Preamble
WHEREAS, the government is pursuing an intensified food production program to ensure an adequate food supply and higher standards of living for our people and to sustain the socio-economic growth of the country; WHEREAS, crop protection is vital to the success of the government's intensified food production programs; WHEREAS, food and commercial crop losses due to pests amount to hundreds of millions of pesos annually; WHEREAS, the country has many tropical crops with potential for expanded production and export if proper crop protection is practiced to meet the stringent quarantine and pesticide residue requirements of importing countries; WHEREAS, the country's pest control research efforts are largely uncoordinated and not made readily available to our farmers; WHEREAS, there is no systematic effort exerted toward meeting the total pest control needs of the country, and there is therefore need to institutionalize, the research and field extension forces in pest control work into an integrated, nationwide crop protection network; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree and order the following: