PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES, CODES & ISSUANCES
PHILIPPINE LAWS, STATUTES AND CODES
REPUBLIC ACTS
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1285 - AN
ACT TO AMEND SECTION FIVE, NINE, TWELVE, FOURTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN,
NINETEEN AND THIRTY-ONE OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED EIGHT HUNDRED AND
TWENTY-ONE |
Section 1.
Section five of Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred and twenty-one is
hereby amended to read as follows: "Sec. 5.
Special powers. � The Administration is authorized and directed:
"(1) To
establish such regional, provincial and local offices as are considered
necessary for the efficient conduct of the Administration's activities.
"(2) To formulate policies and procedures with respect to credits to small farmers and the financing and construction as well as the operation of facilities to be financed by the Administration. "(3) To approve such loans as deemed necessary and appropriate and on terms specified by the Board, and to delegate this authority to officials of the Administration. "(4) To
establish and operate terminal markets or producers' exchanges equipped
with the necessary facilities for adequate storage which will serve as
clearing houses for the cooperative associations, these exchanges to be
eventually owned jointly by the cooperative associations in either a
region or individual province.
"(5) To control the issuance of the warehouse receipts for the purpose of facilitating liberal production credit and other short-term loans and for the protection of the lending institutions. "(6) To
supervise and administer anyd to cooperatives which may be entrusted to
it by any duly authorized agency, governmental or private, and to
provide continuity of the program of assistance initiated by such
agency for the small farmers.
"(7) To take charge of all government activities relating to the promotion, organization and supervision of cooperative associations in rural areas particularly to promote education in the principles and practices of cooperative production, marketing and credit among farmers. "(8) To encourage diversified agriculture and accumulate all necessary statistics related to agricultural production, marketing, credit and financing. "(9) To float
debentures for the purpose of implementing this Act when sufficient
revolving funds to undertake the financing program are not provided for
by Congress.
"(10) To accept savings and time deposits from members of cooperative associations and from associations duly affiliated with it and to pay interest for such deposits at a rate not to exceed two and one-half per centum. Sec. 2. Section nine (e) of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "(e) Provincial
directors who will be responsible for administering the
Administration's activities in rural communities. Supervisory
jurisdiction over provincial directors may be delegated by the
Administrator to the regional supervisors to the extent which he deems
necessary for the efficient accomplishment of the Administration's
activities.
"The office of a provincial
director shall be established in any municipality or city within the
territorial limits of the province to which such official is assigned.
Contact with loan applicants and borrowers will be maintained through
loan supervisors and assistant loan supervisors as authorized by the
Administration.
Sec. 3. Section twelve of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 12.
Definitions. � For purposes relating to the implementation of this Act,
the following definitions shall apply:
"(a) A farmers cooperative association shall be a voluntary business organization among farmers (producers of agricultural products including tenants and landlords) established for the purpose of marketing farm products and/or buying farm supplies and implements and basic everyday necessities collectively for the members' direct benefit. It is governed according to the cooperative principles of one-man-one vote basis, limited interest on capital and savings apportioned among the members on the basis of patronage. "(b) The term
"small farmer" shall mean an individual person who exclusively uses the
labor available from within his immediate farm household in the
cultivation of his holding and/or one who owns agricultural land of not
more than twenty-four hectares and engages directly in its cultivation
and resides in the municipality where the farm is located.
Sec. 4. Section fourteen (e) of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "(e) No
application for loan shall be considered unless the applicant has
entered into a marketing contract with the cooperative association of
which he is a member in accordance with the provisions of section
thirty-five of Act Numbered Three thousand four hundred twenty-five.
The contract shall be registered and a copy thereof filed in the office
of the municipal treasurer of the municipality where the association
has its principal office, for which a book for that purpose shall be
kept showing the date the contract was presented for registration, the
name of the parties, the amount and kind of produce to be marketed, and
the period of the contract. No charge or fee in any form shall be
collected for registration.
"Such registration will operate
to encumber the produce in favor of the association, and any production
loan extended by the Administration and/or the association on account
of said marketing contract shall constitute a preferential lien over
the produce of the member for the duration of the contract until paid.
