Preamble
WHEREAS, Article XIV, Section 8 of the New Constitution of the Philippines provides, inter alia, that all waters of the Philippines belong to the State; WHEREAS, existing water legislations are piece-meal and inadequate to cope with increasing scarcity of water and changing patterns of water use; WHEREAS, there is a need for a Water Code based on rational concepts of integrated and multipurpose management of water resources and sufficiently flexible to adequately meet future developments; WHEREAS, water is vital to national development and it has become increasingly necessary for government to intervene actively in improving the management of water resources; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree the enactment of the Water Code of the Philippines of 1976, as follows: DECLARATION OF OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES