Preamble
WHEREAS, the National Museum has the difficult task, under existing laws and regulations, of preserving and protecting the cultural properties of the nation; WHEREAS, innumerable sites all over the country have since been excavated for cultural relics, which have passed on to private hands, representing priceless cultural treasure that properly belongs to the Filipino people as their heritage; WHEREAS, it is perhaps impossible now to find an area in the Philippines, whether Government or private property, which has not been disturbed by commercially-minded diggers and collectors, literally destroying part of our historic past; WHEREAS, because of this the Philippines has been charged as incapable of preserving and protecting her cultural legacies; WHEREAS, the commercialization of Philippine relics from the contact period, the Neolithic Age, and the Paleolithic Age, has reached a point perilously placing beyond reach of savants the study and reconstruction of Philippine prehistory; and WHEREAS, it is believed that more stringent regulation on movement and a limited form of registration of important cultural properties and of designated national cultural treasures is necessary, and that regardless of the item, any cultural property exported or sold locally must be registered with the National Museum to control the deplorable situation regarding our national cultural properties and to implement the Cultural Properties Law; 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, do hereby decree, order and make as part of the law of the land the following: