REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4720 - AN ACT
AMENDING CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED TWELVE HUNDRED
NINETY-FIVE, ENTITLED "AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE ABACA CORPORATION OF THE
PHILIPPINES"
Section 1. Section two of Republic Act Numbered Twelve
hundred ninety-five is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 2. Purposes and objectives. — The Abaca
Corporation of the Philippines shall have the following objectives:
"(a) To insure a permanent, sufficient and balanced
production of abaca, maguey and other fibers for the requirements of
the local industry and for exportation.
"(b) To check all speculation tending to promote a
decrease in the prices of abaca, maguey and other fibers and to
stabilize said prices at a level sufficient to cover the cost of
production plus a reasonable profit.
"(c) To assist in preventing a short as well as an
excess production of abaca, maguey and other fibers and in either case
serve as a regulating organ in order to avoid a disorganization of this
activity of the national economy and its consequences, such as
suspensions of work, unemployment and other social calamities.
"(d) To promote the effective merchandising of abaca,
maguey and other fibers in the domestic and foreign markets so that
those engaged in the said industries will be placed on a basis of
economic security.
"(e) To establish warehousing and marketing
facilities in suitable centers and supervise the selling and buying of
abaca, maguey and other fibers.
"(f) To promote the prompt, extensive and thorough
industrialization of the abaca, maguey and other fibers industries.
"In achieving the above-named purposes and objectives of this Act, the
Abaca Corporation shall limit its activities or intervention simply in
aid of private capital or enterprise already dedicated or ready to be
dedicated in any manner directly or indirectly to the promotion of the
abaca, maguey and other fibers industries in the Philippines: provided,
however, that if no private capital shall be interested in any of the
proposed activities of the Corporation, then it may directly initiate,
promote and develop such activities."
Sec. 2. Section three of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 3. Specific and general powers. — For carrying
out the purposes mentioned in the preceding section, subject to the
terms of the last paragraph thereof, the Abaca Corporation of the
Philippines shall have authority:
"(a) To buy, sell, export, barter, and in any other
manner deal in abaca, maguey and other fibers.
"(b) To buy, sell, assign, own, operate, rent or
leave subject to existing law, merchant vessels, rails, railroad lines,
and any other means of transportation, stripping machines,
decorticators, presses, warehouses, buildings, and any other equipment
and material for stripping, decorticating, warehousing and, in general,
for everything connected with the proper handling of abaca, maguey and
other fibers.
"(c) To act as agent, broker, commission merchant or
representative of the producers, merchants, pressmen or other dealers
in abaca, maguey and other fibers and the products derived therefrom.
"(d) To grant loans to abaca, maguey and other fibers
planters, cooperatives or centrals guaranteed by a mortgage or pledge
on abaca and maguey crops, fibers or other securities: provided,
however, that no loan shall be granted, which is in excess of eighty
per cent of the market value of the securities: and provided, further,
that interest thereon shall not be in excess of four per cent per
annum.
"(e) To invest the funds of the Corporation in the
form of ordinary or preferred shares, in any private corporation
established for the purpose of raising, developing, managing or
administering abaca, maguey and other fiber plantations or establishing
industrial plants using abaca, maguey and other fibers or its
by-products as their prime raw materials, or warehouses for the storage
of abaca, maguey and other fibers, its by-products, derivative or
resulting manufactured products, or cooperatives founded in aid of the
abaca, maguey, and other fibers industries: provided, however, that no
investment in excess of one million pesos shall be granted without the
approval of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources or its
successors.
"(f) To borrow or otherwise raise funds for carrying
out the objects of this corporation, whenever the needs of this
industry require it, with the consent of the President of the
Philippines.
"(g) To enter into, make and execute contracts of any
kind as may be necessary or incidental to the attainment of its
purposes, with any person, firm or public or private corporation, with
the Governments of the Philippines or the United States or any state,
territory or possession thereof, or with any foreign government.
"(h) In general, to do everything directly or
indirectly necessary or incidental to, or in furtherance of the
purposes of the Corporation.
"(i) In the transaction of its business, to perform
all acts which a co-partnership or natural person is authorized to
perform under the laws now existing or which may be enacted hereafter.
"(j) Generally, to exercise such incidental powers as
may be necessary to carry out the purposes and objectives of this Act
within the limitations prescribed by the same."
Sec. 3. Section s seven and eight of the same Act
are hereby amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 7. Capitalization. — The capital stock of the
Abaca Corporation of the Philippines shall be forty million pesos,
divided into four hundred thousand shares of stock, having a par value
of one hundred pesos each, and no stock of said corporation shall be
issued at less than par or except for cash.
"The entire authorized capital of forty million pesos shall be
subscribed for and paid by the Republic of the Philippines upon the
organization of said Corporation in the manner provided in the
following section."
"Sec. 8. Payment of Subscription to the Capital. —
The amount of forty million pesos required to pay for the entire
authorized capitalization of the Abaca Corporation of the Philippines
herein recited shall be raised by means of the sale or disposition of
bonds under Republic Act Numbered One thousand, and for that purpose it
is hereby declared that the organization of the Abaca Corporation of
the Philippines is one of the economic projects contemplated under said
Act to be financed by the sale or disposition of bonds therein
specifically authorized to be sold; or, by borrowings which the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines may be able to secure
thru the Central Bank; or out of funds in the National Treasury not
otherwise appropriated of which the amount of forty million pesos is
hereby appropriated: provided, however, that Four million pesos be
devoted to the development of maguey and other fibers.
"There shall be added to the capital of the Abaca Corporation of the
Philippines all the funds, assets and properties still available
belonging to the defunct National Abaca Fibers Corporation. In the
event that there is an urgent or immediate need for funds to carry out
the trading and industrialization program of the Abaca Corporation and
the funds herein appropriated are insufficient for such purpose, the
abacorp may borrow the needed amount to be guaranteed by the Central
Bank of the Philippines from any of the Government financial
institution, such as the Philippine National Bank, Development Bank of
the Philippines and the Government Service Insurance System."
Sec. 4. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 18, 1966
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