In view of the serious problems confronting the rice industry in the Philippines and of the grave consequences arising from the recurrent rice shortage in this country, a situation which calls for immediate and practical solution in order to save our people from periodic sufferings and distress, I, Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby create and constitute a Rice Commission which shall be composed of the following:

1.	Placido Mapa, Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources	Chairman
2.	Ricardo Nepomuceno, Secretary of Public Works and Communications	Member
3.	Primitivo Lovina, Secretary of Labor	Member
4.	Cornelio Balmaceda, Secretary of Commerce and Industry	Member
5.	Vicente Carmona, President, Philippine National Bank	Member
6.	Delfin Buencamino, Chairman, Board of Governors, Rehabilitation Finance Corporation	Member
7.	Vicente Sabalvaro, General Manager, National Development Company	Member
8.	Ildefonso Coscolluela, General Manager, Philippine Relief and Trade Rehabilitation Administration	Member
9.	Servillano de la Cruz, Chairman-Manager, National Rice and Corn Corporation	Member
10.	Jose Cojuangco, President, Philippine Rice Growers Association	Member
11.	Guillermo Guevara, in representation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce	Member

It shall be the duty of the Commission to devise ways and means of increasing rice production, of preventing or minimizing the destruction and loss of standing crops, of distributing and marketing cleaned rice to consumers all over the Philippines, and of determining various measures that will promote the production of supplementary food crops and the adoption of agricultural industries that will provide off-season employment for the farm population. The Commission shall also undertake a study of all laws and regulations affecting the rice industry and recommend areas of public and private lands suitable for immediate development; submit plans to bring these areas into immediate cultivation for the production of rice and other food crops, and recommend means and method for the speedy advancement of Philippine rice production.

Each member of the Commission who is not in the government service shall receive a per diem to be fixed by the President.

The Commission is hereby empowered and authorized to call upon any Department, bureau, office, agency or instrumentality of the Government, including the corporations owned or controlled by it, for such assistance or information as it may need in the performance of its functions; and for the purpose of securing needed information, it shall have access to, and the right to examine, any books, documents, papers, or records thereof.

Any clerical assistance or office supplies that may be needed by the Commission shall be provided by the National Economic Council.

The Commission shall submit its report and recommendations to the President of the Philippines not later than October 30, 1948.

Administrative Order No. 20, dated December 3, 1946, is hereby repealed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 1st day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the third.


By the President:
(SGD.) TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary