WHEREAS, a more cohesive, integrated, and responsive administrative machinery is essential to the accelerated and successful implementation of the agricultural development programs; and

WHEREAS, as presently organized, the Ministry of Agriculture, the entity primarily responsible for the implementation of these programs, needs an improved organizational structure to operate in a unified and synchronized manner, and therefore should be restructured to enable it to attain in the most economical, efficient and effective means the national goal of increased production and self-sufficiency in basic foods.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby amend Presidential Decree No. 461, as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 2 shall read as follows:

"SEC. 2. The Ministry of Agriculture shall be composed of the Ministry Proper which shall include the Office of the Minister, the Planning Service, the Financial and Management Service, the Administrative Service, the Computer Service Center, and the Agrarian Reform Unit. The bureaus under the supervision and control of the Ministry are the (1) Bureau of Soils, (2) Bureau of Plant Industry, (3) Bureau of Animal Industry, (4) Bureau of Agricultural Extension, and (5) Bureau of Agricultural Economics. They shall be staff bureaus and primarily responsible for providing advice and assistance to the Office of the Minister; the development of plans and programs; the formulation of operating policies and standards; providing technical supervision to the regional offices; and such other functions as may be assigned by the Minister of Agriculture. The following government-owned and controlled corporations are attached to the Ministry: (a) National Grains Authority, (b) Philippine Tobacco Administration, (c) Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration (d) Coconut Investment Company, and (e) Philippine Cotton Corporation. The National Food and Agriculture Council, Green Revolution Expanded Program Action Committee, Livestock Development Council, National Artificial Rain Stimulation Committee, and the National Meat Inspection Commission are placed under the administrative supervision of the Ministry. The Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority, Abaca Industry Development Authority, Philippine Virginia Tobacco Board, Presidential Committee on Agricultural Credit, Philippine Agricultural Training Council, Palayan ng Bayan National Advisory Council, and National Governing Board of the Philippine Training Centers for Rural Development are attached to the Ministry. The Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resources Research shall be attached to the National Science Development Board."

SEC. 2. Section 14 shall read as follows:

"SEC. 14. The Ministry of Agriculture shall establish regional offices on a ministry-wide basis and in accordance with Article I, Chapter III, Part II of the Integrated Reorganization Plan, as amended. Each of these regional offices shall be headed by a Regional Director who shall be assisted by two Assistant Regional Directors, one for livestock production and the other one for crop production. The regional offices of the Bureau of Forest Development, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Bureau of Lands shall be established in accordance with Article I, Chapter III, Part II of the Integrated Reorganization Plan, as amended, and with Letter of Implementation No. 9. The Bureau of Mines shall establish its regional offices in accordance with its requirements, subject to the approval of the President upon the recommendation of the Minister of Natural Resources."

SEC. 3. The Minister of Agriculture shall promulgate the necessary implementing orders to carry out the reorganization of the Ministry which shall include the organizational structures and staffing patterns of the bureaus, regional offices, and provincial offices of the Ministry, subject to the concurrence of the Ministry of the Budget in consultation, whenever necessary, with the Presidential Commission on Reorganization. The Minister is also authorized to accordingly effect the assignment of existing personnel to the central, regional and provincial offices; and the reallocation of existing research, experimental, and similar stations and facilities to the central, regional, and provincial offices.

SEC. 4. Presidential Decree No. 547, is hereby repealed and all other laws, decrees and orders, or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with the preceding are hereby repealed or amended accordingly.

SEC. 5. 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