Board of Visitors: composition and powers
- Section 2 creates a Board of Visitors with visitorial and policy-making powers.
- Section 2 provides that the Board consists of: (1) the Flag Officer-in-Command of the Philippine Navy, (2) the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, (3) the Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs, (4) the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, (5) the Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, (6) the President of the Filipino Shipowners Association, and (7) the Commandant of the Philippine Coast Guard as ex-officio member.
Core functions of the Coast Guard
- Section 3 obligates the Philippine Coast Guard to prevent and suppress illegal entry, smuggling, other customs frauds, and violations of other maritime laws within Philippine waters, including surveillance of vessels entering and/or leaving Philippine territory.
- Section 3 requires it to assist in suppressing fishing by dynamite, explosives, toxic substances, or other destructive methods declared by the proper authorities.
- Section 3 empowers it to promulgate and enforce rules on lights, signals, speed, steering, sailing, passing, anchorage, movement, and towlines of vessels, and lights and signals on bridges.
- Section 3 grants it comprehensive vessel safety and regulatory powers, including:
- approving plans for construction, repair, or alteration of vessels;
- approving materials, equipment, and appliances of vessels;
- approving vessel classification;
- inspecting vessels and their equipment and appliances;
- registering all types of motorized watercraft plying in Philippine waters;
- issuing certificates of inspection and permits indicating approval for operation;
- issuing certificates of Philippine registry of vessels;
- administering load line requirements;
- promulgating and enforcing other safety of life and property provisions on vessels; and
- determining the numbering of undocumented vessels.
- Section 3 deems compliance where internationally known classification societies recognized by the Philippine Government certified and approved any plans, equipment, or vessel.
- Section 3 requires it to issue licenses and certificates to officers, pilots, major and minor patrons, and seamen, and to suspend and revoke such licenses and certificates.
- Section 3 tasks it to investigate marine casualties and disasters, including those arising from marine protests filed with the Bureau of Customs regarding liability of shipowners and officers.
- Section 3 commands it to enforce maritime requirements on manning, citizenship, and muster and drilling of crews, and to enforce control over logbooks, shipment, discharge, and the protection and welfare of merchant seamen.
- Section 3 authorizes enforcement of laws requiring shipowners and officers to perform duties after accidents.
- Section 3 empowers it to prescribe and enforce regulations for outfitting and operation of motorboats and the licensing of motorboat operators.
- Section 3 requires it to regulate regattas and marine parades.
- Section 3 requires it to render aid to distressed persons or vessels on the high seas and waters subject to Philippine jurisdiction, and authorizes it to:
- perform any and all acts necessary to rescue and aid persons;
- furnish clothing, food, lodging, medicine, and other necessary supplies and services to persons succored;
- protect, save, and take charge of property saved from marine disasters until delivered to authorized persons or otherwise disposed of per law or applicable regulations; and
- collect and take charge of bodies of those who may perish in such disasters.
- Section 3 tasks it to develop, establish, maintain, and operate aids to maritime navigation, and authorizes it to destroy or tow in port sunken or floating dangers to navigation.
- Section 3 requires it to supervise nautical schools with respect to activities involving navigation, seamanship, marine engineering, and other allied matters, in coordination with the Department of Education.
- Section 3 authorizes it to perform maritime communications functions not specifically delegated to another office or department.
- Section 3 authorizes it to assist other government agencies upon request of the appropriate authorities in matters within Philippine waters relating to activities not specifically mentioned, and it states that Coast Guard personnel act as agents of the particular department, bureau, office, agency, or instrumentality charged with enforcement and administration of the particular law.
Peace officer status and law-enforcement role
- Section 3 declares members of the Philippine Coast Guard peace officers for all purposes of the Act.
- Section 3 states that members act as law enforcement agents of the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Fisheries Commission, and other departments, bureaus, or offices for enforcement of pertinent laws, rules, and regulations.
Organization, administration, and transfers
- Section 4 provides that the Philippine Coast Guard is headed by a Commandant who is a Flag Officer.
- Section 4 requires the Flag Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy, subject to the approval of the Secretary of National Defense, to organize the Coast Guard into operational units or subordinate commands and to equip it for effective exercise of functions vested by law, and to promulgate rules and regulations for administration.
- Section 4 requires the Philippine Coast Guard to be administered and maintained as a separate unit of the Philippine Navy and to be specially trained and equipped for effective discharge of police duties at sea.
- Section 4 transfers to the Philippine Coast Guard 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) and the functions of the Marine Board of Inquiry as existing in the Bureau of Customs, plus all other agencies or instrumentalities of the Government presently performing any of the functions under Section 3(c) to (n), inclusive, together with their personnel, records, files, supplies, equipment, furniture, funds, and other properties.
- Section 4 protects officers and employees by providing that no person shall be deprived of office, employment, or rank, or suffer any diminution of salary by operation of the Act.
- Section 4 transfers the Lighthouse Service of the Philippine Navy to the Philippine Coast Guard.
- Section 4 provides that transferred personnel continue to be governed by the Civil Service Law and other existing laws on their status, rights, emoluments, and benefits.
Aids to navigation: authorization and prohibitions
- Section 5 prohibits any person, association, or corporation from establishing, erecting, or maintaining any aid to maritime navigation without first obtaining authorization from the Philippine Coast Guard under applicable regulations.
- Section 6 makes it unlawful for any person, association, or corporation to remove, change the location of, obstruct, wilfully damage, make fast to, or interfere with any aid to maritime navigation.
Penalties and administrative enforcement
- Section 7 provides that any person, association, or corporation that violates any provision of the Act or the rules and regulations made thereunder is punishable upon conviction.
- Section 7 sets the criminal penalty as a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than five hundred pesos or imprisonment of not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or both.
- Section 7 provides that when the violation is committed by an association or corporation, the penalty is imposed on the responsible officers or directors thereof.
- Section 7 authorizes the Philippine Coast Guard to provide administrative penalties for violation of any regulation it promulgates.
Appropriations for Coast Guard purposes
- Section 8 appropriates PHP 15,327,500 from any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated for purchase of watercraft, personnel services, requirements for maintenance, and other operating expenses.
- Section 8 dedicates PHP 60,000 exclusively for updating the Philippine merchant marine regulations.
- Section 8 provides that, to enable the Philippine Coast Guard to acquire necessary vessels, PHP 9,000,000 each year for the first two years after passage of the Act and PHP 13,000,000 each for the succeeding three years must be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.
Repeal and effectivity
- Section 9 repeals all laws, executive orders, rules and regulations, and parts thereof that are inconsistent with the Act.
- Section 10 provides that the Act takes effect upon approval.
- The Act was approved on August 4, 1967.