the Bureau or Offke concerned x x x." These provisions, altho expressly referring only to libraries in bureaus or offices, apply also to a public library established by a town, city, or provi!~ce, because towns. provinC'es, and cities are neither under the control of the Bureau of Public Libraries and enjoy even greater autonomy than bureaus or offices in the Nationa'l Government. Attention is also directed to Opinion No. 131, series 1940, in which the predecessor in office of the undersigne>d held that the employees working in the branches of the National Library (Continued on next page) Page 179 Establishment ... in the provinces, cities or municipalities are subordinate emploY'ees of the National Library, and should· be appointed by the Secretary of Public Instruction. This opinion, however, involves branches of the Nationail Library to the maintenance of which the province, city, or town merely contrib11tes by appropriating funds to pay the salaries of some of the employees in such branch and to defray other expenses. (See 2nd Par., Op. 131, s. 1940.) The public libraries which are the subject. of this query are, on the other hand, not branches of the Bureau of Public Libraries but are separate libraries established and oper'lted exclusively by ·the town, province, or city and supported wholly by local funds. Convincing proof that not all publir libraries are intend'f:d to be subject to the supervision of the Bureau of Public Libraries is found in the con. ti~ast between the provisions relative to the Bureau of Education and those referring to the Bure~u of Public Libraries. Section 909 of the Revised Administrative Code 1Jrovides: "To the Bureau of Educa:tion (changed to ;B·ureau of 'Public Schools, by Executive Order No. 94, Sec. 83) is committed the administration of the public 3chool system and the supervision of the general school inte:·ests of the Philippine Islands x x x." The terms "public school system" and "general :;chool interests" are used without qualification in this section, and are broad enough to cover all public schools in the Philippines. All public schools consequ,•ntly fall within the supervision of the Bureau of Public Schools. In contras.t, nowhere in the Revised Adminisfrative Code or :my other law is there found a provision s.imilar to section 909 granting the ·Bureau of Public Libraries grneral superint·2ndence over all iJibraries established at imblic expense. On the contrary as already previously shown, a numbe'r of Provisions in the Revised A dministra-. tive Code exist which give evidence Page 18() Acquisition ... basds of insuring the correctness of ~uch verification. !For this purpose it is suggested that provincial treasurers .. as well as city treasurers be requested to submit all requests for bonding to the provincial or city auditor concerned for comment before they are sent to the Treasurer of the Philippines. The Provincial or City Auditor will record such applications in ".Bond Index" card obtainable from the Bureau of Printing. Each card is for ·2ach bondalYle position which , can be determin_ ed from .the approved , plantillas or budgets. The status of each request for bonding should once in a while he ascertained from the provincial or city treasurer to see whether the same has been approved already by the authorities concerned. The operation of the provincial or cHy garage as requ.ired by Executive Order No. 172, series of 1938, as amended, may also be mentioned. All government land transportation except thos·e purchased from the road and bridge fund should be kept in the p r o v i n c i a 1 or city garage and operated under the garage system. Exception from this requirement was sought from time to time and the request has invariably been recommended for disapproval. iProvincfal and city auditors are therefore expected to see to it that the said motor vehicles are operated by.the district or city engineers concerned under the garnge s~s·tem. In this connection :t should be stated that in view of the amendment by Executive Order No. 51, ~eries of 1947, the rate to be set aside i:s reserve for the acquisition of new cars to r2place the old Ol"!es should be l"0.05 per kilometer for automobile and '!''0.0375 per kilometer for jeep. )f an illtent to permit the establishment of public libraries removed from the authority of the Bureau of Public Libraries. .For the foregoing- reasons, the query is answered in the affirmative. (Sgd.) ROMAN OZAETA Secretary of Justfoe THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVIEW

pages

179-180

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