EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 621 - AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN, SERIES OF NINETEEN FIFTY-FIVE, ESTABLISHING THE CLASSIFICATION OF ROADS

WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 113, series of 1955, establishes the minimum width of national roads at twenty (20) meters;  

WHEREAS, the Ministry of Public Highways is encountering serious problems, particularly in highly urbanized areas, in acquiring the needed lots to provided national roads which are being improved with a minimum width of twenty (20) meters, as required by Executive Order No. 113;

WHEREAS, in highly urbanized areas, both sides of the road are occupied by residential houses and commercial buildings of permanent constructions;

WHEREAS, owners of these residential houses are reluctant to sell portions of their lots and/or houses to provide road right-of-way for the minimum width requirement of national roads, as specified under Executive Order No. 113, for the reason that they have no other lots to move to, not to mention the sentimental reason that in many instances these houses have been inherited from their forbears;

WHEREAS, engineers of the Ministry of Public Highways have determined that a minimum width of fifteen (15) meters for national roads (passing through highly urbanized areas) would be sufficient, Provided, That the design of the road would be suitably altered with closed drainage, curbs and gutters, which in many instances is more economic than expropriating high priced urban land and destroying buildings;

WHEREAS, to minimize social problems involved in dislocation of residents in highly urbanized areas to widen the national roads to conform with the minimum width requirement of 20 meters provided for in Executive Order No. 113, it is necessary to amend the existing Executive Order;  

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order that the present provision of Executive Order No. 113, as appearing in the last sentence of paragraph I, General Provisions, page 1, is hereby amended to read as follows:

“National roads shall have a right of way of not less than twenty (20) meters, provided, that such minimum width may be reduced at the discretion of the Minister of Public Highways to fifteen (15) meters in highly urbanized areas and that a right of way of at least sixty (60) meters shall be reserved for roads constructed through unpatented public land and at least one hundred twenty (120) meters reserved through naturally forested areas of aesthetic or scientific value.”

Since 19.07.98.