REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4567 - AN ACT
CREATING THE SAN FERNANDO PORT AUTHORITY, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND
FUNCTIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Section 1. Declaration of Policy. — The Congress hereby
finds, determines, and declares that it is necessary and objective to
public interest and the promotion of the general welfare to administer,
manage, develop, improve, integrate, coordinate and otherwise mobilize
terminal facilities in certain areas thru a self-autonomous
public-benefit corporation organized and empowered to reduced an
efficient, safe, economical and coordinated system of movement of goods
and persons thru the port.
Sec. 2. Creation of Port Authority. — There is
hereby created a public-benefit corporation to be known as the San
Fernando Port Authority, hereinafter referred to as the Authority,
which shall be organized by the President of the Philippines within six
months after the approval of this Act and governed under the provisions
of the same.
The Authority shall be under the supervision of the President of the
Philippine.
Sec. 3. Definitions of Terms. — For the purposes
of this Act and of the by-laws promulgated thereunder, certain terms
shall, unless the context indicates otherwise, mean, or be understood
to be, as follows:
(a) "Terminal facility" shall include the seaport and
its accessories of wharves, piers, slips, docks, dry docks, bulkheads,
basins, warehouses, cold storage, and loading-unloading equipment; bus
terminals and accessories; rail terminals and accessories; and air
terminals and accessories.
(b) "Transportation facility" includes rails and rail
cars, highways, wheeled vehicles, bridges, tunnels, tramways, subways,
passenger or cargo boats, ferry boats, lighters, tags barges, scows,
harbor craft of any kind, aircraft, runaways, ramps, taxi-ways, and any
other kind of facility now in use or hereafter designated for use of
the transportation or carriage of persons or goods.
(c) "Port District" means territorial jurisdiction of
the Authority.
(d) "Pier head line" means the limiting line beyond
which piers may not be extended.
(e) "Bulkhead line" means the limiting line beyond
which no bulkheads or solid fill may be extended.
(f) "Harbor line" means the limiting line beyond
which no piers, wharves, bulkheads or other works shall be extended or
any deposits made.
(g) "Navigable waters" means all navigable portions
of the seas, estuaries and inland waterways.
(h) "Wharf" means a continuous structure built
parallel to or along the margin of the sea or alongside river banks,
canal or other waterways where vessels may lie alongside to receive and
discharge cargo or passengers, or lie at rest.
(i) "Pier" includes any stage, stair, landing place,
landing stage, jetty, floating barge or pontoon and any bridge or other
works connected therewith.
(j) "Dock" includes locks cuts, entrances, graving
docks, inclined planes, slipways, quays, and other works and things
appertaining to any dock.
(k) "Dry dock" means a dock from which the water can
be temporarily excluded in order to repair hulls and keels of ships.
(l) "Bulkhead" means structure serving to divide land
and water areas.
(m) "Basin" means a naturally or artificially
enclosed or nearly enclosed body of water in free communication with
the sea.
(n) "Warehouse" means building for storage or shed
for cargo.
(o) "Lighter" means a large flat-bottom boat or barge
used in unloading or loading vessels not lying alongside piers or
wharves.
(p) "Anchorage" means a place with sufficient depth
of water where vessels anchor or may ride at anchor within the harbor.
(q) "Goods" includes wares and merchandise of every
description.
(r) "Rates" includes any toll, fee, dues, rent, rates
or charge.
(s) "Vehicles" includes any carriage travelling on
its own wheels or runners and used or intended to be used for the
conveyance or carrying of persons, animals or goods.
(t) "Vessel" includes any ship or boat or any other
description of vessels used in navigation.
Sec. 4. Territorial Jurisdiction. — The Authority
shall have jurisdiction to the extent provided in this Act over a Port
District composed of the area bounded by the following:
On the north, from a point 3 miles offshore due east on latitude
16º 30' 30" to a point on the west side of the road right-of-way
opposite Km. Post 274 of Highway Route 3; thence, due southwest and
south along west side of the right-of-way of Route 3 to the boundary of
the Poblacion of San Fernando; thence; along the west and southwest
boundary of the Poblacion of San Fernando to its junction with the west
side of the right-of-way of the San Fernando-Madayegdeg-San Vicente
Road to the point opposite Km. Post 267; thence, due west to a point 3
miles off-shore; thence to a point 3 miles off-shore west of Poro Point
Peninsula; and thence to the point of beginning.
