WHEREAS, Filipino exporters of cigars have failed to reach the 200,000,000 volume of prewar days;

WHEREAS, this failure has been attributed to the change in customers' taste in cigars from one made of purely local cigar leaf to one blended with imported tobacco varieties;

WHEREAS, there is need to encourage the growth of cigar export considering that the industry provides employment opportunities to a large segment of our population and foreign exchange earnings to the country;

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

SECTION 1. The importation of foreign cigar leaf tobacco for the purpose of blending with local cigar leaf tobacco to improve the quality of locally made cigars for export is hereby authorized: Provided, That the total importation for any one year shall not exceed one hundred thousand (100,000) kilograms unless the export market conditions require otherwise: Provided further, That the authority to import shall be granted only to bonafide cigar manufacturers-exporters at least sixty percent (60%) of the capital stock of which is owned by Filipinos and bonafide cigar manufacturing-exporting companies existing at the time of the promulgation of this Decree.

SEC. 2. The Philippine Tobacco Board shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to implement and effectively carry out the provisions of this Decree.

SEC. 3. An inter-agency Committee to be created by the Philippine Tobacco Board shall enforce this Decree and its implementing rules and regulations. The said Committee shall be composed of the Chairman-General Manager of the Philippine Tobacco Administration as Chairman and a representative each of the Bureau of Foreign Trade and of the tobacco manufacturing-exporting sector as Members.

SEC. 4. Any person violating any provision of this Decree or the implementing rules and regulations promulgated by the Philippine Tobacco Board shall be fined in an amount not less than five thousand pesos nor more than ten thousand pesos or imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court. In case the violation is committed by a corporation, the penalties herein provided shall be imposed upon the President or in his absence, upon the Manager or person in charge of the business thereof. Such violations shall ipso facto cause the revocation of all privileges, permits and authorization granted to such person under this Decree.

SEC. 5. All existing laws, rules and regulations inconsistent with this Decree are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 6. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 11th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight.

			(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS President of the Philippines
	By the President:
	(Sgd.) JACOBO C. CLAVE
		Presidential Executive Assistant