CREATING THE EXPORT CREDIT CORPORATION, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND FUNCTIONS, PROVIDING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND OTHER PURPOSES.

WHEREAS, the Government encourages, promotes and develops
the export of goods and services, and the establishment and operation of private
enterprises engaged in the manufacture of capital goods;

WHEREAS, the development of the export and capital goods
industry is hampered by the lack of proper credit, guarantee, and insurance
facilities at rates and on terms and conditions which will place the nation’s
experts at a competitive level in the international market and will enable local
industries to manufacture capital goods, likewise at levels competitive with
imported goods and services;

WHEREAS, there is a need to establish a government-owned or
controlled corporation to provide the required credit, guarantee and insurance
facilities at preferential rates and on liberal terms and conditions;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby
order and decree the following:

SECTION 1. Short Title. – This Decree shall be
known as the “Character of the Export Credit Corporation.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – It is the policy
of the State to encourage, promote and develop the export of manufactured goods,
products, and other goods and services by extending credits guarantees, and
insurance covers at interest rates and charges and on an internationally
competitive basis, in order to attain a rising level of production and
employment, increase foreign exchange earnings and improve the country’s balance
of payments, accelerate the economic growth and development of the nation, and
secure to the Filipino people the benefits of such growth and development.

SEC. 3. Creation, Name, Domicile and Term. – There
is hereby created a body corporate to be known as the Export Credit Corporation.
Its principal place of business shall be in Metropolitan Manila and it may
establish such offices, agencies, branches, subsidiaries and correspondents in
the Philippines or abroad as its business operations may require. It shall have
a term of fifty (50) years from the effectivity hereof, which shall be deemed
renewed for an equal period, unless sooner dissolved by law.

SEC. 4. Purposes. – The Corporation shall have the
following purposes:

1. To promote and develop the export of goods and services;
2. To foster the development of capital goods industry; and
3. To provide the facility for the grant of direct credits and loans, financial
   guarantees and insurance coverage to exporters and financial institutions, with
   reference to their provision of credits or loans in support of the export of
   Philippine goods and services at interest rates and charges and on a competitive
   basis.

SEC. 5. Powers and Functions. – The Corporation
shall have the following powers and functions:

1. To extend direct loans or other credit facilities in Philippine or foreign
   currency o any persons and entities in respect of the financing of export
   contracts and foreign trade transactions including sale of domestically
   manufactured capital goods at competitive interest rates and charges;
2. To give or make arrangements for the giving of guarantees covering political
   and commercial risk to, or for the benefit of, persons or entities engaged in
   business in the Philippines, banks and financial institutions, in connection
   with the financing of export, manufacture treatment of goods, the rendering of
   services, or any other matter which in the determination of the Corporation
   promotes the export trade and import-substitution industry. The guarantee, given
   or arranged as herein provided, shall be on such terms and conditions as the
   Corporation may deem proper; provided, that the Corporation shall not given, or
   make arrangement for, performance guarantees;
3. To make grants to, or subsidize, in Philippine or foreign currency, any
   persons or entities for the purpose of supplementing any interest receivable or
   received by them as consideration for their provision of such facilities as
   aforementioned, and for persons or entities engaged in business in the
   Philippines to purchase, discount, rediscount, sell and negotiate, with or
   without its indorsement, notes, drafts, bills of exchange, acceptances,
   including banker’s acceptances and other evidence of indebtedness in connection
   therewith;
4. To enter into contracts or insurance with any persons or entities to insure
   them against the risk of war, expropriation, restrictions on remittances and
   such other risks as may appear to the Corporation to be non-commercial risks, in
   respect of, or in connection with, export contracts or transactions;
5. To act as an agent for any persons, entity, government or agency of a
   government in respect of or in connection with export contracts or transactions;

