R.A. 5173

REPUBLIC ACT No. 5173

AN ACT CREATING A PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD, PRESCRIBING ITS POWERS AND FUNCTIONS, APPROPRIATING THE NECESSARY FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Section 1. Coast Guards; Objectives. There is hereby created in the Philippine Navy a major unit to be known as Philippine Coast Guard which shall have the following general objectives:

Section 2. Board of Visitors. A Board of Visitors is created which shall have visitorial and policy-making powers to be composed of the Flag Officer-in-Command of the Philippine Navy, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, the President of the Filipino Shipowners Association, and the Commandant of the Philippine Coast Guard who will act as ex-officio member.

Section 3. Specific Functions. The Philippine Coast Guard shall perform the following functions:

Section 4. Organization; Administration. The Philippine Coast Guard shall be headed by a Commandant who shall be a Flag Officer. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of National Defense, the Flag Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy, shall organize the Philippine Coast Guard into operational units or subordinate commands and equip the same as may be necessary for effective exercise of the functions and duties vested upon it by law, and shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary for its administration. The Philippine Coast Guard shall be administered and maintained as a separate unit of the Philippine Navy and it shall be specially trained and equipped for the effective discharge of police and duties at sea.

The Marine Safety Division, including the Naval Architecture and Engineering Section, the Maritime Safety Inspection Section, the Registration and Licensing Section and the functions of the Hulls and Boilers Division, the Marine Board of Inquiry as existing in the Bureau of Customs, and all other agencies or instrumentalities of the Government presently performing any of the function provided for in subparagraphs (c) to (n), inclusive of Section three of this Act, are hereby transferred with their personnel, records, files, supplies, equipment, furnitures, funds and other properties to the Philippine Coast Guard: Provided, That no person shall be deprived of his office employment or rank, or suffer any diminution of his salary by operation of this Act. The Lighthouse Service of the Philippine Navy is, likewise, transferred to the Philippine Coast Guard. Personnel transferred to the Philippine Coast Guard shall continue to be governed by the Civil Service Law and other existing laws relating to their individual status, rights, emoluments and benefits.

Section 5. Unauthorized Aids to Maritime Navigation. The person, association or corporation shall establish, erect, or maintain any aid to maritime navigation without first obtaining authorization from the Philippine Coast Guard in accordance with applicable regulations.

Section 6. Interference with Aids to Navigation. It shall be unlawful for any person, association or corporation, to remove, change the location of, obstruct, willfully damage, make fast to, or interfere with any aid to maritime navigation.

Section 7. Penal Provisions. Any person, association or corporation who violate any provision of this Act, or the rules and regulations made thereunder, shall upon conviction, be punished with a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than five hundred pesos or by imprisonment of not less than thirty days nor more than six months or both: Provided, finally, That, in case the violation is committed by an association or corporation, the penalty herein prescribed shall be imposed on the responsible officers or directors thereof: Provided, finally, That, nothing in this Act shall prevent the Philippine Coast Guard from providing administrative penalties for violation of any regulation that it promulgates.

Section 8. To carry out the purposes of this Act, there is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of fifteen million three hundred twenty-seven thousand five hundred pesos for the purchase of watercraft, personnel services, requirement for maintenance and other operating expenses: Provided, That sixty thousand pesos shall be used exclusively for the updating of the Philippine merchant maritime regulations. To enable the Philippine Coast Guard to acquire the necessary vessel-requirement to accomplish effectively its mission, the sum of nine million pesos each year for the first two years after the passage of this Act and thirteen million pesos each for the succeeding three years shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.

Section 9. All laws, executive orders, rules and regulations and parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.

Section 10. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: August 4, 1967