Bureau of Agricultural Economics Creation Act

Scope: statistics and research functions

Section 4 grants the Bureau authority and responsibility to coordinate all statistical activities of all bureaus, corporate agencies, offices, and divisions under the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and to collect, tabulate, analyze, and make the official release of agriculture statistics.
Section 4 provides that the Bureau has immediate responsibility for statistics of agriculture pertaining to crops, livestock, and livestock products and other related statistics.
Section 5 allocates collection and compilation of statistics on mines, lands, fisheries, and forestry to the Bureau of Mines, Bureau of Lands, Philippine Fisheries Commission, and Bureau of Forestry, respectively.
Section 5 requires the methods used by those bureaus to collect, assemble, and compile natural resource statistics to be approved by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, which must submit such methods for final approval to the Office of Statistical Coordination and Standards of the National Economic Council.
Section 5 requires each of the natural-resource bureaus to submit its compilations quarterly to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
Section 5 authorizes the Bureau to collect any original data pertaining to natural resources when it deems it necessary to answer a particular need that may arise.
Section 5 prohibits duplication of original natural-resource data collected by the Bureau from being the same in nature, specific place of origin, and methods of collection as those already collected by the concerned bureau.
Section 6 requires the Bureau to compile agricultural data from agricultural attaches in the foreign service and provide domestic agricultural information to them for dissemination abroad.
Section 7 requires the Bureau to undertake economic researches and studies in agriculture covering farm production economics (including farm organization and management), land economics and agricultural development, labor requirements, farm practices and mechanization, farm costs and returns, agricultural investment, finance, credit, taxation, and all factors affecting farm business success or failure.
Section 7 further requires economic research to cover rural welfare and agricultural marketing, including prices, foreign trade, transportation, storage and warehousing, food supplies and consumption, farm labor and wages, farm incomes, farm population, rural organization, agricultural relations, laws and legislation.

Authority over estimates, forecasts, publications

Section 8 authorizes the Bureau to undertake other activities within agricultural statistics and economics that the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources directs.
Section 9 requires the Bureau to make and publish periodical forecasts of current-year production of at least ten selected farm products.
Section 10 requires the Bureau to make and publish final annual estimates of agricultural production by crops, number of each kind of livestock, types of product, and regions and provinces.
Section 10 requires the Bureau to publish official materials (reports, bulletins, pamphlets, or other official publications) upon completion of its studies.

Collection methods and respondents’ duties

Section 11 authorizes the Bureau to secure data and information through any technical means or method deemed valid and proper from farmers, individuals, or institutions in rural areas or elsewhere.
Section 11 requires persons who receive a questionnaire or form to submit information or accomplish the form or questionnaire personally, or cause it to be accomplished by their duly authorized agent or representative.

Confidentiality of individual data

Section 12 requires that information obtained from farmers, individuals, and institutions be published only in statistical form.
Section 12 mandates strict confidentiality for information pertaining to any single individual or small groups of individuals, including the names of farmers, individuals, and institutions furnishing such information.
Section 12 prohibits divulging confidential information to any other government department or to any unauthorized person.
Section 12 prohibits using confidential information as evidence in the prosecution of any individual or institution, for tax evasion, or in any other proceeding in any court of law.
Section 12 requires the Bureau to take all proper steps to ensure that confidential treatment of data can be guaranteed absolutely and to build confidence among respondents.
Section 12 provides that detailed records of individual responses must be destroyed after “(some period to be decided)” from the date of collection, excepting only skeleton records (sample frames and listing) required for drawing samples with rotation and for temporal comparisons.

Agreements, evaluation role, and education

Section 13 authorizes the Bureau to enter into understandings or agreements with other government bureaus, agencies, or offices to facilitate collection of certain types of data and information and make it less costly at the desired degree of reliability.
Section 14 requires the Bureau to serve as the agency for the Department in evaluating, periodically and otherwise, any project or program under the different bureaus and offices of the Department.
Section 14 limits evaluation to projects or programs in direct line with attaining agricultural development to increase and improve output, productivity, and rural well-being.
Section 14 requires that evaluation of any project or program must be requested by the bureau or office to which the project or program pertains.
Section 15 requires the Bureau to develop a system of promoting economic education of farmers in collaboration with the Bureau of Agricultural Extension through the latter’s personnel and facilities.
Section 16 requires the Bureau to make studies and recommendations for adoption of measures or legislation calculated to improve agricultural conditions and increase the efficiency and productivity of Philippine agriculture.

Bureau organization and staffing

Section 17 provides that the Bureau shall be organized using the present Agricultural Economics Division as its nucleus.
Section 18 requires organization according to a scheme with a director and two assistant directors for efficient operation and adequate coverage of the agricultural economy including related economic sectors.
Section 19 provides that the Director of Agricultural Economics is appointed by the President upon the advice and consent of the Commission on Appointments, based primarily on proven administrative ability and recognized competence in agricultural economics.
Section 19 sets the Director’s full title as Director of Agricultural Economics and provides a salary range of 62 for purposes of position classification by the Wage and Position Classification Office.
Section 20 provides that the two assistant directors are: (a) Assistant Director for Agricultural Economics Research, and (b) Assistant Director for Agricultural Estimates and Statistics.
Section 20 provides that each assistant director is appointed by the President upon the advice and consent of the Commission on Appointments, based primarily on competence or excellent record as an economist or statistician, as the case may be, and sets a salary range of 57 for purposes of position classification by the Wage and Position Classification Office.
Section 21 mandates transfer to the Bureau of the functions, personnel, funds, supplies, and equipment of the present Agricultural Economics Division upon organization.

Implementation authority, repeal, and rules

Section 22 repeals any law or provision of law, executive or administrative order, rules, and regulations that are contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of the Act.
Section 23 requires the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, with the recommendation of the Director of Agricultural Economics, to promulgate rules and regulations to effectively implement the Act.

Penalties for non-compliance and false data

Section 24 imposes criminal penalties on any person who fails or refuses to give information required under Section 11.
Section 24 imposes criminal penalties on any person who fails or refuses to accomplish, mail, or deliver the form or questionnaire received by him to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics within thirty days from receipt.
Section 24 imposes criminal penalties on any person who, in accomplishing a questionnaire or form, knowingly gives data or information that proves materially untrue in any particular.
Section 24 imposes criminal penalties on any person who signs a questionnaire or form after it has been accomplished in the knowledge that it is untrue in any particular.
Section 24 provides that upon conviction, the penalty is a fine of not more than six hundred pesos or imprisonment of not more than six months, or both, at the discretion of the court.

Appropriation and effectivity

Section 25 appropriates one million five hundred thousand pesos out of any funds of the National Treasury for the operation and maintenance of the Bureau, in addition to the current appropriation for the Agricultural Economics Division of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Section 26 provides that the Act takes effect upon its approval.
The Act is Republic Act No. 3627, approved June 22, 1963.