National Coconut Corporation

May 7, 1940

COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 518

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE NATIONAL COCONUT CORPORATION

SECTION 1. A corporation is created under the style and name of "National Coconut Corporation," which shall be organized within six months after the date of the approval of this Act and shall exist for a term of thirty years from the said date. The Corporation shall have its main office in the City of Manila.

SECTION 2. The National Coconut Corporation shall have the following objects:

(a) To establish, keep, maintain, and operate or help establish, keep, maintain, and operate drying plants, or copra driers, or coconut centrals with a view to adjusting the coconut industry to a position independent of trade preferences in the United States and to provide facilities for the better curing of copra products and the proper utilization of coconut by-products, provided that no subsidy, direct or indirect, shall be paid to producers or processors of copra, coconut oil, or allied products;

(b) To afford facilities for bona fide production loans to Philippine coconut planters and copra producers.

SECTION 3. To carry out the purposes mentioned in the preceding section, the National Coconut Corporation shall have authority:

(a) To grant bona fide production loans to Philippine copra producers upon the security of coconut crops or products; and

(b) To buy, sell, assign, establish or operate, rent or lease presses, warehouses, buildings, and any other equipment and materials necessary and proper to carry out its purposes.

SECTION 4. The National Coconut Corporation shall be subject to the provisions of the Corporation Law in so far as the same are compatible with the provisions of the Act, and it shall enjoy the general powers mentioned in said Corporation Law in addition to those herein specified. TAaIDH

SECTION 5. The management of the National Coconut Corporation shall be vested in a board of directors consisting of five members appointed by the President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of the National Assembly. The President of the Philippines shall appoint the chairman of the board from among its members.

The directors shall be appointed to serve for one year. In case of a vacancy, the person appointed to fill it shall hold office only for the unexpired portion of the term of his predecessor. The President may, in his discretion, remove any director. Three members of the board of directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

Before entering upon the discharge of his duties, each director shall take the oath prescribed by law.

The members of the board shall each receive per diem not to exceed twenty-five pesos for each day of meeting actually attended by them except the chairman who shall at the same time, be the general manager of the corporation and shall be entitled to a compensation not to exceed fifteen thousand pesos per annum.

The provisions of paragraph eight, I. — General Provision, section seven of Commonwealth Act Numbered Two hundred forty-six to the contrary notwithstanding, no officer or employee of the government receiving a fixed compensation or salary from public funds and serving as director of the corporation shall be paid the per diem herein provided. ASEcHI

The board shall submit its annual report and balance sheets to the President of the Philippines and to the National Assembly, as provided in section Five hundred seventy-four to five hundred seventy-seven of the Administrative Code.

SECTION 6. To carry out the purposes of this Act, there is created a special fund to be known as the "Coconut Industry Promotion Fund," which shall consist of appropriations out of the Coconut Oil Excise Tax Fund collected on and after January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, to be made available as follows: Two million pesos, which is hereby appropriated, upon approval of this Act, and, thereafter, such amounts as may be provided for, from time to time, in the annual appropriation acts for the Coconut Oil Excise Tax Fund. The total sum to be made available under the provisions of this Act shall not exceed twenty million pesos. The fund herein created shall be disbursed upon authority of the Board of Directors in conformity with the provisions of this Act and of the Act of Congress of March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and thirty-four (Public Act No. 127, 73rd Congress), as amended by the Act of Congress of August seventh, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine (Public Act No. 300, 76th Congress). All income or receipts derived from the operation of the special fund herein created shall accrue to and form part of the same and shall be available for expenditure and/or investment for the same purposes herein provided.

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

Approved, May 7, 1940.