6. To issue bonds and to borrow money from local and/or foreign sources;
7. To invest its funds in any activity related to export and
   import-substitution and in any bonds or securities issued and/or guaranteed by
   the Government of the Philippines;
8. To purchase, hold, alienate, mortgage, pledge or otherwise dispose of the
   shares of the capital stock of, or any bond, security of other corporations or
   associations of this or any other country; and while the owner of said stock, to
   exercise all the rights of ownership, including the right to vote thereon;
9. To acquire assets, real or personal, or interest therein and encumber or
   otherwise dispose the same as it may deem proper necessary in the conduct of its
   business;
10. To determine its organizational structure, and the number and salaries of
    its officers and employees;
11. To establish and maintain offices, branches, agencies, subsidiaries,
    correspondents or any other units within or outside the Philippines as may be
    needed by the Corporation and reorganize or abolish the same as it may deem
    proper;
12. To adopt By-Laws for the regulation of its proceedings; prescribing the
    duties of officers and employees of the Corporation; delegating to President the
    conduct of any business of the Board of Directors; fixing the salaries, fees or
    other enumeration to be paid to the Directors; and generally, for the conduct
    and management of its activities;
13. To sue and be sued;
14. To adopt and use a corporate seal which shall be judicially noticed;
15. To perform such acts and exercise such functions as may be necessary for the
    attainment of the purpose and objectives herein specified;
16. To promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out
    the purposes of this Decree; and
17. To perform such other functions as may be provided by
    law.

SEC. 6. Restriction on powers. – The Corporation is
not a bank within the meaning of Republic Act Numbered Three Hundred
thirty-seven (General Banking Act), as amended, and as such, can not perform
commercial banking functions, except as provided herein.

SEC. 7. Capital Stock. – The Corporation shall have
an authorized capital stock of TEN BILLION PESOS (P10,000,000,000) divided into
ten million (10,000,000) shares with a par value of P100,000 per share, of which
P200,000,000 shall be originally subscribed and paid for by the Republic of the
Philippines. The remaining shares of stock may be subscribed and paid for by the
Republic of the Philippines or by government financial institutions.

SEC. 8. Governing Body. – The Corporation shall be
governed by a Board of Directors which shall be composed of eleven (11) members
as follows:

1. The Minister of Finance;
2. The Minister of Industry;
3. The Minister of Trade;
4. The Director General of the National Economic Development Authority;
5. The Minister of Budget;
6. The Solicitor General;
7. The Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines;
8. The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Development Bank of the
   Philippines;
9. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Philippine National Bank;
10. The President of the Corporation to be appointed by the President of the
    Philippines for terms of five (5) years;
11. One representative from the private sector to be appointed by the President
    of the Philippines for terms of five (5) years;

In making the appointment of the President of the Corporation and the
representative from the private sector, the President shall base his selection
on the integrity, experience and expertise of the appointee.

The Minister of finance and the Minister of Industry shall sit respectively
as ex officio Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board. The other officers of the
Corporation shall be appointed by the Board.

SEC. 9. Duties and responsibilities of the President.
– The President who shall be the chief executive of the Corporation shall
have the following duties and responsibilities:

1. To prepare the agenda for the meetings of the Board, and to submit for the
   consideration of the Board such policies and measures as he believes necessary
   to carry out the purposes and objectives of this Decree;
2. To execute, administer and implement the policies and measures approved by
   the Board;
3. To direct and supervise the operations and administration of the
   Corporation;
4. To represent the Corporation in all dealings with the other offices,
   agencies and instrumentalities of the Government and with all persons and other
   entities, public or private, domestic or foreign; and
5. To exercise such other powers and perform such other duties provided in the
   by-laws and as may be vested in hum by the Board.

SEC. 10. Loans. – The Corporation is hereby
authorized to contract loans, credits, in any convertible foreign currency, and
incur indebtedness from time to time from foreign governments or any
international financial institutions or fund sources, or any other entities, on
such terms and conditions it shall deem appropriate for the accomplishment: of
its purposes and to enter into and execute agreements and other documents
specifying such terms and conditions.

