eo-372 – Wiki Philippines

Definition

The Board of Liquidators was the Philippine government’s corporate winding-up body of the second half of the twentieth century — created by Executive Order No. 372 of President Elpidio Quirino, signed November 24, 1950, under the one-year reorganization authority of Republic Act No. 422. The order’s Section 2 announces the creation: “There is hereby created, to carry out the provisions of this Order, a Board of Liquidators, composed of a chairman and two members” appointed by the President, the powers of the dissolved corporations’ boards of directors passing to it outright. (LawPhil — EO 372) What the order gave the Board to carry out was the abolition and liquidation of the state’s first generation of commodity corporations — the National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation, the National Coconut Corporation, the National Tobacco Corporation, the National Food Products Corporation, and the former enemy-owned or controlled corporations transferred to the Republic under the Philippine Property Act of 1946 and Republic Act No. 8 — each abolished corporation surviving “as a body corporate for a period of three years” for suits and gradual settlement. (LawPhil — EO 372)

Later instruments kept handing the Board estates, until it became the common graveyard of the postwar state-corporation era. Executive Order No. 377 (December 1, 1950) abolished the Surplus Property Liquidating Committee and transferred its “functions, powers, duties, records, properties, funds, and other assets and liabilities” to the Board; Republic Act No. 1160 (June 18, 1954) ordered LASEDECO’s assets “turned over to a Board of Liquidators” for public auction; and Republic Act No. 1345 (June 17, 1955) sent PRISCO’s residual obligations to the Board when the Price Stabilization Corporation was dissolved into the National Marketing Corporation. (LawPhil — EO 377, LawPhil — RA 1160, LawPhil — RA 1345) The Board’s own end came in stages — attachment to the National Development Company under EO 149 (s. 1993), transfer to the Asset Privatization Trust by EO 345 (June 14, 1996) “to effect its abolition,” and merger into the Privatization and Management Office by EO 471 (November 17, 2005), which also revoked EO 372. (LawPhil — EO 345, LawPhil — EO 471) Historical register: defunct.

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	N/A — no standalone article (opensearch verified empty this session)
Wikidata	N/A — entity search returns no item (verified this session)
DBpedia	N/A — the data endpoint returns an empty resource for Board_of_Liquidators (verified this session)
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	liquidator (noun — “One who liquidates”; the office the order created, not the officeholder’s agency) (Wiktionary — liquidator)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Liquidation (sh85077402) — the subject class of the Board’s work; no Board-specific heading verified (verified this session via id.loc.gov suggest) (LCSH — Liquidation)
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	abaca (c_4) — the fiber of the National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation, first of the estates the Board liquidated; no Board-specific concept verified (label verified this session) (AGROVOC — abaca)
Google Scholar	Board of Liquidators Philippines Executive Order 372 November 24 1950 Quirino RA 422 National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation National Coconut Corporation National Tobacco Corporation National Food Products Corporation enemy-owned corporations Surplus Property Liquidating Committee EO 377 LASEDECO RA 1160 PRISCO RA 1345 Asset Privatization Trust EO 345 1996 Privatization and Management Office EO 471 2005
ConceptNet	N/A (ConceptNet API unreachable this session — HTTP 502)
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

BOL — the initials styling used by Executive Orders No. 345 and No. 471
The Board of Liquidators under EO 372 — the creation-instrument styling
The liquidation board of the abolished government corporations — the styling of EO 471’s recital

Examples and Analogies

A morgue with a three-year warranty: EO 372 did not extinguish the abolished corporations at once — each continued “as a body corporate for a period of three years” for suits and gradual settlement, so creditors faced a live corporation under the Board’s administration rather than a vanished one. (LawPhil — EO 372)
A receiving dock for estates: every generation of the postwar corporate state checked its failures in at the same window — surplus property in 1950, LASEDECO’s machinery in 1954, PRISCO’s leftover obligations in 1955. (LawPhil — EO 377, LawPhil — RA 1160, LawPhil — RA 1345)
Verified statutory data:
Creation: EO 372, November 24, 1950, Quirino, pursuant to RA 422; a chairman and two members; effectivity “upon the assumption of office by the Board of Liquidators” (LawPhil — EO 372)
Corporations abolished: National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation; National Coconut Corporation; National Tobacco Corporation; National Food Products Corporation; former enemy-owned or controlled corporations under the Philippine Property Act of 1946 and RA 8 (LawPhil — EO 372)
Powers: administer and dispose of properties under RA 477; with presidential approval, sell, lease, transfer, or otherwise dispose of assets; prosecute and defend suits; settle and close corporate affairs (LawPhil — EO 372)
Proceeds: abaca and enemy-property proceeds to a special fund under RA 477’s Section 11; coconut and tobacco net proceeds to their industries’ special funds; Food Products net proceeds to the National Development Company (LawPhil — EO 372)
Personnel: one month’s salary per year of service, capped at twelve months, refundable on reinstatement (LawPhil — EO 372)
Surplus property: EO 377, December 1, 1950 — Surplus Property Liquidating Committee (EO 275, s. 1949) abolished; Shipping Administration proceeds under EO 346 to accrue to the Board (LawPhil — EO 377)
LASEDECO: RA 1160, June 18, 1954 — assets turned over to a Board of Liquidators, sold at public auction, net proceeds to ACCFA for settler loans (LawPhil — RA 1160)
PRISCO: RA 1345, June 17, 1955 — PRISCO’s other obligations and liabilities “handled by the Board of Liquidators” (LawPhil — RA 1345)
Unwinding: EO 345, June 14, 1996 — transfer from the NDC to the Asset Privatization Trust; EO 471, November 17, 2005 — merger into the Privatization and Management Office, the PMO the surviving entity, EO 372 revoked (LawPhil — EO 345, LawPhil — EO 471)

Usage Scenarios

1. Winding Up the Abolished Commodity Corporations

The Board’s charter business from November 1950: assume the dissolved boards’ powers, settle and close the affairs of the abaca, coconut, tobacco, and food-products corporations and the enemy-owned estates, and convey their properties under EO 372’s special-fund scheme. (LawPhil — EO 372)

2. Administering Surplus-Property Liquidation

From December 1, 1950 the Board also carried the Surplus Property Liquidating Committee’s functions — the disposal of war-surplus properties and settlement of the defunct Surplus Property Commission’s obligations. (LawPhil — EO 377)

3. Auctioning LASEDECO’s Estate

Republic Act No. 1160 made the Board the auctioneer of the settlement corporation’s estate: assets sold at public auction, commercial accounts paid, net proceeds to ACCFA for settler loans, needed machinery transferred to cooperatives at Board-appraised values. (LawPhil — RA 1160)

4. Settling PRISCO’s Residual Obligations

When RA 1345 dissolved PRISCO into NAMARCO in 1955, the working estate moved forward but the residue moved to the Board — the pattern this wiki’s cluster entries record at every dissolution of the era. (LawPhil — RA 1345)

5. Final Disposition under the 2005 Merger

Executive Order No. 471 merged the Board into the Privatization and Management Office, offered its personnel early-retirement benefits under EO 366 (s. 2004), routed disposition proceeds sixty percent to the Agrarian Reform Fund and forty percent to the General Fund. (LawPhil — EO 471)

Strategies

Dissolve forward, liquidate the remainder: the era’s method, visible at every link of this wiki’s postwar cluster — EO 350 vested PRATRA’s and NARIC’s working estates in PRISCO, RA 1345 vested PRISCO’s in NAMARCO, and only the leftover obligations went to the Board, so trading continued while the Board buried the rest. (LawPhil — RA 1345)
Ring-fence the proceeds by industry: EO 372 did not sweep the abolished corporations’ proceeds into the General Fund — abaca money went to abaca rehabilitation under RA 477, coconut money to the coconut industry, tobacco money to tobacco — winding up without expropriating each industry’s own capital. (LawPhil — EO 372)
Keep the corporations suable: the three-year body-corporate survival preserved defendants for the courts, converting abolition into administration rather than escape. (LawPhil — EO 372)
Attach, transfer, merge — the long goodbye: the Board was never abolished at a stroke; it was attached (1993), transferred for abolition (1996), and merged (2005), the modern privatization bureaucracy absorbing the postwar liquidation function piece by piece. (LawPhil — EO 345, LawPhil — EO 471)

