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WHEREAS, the government is pursuing an intensified food production program to ensure an adequate food supply and higher standards of living for our people and to sustain the socio-economic growth of the country;

WHEREAS, crop protection is vital to the success of the government's intensified food production programs;

WHEREAS, food and commercial crop losses due to pests amount to hundreds of millions of pesos annually;

WHEREAS, the country has many tropical crops with potential for expanded production and export if proper crop protection is practiced to meet the stringent quarantine and pesticide residue requirements of importing countries;

WHEREAS, the country's pest control research efforts are largely uncoordinated and not made readily available to our farmers;

WHEREAS, there is no systematic effort exerted toward meeting the total pest control needs of the country, and there is therefore need to institutionalize, the research and field extension forces in pest control work into an integrated, nationwide crop protection network;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree and order the following:

SECTION 1. There is hereby established a National Crop Protection Center, hereinafter referred to as the Center, in the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines at Los Baños, with the following specific functions:

1. To undertake problem analyses, development research and planning required to develop crop protect ion systems against pest of major economic crops.
2. To develop and implement manpower training programs de signed to upgrade the pool of manpower required to meet the complex pest control needs of the country.
3. To undertake information exchange and extension to provide farmers and the public with coordinated information about the varied facets of pest control and to emphasize the urgent need for safe and effective pest control practices.
4. To establish adequate linkage between research and operational phasis at the farm level in order to ensure that the changing research needs of operational activities are met and that operational activities are base on the most recent and applicable research findings.
5. To provide scientific advice to government planners for the formulation of policies and regulatory programs necessary for dealing with the complex pest control technologies essential for the protection of crops.

There is also hereby initially established seven regional crop protection centers of the Bureau of Plant Industry which will serve the research, extension and protection needs of the geographic areas they encompass. The functions of the regional crop centers shall be the same as those of the Center as enumerated hereinabove, except that the emphasis shall be on applied research in the region as well as actual protection and field extension work. The locations of the initial regional centers ere as follows: 1) Dingras, Ilocos Norte; 2) Muñoz, Nueva Ecija; 3) Pili, Camarines Sur; 4) Palo, Leyte; 5) Iloilo City; 6) Malaybalay, Bukidnon; and 7) Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. Additional regional crop protection centers may be established hereafter, as may be required from time to time, by the Center, in consultation with the Advisory Board and with the concurrence of the Bureau of Plant Industry.

SEC. 2. The Center shall be headed by a Director who shall be appointed by the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines System upon the joint recommendation by the Advisory Board of the Center and the Chancellor of the U.P. at Los Baños. The Director shall be directly responsible to the Dean of the UPLB College of Agriculture. He shall exercise authority and be responsible for the Center's overall operations.

SEC. 3. The research plans and priorities of the Center shall be subject to annual review by an Advisory Board to assure proper direction and relevance of programs and activities in relation to national requirements. The Advisory Board shall be composed of:

1. The Secretary of Agriculture as Chairman
2. The Dean, UPLB College of Agriculture
3. The Executive Director, National Food and Agriculture Council
4. The Director, Bureau of Plant Industry
5. The Assistant for Research, UP at Los Baños
6. The Director, Crops Research Division, PCARR
7. A Representative of the Pesticide Industry
8. A Representative of the farming sector
9. The Executive Director of the Philippine Pesticide Board

The industry and private sector representatives shall be appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and they shall serve for a term of three years.

SEC. 4. The Center may, in the pursuit of its mandate, enlist the services of any and all scientists and technical personnel of any agency or instrumentality of the Philippine government knowledgeable in pest control work and such scientists and technical personnel may be paid honoraria by the Center.

SEC. 5. The Center is hereby authorized to undertake construction of buildings and other facilities and to purchase local or imported equipment and supplies as may be necessary to carry out its functions. Further, the Center shall be exempted from taxes, and other duties for equipment, supplies and materials purchased abroad when not available locally on favorable terms.

SEC. 6. Expenditures and disbursements made by the Center in the conduct of its activities shall be, subject to special auditing rules and regulations suited to the requirements of research. These special auditing rules and regulations shall be formulated by the Commission on Audit and the Center within three months after approval of this Decree.

SEC. 7. The Center is also hereby authorized to negotiate loans for capital expenditures and staff development and or to solicit donations and/or contributions from organizations or individuals, local or foreign, private or public, for its operations.

SEC. 8. The amount of P3 million is hereby appropriated to the University of the Philippines at Los Baños for Calendar year 1977. This amount or more shall be included in the annual budget of the Department of Agriculture thereafter to support the operation of the Center at Los Baños. The incremental budgetary needs of the Bureau of Plant Industry for the regional crop protection centers shall be provided in the national budget by way of the normal annual budget process.

SEC. 9. All acts, parts of acts, executive orders, ordinances rules and regulations which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Presidential Decree are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SEC. 10. This Decree shall take effect immediately

Done in the City of Manila, this 19th day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-six.