Section 1
SECTION 1. Section of Republic Act Numbered One thousand five hundred thirty-three is hereby amended to read as follows: "SECTION 1. Whenever it is clearly shown to the satisfaction of the Central Bank of the Philippines that any interest-bearing security issued by the Government of the Philippines, or any of its political subdivisions, instrumentalities or wholly owned Government corporations, identified by number and description, has, without bad faith or gross negligence on the part of the owner, been lost or stolen, so that it is not held by any person as his own property, or has been wholly or partly destroyed, or so mutilated or defaced as to impair its value to the owner, the Central Bank of the Philippines, as fiscal agent, is hereby authorized to grant relief as hereunder provided — "(a) Where the security is not payable to bearer and has not been so assigned as to become, in effect, payable to bearer, the Central Bank of the Philippines shall, in case the security has not matured or become redeemable pursuant to a call for redemption, issue a duplicate thereof, having the same time to run, bearing like interest as the security proved to have been lost, stolen, destroyed, mutilated or defaced and so marked as to show the original number and date thereof; or shall, in case the security has matured or become redeemable pursuant to a call for redemption, make payment thereof to the owner, with such interest only as would have been paid had the security been presented when it become due and payable. "(b) Where the security has been lost, stolen, mutilated or defaced while the security was in the custody or control of the Government of the Philippines (not including the Postal Service when acting solely in its capacity as the public carrier of the mails) or of a person thereunto authorized as lawful agent of the Government of the Philippines, the Central Bank of the Philippines shall issue a duplicate or make payment thereof in line with paragraph (a) above. "(c) Where the security is payable to bearer, or so assigned as to become, in effect, payable to bearer, and has been lost, stolen, destroyed or mutilated under paragraph (b) above, relief may be granted if the attendant circumstances, in the judgment of the Central Bank of the Philippines, indicate that the security has been destroyed or irretrievably lost and will never become the basis of a valid claim against the issuing Government entity or the Central Bank of the Philippines, and a sufficient period of time has elapsed after the security has matured or become redeemable pursuant to a call for redemption. Relief shall be in the form of payment of the face value of the security together with interest only as would have been paid had the security been presented when it became due and payable."