Administrative Order No. 141




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ Administrative Order No. 141, November 2, 1965 ] CONDONING ADVANCES MADE TO SETTLERS COMMONLY KNOWN AS SETTLERS ACCOUNT, BY THE LASEDECO AND/OR ITS PREDECESSORS WHEREAS, pursuant to Republic Act No. 422, the Land Settlement and Development Company (LASEDECO) was created by Executive Order No. 355, series of 1950, to facilitate the acquisition, settlement and cultivation of agricultural lands, to afford opportunity to landless tenants and small farmers to own farms and to encourage migration to sparsely populated regions; WHEREAS, to carry out the aforesaid objectives, all surveyed portions of the public agricultural lands reserved for the National Land Settlement Administration and the Rice Production Administration of the National Development Company were ceded by way of grant from the Republic of the Philippines to the LASEDECO as its corporate capital; WHEREAS, under Republic Act No. 1160 creating the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) and abolishing the LASEDECO, it is the declared policy of Congress to expedite the free distribution of agricultural lands to qualified landless tenants and farm workers; WHEREAS, in the award of home lots and/or farm lots to the settlers by the LASEDECO and/or its predecessors, administration charges, survey fees, allocation fees and settlers accounts were charged against the settlers which earned yearly interest upon the settlers failure to pay them on time; and WHEREAS, the settlers accounts, consisting of advances made by the LASEDECO to the settlers, such as building materials, work animals, agricultural implements, food, machinery, supplies and other expenses, and the interest therein have grown to such proportion beyond the capacity of the settlers to pay, and their failure to pay has hampered the issuance of patents and/or titles to the land awarded to them, thus defeating the primordial policy of the government to give land to the landless.1aшphi1 NOW, THEREFORE, I, DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, and the best interests of the Government so requiring, do hereby order; That the outstanding accounts of settlers, known as settlers accounts, consisting of advances made by the LASEDECO and/or its predecessors before its abolition on June 18, 1954, and the interests thereon are hereby condoned and said persons relieved therefrom: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall relieve the National Development Company from paying the accounts of settlers for lands it acquired pursuant to the Memorandum Agreement between it and the Board of Liquidators dated April 5, 1965. Done in the City of Cotabato, this 2nd day of November, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-five. (Sgd.) DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL President of the Philippines By the President: (Sgd.) SALVADOR L. MARIÑO Acting Executive Secretary The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation