Placing Crude Oil and Other Fuel Oils and Petroleum-based Products under the Control of the Philippine National Oil Company

December 4, 1973

GENERAL ORDER NO. 41

PLACING CRUDE OIL AND OTHER FUEL OILS AND PETROLEUM-BASED PRODUCTS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL OIL COMPANY

WHEREAS, the oil-producing countries of the Middle East and Africa have declared and imposed a twenty-five (25) per cent cutback on their oil production;

WHEREAS, this development has compelled our Government to adopt restrictive measures, notably a rationing of these products, on the use of our limited supply of gasoline, other fuel oils and petroleum-based products;

WHEREAS, these developments have caused a serious dislocation of our country's economy, causing a deceleration or slowing down in our growing industrial and agricultural development activities and the stoppage of industrial activity in some areas;

WHEREAS, these developments have likewise caused serious deficiencies in the supply of essential commodities such as fertilizer and fish;

WHEREAS, they have likewise led to the laying off of laborers and employees by industrial companies, thus contributing to the unemployment problem;

WHEREAS, they have likewise led to the disruption of the normal services of our existing communications and transportation facilities or system;

WHEREAS, these developments have encouraged some persons to engage in such unlawful activities as hoarding and blackmarketing;

WHEREAS, in addition to all the foregoing, and more importantly, these products are strategic materials that are vital to the security of our country;

WHEREAS, it is necessary that the Government, during this critical period, be in possession of all the information on the available supply of crude oil, other fuel oils and petroleum-based products;

WHEREAS, it is necessary that these available supply of these products be under the control of the Government;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and in accordance with Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, do hereby decree and order that all crude oil and other fuel-oils as well as all petroleum-based products, whether imported or produced by the local refineries, be placed under the control of the Philippine National Oil Company, and the sale and distribution of these products shall be under its supervision.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 4th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Three.