WHEREAS, under Presidential Decree No. 87, otherwise known as the "Oil Exploration and Development Act of 1972" issued on December 31, 1972, it is the declared policy of the State to hasten the discovery and development of the country's indigenous petroleum resources;

WHEREAS, the attainment of this desired objective is unnecessarily hampered by an acute shortage of Filipino technical personnel in the sciences related to petroleum exploration and development, the absence of an integrated data and information on the country's petroleum potentials and resources, and the lack of local petroleum laboratories to perform geological and geographical data processing and analysis;

WHEREAS, it has become imperative to establish a governmental unit in the Petroleum Board which will have ample powers to attain the above objectives;

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

SECTION 1. There is hereby established a Philippine National Petroleum Center, hereinafter referred to as the Center, constituting an integral unit of the Petroleum Board.

SEC. 2. The Center shall have the following purposes: (a) to ensure the country of a steady stream of competent technical personnel; (b) to centralize all data and information on the country's petroleum resources; (c) to provide supportive technical services to all oil exploration ventures through complete and modern laboratory facilities.

SEC. 3. The Center may set up various divisions within its organizational structure, as it may deem necessary, such as a Petroleum Institute, a Petroleum Laboratory and a Petroleum Data Bank.

SEC. 4. The Center shall be under the administrative control and supervision of the Petroleum Board, with such officers and personnel or employees as the Petroleum Board may appoint. Their compensation, tenure of office and other terms and conditions relative to their appointment shall be determined by the Petroleum Board.

SEC. 5. The positions in the Center of officers and employees shall be considered technical and highly confidential and as such may be on a part-time basis and shall be exempt from the requirements and restrictions of the Civil Service Law, the Retirement Law Section 259 of the Revised Administrative Code and the laws, rules and regulations on position classification and salary standardization: Provided that any retiree employed in the Center shall not be required to reimburse or refund any gratuity received from the Government nor shall any pension or annuity to which he is entitled be suspended or reduced on account of his employment in the Center.

SEC. 6. In order to provide for the support of the Center, the fees collected by the Petroleum Board on service contracts or other agreements entered into pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 87, including the signature bonuses paid thereunder shall henceforth be receipted for separately as part of a special fund to be known as the "Philippine National Petroleum Center Fund" and shall be set aside for the exclusive use of the Center in accordance with this decree.

SEC. 7. The Center shall be the sole central repository of all data and information on the country's petroleum potentials and resources. For this purpose, it shall have the power to require reports and data from service contractors under Presidential Decree No. 87, concessionaires under Republic Act No. 387, also known as the Petroleum Act of 1949, and such other oil exploration and development companies that may explore, exploit or develop petroleum resources in the Philippines. All such data now in the possession or custody of any instrumentality or agency of the Government shall be turned over to the Center within thirty (30) days after the effectivity of this decree.

SEC. 8. Other Government offices and other Government-owned or controlled corporations shall extend whatever assistance may be needed by the Center, including the detail of their officials and employees under arrangements satisfactory to the Center and the other Government office or corporation concerned. Such personnel may be given honorarium by the Center, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 9. All acts, or parts of acts, decrees, general orders, executive orders, proclamations, rules and regulations inconsistent herewith are repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 10. This decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 8th day of November, in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-four.