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WHEREAS, Section 2 of Commonwealth Act No. 567, entitled “An Act to adjust and stabilize the sugar industry and to raise revenue for the purpose by increasing the tax on the manufacture of sugar and imposing a tax on the owners of sugar lands held by others under lease or other contract granting the right to use said lands for a consideration,” authorizes the President of the Philippines, “in the case of particular proprietors or operators of sugar mills to waive, from year to year, any or all of the tax therein levied except the basic tax of two centavos, when, in view of the peculiar conditions affecting such mills, the provisions of the Act cannot be enforced as against them without being unduly oppressive and/or confiscatory”; and

WHEREAS, Section 6 of the same Act likewise empowers the President of the Philippines, until the adjournment of the next regular session of the National Assembly, to make the necessary disbursements from the fund therein created: (1) for the establishment and operation of sugar experiment station or stations and the undertaking of researches (a) to increase the recoveries of the centrifugal factories with the view to reducing manufacturing costs, (b) to produce and propagate higher yielding varieties of sugar cane more adaptable to different district conditions in the Philippines; (c) to lower the costs of raising sugar cane, (d) to improve the burning quality of denatured alcohol from molasses for motor fuel, (e) to determine the possibility of utilizing the other by-products of the industry, (f) to determine what crop or crops are suitable for rotation and for the utilization of excess cane lands, and (g) on other problems the solution of which would help rehabilitate the industry; and (2) for the improvement of living and working conditions in sugar mills and sugar plantations, besides authorizing him to organize the necessary agency or agencies to take charge of the expenditure and allocation of said funds to carry out the purposes above enumerated and the disbursement from the funds therein created of the necessary amount needed for the payment of salaries, wages, traveling expenses, equipment, and other sundry expenses of said agency or agencies; Now, therefore, in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of law and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and the existing laws, I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, do hereby create and constitute a Sugar Advisory Committee, the members of which shall be appointed by the President from time to time. The members of this Committee shall, upon appointment, immediately enter upon the discharge of their duties.

1. The Committee shall, for the purposes of section 2 of Commonwealth Act No. 567, investigate and inquire into the operation and financial conditions of centrifugal sugar mills’ whose proprietors or operators may have filed with the Office of the President of the Philippines applications for exemption from the payment of the additional progressive taxes as provided in the aforementioned Act, and shall recommend to the President such action as it may deem warranted by and in accordance with its findings. Applications for such exemption shall be filed with the Office of the President not later than the fifteenth day of July each year. The Committee shall likewise recommend to the President the adoption of such measures as will carry into effect the immediate objectives and effectuate the general and declared purposes of the aforementioned Act as above enumerated.

2. The members of the Committee, except those who receive fixed salaries or compensation from Government funds or from funds of corporations owned or controlled directly or indirectly by the Government, shall be entitled to a per diem of P20 each, exclusive of necessary traveling expenses that may be incurred by them, for attendance at the meetings of the Committee or for services rendered when deputized by majority vote of the Committee to perform a given task either by himself or in cooperation with the other members thereof.

3. Until otherwise provided by law or regulation, the administration and disbursement of the Sugar Adjustment and Stabilization Fund created by the Act hereinabove mentioned shall, for and by authority of the President of the Philippines, be under the immediate charge and direction of the Secretary to the President.

4. In order to enable the Committee to carry out its work hereunder, said body or any of its members and duly authorized representatives or agents as may be designated by the Chairman with the approval of the President are hereby granted all the powers of an investigating committee within the purview of sections 71 and 580 of the Revised Administrative Code and may, in the execution of its or their functions, summon witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony relevant to the investigation of documents under a subpoena duces tecum or otherwise, pursuant to the terms of the aforecited provisions of law. The Committee is also authorized to call directly upon any Department, Bureau or office in the executive branch of the Government or upon any government-owned or controlled entity or agency for such assistance as the Committee may need, and subject to the approval of the President, to requisition for, utilize and make use of, the services of their personnel.

Done at the City of Manila, this 22nd day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the fifth.


By the President:

(Sgd.) JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President