Republic Act No. 2013

There is created a public corporation to be known as the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation, which shall be a corporate body in deed and in law, and as such, is endowed with the attribute of perpetual succession and possessed of the powers which pertain to public corporations, to be exercised in conformity with the provisions hereof. It shall have its central office in the City of Cebu.

The purposes for which the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation is created are:

The Corporation shall have the power to adopt a common seal and alter the same at pleasure, to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, and to prosecute and defend to final judgment and execution, in the exercise of its powers herein granted. The Corporation shall also own the real properties which, by virtue of this Act, will be conveyed to it.

The Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation shall have the power to take, acquire, purchase, receive, and hold personal and real property by lease, purchase, expropriation, or otherwise, and to sell, mortgage, let, demise, convey, exchange, lend and otherwise dispose of real and personal property, for cash, by installment contract, or otherwise; to solicit, receive and disburse loans and grants of money and property from the Government or from private individuals; to apply any profit or capital recoveries which are created; to select after investigation the individuals and families who are to occupy or acquire lots and houses at the disposal of the Corporation; to enter into or execute contracts as may be considered convenient and advantageous to the Corporation and for the purpose of carrying on its business and of attaining or furthering any of its objects; to perform any and all acts which a co-partnership or natural person is authorized to perform under the laws existing or which may be hereafter enacted, and to adopt or promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.

The Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation shall exercise its corporate powers, perform its duties, and carry out its purposes through a Board of Directors and its executive officers hereinafter specified and such additional officers, employees, and agents as may be authorized from time to time by the Board of Directors with the approval of the President. The Board of Directors of the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation shall consist of a chairman, and four members to be appointed by the President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments. The members of the Board of Directors shall hold office for five years. When the members of the Board of Directors first appointed hereunder shall have assumed office, the President shall designate in writing within thirty days of notification of their assumption of office the members who are to serve one, two, three, four and five years, respectively, and their terms shall expire in accordance with such designation. Thereafter, the person appointed to succeed a member of the Board of Directors whose terms of office shall have expired by reason of such designation shall continue to serve for the full five-year term, and except in the case of vacancies caused otherwise than by the expiration of the term, only one member shall be appointed to the Board of Directors each year. In the event of a vacancy, the successor appointed to fill the same shall serve only the unexpired portion of the term of the member he succeeds.

Unless holding other office in the Government or a position with fixed compensation in any government corporation or instrumentality, the chairman of the Board of Directors shall receive, for each meeting of the Board which he attends, a per diem of fifteen pesos, and each member shall receive a per diem of ten pesos.

The chairman shall preside over the meetings of the Board of Directors and perform such other duties as may be assigned to him by said Board. A vice-chairman may be designated by the President to act in case of the absence or disability of the chairman.

The Board of Directors shall, with the approval of the President of the Philippines, appoint and fix the salary of a manager, who shall be the chief executive officer of the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation, and under the direction of the Board of Directors, shall be responsible for carrying out the orders, resolutions, ordinances, rules and regulations of the Board. The Board may suspend, and, with the approval of the President, remove the manager.

The Board of Directors shall likewise appoint and fix the salary of a secretary-treasurer, and define his powers and duties.

The Board of Directors may adopt and publish, with the approval of the Economic Coordinator, such by-laws as it may deem convenient to regulate its procedure.

The Board of Directors shall, with the approval of the Economic Coordinator, fix the compensation of all other officers, employees, and agents of the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation. The manager shall appoint them in accordance with the Civil Service Law and the Salary Law: Provided, However, That agents, performing occasional services and handling commercial activities for the Corporation, and not regularly employed, shall not be subject to the limitations nor entitled to the benefits applicable to the Civil Service.

If the volume of work of the Corporation shall require the assignment of one or more full-time representatives of the provincial auditor of Cebu to serve with the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation, the compensation of such representative shall be paid by the Corporation.

The provincial fiscal shall be the attorney for the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation, and may designate or authorize any of his assistants to represent the Corporation in matters requiring the services of an attorney-at-law.

Whenever the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation shall certify to the President of the Philippines that it is to the public interest to expropriate private land in the city or populous towns of Cebu or adjacent thereto for the purpose of subdividing the same into small lots and leasing and selling the lots to individuals, the President may authorize the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation to exercise the right of eminent domain, the land to be expropriated immediately, upon deposit with the court of an amount equal to the assessed value of such land, as declared by the owner and approved by the provincial assessor, in accordance with the provisions of laws.

In computing the cost of the lots to be leased or sold to individuals under the authority of the next preceding section, the following expenditures may be taken into account:

If the land acquired be of varying character and value, the aggregate cost of acquisition shall be distributed equitably by the Board of Directors among the various sections or lots. The cost of areas set aside for streets, parks, community centers, and other public uses primarily for the benefit of the individual lots shall likewise be equitably allotted to the cost of the lots.

Pending the sale to individuals of land acquired by expropriation under authority hereof, the Board may dispose of unsold lots by lease.

The Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation is empowered to take title to, develop, administer, and dispose of by sale or lease any portion or portions of the public domain designated for residential use, pursuant to the provisions of sections seventy-one to eighty-two, inclusive, of the Public Land Act, and other applicable provisions of said Act.

When the Corporation shall have available and reasonable number of dwelling places under its control, it shall have the power from time to time, after due investigation, to declare specified area a slum area, and to take measures to eliminate or improve unsatisfactory conditions obtaining in such slum areas.

The order of the Corporation declaring a slum area must be by virtue of a finding of facts that the living conditions prevailing in the specified slum area are unhygienic or unsanitary to a degree which renders same to the health welfare of the inhabitants of such area and its environs, which finding of facts shall be recited in the order. The order shall specify the boundaries of the slum area by reference to known streets or public places, or by other metes and bounds, and shall annex thereto a plan clearly showing the location of the slum area. Said order shall be punished twice in the Official Gazette for two consecutive weeks and copies thereof posted in four conspicuous places on or adjacent to the slum area and at the municipal building of the city or municipality in which the slum area is situated. Copies of the order shall also be left at each dwelling house in the slum area and an effort made to serve copies on the owners of the land embraced in the slum area. But failure to leave or serve such copies shall not vitiate the proceedings hereunder. For a period of thirty days after such posting and publication, any party may object to the order declaring a slum area, and shall be given an opportunity within a period specified in the order to be heard by the Corporation. The Corporation may eliminate a portion of the slum area or otherwise modify its order as a result of objections presented, or refuse to reconsider its order. In the latter case, the person objecting may appeal from the order of the Corporation to the President of the Philippines within ten days of the date of the Corporations decision, by filing his appeal with the Corporation. The Corporation shall forthwith transmit the appeal with its views to the President, whose decision thereon shall be final. An objection or appeal hereunder shall not stay the Corporation from proceeding under this Act with respect to the land or buildings of those not appealing.

When an order declaring a slum area shall have become effective, the Corporation shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the government of the city or municipality in which the slum is situated to adopt building and sanitary regulations with the same powers as such city or municipality might have with respect thereto; but such regulations shall in general follow the existing ordinances if an adequate and sanitary building code or regulations be enforced, and shall not be less exacting than those of the municipalities concerned. In case of conflict, the President of the Philippines shall determine which regulations shall prevail.

The Corporation may declare its jurisdiction over a slum area terminated, if in its opinion, its purposes have been accomplished therein, but may subsequently declare such area or portion thereof a slum area should conditions again justify the same.

The Corporation shall exercise the following powers and authority over duly declared slum areas:

Should the owner make a showing to the Corporation that his failure or neglect to bring the property in conformity with the requirements of the Corporation is due to his lack of means, the Corporation may, in its discretion, authorize reimbursement of the cost and surcharge incurred by it hereunder over a period of years, with interest not exceeding six per centum per annum;

The officers and employees of the Corporation shall have the same right of entry into private premises and other police powers as officers and employees of the Bureau of Health, or of the Health Department of the City of Cebu.

Any person who shall fail or neglect to carry out the lawful orders of the Corporation issued pursuant to section nineteen hereof, or who shall violate any sanitary or building regulation promulgated by the Corporation shall be punished for each offense by a fine of not more than two hundred pesos, or by imprisonment of not more than two months, or by both.

The Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation may appropriate available funds under its control for the use of the city or municipal government whenever the local revenues are deemed insufficient to maintain the standard of public services deemed appropriate for the accomplishment of the purposes of this Act within the areas controlled by the Corporation. In the case of the lease of lots or houses in cities or towns which furnish suitable public services and assume the cost of maintaining streets and other public works, the Corporation may include in the rental rate an amount equal to the real estate taxes which would accrue were the property privately owned, and turn over the same to the local government concerned.

The Corporation shall commence its activities under this Act in the City of Cebu and its environs, but shall promptly undertake technical investigations to determine the extent of slum conditions in other populous towns of Cebu and make an estimate of the cost of extending its activities thereto when funds and personnel are made available therefor. Report of the Corporations investigations and estimates shall forthwith be submitted to the President of the Philippines and to the Congress of the Philippines with its recommendations in the premises.

There is appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, the sum of five million pesos in order to enable the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation to accomplish its purposes and objects as set forth in this Act: Provided, That the sum herein appropriated shall not be paid to said Corporation except upon order of the President of the Philippines, who may require that such payment be made in full or in installments, in his discretion.

All moneys received or collected by the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation from its operations shall accrue to, and form part of, its fund and be available for appropriation by said Corporation.

The corporate existence of the Cebu Employees, Laborers, Fishermen and Peasants Housing Corporation shall commence upon the date when a majority of the members of the Board of Directors shall have taken their oaths of office.

This Act shall take effect upon its approval.