Creation of Agricultural Code Commission

June 17, 1961

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 3148

AN ACT TO CREATE AN AGRICULTURAL CODE COMMISSION

SECTION 1. There is created an Agricultural Code Commission which shall be composed of a chairman and not more than six members to be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments: Provided, however, That the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Chairman of the National Economic Council shall be ex-officio members thereof; Provided, further, That two of the members shall be nominated by the Chamber of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Philippines: Provided, finally, That the Agricultural Code Commission shall be under the executive control and supervision of the President of the Philippines.

SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the said Commission to revise all the existing substantive and procedural laws and jurisprudence relative and/or pertinent to agriculture of the Philippines, and to codify the same in conformity with the economic needs and objectives, customs, traditions and idiosyncrasies of the Filipino people and with the progressive principles of the sciences of law and economics. The Commission shall complete its work not later than two years from the date of approval of this Act, and shall submit to the President of the Philippines a report of the work undertaken by it together with the corresponding drafts of the code for submission to the Congress of the Philippines.

SECTION 3. The Chairman shall receive a compensation of fifteen thousand pesos per annum and the members shall each receive compensation of ten thousand pesos per annum: Provided, however, That the ex-officio members shall serve without additional compensation. The chairman may subject to the approval of the President of the Philippines and to the provisions of the Civil Service law, appoint such assistant and other subordinate employees as may be necessary.

SECTION 4. The Commission is empowered to call on any official or employee of any bureau, office, branch, subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of the government to assist or otherwise extend his cooperation to the Commission in connection with the performance of its functions to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SECTION 5. Upon the completion of its work and the submission of its report, the Commission shall cease to exist and the services of the chairman and the members of the same and of all the employees working under it shall terminate. All records and documents and proceedings of the Commission shall be delivered to the National Library for preservation or disposition by the latter office according to law. The other properties of the Commission shall be disposed of in accordance with the Accounting Law and regulations. The unexpended balances of its appropriations shall revert to the unappropriated general fund in the National Treasury.

SECTION 6. To carry out the purposes of this Act, there is appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred thousand pesos for the necessary expenses of the Agricultural Code Commission for the fiscal year beginning July first, nineteen hundred and sixty-one. Thereafter, the necessary amounts to carry out the purposes of this Act shall be included in the annual General Appropriation Acts.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 17, 1961

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 58, No. 3, p. 443 on January 15, 1962