In organizing the Authority as provided in Section one of this Act, the
President of the Philippines may designate an initial territory smaller
than that defined and bounded in this section, and in such case the
expansion of such initial territory later on may be made by resolution
of the Commission, approved by the President, but in no case shall such
expansion extend beyond the boundaries provided in this section. All
lands of the public domain within the territorial limits of the
Authority, whether existing at the approval of this Act or to be
reclaimed, shall be ceded to the Authority.
Sec. 5. The San Fernando Port Commission. — The
duty of carrying out the provisions of this Act, of exercising the
corporate powers of the Authority, and of directing its business
affairs shall be vested in a port commission to be called the "San
Fernando Port Commission", hereinafter referred to as the "Commission",
which shall be composed and organized as provided in Section eight of
this Act.
Sec. 6. Functions. — The functions and activities
of the Commission shall be the following:
(a) Generally, to manage, administer, operate,
maintain, improve and modernize, coordinate and otherwise govern the
activities in San Fernando Port and in the related terminal facilities
located or established, constructed, or organized under the provisions
of this Act within the Port District;
(b) To investigate, prepare, adopt, implement and
execute a comprehensive and orderly plan for the over-all development
of the Port District and to up-date such plan as may be warranted from
time to time;
(c) To raise revenue for the Authority thru fees,
tolls, charges, rentals, and the like charged to the use of any
property, equipment or facility owned or controlled by it; thirty per
cent of the income of the Authority shall be allocated to the Special
Port Works Funds;
(d) To produce and administer, together with such
government revenues as may by law accrue to the Authority, capital
outlays by means of loans from any local or foreign financial
institutions to finance its projects;
(e) To determine by survey and established by
engineering design the exact location, system and character of any and
all terminal facilities which it may own, construct, establish,
effectuate, operate or control;
(f) To construct and maintain terminal facilities
including accessory buildings and installations within the Port
District;
(g) Subject to the paramount jurisdiction of the
Republic of the Philippines, to establish and enforce regulations and
specifications for the (1) full conservation and protection of
navigable waters within the contiguous to the port; (2) proper
designation and use of anchorages, harbor lines, pier head lines and
bulkhead lines; and (3) effective control over construction,
excavation, or fill in the waters within, adjoining or proximately
leading to the Port;
(h) To prescribe and enforce rules and regulations on
the use of wharves, piers, anchorages by ships and on the movements of
ships in the waters of the Port;
(i) To determine the organization of the Authority
and create such functional units therein as it may deem necessary in
the proper and efficient carrying out of the functions and purposes of
the Authority, including the consideration and benefits of the
officials and employees.
Sec. 7. Powers. — The Authority shall have the
power and responsibility:
(a) To have perpetual succession under its corporate
name until otherwise provided by law;
(b) To prescribe its by-laws and institute such
amendments thereto as may be found necessary to promote or enhance the
business of the Authority;
(c) To adopt and use a seal;
(d) To sue and be sued in any court;
(e) To enter into contracts;
(f) To acquire, own, hire, use, operate and dispose
of personal property and to acquire, own, use, lease, operate and
dispose of real property and interests thereon and to make improvements
on such real property including the reclamation of submerged lands
within the Port District;
(g) To purchase, hold, alienate, mortgage, pledge, or
otherwise dispose of the shares of the capital stock of, or any bond
security, or other evidences of indebtedness created by, any other
corporation or co-partnership of this or any other country, and while
the owner of said stock, to exercise all the rights of ownership,
including the right to vote thereon;
(h) To exercise the right of eminent domain;
(i) To exercise all other powers not contrary to law,
which may be necessary or incidental to the effectuation of its
authorized purposes or to the exercise of any of the foregoing powers,
except the power to levy taxes or assessments, and generally to
exercise in connection with property within its control, any and all
powers which may be exercised by a natural or juridical person over its
property and affairs;
(j) To charge fees for issuing permits in amounts
sufficient to cover administrative costs involved;
(k) To make expenditures in foreign countries, to pay
commissions and hire or contract with experts and consultants both
foreign and local;
(l) To make expenditures for the promotion of the
business affairs of the Authority; and
(m) Generally, to exercise all the powers of a
corporation under the Corporation Law insofar as they are not
inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 8. Governing Body. — The powers and functions
of the Authority shall be vested in and exercised by a Port Commission
composed of a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman who shall be the Port Manager,
five other directors appointed by the President of the Republic of the
Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, and the
Collector of Customs of the Port of San Fernando, who shall be an
ex-officio member. The five directors shall each represent the mining
industry, manufacturing industry, trading industry, labor, and
agriculture in the region.
