Supreme Court E-Library
Information At Your Fingertips

SECTION 1. The word "person" as used herein shall include corporations, companies, societies, associations, and other commercial or legal entities. The term "paint" as used in this Act shall apply to all mixtures composed of pigments and vehicle (in the "paste," "semipaste," or "ready mixed" form) and intended to be spread in thin coats for decoration or protection, or both. The term "paint materials" shall include "body pigments" and "extenders" both in the dry or paste form, and also paint vehicles and thinners. 

SEC. 2. It shall be unlawful for any person, whether as principal or agent, to manufacture, import, sell, or offer pi for sale, within the Philippine Islands, any paint or paint materials unless the same bears a plain and conspicuous label which contains the name and residence of the manufacturer or distributor thereof, or of the party for whom the same is manufactured, and a brand registered with the Bureau of Commerce and Industry, if so registered. The label shall also show plainly and conspicuously the net weight of paint pastes and dry pigments and the volume and net weight of ready mixed paints, oils, or other fluid paint materials, and with substantial accuracy, the true percentage by weight of each ingredient, whether solid or liquid, of paint pastes, dried pigments, ready mixed paints, oils, or other paint materials. 

The possession of the articles or substances above described without the proper labels as provided in this section, by any person dealing in the same, shall be considered prima facie evidence that the same is kept by such person in violation of the provisions of this Act and shall be punishable under it. 

It shall also be unlawful for any person, whether as principal or agent, to alter or modify the brand or label of any imported paint or paint material, once it has been admitted into the Philippine Islands. 

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the Collector of Customs to refuse the admission of any paint or paint material which shall be found to be not properly labeled within the meaning of this Act. 

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Director of the Bureau of Science, personally or by deputies duly authorized, to make proper inspection of paints or paint materials sold or offered for sale in the Philippine Islands. To carry out this object, he, or his authorized deputies, may secure, without payment from any one dealing in the said articles, samples of each brand of paint or paint materials sold by him, and may make or cause to be made an analysis of the same according to the methods adopted by the Government Committee on Standardization of Supplies for paints purchased by the Philippine Government, and a certified statement of the results of such analysis shall be received in the courts and all other places as prima facie evidence in any legal action within the Philippine Islands concerning such brand of paint or paint material. The Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources shall prescribe such tolerances in weights and measures as may be permitted and shall define the names, terms, and phrases that may be used in labeling paints and paint materials.  

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources to see that the provisions of this Act are complied with, and to cause all violations thereof to be prosecuted in the courts of justice in accordance with the ordinary procedure; and to prescribe and enforce such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry into effect the full intent and meaning of this Act. 

SEC. 6. The Director of the Bureau of Science, or his  duly authorized agents, shall have access and ingress to all places of business, factories, stores, and buildings used for the manufacture or sale of paints, and any person hindering or obstructing the Director of the Bureau of Science, the Collector of Customs, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, or any of their duly authorized deputies, in the discharge of the authority or duty conferred or imposed upon them by any provision of this Act, and any person violating any provision of this Act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred and not more than five thousand pesos, or by imprisonment of not more than one year, or by both, in the discretion of the court, and after second conviction, the guilty party shall be debarred from further using in the Philippine Islands, the brand or trademark used on the misbranded paint or paint material. 

Any lot of paints or paint materials found to be mislabeled shall be confiscated by the Government and turned over to the Bureau of Supply, which shall dispose of the confiscated article by destruction or sale, and the proceeds thereof, if sold, less the legal costs and charges, shall be paid into the Treasury of the Philippine Islands.

SEC. 7. This Act shall take effect on January thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty-one.  

Approved, November 29, 1929.