WHEREAS, the offices and laboratories of the Forest Products Research and Industries Development Commission (FORPRIDECOM) are located at the Forestry Campus and are part of the U.P. Los Baños Complex at Mt. Makiling, Los Baños, Laguna, which is relatively far from residential areas;

WHEREAS, there exists an acute shortage of housing facilities within the vicinity of the Forestry Campus; WHEREAS, to meet this shortage, the different agencies in the Los Baños Complex such as the UPLB College of Agriculture, the UPLB College of Forestry, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the Southeast Asean Research Center for Agriculture (SEARCA), have provided their employees with housing quarters;

WHEREAS, the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) has set aside a housing area for FORPRIDECOM personnel near its laboratories in the Forestry Campus;

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the UPLB that all housing quarters in the UPLB area should be government-owned;

WHEREAS, the intended low-cost housing quarters to be put up will serve as a venue in service-testing newly-developed housing materials, designs, and techniques;

WHEREAS, to recover the amount that will be spent on their construction, the low-cost housing quarters will be rented to deserving FORPRIDECOM employees at reasonable rates to be paid to FORPRIDECOM, thus making them self-liquidating;

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 that:

"SECTION 1. The sum of One Million Five Hundred Thousand (P1.5-M) Pesos from the Special Fund of the Forest) Products Research and Industries Development Commission is hereby appropriated to finance the low-cost housing quarters for its deserving employees as the Commission may determine."

"SEC. 2. This Decree shall take effect immediately."

Done in the City of Manila, this 3rd day of December in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-four.