June 18, 1973

[1] Official Gazette for June 19, 1973: THE PRESIDENT urged the country’s war veterans to form themselves into working units to undertake development projects, specially on rural level. The Chief Executive, in a speech read for him by Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Espino during the national convention of the Veteran’s Federation of the Philippines in Fort Bonifacio, stressed that the Filipinos are now waging what he termed as “the battle of development.” He suggested that the VFP and its members must form themselves into working units to assist in cooperative development, community and agricultural development, the promotion of small business ventures and other social and economic activities. He informed the veterans that he has authorized the Philippine Veterans Bank to funnel P5 million from the earnings of the $31 million veterans trust fund to initially fund the veterans investment and development corporation, a novel project to provide socio-economic assistance to veterans, especially the indigent ones. THE PRESIDENT issued two decrees aimed at strengthening the country’s shipping industry. Presidential Decree Nos. 214 and 215 are intended to make the local shipping industry more competitive in the worldwide maritime trade and to serve the increasing needs of Philippine overseas commerce. The Presidential decrees also grant to Filipino corporations who intend to engage in overseas shipping the privilege to constitute a mortgage (or any other lien or incumbrance) on such vessels with any bank and any foreign or domestic financial institutions. Presidential Decree No. 215 enforces an earlier announcement that the Government is withdrawing a 17 per cent levy on imported vessels. Presidential Decree No. 214, on the other hand, eliminates provisions in the “Philippine Overseas Shipping Act of 1955” which had deterred the procurement of additional vessels for the country. GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) has started to distribute mid-year dividend cheeks amounting to P25 million to its policy holders. This is the first dividend declaration of the GSIS this year. The second would be this coming December to bring Christmas cheers to GSIS members. GSIS General Manager Roman Cruz Jr. said that to forestall fraudulent encashment of these dividend checks through tampering, the GSIS limits the value of each dividend check to a maximum of P300. Any dividend over this amount will be contained in a separate cheek so that members with dividends of Over P300 will receive two or more checks to cover the entire amount of their dividends. CUSTOMS COMMISSIONER Rolando Geotina and Commodore Romulo Espaldon , chief of military supervisory group in the customs zone appealed to the public doing business with the Bureau of Customs to help preserve the gains in the reform drive achieved in this major revenue-collecting arm of the Government. The appeal was made during a dialogue with customs brokers, stevedores, brokers, arrastre workers, labor leaders and officials of E. Razon, Inc. The public, doing business with the customs bureau should be the last persons who should attempt to block reforms in the zone because all these changes directly benefit these people, Commodore Espaldon said. On the other hand, Commissioner Geotina said that his office is ready to receive any complaint against any customs-man and take drastic action against anyone who has not “mend his ways. He warned that any person caught taunting with customs regulations will be barred from transacting business and entering customs premises. BOARD of Transportation has given all operators of public vehicles until August 31, 1973 to register all of their units authorized under their certificate of public convenience. The BT, however, said that those who can avail themselves of the grace period are the operators whose failure to register does not exceed one year from August 31 1972. The BT’s memorandum further stated that failure of the operators to register all their units within the grace period and failure of all other operators to register their units longer than one year from August 31, 1972 shall be a cause for the cancelation of the certificate. BUREAU of Plant Industry Director Eliseo C. Carandang said the loses due to sprouts and mold growth on potatoes and onions can be minimized by exposing the crop to a maximum of 15,000 rands of gamma rays from Cobalt 60. Director Carandang said that this finding was made by Mrs. Jovita Z. de Jesus, a BPI plant pathologist. She reported that irradiation extends a month or two the shelf life or storage life of potato and onion because of the prevention of growth of molds and sprouts. The Food and Drug Administration has temporarily approved the irradiation of dose treatment on potatoes as it found “no evidence of harmfulness.”

