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Republic Act No. 75
Republic Act No. 75
75
AN ACT TO PENALIZE ACTS WHICH WOULD IMPAIR THE PROPER OBSERVANCE BY THE REPUBLIC
AND INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES OF THE IMMUNITIES, RIGHT, AND PRIVILEGES OF DULY
ACCREDITED FOREIGN DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR AGENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Section 1. Any person who shall falsely assume and take upon himself to act as a diplomatic, consular, or any
other official of a foreign government duly accredited as such to the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines with intent to defraud such foreign government or the Government of the Philippines, or any person,
or in such pretended character shall demand or obtain, or attempt to obtain from person or from said foreign
government or the Government of the Philippines, or from any officer thereof, any money, paper, document, or
other thing, of value, shall be fined not more than five thousand pesos, or shall be imprisoned for not more than
five years, or both, in addition to the penalties that may be imposed under the Revised Penal Code.
Section 2. Any person, other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attach, who shall act in the Republic of the
Philippines as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to, and registration with, the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs shall be fined not more than five thousand pesos, or imprisoned not more than five
years, or both, aside from other penalties that may be imposed by law.
Section 3. Any person, who with intent to deceive or mislead, within the jurisdiction of the Republic, wear any
naval, military, police, or other official uniform, decoration, or regalia of any foreign State, nation or government
with which the Republic of the Philippines is at peace, or any uniform, decoration or regalia so nearly resembling
the same as to be calculated to deceive, unless such wearing thereof be authorized by such State, nation, or
government, shall upon conviction, be punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred pesos or imprisonment not
exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.1awphil-itc-alf
Section 4. Any writ or process sued out or prosecuted by any person in any court of the Republic of the
Philippines, or by any judge or justice, whereby the person of any ambassador or public minister of any foreign
State, authorized and received as such by the President, or any domestic or domestic servant of any such
ambassador or minister is arrested or imprisoned, or his goods or chattels are distrained, seized, or attached,
shall be deemed void, and every person by whom the same is obtained or prosecuted, whether as party or as
attorney, and every officer concerned in executing it, shall upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment for not
more than three years and a fine of not exceeding two hundred pesos in the discretion of the court.
Section 5. The provisions of section four hereof shall not apply to any case where the person against whom the
process is issued is a citizen or inhabitant of the Republic of the Philippines, in the service of an ambassador or a
public minister, and the process is founded upon a debt contracted before he entered upon such service; nor shall
the said section apply to any case where the person against whom the process is issued is a domestic servant of
an ambassador or a public minister, unless the name of the servant has, before the issuing thereof, been
registered in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and transmitted by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to the Chief
of Police of the City of Manila, who shall upon receipt thereof post the same in some public place in his office. All
persons shall have resort to the list of names so posted in the office of the Chief of Police, and take copies without
fee.
Section 6. Any person who assaults, strikes, wounds, imprisons or in any other manner offers violence to the
person of an ambassador or a public minister, in violation of the law of nations, shall be imprisoned not more
than three years, and fined not exceeding two hundred pesos, in the discretion of the court, in addition to the
penalties that may be imposed under the Revised Penal Code.
Section 7. The provisions of this Act shall be applicable only in case where the country of the diplomatic or
consular representative adversely affected has provided for similar protection to duly accredited diplomatic or
consular representatives of the Republic of the Philippines by prescribing like or similar penalties for like or
similar offenses herein contained.itc-alf
Section 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Approved: October 21, 1946
RA 9372
SEC. 58. Extra-Territorial Application of this Act. Subject to the provision of an existing treaty of which the
Philippines is a signatory and to any contrary provision of any law of preferential application, the provisions of
this Act shall apply: (1) to individual persons who commit any of the crimes defined and punished in this Act
within the terrestrial domain, interior waters, maritime zone, and airspace of the Philippines; (2) to individual
persons who, although physically outside the territorial limits of the Philippines, commit, conspire or plot to
commit any of the crimes defined and punished in this Act inside the territorial limits of the Philippines; (3) to
individual persons who, although physically outside the territorial limits of the Philippines, commit any of the
said crimes on board Philippine ship or Philippine airship; (4) to individual persons who commit any of said
crimes within any embassy, consulate, or diplomatic premises belonging to or occupied by the Philippine
government in an official capacity; (5) to individual persons who, although physically outside the territorial
limits of the Philippines, commit said crimes against Philippine citizens or persons of Philippine descent, where
their citizenship or ethnicity was a factor in the commission of the crime; and (6) to individual persons who,
although physically outside the territorial limits of the Philippines, commit said crimes directly against the
Philippine government.
US BASES AGREEMENT
On March 14, 1947, the Military Bases Agreement was signed by President Manuel A. Roxas and Paul V.
McNutt, the United States high commissioner in the Philippines and concurred in by the Philippine Senate on
March 26, 1947, and accepted and ratified by the US on January 21, 1948.
There were 18 Philippine senators who voted in favor of the treaty and none opposed. Three senators were
recorded as absent for the vote, presumably as a protest. Three other senators had been barred from the body on
the grounds of vote fraud, a concocted charge engineered by the Roxas administration.
In the United States, the administration decided to consider the bases pact an executive agreement, thus
requiring no Senate approval.
The agreement provides principally for the granting by the Philippines to the United States the right to retain
the use of the bases in the Philippines listed in Annex A (see below), the Philippines also agreeing "to permit the
United States, upon notice to the Philippines, to use such of those bases listed in Appendix B (see below) as the
United States determines to be required by military necessity".
The Philippines further agreed "to enter into negotiations with the United States at the latter's request, to
permit the United States to expand such bases, to exchange such bases for other bases, to acquire additional
bases, or relinquish rights to bases, as any of such exigencies may be required by military necessity".
As to mutual cooperation, the Agreement states:
1. It is mutually agreed that the armed forces of the Philippines may serve on United States bases and that
the armed forces of the United States may serve on Philippine military establishments whenever such
conditions appear beneficial as mutually determined by the armed forces of both countries.
2. Joint outlined plans for the development of military bases in the Philippines may be prepared by military
authorities of the two Governments.
Annex A lists the following bases:
Clark Field Air Base, Pampanga.
Fort Stotsenburg, Pampanga.
Mariveles Military Reservation, POL Terminal and Training Area, Bataan.
Camp John Hay Leave and Recreation Center, Baguio.
Army Communications System with the deletion of all stations in the Port of Manila Area.
United States Armed Forces Cemetery No. 2, San Francisco del Monte, Rizal.
Angeles General Depot, Pampanga.
Leyte-Samar Naval Base including shore installions and air bases.
Subic Bay, Northwest Shore Naval Base, Zambales Province, and the existing Naval Reservation at
Olongapo and the existing Baguio Naval Reservation.
Tawi-Tawi Naval Anchorage and small adjacent land areas.
Caiacao-Sangley Point Naval Base, Cavite Province.
Bagobantay Transmitter Area, Quezon City, and associated radio-receiving and control sites, Manila
Area.
Tarumpitao Point (Loran Master Transmitting Station), Palawan.
Talampulan Island, Coast Guard No. 354 (Loran), Palawan.
Naule Point (Loran Station), Zambales.
Castillejos, Coast Guard No. 356, Zambales.
Appendix B lists the following:
Mactan Island Army and Navy Air Base.
Florida Blanca Air Base, Pampanga Aircraft Service Warning Net.
Camp Wallace, San Fernando, La Union.
Puerto Princesa Army and Navy Air Base, including Navy Section Base and Air Warning Sites, Palawan.
Tawi-Tawi Naval Base, Sulu Archipelago.
Aparri Naval Air Base.
The Agreement was set for a period of 99 years subject to extension thereafter as agreed by the two
Governments.
This agreement would undergo amendments over the years. Notably in the 1966 amendment, the agreement was
cut down to 25 years of the unexpired portion of the 99 years, expiring in 1991. The 1979 amendments would
cover full Philippine sovereignty issues over the bases.
On September 16, 1991, the Philippine Senate rejected a negotiated treaty that would allow an extension of the
stay of the U.S. bases in the country.