Sec. 9. Powers and Duties of the Port Commission.
— The Commission shall have the following powers:
(a) To prescribe, amend, modify or repeal by-laws,
rules and regulations governing the manner in which the general
business of the Authority may be exercised, subject to the approval of
the President of the Philippines;
(b) To define the duties and fix the compensation of
the Port Manager, Assistant Port Manager and other officers of the
Authority, subject to the approval of the President of the Philippines;
(c) To approve the annual budget of the Authority
and/or such supplemental budgets thereof as may be submitted by the
Port Manager from time to time; and
(d) To perform such other duties related to the
welfare of the Port District.
SECTION 10. Port Manager. — The management of the
business of the Authority shall be under the direction and control of a
Port Manager who shall be appointed by the President with the consent
of the Commission on Appointments upon the recommendation of the
Secretary of Public Works and Communications from career engineers in
the government service.
SECTION 11. Incidental Vacancy. — In case of
concurrent vacancy in the positions of Chairman and of Port Manager or
in the absence or incapacity of both, the most senior member of the
Commission in point of length of service as member thereof shall act as
Chairman.
SECTION 12. Terms of Office. — The five directors
first appointed to the Commission shall have terms of office in such
manner that two shall serve for two years, and three, including the
Chairman, for four years. Thereafter, each director appointed shall
serve for four years: provided, that any person appointed to fill a
vacancy shall hold office only for the unexpired term of the director
whom he succeeds.
SECTION 13. Prohibition. — It shall be unlawful to
any members of the Commission to directly or indirectly engage in
partisan political activity, or to be interested in any business which
may be affected by a related to the exercise of the Authority's
functions and powers.
SECTION 14. Prohibition Against Conflict-of-Interest.
— No member of the Commission shall be financially interested, directly
or indirectly, in any contract entered into by the Authority or in any
special privilege granted by it. Violation of this prohibition shall
constitute a ground for dismissal.
SECTION 15. Application of Civil Service Laws and
Rules. — All officers and employees of the Authority shall be
subject to the Civil Service Laws, rules and regulations, except those
whose positions may, upon recommendation of the Port Commission, be
declared by the President of the Philippines as policy determining,
primarily confidential or highly technical in nature.
SECTION 16. Removal for Cause; Courtesy Resignation.
— A member of the Commission may be suspended or removed by the
President only for cause. No member of the Commission shall be required
to submit a courtesy resignation at any time.
SECTION 17. Quorum; Per Diems and Allowances. — Four
members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction
of business.
Until otherwise fixed by the Commission, the Chairman of the Commission
shall receive a per diem of one hundred pesos and the four directors
and the Collector of Customs shall each receive a per diem of not to
exceed thirty pesos, exclusive of travelling expenses, for each day of
meeting actually attended by them: provided, that the meetings of the
Commission shall not exceed four meetings a month.
SECTION 18. Appointments and Promotions. — In the
appointment of officers and promotion of employees of the Authority,
merit, seniority and efficiency shall serve as basis, and no political
test or qualification shall be prescribed and considered for such
appointments and promotions.
SECTION 19. Powers and Duties of Port Manager. — The
Port Manager shall be the chief executive of the Authority and shall
receive a salary of eighteen thousand pesos per annum. He shall have
the following powers and duties:
(a) To manage, direct and supervise the operations
and internal administration of the Authority, subject to the control
and supervision of the Commission;
(b) To prepare all memoranda pertaining to each and
every item in the agenda for the meetings of the Commission and to
submit for the consideration thereof such proposals or recommendations
which he believes to be necessary to carry out effectively and
beneficially the business of the Authority.
(c) To execute the policies and administer the
measures approved by the Commission;
(d) To devise the executive the organization pattern
of the Authority, submit from time to time of the Commission the
corresponding organizational and functional charts, and enforce the
executive elements thereof;
(e) To appoint, and employ the services of,
subordinate officials and employees, subject to the confirmation of the
Commission;
(f) To prepare and submit to the Commission budget
proposals of all kinds;
(g) To perform such other duties and exercise such
other powers as may be directed or authorized specifically by the
Commission.
