PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES, CODES & ISSUANCES
PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES AND CODES
REPUBLIC ACTS
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1160 - AN
ACT TO FURTHER IMPLEMENT THE FREE DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS OF
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AS PROVIDED FOR IN COMMONWEALTH ACT NUMBERED SIX
HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE, AS AMENDED TO ABOLISH THE LAND SETTLEMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION CREATED UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBERED THREE
HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE, DATED OCTOBER TWENTY-THREE, NINETEEN HUNDRED
AND FIFTY, AND TO CREATE IN ITS PLACE THE NATIONAL RESETTLEMENT AND
REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES |
Section 1. It is
hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to help speed up the free
distribution of agricultural lands of the public domain to landless
tenants and farm workers who are citizens of the Philippines and to
encourage migration to sparsely populated regions pursuant to the
fundamental policy of the government to promote the level of
production, employment and living standards of the people.
Sec. 2. National Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Administration. � In furtherance of the above, policy there is hereby
created a corporation to be known as National Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Administration hereafter referred to as "NARRA" to
perform under the supervision and control of the President of the
Philippines, through the Office of Economic Coordinator all the duties
and functions of the Bureau of Lands as provided in Commonwealth Act
Numbered Six hundred and ninety-one as amended, and such other duties
as hereinafter specified in this Act. It shall be headed by a General
Manager and an Assistant General Manager who shall be appointed as
hereinafter provided. POWERS
Sec. 4. General powers. � NARRA is hereby authorized to adopt, alter, and use an official seal; to make contracts, to lease or own real and personal property, and to sell or otherwise dispose of the same; to sue and be sued; and to make such regulations as are necessary to execute the functions vested in it by this Act.
Sec. 5. Special powers. � NARRA is authorized:
Sec. 7. Board of Directors � Its Compositions,
tenure of office and meetings. � The powers and functions of NARRA
shall be exercised by a Board of Directors to be composed of a Chairman
and five members. They shall be appointed by the President of the
Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments for a
term of three years. Any person chosen to fill a vacancy shall serve
only for the unexpired term of the member whom he succeeds. Sec. 9. NARRA shall be the custodian and administrator of public lands reserved or may hereafter be reserved by the President of the Philippines for settlement, all lands actually reserved for the Land Settlement and Development Corporation (LASEDECO), and the agricultural lands surveyed and subdivided under Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred ninety-one.
Sec. 10. The Land Settlement and Development
Corporation created under Executive Order Numbered Three hundred
fifty-five, dated October twenty-three, nineteen hundred and fifty,
known for short as LASEDESCO, is hereby abolished, and all its
obligations under said Executive Order, except its commercial accounts
which are to be paid as hereinafter provided, are hereby transferred to
the Treasury of the Philippines to be amortized over a period of
fifteen years subject to the availability of funds of the
Government. Sec. 11. To carry out of the purposes of this Act, there is hereby appropriated for the "Revolving Fund of the Colonists", as provided for in Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred and ninety-one, the sum of five million pesos for the fiscal year 1954-1955 out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be spent by the NARRA upon recommendation of the Office of Economic Coordination and under the supervision and authority of the President of the Philippines for the activities prescribed herein. A sum of not less than eight million pesos for every fiscal year thereafter, for a period of ten years, shall be included in the General Appropriations Acts for the subsequent fiscal years for the said "Revolving Fund of the Colonists" to carry out the purposes of this Act. Sec. 12. All public agricultural lands referred to in section fourteen of Executive Order Numbered Three hundred and fifty-five, dated October Twenty-three, nineteen hundred and fifty, are hereby transferred to the jurisdiction of the NARRA to be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this Act: Provided, That the settlement of the agricultural lands so transferred under this section by voluntary settlers who do not receive any direct assistance under the provisions of this Act or by duly qualified homestead applicants shall not be precluded nor obstructed.
Sec. 13. In addition to the financiald that may be
given to settlers from the "Revolving Fund of the Colonists", the
Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA)
created under Republic Act Numbered Eight Hundred and twenty-one is
hereby authorized to give loans or financial assistance to the settlers
or settlers cooperatives to help establish themselves as independent
farmers following their arrival in the settlement areas: Provided,
however, That it may require any borrower to become a bona fide member
of a cooperative association in the settlement areas as a condition for
giving such financiald or loan. Such loans shall be subject to the
conditions specified in section six, subsection two, of this Act, with
the modification that the lien shall be on the borrower's produce and
that the amortization period shall begin one year after the date of the
loan. TRANSITORY AND SPECIAL
PROVISIONS
Sec. 14. The officials, employees and laborers of the LASEDECO who may be separated from the service by virtue hereof and who are entitled to retire under Republic Act Numbered Six hundred sixty shall be so retired upon the payment of the obligations of the LASEDECO to the Government Service Insurance System subsisting under said account on the date of the approval hereof. Those who may not be retired shall be entitled to thirty days' separation pay, the money value of earned vacation and sick leaves, and gratuity which shall be paid in one lump sum equivalent to one month's salary for every year of satisfactory service rendered in any branch of the government and government agencies and the instrumentalities on the basis of the highest salary received by them; Provided, That any of said officials, employees or laborers who has rendered less than one year of service shall be paid in one lump sum a gratuity equivalent to one half of one months' salary: And provided, further, That in case of subsequent reinstatement in the Government service or in any Government-owned or controlled corporation of any such official, employee or laborer who has been paid gratuity hereunder, he shall refund to the National Government the value of the gratuity which he would not have as yet received if it had been payable in monthly installments. Sec. 15. Subject to the provisions of section ten hereof, the President of the Philippines shall provide by executive order for the liquidation of the assets and liabilities of LASEDECO and is hereby authorized to transfer to NARRA such properties, equipment, assets and rights of LASEDECO as may be needed by the former in carrying out the purposes and objectives of this Act.
Sec. 16. Any provision of law to the contrary
notwithstanding, all surveyed portions of the public agricultural lands
heretofore transferred or reserved for the administration of NARRA
under this Act and of those which may hereafter be transferred by the
President of the Philippines to NARRA for the purposes of this Act,
shall be ceded to NARRA, and the President of the Philippines shall
from time to time cause the issuance of patents or other deeds
transferring title to such lands to NARRA in accordance with the
provisions of the Public Land Act and such rules and regulations as may
be promulgated to facilitate the transfer of title to
NARRA. PENAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 17. No officer or employee of NARRA shall be permitted in any manner to acquire, directly or indirectly, any land within the land settlement projects of NARRA. Any such officer or employee who violates the provisions of this section shall immediately be removed by competent authority and said officer or employee shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year nor exceeding five years and by a fine of not less than one thousand nor more than five thousand pesos. Should a dummy be used to violate the provisions of this section, the same penalty shall be applied to the dummy.
Sec. 18. No official or employee of the Corporation
shall directly or indirectly be financially interested in any contract
with the corporation or in any special privilege granted by said
corporation during his term of office. Any violation of this
prohibition shall be punished by dismissal from office and by a fine of
not more than five thousand pesos and imprisonment of not more than
five years. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 19. If any provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional, or the applicability thereof to any person, circumstance, or transaction is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the Act and the applicability of such provision to other persons, circumstances, and transactions shall not be affected thereby.
Sec. 20. All Act, parts of Act, and any special
charters, or parts thereof, inconsistent herewith are hereby
repealed. Approved: June 18, 1954 |