Amending P.D. No. 260 As Amended Re: Prohibition Against the Destruction of National Landmarks

June 11, 1978

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1505

AMENDING PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 260, AS AMENDED, BY PROHIBITING THE UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATION, ALTERATION, REPAIR AND DESTRUCTION OF ORIGINAL FEATURES OF ALL NATIONAL SHRINES, MONUMENTS, LANDMARKS AND OTHER IMPORTANT HISTORIC EDIFICES

WHEREAS, Presidential Decree No. 260 dated August 1, 1973, as amended, has declared certain sites, churches and places as national shrines, monuments, and/or landmarks, and placed their preservation, restoration and/or reconstruction under the supervision and control of the National Historical Institute in collaboration with the Department of Tourism; cd i

WHEREAS, Section 4 of said Presidential Decree specifically vests the National Historical Institute with the right to declare historical and cultural sites and edifices as national shrines, monuments, and/or landmarks;

WHEREAS, Presidential Decree No. 1 dated September 24, 1972 reorganizing the government, has assigned to the National Historical Institute the preservation, restoration, and/or reconstruction of several historic sites and buildings;

WHEREAS, some private individuals and entities have undertaken the repair and alteration of historic edifices without the prior written permission of the National Historical Institute resulting in the change of the original features of such edifices;

WHEREAS, such moves adversely affect the efforts of the Philippine government, in general and of the National Historical Institute, in particular, in the preservation of our cultural heritage through the conservation of our historic sites and buildings; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to safeguard the improvements that have been made by the National Historical Institute in the development, preservation, reconstruction and restoration of said national shrines, and to prevent the careless and unscientific modification of the original features of important monuments, landmarks and historic edifices;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree:

 Presidential Decree No. 260 is hereby amended by inserting another section after Section 4 to read as follows:

"Sec. 5. It shall be unlawful for any person to modify, alter, repair or destroy the original features of any national shrine, monument, landmark and other important historic edifices declared and classified by the National Historical Institute as such without the prior written permission from the Chairman of said Institute.

Any person who shall violate this Decree shall, upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than five years or a fine of not less than one thousand pesos nor more than ten thousand pesos or both, at the discretion of the court or tribunal concerned."

SECTION 2. Sections 5 and 6 of the same Decree are hereby renumbered Section 6 and 7 respectively.

SECTION 3. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 11th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Eight.

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 74 No. 52 Page 11198 on December 25, 1978.