FURTHER AMENDING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE REVISED PHILIPPINE HIGHWAY ACT, AS AMENDED BY PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NUMBERS SEVENTEEN AND ONE HUNDRED THIRTY

WHEREAS, Republic Act 917, otherwise known as the Philippine
Highway Act of 1953, was previously amended by Presidential Decree Nos.
17 and 130, for the purpose of providing road maintenance funds for
national, provincial, city and municipal roads;

WHEREAS, the sums set aside for the Contingent Fund and the
Discretionary Fund from the Highway Special Fund as provided in the
existing law are inadequate to effectively carry out the purposes for
which they arc intended;

WHEREAS, there is need to increase the Contingent and
Discretionary portions of the Highway Special Fund to effectively carry
out the purpose of the law;

WHEREAS, the present provisions of this Act have fixed a
realistic requirement for maintenance funds for provinces, cities and
municipalities and a national aid share based on their capacity to
partly shoulder the cost of maintenance work in accordance with the
amounts accruing to their road and bridge funds;

WHEREAS, after the approval of this amendment, there was
enacted Presidential Decree No. 144 which revised the distribution of
income derived from taxes to the local governments and which affected
the available road and bridge funds of provinces, cities and
municipalities; and

WHEREAS, in view of this new development, it is necessary
to revise the national aid share that should lie provided to provinces,
cities and municipalities from the maintenance funds to conform with the
changes in the amounts accruing to their road and bridge funds as a
result of the implementation of Presidential Decree No. 144;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution as
Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and
pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General
Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, as amended, do hereby promulgate
this Decree as part of the law of the land.

SECTION 1. The provision of subparagraph (c), Section 6,
Article III of Republic Act 917, as amended, is hereby amended to
increase the allocation for contingent emergency expenditures from five per
centum (5%) to ten per centum (10%) of the Highway
Special Fund.

SEC. 2. The provision of subparagraph (d), Section 6,
Article III of Republic Act 917, as amended, is hereby amended to
increase the allocation for Discretionary Fund from five per centum
(5%) to ten per centum (10%) of the Highway Special Fund.

SEC. 3. The following provisions of Section 8, Article IV
of Republic Act 917, as amended, are further amended to read as follows:

“SEC. 8. National Aid — Highway Maintenance Fund. —
The apportionment for national aid for maintenance of local roads shall
be determined as follows:

“(a) Provinces shall receive fifty per centum (50%) of
the current basic cost of maintenance per equivalent maintenance
kilometer of national road, referred to in subsection (1) of the
preceding section, for each kilometer of the actual physical length of
provincial road whose existence is recommended by the provincial
governor and accepted by the Commissioner of Public Highways,
“(b) National aid for city roads shall be thirty-three and one-third per
centum (33-1/3%) of the current basic maintenance cost per
equivalent maintenance kilometer of national road, for each kilometer of
city road and street established by the city council and approved by
the Commissioner.
“(c) National aid for municipalities shall be thirty per centum
(30%) of the current basic maintenance cost per equivalent maintenance
kilometer of national road, for each kilometer of municipal road whose
existence is established by the municipal council and approved by the
Commissioner of Public Highways or his designated representative.
“(d) In order to qualify for national aid for said maintenance,
provinces, cities and municipalities shall be required to submit an
annual maintenance program, two months prior to the start of each new
financial year, for the entire network of roads under their jurisdiction
for approval by the Commissioner of Public Highways. Provinces, cities
and municipalities shall also be required, on quarterly basis, to
provide certification by the provincial, city or municipal treasurer,
respectively, that counterpart road and bridge funds have been
appropriated by the municipality, city or province. Certifications made
by municipal treasurers shall be attested to by their respective
provincial treasurers. The counterpart road and bridge funds to be
appropriated by provinces shall be equal to one-half (1/2) of the amount
of national aid; the counterpart road and bridge funds to be
appropriated by cities shall be twice the amount received as national
aid, and the counterpart road and bridge funds to be appropriated by
municipalities shall be two-thirds (2/3) of the amount received as
national aid.
“(e) Notwithstanding these provisions to the contrary,
provinces, cities and municipalities whose road and bridge funds are
insufficient as certified by the provincial, city or municipal treasurer
concerned, to provide the road maintenance counterpart, if all the
legally required local road and bridge funds of the municipality, city
or province were applied to road maintenance to the extent required to
complete their approved maintenance program may, upon certification of
the Secretary of Finance, be granted assistance from national funds by
the President, subject to an absolute limit on financial assistance and
national aid of three-halves, or one-and-one-half (1 ½), the national
aid share for provinces three times the national aid share for cities,
and five-thirds (5/3) the national aid share for municipalities, as de
scribed above in subparagraphs (a) and (b).
“(g) If the sum total of national aid and counterpart funds provided to
any local government under the provisions of this Section exceeds the
approved maintenance program, the program may be expanded to include
rehabilitate betterment and improvement works on roads within the
jurisdiction of said local government, as approved by the Commissioner
of Public High his designated representative.”

SEC. 4. This Decree shall take effect upon its
approval.

Done in the City of Manila, this 23rd day of October, in the year
of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.