REPUBLIC ACT No. 3099
An Act Creating the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:
Section 1. There is hereby created under the Department of Commerce and Industry an Office to be known as the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service.
Section 2. The Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service shall have a head, who shall be known as the Director of Fiber Inspection Service to be appointed by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of the Congress and shall receive a minimum entrance salary provided for under WAPCO salary range 58. The Director should have, at least, twenty years of service in the actual fiber inspection work and should, at least, have passed the civil service examination for fiber inspector (equivalent to First Grade). There shall be in the said Bureau such technical personnel and other employees to be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and Industry, as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act: Provided, However, That the present personnel of the Fiber Inspection Service doing fiber inspection work and/or related matters shall be retained in the service and transferred, together with the present appropriations, apparatus, equipment, records and other properties thereof to the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service.
Section 3. The Director of the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service shall, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Industry, organize its personnel in such divisions or sections as will insure efficiency: Provided, However, That there shall at least be divisions of inspections, export and license and general service.
Section 4. The Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service shall have the following powers, duties and functions:
(a) To maintain and enforce a uniform and standard classification of abaca and other Philippine fibers intended for export;
(b) To determine the officials standards for the various commercial fibers that are or may hereafter be produced in commercial quantities in the Philippines for local consumption or for shipment abroad;
(c) To securely keep at its main office the originals of all officials standards prepared in suitable forms;
(d) To prepare under its supervision specimens of different grades of fibers conforming to the original official standards to all authorized establishments, chambers of commerce, planters associations and other institutions or persons directly interested in the trade upon the payment in advance of the actual cost of said specimens by the requesting party;
(e) To classify grading establishments based on the number of bales baled per annum;
(f) To issue grading permits to persons who shall engage in grading and baling fibers after same shall prove that they possess the necessary qualifications to carry on the work and shall pay in advance an annual fee of one thousand pesos for first class, five hundred pesos for second class, two hundred fifty pesos for third class and one hundred pesos for fourth class establishments: Provided, However, That the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service may cause the cancellation of said grading permit if it has been found that such establishment has not carried out its grading and baling work in accordance with law and the regulations of the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service;
(g) To maintain adequate apparatus or machinery for the accurate determination of color values in fibers subject to grading, as well as the breaking strength of such fibers through pull, doubling, abrasion, knotting and other forms of wear and tear. The Bureau may likewise carry on experiments and tests with a view to find other uses for the fiber for local manufacturers and home industry as a means to stabilize the market and insure more adequate returns for fiber producers;
(h) To regulate and control grading and baling establishments;
(i) To organize, train and maintain an adequate force of inspectors in every locality where a grading establishment is located for the supervision and control of the grading and baling work;
(j) To open and operate fiber inspection stations in as many places as possible;
(k) To compile and publish data on fiber balings and shipments by grade, districts of production and ports of destination;
(l) To make investigational trips for the establishment of hemp markets abroad and to attend to important conferences on fibers and fiber supply; and
(m) To prepare, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Industry, forms, instructions, rules and regulations in order to carry out its functions in accordance with this Act.
Section 5. Grading, Baling and Inspection of Fibers. -All fibers of which the officials standards shall have been established as hereinabove contemplated shall be graded, baled, inspected, approved, and certified as in this law provided. No fiber within the purview of this Act shall be exported from the Philippines in any quantity without first being graded, baled, inspected and certified as already stated.
Section 6. Inspection of Premises of Grading Establishments. -The fiber inspector or other person acting under his authority shall have free access to the grading and baling sheds, and also to the warehouses where the bales are stored of any grading establishment within his jurisdiction to make an inspection for the purpose of satisfying himself to the propriety of the methods used therein. He shall also see that the approved set of official standards is always carefully preserved and renewed within specified period.
Section 7. Inspection Fees. -There shall be levied and collected, subject to the approval of the President of the Philippines, an inspection fee by the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service or by its authorized agent with the approval of the President, an amount not more than two pesos nor less than ten centavos for each bale of fiber inspected and stamped, whether approved or rejected. Such fees shall be paid by the owner of the bale to whom a receipt shall be issued. Subject to the approval of the President, the inspection fees may be changed at any time by the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service within the higher and lower limits fixed in this section and the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service may also fix different rates of fees for the different grades of abaca, or other Philippine fibers, provided that the fees shall be uniform for each grade: Provided, However, That the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service shall give general notice in writing of its intention to change the amount of the inspection fees not less than two months previous to the date on which such new fees shall take effect.
Section 8. Refund of Inspection Fees upon Fibers Used in Local Manufactures. -Any person purchasing graded, baled, and inspected fiber for manufacture in the Philippines into yarn, twine, rope, or other articles shall be refunded the inspection fee heretofore provided upon presentation to the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service within one year of the certificates of inspection covering the number of bales consumed in such manufacture, together with an affidavit that said number of bales has actually been consumed in such manufacture within the Philippines.
Section 9. Disposition of Funds. -All the amounts collected as fees for grading permits, inspection fees, sale of specimens of the official standards and other income shall be deposited in the Office of the Treasury of the Philippines to the credit of the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service and shall constitute a special fund to be used for the ordinary expenses of the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service, the payment of salaries of the inspectors and other employees of the same, and of any other expenses properly and duly incurred by the said Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service in the exercise of its powers and the performance of his duties. Any unexpended surplus declared by the depositor, Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service, at the end of any year may be used in accordance with the provisions of Section seventeen hundred ninety-six-B of the Revised Administrative Code, as amended by Republic Act Numbered Six hundred three:
1. For the establishment of markets and for undertaking a publicity campaign for industrial products using hemp and other Philippine fibers as raw materials; for preventing the undue adulteration of Philippine fibers; and for employing any other means tending to insure a reasonable price which will enable the producer to obtain a just compensation for his investment;
2. For the introduction and operation of modern machinery for the extraction and industrial utilization of Philippine fibers in commercial scale, with a view to lower the cost of production and increase the profit of the producer;
3. For the eradication and control of pests and diseases injurious to abaca and other fiber plants;
4. For the education training of the producers of abaca and other fibers in connection with the cultivation, industrialization, stripping and marketing thereof;
5. For the establishment of experimental stations for abaca and other fibers; and
6. For any other aims or purposes which shall tend to promote, improve, develop and stabilize the abaca and other fibers industry.
Section 10. The sum set aside in the current appropriation law for the Fiber Inspection Service in the Department of Commerce and Industry shall be expended for the salaries and wages of the personnel of the Bureau of Fiber Inspection Service until June thirty, nineteen hundred and sixty-two; thereafter Congress shall provide for annual expenditures of said Bureau in the annual general appropriation act chargeable against the funds of said Bureau collected from its earnings.
Section 11. Words Defined. -The words used in this Act shall be taken in the sense indicated below:
(a) "Fiber" shall mean the raw material only and not fibers partially or entirely manufactured. It shall be interpreted according to its common commercial significance and not according to its scientific meaning.1avvphi1
(b) "Abaca" shall mean the fiber of the plant of the same name known in botany as Musa Textilis and known commercially, as "Manila hemp."
(c) "Other fibers" shall include, among others:
"Maguey" shall mean the fiber obtained from the leaves of Agave santala, Roxb.
"Sisal" shall mean the fiber obtained from the leaves of Agave sisalana, Per.1âшphi1
"Ramie" shall mean the fiber extracted from the stem of Boehmeria nivea, Cau.
"Buntal" shall mean the fiber extracted from the stem of Corypha elata, Roxb.
"Canton" shall mean the fiber obtainable from the Canton plant of the Musa species.
"Pacol" shall mean the fiber of the plant of the same name which is similar to banana Musa sp.
"Kenaf" shall mean the fiber, whether rotted or decorticated, obtained from a shrub known scientifically as Hibiscus annanibus.
"Coir" shall mean the fiber obtained from the husk of coconut scientifically known as Cocos nucifera.1âшphi1 It is called "niog " in Tagalog and "lubi" in Visayan.
"Kapok" shall mean the name of silky fiber obtained from the plant whose scientific name is Ceiba pentandra, known as "bubuy" in Tagalog and "duldul" in Visayan.
"Cotton" shall mean the soft white hair fiber clothing the seeds of an erect freely branching plant of the genus Gossypium of the mallow family scientifically known as " Gossypium herbaceum," locally called "bulak."
Section 12. All Acts, executive orders, administrative orders, and proclamations or parts thereof inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
Section 13. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Approved: June 17, 1961.
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
