REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1242 - AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION TWENTY OF COMMONWEALTH ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE PUBLIC LAND ACT, AS AMENDED.

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

SECTION 1. Section twenty of Common wealth Act Numbered One hundred and forty-one is hereby amenda to read as follows:

"SEC. 20. If at any time after the approval of the application and before the patent is issued, the applicant shall prove to the satisfaction of the Director of Lands that he has complied with all the requirements of law, but cannot continue with his homestead, through no fault of his own, and there is a bona fide purchaser for the rights and improvements of the applicant on the land, and that the conveyance is not made for purposes of speculation, then the applicant, with the previous approval of the Director of Lands may transfer his rights to the land and improvements to any person legally qualified to apply for a homestead, and immediately after such transfer, the purchaser shall file a homestead application for the land so acquired and shall succeed the original homesteader in his rights and obligations beginning with the date of the approval of said application of the purchaser. Any person who has so transferred his rights may not again apply for a new homestead. Every transfer made without the previous approval of the Director of Lands shall be null and void and shall result in the cancellation of the entry and the refusal of the patent."

SEC. 2. All provisions of law and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 10, 1955.