The Republic of the Philippines, through the President of the Philippines or
his duly authorized representative, may guarantee, absolutely and
unconditionally, as primary obligor and not as surety merely, the payment of the
loans, credits and indebtedness issued up to the amount herein authorized, which
may be over and above the amount which the President of the Philippines is
authorized to guarantee under the republic Act Numbered sixty-one hundred
forty-two, as amended, as well as the performance of all or any of the
obligations undertaken by the Corporation in the territory of the Republic of
the Philippines pursuant to loan agreements entered into with foreign
governments or any international financial institutions of fund source.

SEC. 12. General Counsel. – The Solicitor General
shall perform the duties of General Counsel or the Corporation. Any provision of
law to the contrary notwithstanding, the Solicitor General and such personnel as
may be necessary to assist him In the performance of his duties and
responsibilities shall receive such allowances as shall be fixed by the
Board.

SEC. 13. Privileges and Incentive. – The
Corporation shall be entitled to all such privileges and incentives as are or
may be granted by law to private enterprises engaged in the export and capital
goods industries.

Other government offices and other government-owned or controlled
corporations shall extend whatever assistance may be needed by the Corporation
or any of its branches, offices and subsidiaries, including the detail of its
officials and employees to the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries on
full-time or part-time basis under arrangements satisfactory to the Corporation
or any of its subsidiaries and the government office or corporation concerned.
Said officials and employee, as well as the directors of the Corporation and its
subsidiaries, may receive allowance and other emoluments, notwithstanding the
provision of any law to the contrary.

The employee of the Corporation shall be entitled to all the retirement and
insurance benefits and leave privileges of government employees.

SEC. 14. Tax exemption. – The Corporation shall be
exempt from all taxes, duties, fees, imposts and all other charges, except
corporate income tax, imposed directly or indirectly by the Republic of the
Philippines, its provinces, cities, municipalities and other government agencies
and instrumentalities.

SEC. 15. Exemption from Civil Service Law. – The
offices and employees of the Corporation shall not be subject to the Civil
Service Law, rules and regulations, and shall likewise be exempt from the
regulations of the Wage and Position Classification Office.

SEC. 16. Non-applicability of the laws on Usury and
Uniform Currency, and certain provisions of the Insurance Code. – The
provisions of Republic Act Numbered two thousand five hundred sixty-six (Usury
Law), as amended; Republic Act Numbered five hundred twenty-nine (Uniform
Currency Law), as amended; and Chapters III, IV and VIII, of Presidential Decree
No. 612 (The Insurance Code) shall not apply to the operation and activities of
the Corporation.

SEC. 17. Access to Rediscounting Facilities of the
Central Bank. – The Corporation shall have access to the rediscounting
facilities of the Central Bank under the most favorable terms available for any
entity under Central Bank rules and regulations.

SEC. 18. Appropriations. – For the initial
requirements of the Corporation, the sum of TWO HUNDRED MILLION PESOS
(P200,000,000) is hereby set aside and appropriated from the General Funds not
otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 19. Reports. – The Corporation shall, within
three (3) months after the end of every fiscal year, submit its annual report to
the President of the Philippines. It shall likewise submit such periodic or
other reports as may be required of it from time to time.

SEC. 20. Separability Clause. – Should any
provision of this Decree be held unconstitutional, no other provision hereof
shall be affected thereby.

SEC. 21. Repealing. – All laws, decrees, executive
orders, administrative orders, rules and regulations inconsistent herewith are
hereby, amended or modified accordingly.

SEC. 22. Effectivity. – This Decree shall take
effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 15th day of January, in the year of Our
Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty-one.

			(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS President of the Philippines
	By the President:
	(Sgd.) JUAN C. TUVERA
		Presidential Executive Assistant

 

Vol. 25, Vital Documents, Presidential Decree 1980-1981