Conferring Certain Powers upon the Director of Education to Stimulate and Encourage the Manufacture of Handicraft Products

February 4, 1916

ACT NO. 2629

AN ACT CONFERRING CERTAIN POWERS UPON THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF STIMULATING AND ENCOURAGING THE MANUFACTURE OF HANDICRAFT PRODUCTS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, AND PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROVINCIAL INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENTS TO COOPERATE WITH THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. The Director of Education is hereby authorized, under rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Public Instruction, to distribute and to sell the products and manufactures of the public schools and of household workers engaged in the production of handicraft products similar to those manufactured in the public schools of the Philippine Islands; to purchase and receive on consignment handicraft products from provincial industrial departments and schools; also to purchase and receive on consignment industrial products directly from household workers and to take such steps as may be appropriate or necessary to encourage and to stimulate the manufacture of handicraft products in the Philippine Islands by organizing such household workers into cooperative associations and by assisting in finding markets for such products and by directing the energies of industrial workers along lines of production most highly profitable, and by assisting in providing suitable materials and models: Provided, That nothing in this section contained shall be construed as authorizing the Bureau of Education to limit the general academic educational activities of teachers and pupils: And provided further, That the Bureau of Education shall, under no circumstances, take up any activity that will bring it in unnecessary competition with private business or industry, nor shall it make any unfair or unjust discrimination in favor of or against any seller or buyer.

SECTION 2. The expenses of the Bureau of Education incident to carrying out the provisions of this Act shall be met from funds provided by the current appropriations for that bureau: Provided, That the amount of sales stock to be carried by the Bureau of Education shall at no tine exceed in value the sum of thirty thousand pesos.

SECTION 3. The Bureau of Supply is hereby authorized to furnish, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, to the Bureau of Education, out of any funds available for the purchase of supplies, such sums not exceeding one hundred thousand pesos in all as may from time to time be required to pay in advance the cost of materials and the expense of production in household industries. All advances of funds and extension of credit shall be considered on the same basis as purchases of supplies.

SECTION 4. A provincial industrial department is hereby authorized to be established by the provincial board in each province for the purchase of industrial products for cash from schools and household workers and for the sale of same to individuals, firms, or to any branch of the Insular, provincial, or municipal governments and for the purchase of quantities of materials for retail to household workers, municipalities, and schools in maintaining and establishing industries where such materials cannot readily be secured in the local markets. The respective division superintendent of the schools or his authorized representative shall have administrative control of each provincial industrial department. EACTSH

SECTION 5. The provincial board of each province is hereby authorized, upon the approval of the Executive Secretary, to appropriate a sum not to exceed five thousand pesos during any one year for the purpose of creating and continuing a fund, which shall be accounted for by the provincial treasurer, to be devoted to the purchase of materials and articles as herein provided, the payment of freight, and other incidental expenses of the industrial department of such province. The expenses of provincial industrial departments shall be met, in so far as possible, from the receipts from sales.

SECTION 6. Whenever in the judgment of the Secretary of Public Instruction any household industry is sufficiently developed in any locality and in condition to operate without official assistance, and private persons or firms are reasonably interested to carry on its development, the Bureau of Education shall cease its connection therewith.

SECTION 7. The Bureau of Education is authorized to make a reasonable discount on sales at wholesale and shall keep a detailed account of all business transacted by each provincial industrial department, taking into account with respect to sales and purchases, the expenses actually incurred.

Enacted, February 4, 1916.