Sec. 20. Executive Organization. — The activities
of the Authority shall be carried out under the direct supervision of
the Port Manager with the assistance of the following executive
officials:
(a) An assistant Port Manager who shall head a
Department of Engineering;
(b) An Executive Assistant who shall head a
Department of Administration and Programming;
(c) An Assistant on Facilities who shall head a
Department of Maintenance and Operations;
(d) Such other officials as the Commission may
appoint for the efficient conduct of the activities of the Authority,
upon recommendation of the Port Manager.
Sec. 21. Supplies and Services Other than
Personal. — All purchases or contracts for services, except for
personal services, entered into by the Authority shall be done only
after public bidding therefor is held: provided, that such bidding may
not be required when an emergency, as explained and certified to by the
Port Manager, requires immediate delivery of the supplies or
performance of the services and the unit costs, or prices of such
emergency procurement do not exceed the latest costs or prices paid by
the Authority for the same, or similar goods or services: provided,
further, that the Port Manager shall report under oath to the
Commission the details of any such emergency procurement a statement of
assurance that the transaction constitutes the best arrangement
possible under the circumstances.
Sec. 22. Auditor and Personnel. — The Auditor
General shall appoint a representative who shall be Auditor of the
Authority, and the necessary personnel to assist said representative in
the performance of his duties. The operating expenses of the auditing
office and salaries of officials and employees therein shall be paid by
the Authority.
Sec. 23. Power to Issue Bonds. — Whenever the
Commission may deem it advisable and necessary for the Authority to
incur indebtedness or to issue bonds to carry out approved
capital-investment projects, it shall, by resolution, so manifest and
declare, stating the purpose for which the loan or issue is to be
applied and citing the Project Study devised for the purpose. In order
for such resolution to be valid, it shall be passed by the affirmative
vote of at least five members of the Commission and approve by the
President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Secretary
of Finance, after consultation with the Monetary Board.
Sec. 24. Bond Limits. — The bonds that may be
issued by the Authority shall in no case exceed the total amount of
fifty million pesos: provided, that no single issue shall exceed ten
million pesos and that no further issue shall be made if at least
seventy per cent of the immediately preceding issue is not yet sold.
The bonds shall be issued only in such amounts as will be needed at any
one integral operation not exceeding one year's duration, taking into
account the state at which said bonds may be absorbed by the buying
public and the fund requirements of project ready for execution, and
considering further a proper balance between productive and
non-productive projects so that inflation shall be held to the minimum.
Sec. 25. Form, Rates of Interest, etc. of Bonds. —
The Secretary of Finance in consultation with the Monetary Board, shall
prescribed the form, the rates of interest, the denominations,
maturities, negotiability, convertibility, call and redemption
features, and all other terms and conditions of issuance, placement,
sale, servicing, redemption and payment of all bonds issued under the
provisions of this Act.
The bonds issued by virtue of this Act shall be made payable both as to
principal and interest in Philippine currency and shall be acceptable
as security in any transaction with the Government in which such
security is required.
Sec. 26. Exemption from Tax. — The Authority shall
be exempt from all taxes incidental to its operations: provided, that
its subsidiary corporations shall be subject to all said taxes five
years after their establishment under a graduated scale as follows:
twenty per centum of all said taxes during the sixth year, forty per
centum of all taxes during the seventh year, sixty per centum of all
said taxes during the eight year, eighty per centum of all said taxes
during the ninth year, and one hundred per centum of all said taxes
during the tenth year, after said establishment.
All notes, bonds and debentures and other obligations issued by the
Authority shall be exempt from all taxes, both as to principal and
interest.
Sec. 27. Sinking Fund. — A sinking fund shall be
established in the National Treasury in such manner that the total
annual contributions thereto, accrued at such rate of interest as shall
be determined by the Secretary of Finance, shall be sufficient to
redeem at maturity the bonds issued under this Act. Said fund shall be
under the custody of the Central Bank of the Philippines which shall
invest the same in such manner as the Monetary Board may approve,
charging all expenses of such investments to said sinking fund and
crediting the same with the interest on investments and other income
belonging to it.
Sec. 28. Guarantee by the Government. — The
Republic of the Philippines hereby guarantees the payment of the
Authority of both the principal and the interest of the bonds,
debentures, collaterals, notes or such other obligations issued by
virtue of this Act, and shall pay such principal and interest in case
the Authority fails to do so.
