Preamble
WHEREAS, under Presidential Decree No. 56, dated November 17, 1972, the Oil Industry Commission, among other agencies, has been placed under the administrative supervision of the National Economic Development Authority, hereinafter referred to as the NEDA, the highest development planning body of the country, for the purpose of providing the all-important link between the regulatory functions of the Commission and the development orientation required for a more effective performance of its functions; WHEREAS, to enable the NEDA to exercise more effective supervision and control over the Oil Industry Commission, it is necessary that all the decisions and orders of said Commission be made reviewable by the NEDA in the light of their development implications; WHEREAS, to expedite proceedings in the Oil Industry Commission and to provide the said Commission with more flexibility in resolving urgent cases, it is also necessary to grant the Commission express power to issue provisional orders and to change the existing mode of appeal from the orders and decisions of the Commission; WHEREAS, there was pending before Congress prior to the promulgation of Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, a proposed amendment to Republic Act Numbered Sixty-One Hundred and Seventy-Three; WHEREAS, said proposed amendment bearing House Bill No. 5165 and Senate Bill No. 895, would, among other things, authorize the Oil Industry Commission to use the application, registration, inspection and other fees and charges that it collects in the discharge of its quasi-judicial and regulatory functions; WHEREAS, there is a need to grant the said authority to the Oil Industry Commission to augment its funds for operational expenses and enable it to carry out more effectively its objectives under the law; and WHEREAS, while Sections fourteen and fifteen of Republic Act Numbered Sixty-one hundred and seventy-three provide for the source of funds for the operational expenses of the Oil Industry Commission, the sum of P1,500,000 is likewise appropriated in the current General Appropriations Act (Republic Act No. 6551) for the budgetary use of the same Commission, thereby making it necessary to clarify the funding of the said Commission; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me 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 order, decree and declare the following amendments to Republic Act No. 6173 which are hereby adopted, approved, and made part of the law of the land: