MALACAÑANG 
Manila

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 655

AMENDING CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4155, AS AMENDED.

WHEREAS, there us an urgent necessity to make further amendments to existing laws governing the importation of foreign leaf tobacco for blending purposes in order to make them more responsive to the needs of the local cigarette manufacturers and thereby transform them into a more effective instrument by which the government may generate more revenue without unduly disturbing the price levels already attained by the locally-produced Virginia leaf tobacco;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution, do hereby decree and order that Section 4 of Republic Act No. 4155, as amended by Presidential Decree Nos. 62, 446 and 504, be further amended to read as follows:

“Section 4. Importation of foreign leaf tobacco only for blending purposes. No person will import leaf tobacco except as herein provided. When the Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration believes that it is necessary to improve the quality of locally made cigarettes and there are no sufficient stocks of foreign leaf tobacco for blending purposes available in the country, it may authorize any bona-fide cigarette manufacturer, owned or controlled by Filipino citizens, to import foreign leaf tobacco for blending purposes, subject to limitations, requirements, rules and regulations to be promulgated by the Philippine Virginia Tobacco Administration. In no case shall the total importation into the country exceed six (6) million kilograms in any year unless the exigencies of the industry require otherwise.”

The Decree is hereby made part of the law of the land and shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 4th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-five.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) ALEJANDRO MELCHOR
Executive Secretary

Source: Malacañang Records Office