Reward for Discovery/Apprehension of Smuggled and/or Illegally Traded Sugar

December 12, 1975

RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING CLAIMS FOR REWARD UNDER PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 659, AS AMENDED

SECTION 1. Purpose and Scope. — These rules and regulations prescribe the procedure in filing, processing evaluating, and paying claims for cash reward equivalent to not more than twenty percentum of the appraised value of the smuggled and confiscated sugar to the officers and men and informers who are instrumental in the discovery and seizure of such sugar, pursuant to the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 659, entitled, "Penalizing the Illegal Trading and Illegal Exportation of Philippine Sugar," as amended by Presidential Decree Nos. 686 and 786, in order to encourage the public and law-enforcement personnel to extend full cooperation and do their utmost in stamping out sugar smuggling and/or illegal trading.

SECTION 2. Definitions. — For the proper implementation of Presidential Decree No. 659, as amended, the following terms are hereby defined:

a. Cash Reward — the cash reward to be given hereunder shall be divided as follows: fifty percentum to be distributed among the officers and men instrumental in the discovery and seizure of the smuggled and/or illegally traded sugar, share and share alike, and the remaining fifty percentum or other half of the cash reward shall be given to the informer/s. In the absence of an informer, the full cash reward shall be divided share and share alike among the officers and men instrumental in the discovery and seizure of the smuggled and/or illegally traded sugar.

b. Appraised Value — the value of the confiscated sugar in Philippine Currency as determined or appraised by the Philippine National Bank/Philippine Exchange Inc. at the time it is surrendered to it. A copy of such appraisal shall be furnished the apprehending agency and the owners, if known.

c. Smuggled and/or Illegally Traded Confiscated Sugar — shall mean sugar, the confiscation of which has already become final as follows:

(1) 30 days after the same was seized by the law-enforcement agencies concerned where no claimant appeared to claim the sugar or question such seizure.

(2) If an appeal is taken to the Secretary of National Defense, it shall become final 15 days after the SND's decision, where no appeal is taken to proper higher authorities within the period.

(3) When decreed by final judgment of the Court.

d. Officers and Men Entitled to Reward — shall mean the government law-enforcement personnel, civilian or military, who actually participated in the discovery and/or apprehension of the smuggled and/or illegally traded sugar.

e. Informer — any peace officer or public official or employee, who is not disqualified under Section III hereof and/or private person who furnishes information under oath in accordance with the procedure herein outlined, which shall be instrumental in the discovery and seizure of smuggled and/or illegally traded sugar, without which information such discovery and seizure could not have been effected.

SECTION 3. Kinds of Information Entitled to Reward:

a. In order to entitle an informer to a reward, his information must not yet be in the possession of the law-enforcement authorities nor shall it refer to cases pending or previously investigated by the law-enforcement agency or public official or employee charged with the implementation of the law against sugar smuggling and/or illegal trading.

b. The information must state the facts relating to any of the following prohibited acts:

(1) The sale, transfer or assignment of centrifugal sugar by any planter, producer, miller, central or refinery or any other person or entity engaged in the production of sugar in the Philippines to any person or entity other than the Philippine Exchange, Inc. and/or the Philippine National Bank.

(2) Loading or unloading sugar on board any vessel or aircraft at points other than ports of entry or sub-ports of entry designated in or pursuant to the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

(3) Loading sugar on board any vessel or aircraft for shipment to any point outside the jurisdiction of the Republic of the Philippines without an authority to load.

(4) Loading sugar on board any vessel or aircraft for shipment to any point within the jurisdiction of the Republic of the Philippines without first furnishing the customs authorities at the port of departure a Notification duly executed under oath and containing the names and addresses of the shippers and the name, if any, type and registry number of the vessel or aircraft, the exact quantity of sugar to be shipped, and the port of destination.

(5) Any other violation of Presidential Decree No. 659, as amended.

SECTION 4. Form and Contents of Information. — The information shall be in the form of a sworn statement given voluntarily and shall state definitely and clearly the facts or acts pointing to the illegal trading and/or illegal exportation of Philippine sugar as set forth above. Any documents, records papers, photographs, or other paraphernalia and equipment which may serve as evidence or have some bearing on the violation(s) of law set forth in the information and in the possession of the informer(s) shall be attached to the sworn statement.

SECTION 5. Persons to Whom Information may be Given:

a. Secretary of Justice, his deputies or agents;

b. Secretary of National Defense, his deputies or agents;

c. Secretary of Finance, his deputies or agents;

d. The Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines, his deputies or agents;

e. Chairman, Anti-Smuggling Action Center, his deputies or agents;

f. The Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, his deputies or agents;

g. The Director, National Bureau of Investigation, his assistants/authorized agents;

h. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, his deputies or agents;

i. The President of the Philippine National Bank, his deputies or agents;

j. Acting Chief, Complaints and Investigation Office, OP, his deputies or agents;

k. Director General, National Intelligence Security Agency, his deputies or agents;

l. Armed Forces of the Philippines, units engaged in the anti-smuggling drive.

SECTION 6. Information to be Recorded in an Entry Book. — Any information received must be entered immediately in a confidential entry book provided for the purpose by the official to whom the information is given directly, and the entries shall be consecutively numbered in the order of time and date the information is received. The individual entries must indicate the day and time the information is received, the name and address of the informer, the names and addresses of witnesses, if any, nature and or subject matter of the information given and list of records, documents and papers submitted, if any.

The sworn statement received shall be given the corresponding entry number which appears in the entry book and shall be properly receipted for and authenticated by the official who received the information and shall bear his signature or initial of the exact time it is received. The informer shall retain a stamped, timed and signed or initialed copy of his sworn statement which shall served as his identification or evidence that he is the informer.

