AMENDING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4155, AS AMENDED.

WHEREAS, there is an urgent necessity to make further
amendments to existing laws governing the importation of foreign leaf
tobacco for blending purposes in order to make them more responsive to
the needs of the local cigarette manufacturers, and thereby transform
them into a more effective instrument by which the government may
generate more revenue without unduly disturbing the price levels already
attained by the locally-produced Virginia leaf tobacco:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution,
do hereby decree and order that Section 4 of Republic Act No. 4155, as
amended by Presidential Decree Nos. 62, 446 and 504, be further
amended to read as follows:

“SECTION 4. Importation of foreign leaf tobacco only
for blending purposes.—No person will import leaf tobacco except as
herein provided. When the Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration
believes that it is necessary to improve the quality of locally made
cigarettes and there are no sufficient stocks of foreign leaf tobacco
for blending purposes available in the country, it may authorize any
bona-fide cigarette manufacturer, owned or controlled by Filipino
citizens, to import foreign leaf tobacco for blending purposes, subject
to limitations, requirements, rules and regulations to be promulgated
by the Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration. In no case shall the
total importation into the country exceed six (6) million kilograms in
any year unless the exigencies of the industry require otherwise.”

This Decree is hereby made part of the law of the land and shall
lake effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 4th day of February, in the
year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-five.