Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 4665)
The primary purpose of Republic Act No. 4665 as amended is to raise funds through the printing and sale of seventy centavos air-mail postal stamps to aid victims of the Taal Volcano eruption of September 1965.
The Postmaster General is responsible for ordering the printing of the seventy centavos air-mail postal stamps.
The stamps must depict the Taal Volcano in eruption and may include such other motifs as the Postmaster General deems appropriate.
No, foreign air-mail matter cannot be accepted or carried by the Bureau of Posts that do not use the seventy centavos stamps, unless the postage is paid by other stamps of different denominations covering the appropriate multiples when applicable.
The proceeds form a special trust fund deposited with the National Treasury and are to be expended by the Rehabilitation Committee for the victims of the Taal Volcano eruption.
Those engaged in agriculture or farming, either as tenants or owners in actual cultivation at the time of the eruption, whose land or farm became useless, barren, or unfit for cultivation due to the eruption are qualified to receive benefits.
The committee is composed of the Executive Secretary to the President as Chairman, Provincial Governor of Batangas as Vice-Chairman-Executive Officer, the Social Welfare Administrator, a Representative of the third district of Batangas, and two members appointed by the President with consent from the Commission on Appointments.
The fund is used to purchase agricultural lands (preferably in Batangas) and construct houses for qualified victims, as well as provide agricultural implements, work animals, fertilizers, seedlings, and build access roads.
Yes, the Rehabilitation Committee may secure a long-term loan from the Government Service Insurance System or Social Security System not exceeding six million pesos at an interest rate not exceeding 3% per annum, secured only by proceeds from the sale of the stamps.
Owners who were grantees of agricultural land under this Act may opt to return to their original lands if declared safe, forfeiting the granted land; or keep the granted land and surrender an equivalent area of their original land, which will revert to public domain.