In case of agricultural tenants, such lien shall be enforceable to the
extent of seventy-five per centum of his total share of the harvest.
The preferential lien herein granted shall be an exception to the
provisions of the Civil Code and of the Chattel Mortgage Law as well as
of other laws or parts of laws on credit preferences which are
inconsistent herewith. Unauthorized disposition by the member of the
produce so encumbered shall be punished as violation of chattel
mortgage.
Sec. 5. Section seventeen of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 17.
Personal short term loans to members in good standing with cooperatives
may be granted by the association from funds which it may receive in
advance from the Administration for the said purpose; such loans may be
granted against warehouse receipts of the cooperative association to
the extent of eighty per centum of the market value of the stored
produce; loans upon the security of expected production from the
current crop to the extent of sixty per centum of the value of expected
yield: Provided, however, That no loan shall be granted on any
production estimated to exceed the applicant's previous year's stored
crop with the cooperative by more than fifty per centum.
"The administration may extend
loans to individual members or group of members of any farmer's
cooperative marketing association for the construction or acquisition
of facilities under the same terms and conditions for granting facility
loans to a cooperative association prescribed in section fifteen:
Provided, That such loans shall not exceed eighty per centum of the
total value of the properties of the borrower or borrowers and the
facilities to be constructed or acquired, all of which shall be
encumbered by way of first mortgage as security for the loan."
Sec. 6. Section eighteen of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 18.
Transfer of functions, personnel, and equipment of the Cooperatives
Administration Office. � All the powers vested in and the duties
conferred upon the Cooperatives Administration Office by Commonwealth
Act Numbered Five hundred and sixty-five, as amended by Commonwealth
Act Numbered Seven hundred and thirteen, relative to the promotion,
organization and supervision of cooperative marketing associations as
authorized by Act Numbered Three thousand four hundred and twenty-five
and such number of personnel and equipment as are now used and utilized
in the promotion, organization and supervision of said cooperative
marketing associations by the Cooperatives Administration Office and
the unexpended balance of the funds provided for in Commonwealth Act
Numbered Seven hundred and thirteen and Republic Act Numbered Five
hundred and eighty-three, are hereby absorbed by, and transferred to
the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration.
"The supervisory powers of the
Administration over farmers' cooperative marketing associations
affiliated with it shall include the authority to declare vacant any or
all offices or positions and order an election to fill them whenever
any of the following grounds occur:
"1. Serious losses in the business operations of the association. "2. Failure to pay or meet its obligations to the Administration or other parties. "3. Repeated and willful violation or disregard of rules and regulations of the Administration. "4. Extravagance in the management of the association resulting in serious depletion of its resources. "Action under this section shall
be taken only upon approval by a majority vote of the Board of
Governors and upon due notice to the association and after the officers
concerned have been given a chance to be heard. The order relieving any
officer or officers from any position shall state the ground or grounds
therefor."
"In case the association should refuse or fail to elect or appoint new officers, the Administration may designate new officers from the membership of the association or from its own staff to manage the affairs of the association until the order has been complied with or until the next election of officers. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to prevent any officer or officers removed by the Administration from contesting in the proper court the veracity of the ground or grounds upon which the authority has been exercised." Sec. 7. Section nineteen (a) of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 19.
(a) Obligations issued by the Administration in accordance with the
authority of paragraph (d) of section ten of this Act shall be secured
by the assets of the Administration including all securities held by it
under the provisions of this Act. These obligations shall be redeemable
at the option of the Administration at or before maturity and in such
manner as may be stipulated therein and shall bear such rate of
interest as may be fixed by the Administration. The Administration
shall provide for appropriate reserves for the redemption or retirement
of such obligations. Obligations issued and offered for sale by the
Administration may be offered at such price or prices as the
Administration may determine. The said obligations shall and are hereby
fully and unconditionally guaranteed both as to principal and interest
by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and such guaranty
shall be expressed on the face thereof."
Sec. 8. Section thirty-one of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows: "Sec. 31.
All acts, parts of acts, and any special charter, or parts thereof, of
the banking and financing institutions, or laws or parts of laws
inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed."
Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval. Approved: June 15, 1955 |