WHEREAS, with the accelerating erosion of plant genetic resources in the country, as in all parts of the world, there is an urgent need to identify a national repository for and to activate immediately a national program of collecting, introducing, and conserving valuable seedstock, and fruits and tree crops;

WHEREAS, in order to accomplish its original objectives, and fulfill the need defined above, the Institute of Plant Breeding needs farmlands for its experiment station;

WHEREAS, to facilitate acquisition of private agricultural property for the institute's experiment station, there is a need to specify the mode and cost acquiring the same;

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:

SECTION 1. Section 1 of P.D. 729 is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following paragraph:

The function under paragraph (c) of this Section shall be performed by the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory which is hereby established in the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) as one of its component units and as the national center in the collection and conservation of seedstocks and fruit and tree crops;

SECTION 2. Section 2 of P.D. 729 is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following paragraph:

In the acquisition of land for the Institute of Plant Breeding, the University of the Philippines at Los Baños is hereby authorized to acquire by negotiated sale or by expropriation the private agricultural properties described in Schedule "A", a 25-meter-wide right-of-way through private properties described in Schedule "B" and a 15-meter-wide right-of-way through private properties described in Schedule "C" of this Decree and in connection therewith, the provisions of Section 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 of P.D. 457 are incorporated herein.

SECTION 3. The area authorized to be acquired by the University of the Philippines at Los Baños for the Institute of Plant Breeding is hereby increased from 150 hectares to 219 hectares.

SECTION 4. All executive orders, laws, decrees, rules and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Decree are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SECTION 5. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 12th day of November, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Six.

 

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