[2] Official Gazette for June 20, 1973: THE PRESIDENT called on the country’s boy and girl scouts to help in the “salvaging operation” of some five million out-of-school youths. The President said these two youth organizations can accomplish much in improving the lots of the young men and women who are out of school. Addressing the nation from Maharlika Hall at Malacañang, the President also appealed to all Filipinos to extend all possible support to the scouting movement. The Chief Executive made the appeal on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebration of Philippine scouting, which coincides with the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Jose Rizal. INCREASING demands for Philippine products have resulted in a $83 million trade surplus last May, the Central Bank announced. The May 1973, trade surplus is $51 million higher than the surplus registered in May 1972. As a result of this favorable foreign exchange transactions, the country’s international reserve climbed by $83 million to $601 million last May as compared to the increase of $47 million a year ago. The Central Bank attributed the significant improvement in receipts to the Government’s aggressive exports promotion campaign, the sharp increase in world prices for most of the Philippines’ products, and the rising demand for Philippine exports from the country’s trading partner. THE PRESIDENT urged rural bankers to extend credit to farmers in the most expeditious way to help the Government in its intensified rice production program. Speaking at the induction of officers of the Rural Bankers Association at the Malacañang reception hall, the President said rural bankers have a pivotal role in the supervision of credit for various Government programs such as Masagana 99. In view of this, he said the Government will fail in its agricultural development efforts unless rural bankers helped the country’s farmers with more loans. He said he was happy to hear that rural bankers so far have already extended some P45 million in loans to Masagana 99 farmers. He later assured the rural bankers that, the Government is ready to extend all necessary assistance to ensure the success of their undertakings. GOVERNMENT agencies involved in land reform have integrated their efforts to insure faster implementation of the program. This resulted froma conference of representatives of these agencies hosted by the Philippine Constabulary at Camp Crame. To hasten implementation of the program, the conferees agreed on the following: 1) No new ejectment cases will be accepted by the courts of agrarian relations on lands within the purview of Presidential Decree No. 27. This decree directs that no tenant-farmer should be ejected from his landholdings; 2) All pending cases in courts between tenant-farmers and landowners shall lie held in abeyance upon petition of any party litigant; 3) With regard to rentals to be paid by tenant-farmers and landowners, the Department of Agrarian Relations regional directors shall still determine and fix the provisions of Section 34 of R.A. 3844 as amended pertinent presidential decrees, letters of instructions and directives. AMOUNT of P29 million in Philippine National Bank funds has been earmarked as initial capital for rehabilitation and reconstruction work of 11 flood-damaged Luzon provinces. PNB President P. O. Domingo announced that the PNB has authorized the release of the amount for the reconstruction of roads, bridges and irrigation systems in the provinces heavily devastated by last year’s floods. The loans, which carry 11 per cent annual interest, will form the non-revolving credit lines by provincial governments for their initial capitalization in the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure projects estimated at P200 million. The PNB program is part of the government’s Project “Disaster Recovery”, an agreement signed last year by USAID and the National Economic and Development Authority. THE GOVERNMENT’S campaign against business irregularities has been expanded to cover repair shops following numerous complaints on defective repairs, poor workmanship and cannibalizing of spare parts of several of these establishments. Department of Trade Secretary Troadio T. Quiazon Jr, placed priority on the investigation of these complaints which also included those against known and erstwhile reputable automotive and appliance repair shops. Mr. Quiazon ordered a study on the feasibility of requiring management and owners of these repair shops to issue guarantee slips for every job, work or repair undertaken and to require them to list their service fees (at least on major repair works) and have them posted for ready reference. The trade secretary directed agents of the customs bureau and the Fair Trade Board to look into the licenses of automotive and appliance repair shops done by understudies. SECRETARY of Information Francisco S. Tatad advocated the democratization of the mass media and revealed that the Department of Public Information has launched a community newspaper network project. Under this plan, residents of particular region or province will be organized into cooperatives which will produce community newspapers. The information secretary said he is advocating the democratization of the mass media in order that no media information will merely serve a certain sector without serving all the other sectors in the society. Secretary Tatad revealed his plan in a speech at the seminar of the Knights of Rizal at the National Library Auditorium. DEPARTMENT of Trade directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to draft the implementing guidelines for the setting up of regional headquarters of multi-nation companies in the Philippines. Secretary of Trade Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. said that any foreign business entity wishing to establish regional or area headquarters in the Philippines has to secure a license from the SEC. In order to avail of the incentives provided for under the decree, the multi-national company will, within 30 days from receipt of the SEC certificate of registration, submit to the SEC a certificate of inward remittance from a local bank. The inward remittance will show that the applying firm has remitted to the Philippines at least $30,000 or its equivalent in other countries and converted the same to Philippine currency. Annually, the firm will submit proof to the SEC of inward remittance amounting to at least $50,000 or its equivalent in other foreign currencies during the past year. COMMISSION on Elections clarified an announcement that there will be two lists in the registration of barangay members. Comelec Chairman Leonardo Perez made the clarification during the TV program Pulong pulong sa Kaunlaran. The Comelec chairman said that there will be only one list to be accomplished in Comelec Barangay Form No 2 but there will be two groupings. These groupings are 1) Those who are 15 years old or over but less than18 years old and 2) Those who are 18 years old or over. When the barrio captains or barangay heads prepare the list of barangay members registered during the period June 19 to July 4, the segregation of the two groupings will be made.

