Pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the Philippines, I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, do hereby promulgate the following rules:

(1) The Emergency Control Administrator may, at any time, order the commandeering of all food, fuel, building materials, and other articles or commodities of prime necessity for the purpose of preventing, locally or generally, scarcity, hoarding and injurious speculation affecting the supply, distribution and movement of such articles or commodities. Any and all commodities so commandeered by the Emergency Control Administrator shall be by him turned over to the Food Administrator of the Civilian Emergency Administration who shall dispose of such commandeered commodities for distribution to the public through such cooperative organizations as may have been organized by the National Cooperatives Administration, or through the National Trading Corporation, the National Rice and Corn Corporation, the Fuel Administrator of the Civilian Emergency Administration, the Industrial Production Administration of the Civilian Emergency Administration, or through such other agencies or instrumentalities, official or otherwise, as in his judgment may effect such distribution to the best interests of the consuming public. The Emergency Control Administrator shall issue the necessary rules and orders for the purpose of effecting the payment of the goods so commandeered.

(2) Any person, firm, or corporation, who having in stock, either in his place of business or in his bodega or bodegas, commodities of prime necessity as listed and described in the schedules attached to Executive Order Numbered Three hundred and seventy-one, issued October 2, 1941, or in such other Executive Orders as may hereafter be issued, shall withdraw from selling, or shall refuse to sell to any legitimate purchaser any of such commodities as the maximum selling prices set forth in the schedules attached to Executive Order Numbered Three hundred and Seventy-one, issued on the second day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-one, or in any Executive Order amendatory thereto, or in any Special Permit or Emergency Order issued by the Emergency Control Administrator, or in any provincial emergency control order issued by a Provincial Committee of the Emergency Control Board, shall be deemed to be engaged in hoarding and speculation, which injuriously affects the supply, distribution and movement of the above-referred articles and commodities, and shall be punished as provided by section three of Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred.

(3) Any person, firm, or corporation, who shall offer to sell any commodity of prime necessity, as listed and described in the Schedules attached to Executive Order Numbered Three hundred and Seventy-one issued on the second day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-one, at prices higher than the maximum selling prices set forth in the Schedules attached to said Executive Order No. 371, issued October 2, 1941, or in any Emergency Control Board, and/or shall refuse to issue to the purchaser a covering invoice showing the actual price or prices charged for any of the article or articles of prime necessity as named and described in the Schedules attached to Executive Order numbered Three Hundred and Seventy-one, shall be punished as provided in Section three of Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred.

(4) Any person, firm, or corporation, who, having in stock commodities of prime necessity, as listed and described in the schedules attached to Executive Order Numbered Three Hundred and Seventy-one, issued on the second day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-one or in any Executive Order amendatory thereto or in any Special Permit or Emergency Order issued by the Emergency Control Administrator or in any Provincial Emergency Control Order issued by a Provincial Committee of the Emergency Control Board shall make or effect a false or fictitious sale of any of said commodities and/or articles of prime necessity, in order to make it appear in his inventory of essential commodities that he no longer has in stock the commodities and/or articles required, shall be penalized pursuant to the next preceding paragraph and the provisions of section three of Commonwealth Act Numbered Six Hundred.

(5) The Emergency Control Administrator is authorized to designate any officer or employee of the Government - National, provincial, city or municipal - to assist him in the enforcement of all laws, executive orders, rules and regulations regarding profiteering, hoarding and speculation on food, fuel, and building materials.

(6) The Emergency Control Administrator, whenever the condition of the market shall so demand, may include among the commodities or articles listed in Executive Order No. 371, issued October 2, 1941, such other commodities or articles of prime necessity as, according to his investigation, are being made the subject of profiteering and shall fix the maximum selling prices therefor which shall in no case be less than the market price of such article as of December 7, 1941, plus a surcharge of not exceeding twenty-five per centum thereof, subject to the provisions regarding Emergency Orders and Special Permits as provided in paragraphs 4 (a), (b) and (c) of Executive Order No. 371, or in any other Executive Order amendatory thereto.

Done at the City of Manila, this 15th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-one, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the seventh.


By the President:

(Sgd.) JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President