WHEREAS, the development of the export and capital goods industry is hampered by the lack of proper credit, guarantee, and insurance facilities at rates and on terms and conditions which will place the nation’s experts at a competitive level in the international market and will enable local industries to manufacture capital goods, likewise at levels competitive with imported goods and services;
WHEREAS, there is a need to establish a government-owned or controlled corporation to provide the required credit, guarantee and insurance facilities at preferential rates and on liberal terms and conditions;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree the following:
SECTION 1. Short Title. – This Decree shall be known as the “Character of the Export Credit Corporation.”
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – It is the policy of the State to encourage, promote and develop the export of manufactured goods, products, and other goods and services by extending credits guarantees, and insurance covers at interest rates and charges and on an internationally competitive basis, in order to attain a rising level of production and employment, increase foreign exchange earnings and improve the country’s balance of payments, accelerate the economic growth and development of the nation, and secure to the Filipino people the benefits of such growth and development.
SEC. 3. Creation, Name, Domicile and Term. – There is hereby created a body corporate to be known as the Export Credit Corporation. Its principal place of business shall be in Metropolitan Manila and it may establish such offices, agencies, branches, subsidiaries and correspondents in the Philippines or abroad as its business operations may require. It shall have a term of fifty (50) years from the effectivity hereof, which shall be deemed renewed for an equal period, unless sooner dissolved by law.
SEC. 4. Purposes. – The Corporation shall have the following purposes:
SEC. 5. Powers and Functions. – The Corporation shall have the following powers and functions:
SEC. 6. Restriction on powers. – The Corporation is not a bank within the meaning of Republic Act Numbered Three Hundred thirty-seven (General Banking Act), as amended, and as such, can not perform commercial banking functions, except as provided herein.
SEC. 7. Capital Stock. – The Corporation shall have an authorized capital stock of TEN BILLION PESOS (P10,000,000,000) divided into ten million (10,000,000) shares with a par value of P100,000 per share, of which P200,000,000 shall be originally subscribed and paid for by the Republic of the Philippines. The remaining shares of stock may be subscribed and paid for by the Republic of the Philippines or by government financial institutions.
SEC. 8. Governing Body. – The Corporation shall be governed by a Board of Directors which shall be composed of eleven (11) members as follows:
In making the appointment of the President of the Corporation and the representative from the private sector, the President shall base his selection on the integrity, experience and expertise of the appointee.
The Minister of finance and the Minister of Industry shall sit respectively as ex officio Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board. The other officers of the Corporation shall be appointed by the Board.
SEC. 9. Duties and responsibilities of the President. – The President who shall be the chief executive of the Corporation shall have the following duties and responsibilities:
SEC. 10. Loans. – The Corporation is hereby authorized to contract loans, credits, in any convertible foreign currency, and incur indebtedness from time to time from foreign governments or any international financial institutions or fund sources, or any other entities, on such terms and conditions it shall deem appropriate for the accomplishment: of its purposes and to enter into and execute agreements and other documents specifying such terms and conditions.
The Republic of the Philippines, through the President of the Philippines or his duly authorized representative, may guarantee, absolutely and unconditionally, as primary obligor and not as surety merely, the payment of the loans, credits and indebtedness issued up to the amount herein authorized, which may be over and above the amount which the President of the Philippines is authorized to guarantee under the republic Act Numbered sixty-one hundred forty-two, as amended, as well as the performance of all or any of the obligations undertaken by the Corporation in the territory of the Republic of the Philippines pursuant to loan agreements entered into with foreign governments or any international financial institutions of fund source.
SEC. 12. General Counsel. – The Solicitor General shall perform the duties of General Counsel or the Corporation. Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, the Solicitor General and such personnel as may be necessary to assist him In the performance of his duties and responsibilities shall receive such allowances as shall be fixed by the Board.
SEC. 13. Privileges and Incentive. – The Corporation shall be entitled to all such privileges and incentives as are or may be granted by law to private enterprises engaged in the export and capital goods industries.
Other government offices and other government-owned or controlled corporations shall extend whatever assistance may be needed by the Corporation or any of its branches, offices and subsidiaries, including the detail of its officials and employees to the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries on full-time or part-time basis under arrangements satisfactory to the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries and the government office or corporation concerned. Said officials and employee, as well as the directors of the Corporation and its subsidiaries, may receive allowance and other emoluments, notwithstanding the provision of any law to the contrary.
The employee of the Corporation shall be entitled to all the retirement and insurance benefits and leave privileges of government employees.
SEC. 14. Tax exemption. – The Corporation shall be exempt from all taxes, duties, fees, imposts and all other charges, except corporate income tax, imposed directly or indirectly by the Republic of the Philippines, its provinces, cities, municipalities and other government agencies and instrumentalities.
SEC. 15. Exemption from Civil Service Law. – The offices and employees of the Corporation shall not be subject to the Civil Service Law, rules and regulations, and shall likewise be exempt from the regulations of the Wage and Position Classification Office.
SEC. 16. Non-applicability of the laws on Usury and Uniform Currency, and certain provisions of the Insurance Code. – The provisions of Republic Act Numbered two thousand five hundred sixty-six (Usury Law), as amended; Republic Act Numbered five hundred twenty-nine (Uniform Currency Law), as amended; and Chapters III, IV and VIII, of Presidential Decree No. 612 (The Insurance Code) shall not apply to the operation and activities of the Corporation.
SEC. 17. Access to Rediscounting Facilities of the Central Bank. – The Corporation shall have access to the rediscounting facilities of the Central Bank under the most favorable terms available for any entity under Central Bank rules and regulations.
SEC. 18. Appropriations. – For the initial requirements of the Corporation, the sum of TWO HUNDRED MILLION PESOS (P200,000,000) is hereby set aside and appropriated from the General Funds not otherwise appropriated.
SEC. 19. Reports. – The Corporation shall, within three (3) months after the end of every fiscal year, submit its annual report to the President of the Philippines. It shall likewise submit such periodic or other reports as may be required of it from time to time.
SEC. 20. Separability Clause. – Should any provision of this Decree be held unconstitutional, no other provision hereof shall be affected thereby.
SEC. 21. Repealing. – All laws, decrees, executive orders, administrative orders, rules and regulations inconsistent herewith are hereby, amended or modified accordingly.
SEC. 22. Effectivity. – This Decree shall take effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila, this 15th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty-one.
(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines
By the President: (Sgd.) JUAN C. TUVERA Presidential Executive Assistant
Vol. 25, Vital Documents, Presidential Decree 1980-1981