Jurisdiction and quarantine functions
- Republic Act No. 123 vests in the Bureau of Quarantine the examination, at ports of entry and airports of entry in the Philippines, of incoming and outgoing vessels and aircraft.
- The Bureau exercises necessary surveillance over the sanitary conditions of: vessels and aircraft, their cargoes, passengers, crew, and all personal effects.
- The Bureau issues quarantine certificates, bills of health, or other equivalent documents.
- The Bureau has authority over incoming vessels, including army and navy vessels, covering their wharfage and anchorage, and over aircraft and airports to the extent necessary for enforcement of the Act.
Reorganization powers and transferred personnel
- The Secretary of Health and Public Welfare may reorganize the Bureau of Quarantine upon recommendation of the Director of Quarantine and may promulgate rules and regulations for its operation.
- In the reorganization, officers and employees of the United States Public Health Service engaged in quarantine work in the Philippines are automatically transferred since July fourth, nineteen hundred forty-six, notwithstanding civil service eligibility.
- Transferred personnel are appointed to positions authorized in the Bureau of Quarantine budget, and their United States Public Health Service service is treated as a continuation of service in the Bureau for determining privileges, benefits, emoluments, allowances, and for purposes where length of service is a factor for maximum computation of a claim.
- Transferred personnel receive the same rights and privileges allowed (or later allowed) to Civil Service employees, including Government insurance, pension, retirement, gratuity, bonus, allowances, in the capacity of classified Civil Service officers and employees at the time benefits are granted.
Ranks and presidential commissions
- The Director of Quarantine holds the rank of a colonel or higher.
- Quarantine officers under the Director hold the ranks of lieutenant colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants.
- Quarantine officers are commissioned by the President upon recommendation of the Director of Quarantine and with the approval of the Secretary of Health and Public Welfare.
Quarantine regulations, inspections, and mandatory immunization
- The Director of Quarantine, with the approval of the Secretary of Health and Public Welfare, is authorized to promulgate and enforce rules and regulations necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of quarantinable diseases from foreign countries into the Philippines or from one port to another in the Philippines.
- For enforcement, the Director may provide for inspections, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be infected or contaminated as sources of infection to human beings, and other necessary measures.
- Quarantine regulations under this authority cannot provide for the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals except for preventing the introduction, transmission, or spread of quarantinable diseases specified from time to time in executive orders of the President upon recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Public Welfare.
- The Director of Quarantine may require mandatory immunization on all persons arriving at any port of entry in the Philippines, when such immunization is deemed necessary for the protection of the public health of the nation from quarantinable diseases.
- The Secretary of Health and Public Welfare, upon recommendation of the Director of Quarantine, may prescribe rules and regulations for the apprehension and examination of any individual believed to be infected with a communicable disease in an infectious stage on board vessels and aircraft entering any seaport or airport.
- If examination shows the individual is infected or has been exposed to infection and is considered a dangerous contact, the rules may provide for detention aboard the vessel, in a hospital, at a quarantine detention station, or at any place of isolation, in the manner prescribed by the regulations.
Suspension of entries and imports
- When the Director of Quarantine determines that a quarantinable disease in a foreign country creates an imminent danger of introduction into the Philippines, and that danger may be enhanced by introduction of persons or property from that country, the Director may recommend to the President, through the Secretary of Health and Public Welfare, the issuance of an executive order.
- The executive order may prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and properties from such countries into the Philippines, in the interest of public health.
Quarantine stations and establishment
- The Director of Quarantine controls, directs, and manages all Philippine quarantine stations, grounds, and anchorages, including designating their boundaries.
- With the approval of the Secretary of Health and Public Welfare, the Director may establish additional quarantine stations, grounds, anchorages, hospitals, dispensaries, and treatment stations in the Philippines as necessary to prevent introduction of quarantinable diseases.
Quarantine certificates for incoming departures
- Any vessel or aircraft at a foreign port clearing or departing for a port of the Philippines must obtain from officers designated by the Director of Quarantine the forms prescribed by regulations.
- These quarantine certificates must be delivered to the quarantine boarding officer at the ports of entry.
- A vessel or aircraft from a foreign country must obtain a certificate of quarantine discharge showing that quarantine regulations have been complied with in all respects before it may:
- call at any seaport or airport in the Philippines,
- discharge cargo, or
- land passengers.
- The certificate of quarantine discharge is a prerequisite to Customs clearance.
- No vessel or aircraft may leave any seaport or airport of the Philippines without a sanitary port statement certifying, among other things, compliance with quarantine laws and regulations.
- The sanitary port statement is a prerequisite to Customs clearance for outgoing vessels or aircraft.
Criminal and forfeiture penalties
- Any person who violates quarantine regulations prescribed under Sections 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, or who enters or departs from the limits of a quarantine detention station, ground, anchorage in violation of quarantine rules and regulations without permission from the quarantine officer in charge, is punishable by:
- a fine of not more than PHP 2,000, or
- imprisonment of not more than 1 year, or
- both, at the discretion of the Court of competent jurisdiction.
- Any vessel or aircraft that violates any provision of the Act forfeits to the Government of the Philippines an amount of not more than PHP 10,000, with the amount to be determined by the Collector of Customs.
- The forfeiture amount assessed becomes a lien on the vessel.
Repeal and effectivity
- Section 12 repeals Sections 1130, 1131, 1132, 1133, 1134, 1135, and 1136 of the Revised Administrative Code of 1917.
- Section 12 also repeals all acts, rules, and regulations regarding foreign and local quarantine that are inconsistent with Republic Act No. 123.
- Section 13 provides that the Act takes effect upon its approval, which occurred on June 14, 1947.