Security and Safety Measures

Presidential approval for dispositions: EO 372 let the Board sell, lease, and convey — but only “with the approval of the President” — keeping the final word on public assets at the top of the executive. (LawPhil — EO 372)
Gratuity and anti-double-dipping rules: separated employees received capped gratuities computed by years of service, refundable if they were reinstated in government service. (LawPhil — EO 372)
Public auction as the default sale: RA 1160’s LASEDECO assignment required auction, not private dealing, with cooperative transfers only at appraised values the Board itself fixed. (LawPhil — RA 1160)
For researchers: the Senate’s issuances library files the Board under the subject “National Marketing Corporation (NAMARCO) — Liquidators, Board of,” and that page lists only RA 1345 — a thin register for a body that handled at least five corporations, the surplus-property estate, LASEDECO, and PRISCO’s residue; claims about the Board’s docket should be cited to the instruments, not to the subject page. (Senate Issuances Library — NAMARCO)

Historical Context

The Board was born in the great reorganization season of 1950. Congress had opened the door with RA 422, authorizing the President to reorganize the executive establishment, including government-owned corporations, within one year; Quirino used the window repeatedly — EO 350 folding PRATRA and NARIC into PRISCO in October, EO 355 creating LASEDECO, and EO 372 on November 24, 1950 abolishing the commodity corporations and creating the Board to bury them. (LawPhil — EO 372) EO 377 followed within a week, adding the surplus-property estate. (LawPhil — EO 377)

The 1950s kept the Board in work. RA 1160’s abolition of LASEDECO in June 1954 sent the settlement corporation’s machinery to auction through the Board; RA 1345’s dissolution of PRISCO in June 1955 sent the stabilization corporation’s unassumed obligations to it — the assignments this wiki’s Land Settlement and Development Corporation, Republic Act No. 1345, and National Marketing Corporation entries carry at each link. (LawPhil — RA 1160, LawPhil — RA 1345) The Senate library’s classification of NAMARCO under the Board’s heading records how the marketing corporation’s winding-up was also expected to pass that way, though the page lists only the charter. (Senate Issuances Library — NAMARCO)

The Board then outlived every corporation it was created to bury — fifty-five years against the three-year window its founding order assumed. The privatization era dismantled it in stages: attachment to the National Development Company under EO 149 (s. 1993), transfer to the Asset Privatization Trust under EO 345 of June 14, 1996, and the EO 471 merger into the Privatization and Management Office on November 17, 2005, whose repealing clause finally revoked EO 372 itself. (LawPhil — EO 345, LawPhil — EO 471)

Challenges and Controversies

The Record the Senate Library Keeps

The only legislative-library register verified for the Board is a subject page that files it under NAMARCO’s heading and lists a single statute, RA 1345 — even though the Board’s founding instrument and its surplus-property, LASEDECO, and PRISCO assignments are all traceable in the statute books. The register understates the record; the instruments govern. (Senate Issuances Library — NAMARCO, LawPhil — EO 372)

The NAMARCO File

What instrument, if any, ever delivered the National Marketing Corporation itself to the Board could not be verified from primary sources this session: the verified record runs from the 1955 charter through the 1960s litigation and ends with the Senate library’s classification. This entry asserts no NAMARCO dissolution date and no liquidation-transfer instrument. (LawPhil — RA 1345, Senate Issuances Library — NAMARCO)

A Three-Year Mandate That Ran Fifty-Five Years

EO 372 contemplated gradual settlement within a three-year body-corporate window; the Board it created received new estates by statute in 1954 and 1955, was still standing when EO 471 found it worth merging in 2005 — liquidation as a permanent government function rather than a transitional one. (LawPhil — EO 372, LawPhil — RA 1345, LawPhil — EO 471)

A Board Without a Register

The Board has no standalone Wikipedia article, no Wikidata item, and no DBpedia resource — all three verified empty this session — so its public memory lives in its instruments: EO 372, EO 377, RA 1160, RA 1345, EO 345, and EO 471. (LawPhil — EO 372)

Tag: eo-372

Board of Liquidators