AUTHORIZING THE FOREST PRODUCTS RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (FORPRIDECOM) OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD TO PROVIDE LIMITED LOW-COST HOUSING QUARTE…

WHEREAS, the offices and laboratories of the Forest Products
Research and Industries Development Commission (FORPRIDECOM) are
located at the Forestry Campus and are part of the U.P. Los Baños
Complex at Mt. Makiling, Los Baños, Laguna, which is relatively far from
residential areas;

WHEREAS, there exists an acute shortage of housing
facilities within the vicinity of the Forestry Campus; WHEREAS, to meet
this shortage, the different agencies in the Los Baños Complex such as
the UPLB College of Agriculture, the UPLB College of Forestry, the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the Southeast Asean
Research Center for Agriculture (SEARCA), have provided their employees
with housing quarters;

WHEREAS, the University of the Philippines at Los Baños
(UPLB) has set aside a housing area for FORPRIDECOM personnel near its
laboratories in the Forestry Campus;

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the UPLB that all housing
quarters in the UPLB area should be government-owned;

WHEREAS, the intended low-cost housing quarters to be put up
will serve as a venue in service-testing newly-developed housing
materials, designs, and techniques;

WHEREAS, to recover the amount that will be spent on their
construction, the low-cost housing quarters will be rented to deserving
FORPRIDECOM employees at reasonable rates to be paid to FORPRIDECOM,
thus making them self-liquidating;

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 that:

“SECTION 1. The sum of One Million Five Hundred Thousand
(P1.5-M) Pesos from the Special Fund of the Forest) Products Research
and Industries Development Commission is hereby appropriated to finance
the low-cost housing quarters for its deserving employees as the
Commission may determine.”

“SEC. 2. This Decree shall take effect immediately.”

Done in the City of Manila, this 3rd day of December in the year
of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-four.