[3] Official Gazette for June 21, 1973: THE PRESIDENT assured that there is no real emergency in the country s peace and order condition to warrant the mobilization of military reservists for combat duty. The Chief Executive made this assessment to dispel doubts that reservists now being called to register will be utilized to put down any insurrection or rebellion in pockets of troubled areas in the country. The President made the clarification during a courtesy call of the first batch of reserve officers called to a 30-day active duty in consonance with the civil emergency plan of the Government. He told the 38 officers that the registration of reservists will update government listings. These will cover ROTC graduates, those who underwent military training as 20-year-olds, recognized guerillas, veterans, retired military personnel and those who were honorably discharged from the armed forces. CENTRAL BANK has deputized all banking institutions and some government agencies to effect the surrender and exchange of old currency notes from July 1 to December 31 this year. The CB discussed the mechanics for the exchange of notes for newer ones bearing the legend of “Bagong Lipunan” with representatives of banking institutions and government agencies involved in the implementation of the demonetization of the old currency. The guidelines are intended to facilitate the withdrawal of the old currency and the distribution of the Bagong Lipunan-marked notes. The CB and the representatives agreed that all banking institutions within the Greater Manila area will surrender the old notes to the CB either by depositing or exchanging these currencies. THE PRESIDENT exempted retired and retiring government and private employees from paying income taxes derived from their social security benefits, retirement gratuities, pensions and similar benefits. The President’s move is embodied in Presidential Decree No. 202. The decree, which is in line with the Government’s efforts to promote the welfare of the working masses’ embraces within its scope not only those benefits earned in the Philippines but also those received from foreign government agencies, both public and private. PD 202 has repealed or modified provisions of existing laws, decrees and other statutes inconsistent with it. JUSTICE Secretary Vicente Abad Santos issued the opinion that a city or municipal councilor may serve as an officer, legal counsel or consultant of private bank since he is not considered a fulltime elective official covered by Presidential Decree No. 71 amending the General Banking Act. Mr. Abad Santos said the Act provides that no full-time appointive or elective public officer shall at the same time serve as officer, director, legal counsel or consultant of any private bank except where such service involves government’s financial assistance to the bank. City and municipal councilors who are bar members are impliedly allowed to practice their profession subject to certain restrictions, Secretary Abad Santos said. JUSTICE SECRETARY Vicente Abad Santos, in a speech before the sixth charter anniversary celebrations of Benguet Province, said that local governments have now been elevated to the vanguard of development efforts occupying a more pivotal position that it ever had in the history of national administration. The Government has now fully realized that its real infrastructure is located at the local areas, the secretary said. “It is here that we find the sovereign Filipino people through the preamble of the new Constitution. It is here where we find the people in whomthe sovereignty resides and from whom all government authority emanates. It is here that we find the situs of power,” Mr. Abad Santos declared. THE GOVERNMENT has harnessed the services of 24 more rural banks to boost the Masagana 99 rice production program. This brought to 449 the total number of rural banks now extending financial support to farmers engaged in the project in 43 provinces throughout the country. A total of P11.5 million has been released to farmers since the start of the massive rice production program for initial loans. Of this amount, P1.4 million was released by the rural banks; P6.6 million by the Philippine National Bank; and P3.4 million by the Agricultural Credit Administration. BUREAU of Customs has devised a plan aimed at reducing redtape in all drawback payments. Drawbacks are payment claims of export and manufacturing corporations, principally from excess levy collected from these firms. Customs Commissioner Rolando Geotina said that beginning June 25 all claims must be filed with the Special Drawback Committee located at Room 305 of the Manila customs house. Under the new procedure, the claimants will deal with no other office except the committee which has been empowered to gather all documents necessary to support the claims available within the bureau. Commissioner Geotina said the claimants must file an application for the drawback stating the basis of their claims such as the entry number and date of the export. The customs commissioner directed the Special Drawback Committee to submit a report of its activities every two weeks to enable him to keep track of its operation. DEPARTMENT of Health reported there is no increase in gastrointestinal and other diseases that usually come with the rainy season. This was announced by Health Secretary Clemente Gatmaitan even as he cautioned the public to take precautionary measures against the seasonal diseases such as gastro-enteritis, cholera and dysentry. Secretary Gatmaitan based his announcement from reports of the various health offices and the San Lazaro Hospital.

[4] No Official Gazette entry for this day.

[5] No Official Gazette entries for these days.