Sec. 29. Transfer of Functions, Rights, Assets,
Liabilities, Personnel, etc. — All the powers vested in, and the duties
heretofore prescribed by law to the various government offices,
agencies and instrumentalities which are conferred under this Act to
the Authority shall be transferred to the latter. Within thirty days
after the organization of the Authority or earlier, the President of
the Philippines shall issue an Executive Order comprehending and
affecting such transfer under such terms and conditions as he shall
prescribe, including the mechanics of shift of financing arrangements
pertaining to the facilities affected.
The priority use of all lands and of all facilities owned by the
national government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including
those owned by semi-government offices or leased to foreign governments
within the Port District, which are deemed by the Commission as
necessary for the proper management of the Authority or development of
the Port District, are hereby transferred to the Authority: provided,
however, that the Commission shall, as soon as constituted, make an
inventory of all such facilities and identify those facilities which
were constructed and financed wholly or partly from general funds and
bonds funds of the national government as distinguished from those
financed wholly by the Portworks Special Fund, indicating therein the
physical condition and relative book value thereof. Upon such
inventory, all properties and facilities generated by financing wholly
out of the Portworks Special Funds shall be transferred to the
Authority without reimbursement to the original agencies having control
over them; and for all the properties and facilities that were financed
partly or wholly from the general fund of bond fund of the government,
the Authority by virtue of this Section , may secure transfer of
ownership thereof by providing a systematic schedule of repayment of
the corresponding share of the General Fund or Bond Fund invested
therein, including interests in the case of the latter.
The Authority shall, upon consultation with the department head
concerned, reserve and make available within the Port District such
area or areas necessary for the proper operation of any national, city
or municipal government agency which, by reason of the nature of its
duties and functions, require the establishment and operation of such
office.
All appropriations for the Port of San Fernando and for the San
Fernando Airport and all accruals of the Portworks Special Fund derived
thru the use of the San Fernando Port are hereby transferred to the
Authority which shall administer the same in accordance with the
provisions of this Act and for the maintenance and improvement of the
San Fernando Port: provided, however, that all obligations in
connection with the development, improvement and maintenance of the
Port of San Fernando existing upon the effectivity of this Act, shall
be assumed by the Authority.
All debts and obligations incurred, all contracts entered into, and all
matters and things engaged to be done in respect to the Port of San
Fernando by, with, or for the National Government or any of its
instrumentalities, bureaus or offices, shall be deemed to have been
incurred, entered into, or engaged to be done by, with, or for the
Authority.
All sums of money due or to become due to the National Government or
its instrumentalities, bureaus or offices in respect to property held
in behalf, of the National Government in the Port of San Fernando
specifically accruing to the Portwork Special Fund shall be deemed to
be due or to become due to the Authority constituted under this Act.
All suits or other legal proceedings, civil or criminal, instituted by
or against the Bureau of Public Works or any other government or
semi-government offices in respect of things done or committed to be
done in the Port of San Fernando by said offices may be continued or
instituted by or against the Authority constituted under this Act.
Officers and employees of the different government offices whose
functions, wholly or partly, had been conferred to the Authority shall
be transferred to the latter upon mutual agreement between the
Authority and the head of the government office concerned: provided,
however, that the salaries of such officers and employees shall not be
diminished.
Within sixty (60) days after approval of this Act and pending the
composition of the Port Commission, the President of the Philippines
may designate any civil engineer in the employ of the Department of
Public Works and Communications to organize the Authority relative to
the smooth transition steps, initial organization set-up, and
implementation details for the conduct of the affairs of the Authority.
The services of a port management consultant may be engaged, upon the
recommendation of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications to
assist in the accomplishment of such purposes.
All expenses to be incurred for the organization of the Authority shall
be chargeable against the Portworks Special Fund.
Sec. 30. Annual Report. — An annual report of the
Authority shall be submitted within sixty days after the close of the
fiscal year.
The original of said report shall be submitted to the President of the
Philippines and the copies to both Houses of Congress. The report shall
include a financial statement duly certified by the Auditor of the
Authority.
Sec. 31. Separability Clause. — If any provision
of this Act or the application of such provision to any person or
circumstance is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act or
the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances
shall not be affected by such declaration.
Sec. 32. Laws Repealed. — All acts, charters,
executive orders, administrative orders, rules and regulations, or
parts thereof in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed or modified
accordingly.
Sec. 33. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect
upon its approval.
Approved: June 19, 1965
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