REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6148 - AN ACT DECLARING MOUNT IGLIT, MOUNT BACO AND THE ADJOINING AREAS SITUATED IN SABLAYAN, OCCIDENTAL MINDORO AND BONGABON, ORIENTAL MINDORO AS A NATIONAL PARK, AUTHORIZING THE APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS NECESSARY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT THEREOF AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Mount Iglit, Mount Baco and the adjoining areas situated in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, and Bongabon, Oriental Mindoro, consisting of Seventy-five thousand four hundred forty-five (75,445) hectares, more or less, is hereby declared as a National Park, the actual metes and bounds of which shall be determined after a survey conducted as authorized and directed tinder this Act.

SEC. 2. To assure the territorial integrity of the Park, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is hereby authorized and directed to conduct a survey of the area described in Section One hereof in order to delimit the actual metes and bounds of the Park, and upon recommendation of the Parks and Wildlife Commission to promulgate such rules and regulations to prohibit the sale, leasing, exploitation or other disposition of any area within the park except as herein otherwise authorized: Provided, however, That such area of the Park as it will not exceed one thousand (1,000) hectares may be allocated, where appropriate, for settlement by the Batangan tribe, under the supervision of the PANAMIN Foundation: and Provided, further, That the provisions hereof shall be without prejudice to any license or other permit that may be granted to, or other contractual arrangements that may be entered into with, the Philippine Wildlife Conservation Foundation for use of such portion or areas of the Park as may be necessary for implementing wildlife conservation and management program for the Tamaraw and other forms or species of wildlife found therein.

SEC. 3. Subject to the general executive control and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Park shall be under the immediate direction and administration of the Parks and Wildlife Commission, without prejudice to the terms of the licenses or other permits granted or contractual arrangements entered into in accordance with the provision of Section two hereof.

SEC. 4. The sum of One million pesos (P1,000,000.00) is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for any or all of the following:

The conduct of ground or aerial surveys or photogrammetric studies, or the preparation of photo-mosaics of the area included in the Park, including demographic studies, the preparation of land, water, forest, range, vegetation and environmental management and development programs;

The identification, inventory, evaluation and classification, according to internationally accepted taxonomic standards, or wild animals and plants found in the Park;

The conduct of pertinent zoological, biological, botanical and other scientific and technical studies as may be necessary for the promulgation and implementation of a rational wildlife conservation and management program within the area included in the Park;

The selection, design, establishment, or preservation of wildlife refuges, reserves, sanctuaries and other sites and facilities for the protection, restocking, propagation perpetuation of suitable wildlife species found in the Park; and

The improvement and beautification of the Park, and the construction of the necessary facilities for developing the Park into a tourist resort area.

SEC. 5. The National Science Development Board is hereby authorized to give a grant, from out of the Science Fund created pursuant to Republic Act Numbered Fifty-Lour hundred and forty-eight, to the Parks and Wildlife Commission and/or to the Philippine Wildlife Conservation Foundation, in a sum of not less than Three hundred thousand pesos (P300,000.00) a year, for the establishment and maintenance of a research center and the conduct of scientific studies on wildlife conservation and management within or for the Park, including the hiring or retention of qualified researchers and technicians that will undertake the collection, analysis and evaluation of the data or information obtained from any research therein.

SEC. 6. All Acts, parts of Acts, rules and regulations inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, November 9, 1970.