In case the information filed by the informer required urgent action, and its immediate posting in the entry book could not be made, the official receiving the information must report the fact immediately after the termination of his action, to the Head of the Department or Agency concerned.

SECTION 7. Payment of Reward. — Upon final report of the disposition of the subject matter of the information furnished by the informant, by the apprehending agency or operating unit, the claimant for reward shall file his notice of claim in writing with the Secretary of National Defense, within a reasonable period of time. He shall be assisted by the head or officer-in-charge of the office with whom the information was filed in presenting formal claim for reward on his behalf, stating among others, the names and address and residence certificate of the informer, date the information was filed, nature of information, etc. In the event the claim papers forwarded to the Secretary of National Defense, are lacking in some essential requirements to conform with this regulation, the same shall be completed by the law-enforcement agency concerned to protect the identity of the informer in any particular case so that he shall be entitled to the reward in accordance with law or existing regulation. The warrant or check covering the reward shall be delivered to the informer directly by the SND or his authorized representative. The informer or his duly authorized representative shall sign the receipt of warrant or check.

When the confiscation of any sugar has become final, the proceeds thereof shall be held in trust by the PNB/PHILEX, the same to be disbursed as may be directed by the SND in the proportions authorized by P.D. No. 659, as amended.

SECTION 8. Amount of Reward. — The informer and the law-enforcement personnel shall be rewarded in cash of not more than twenty percentum of the appraised value of the confiscated sugar which shall be computed as follows: For the first P200,000, twenty percentum; for the second P200,000, fifteen percentum; for the next P200,000, ten percentum; and five percentum for all the succeeding amounts. The balance thereof shall accrue to the general fund of the National Government.

SECTION 9. Conflicting Claims for Reward. —

a. Whenever there are two or more informers entitled to a reward arising from the same case, the person who gave the information which fully satisfies all the conditions herein outlined shall be entitled to the reward. However, the informer who gave the information that was acted upon successfully, even though not fully complied with all the conditions herein outlined, shall be entitled to the reward.

b. In the event two or more informers meet fully all the conditions herein outlined, the informer who first furnished the information shall be entitled to the reward. 

c. Where two or more informers supplied the information simultaneously in point of time and their information fully satisfy the conditions herein outlined, the informer whose information was acted upon first in point of time shall be entitled to the reward.

d. In order that the reward may be paid to the proper person, the identity of the informer shall be duly established by requiring him to present the duly stamped, signed or initialed copy of his information. He may be required to submit additional evidence that will satisfactorily established his identity.

e. All other conflicting claims for reward shall be decided by the SND.

SECTION 10. Committee on Reward. — A committee on reward is hereby formed and organized to assist the SND in the processing, evaluation and payment of all claims for reward to be filed hereunder to be composed of the following:

a	Assistant Secretary for Plans & Programs	Chairman
b.	Representative of General Headquarters, AFP (OD CS OPS)	Vice-Chairman
c.	Representative of Chairman, Anti-Smuggling Action Center	Member
d.	Representative of Philippine National Bank	Member
e.	Representative of Philippine Constabulary	Member
f.	Representative of Philippine Coast Guard	Member
g.	Representative of Sugar Monitoring Operations Center	Member

SECTION 11. Effectivity of these Regulations. —

These regulations shall take effect immediately without prejudice to claims for reward filed under Presidential Decree No. 786, dated August 29, 1975, before the effectivity of these rules.

(SGD.) JUAN PONCE ENRILESecretary

May 19, 1975

MEMORANDUM to —

Philippine National Bank

Philippine Exchange Co., Inc.

SUBJECT : SUGAR TRADING AND INVENTORY

Pursuant to the NEDA policy promulgated on May 15, 1975 and PDs 659 and 686 as amended authorizing the Secretary of National Defense to promulgate rules and regulations on sugar trading, you are directed to observe and undertake the following:

1) The Philippine Exchange Co., Inc. shall sell raw and refined sugar exclusively and directly to all industrial users including the milk and pharmaceutical industries in accordance with prices set by the Price Control Council.

2) Philexchange through PNB branches and agencies shall sell exclusively domestic raw and refined sugar in Palawan and Mindanao to prevent smuggling of sugar out of the country. For this purpose, all interisland shipments of sugar to Palawan and Mindanao shall be subject to the approval by the PNB and the military.

3) All traders, repackers and cooperatives shall submit to Philexchange prior to receiving their allocation under the 5th allocation plan a report under oath showing their household and industrial stock of sugar as of May 15, 1975 using Sugar Operations Center (SOC) Form No. 01 attached hereto as Annex "A". All industrial users shall submit under oath their monthly Stock and the monthly actual and estimated monthly consumption of sugar showing the volume of sugar in metric tons used for locally sold products and exported products, respectively, for 1974 and 1975, using SOC Form No. 02 attached hereto as Annex "B".

4) All traders, repackers and cooperative with allocations under the 3rd and 4th allocation plans shall be given thirty (30) days to sell all the industrial sugar in their possessions and they shall submit report on or before June 20, 1975 showing how they dispose their industrial sugar using SOC Form No. 03 attached hereto as Annex "C".

5) The Philippine National Bank with the assistance of the respective Provincial Commanders in the area where the mills and refineries are located shall conduct an inventory of the sugar stocks of all sugar mills and refineries in accordance with the procedures prescribed under SQA Circular Letter No. 25 of December 17, 1974 attached hereto as Annex "D".

As of this date, an Inter-Agency Committee consisting of representative each from PNB, Philex/SND/Dept. of Justice/DOT/PCC is hereby created to coordinate the monitoring of information on sugar trading and distribution.

(Sgd.) JUAN PONCE ENRILE

Secretary