2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE FIVE - Agriculture (§§ 1 — 4706) › Chapter 59 - Rural Development Corporation (§§ 1701 — 1723) › § 1705 - General powers

The Corporation shall have, and there is hereby conferred thereto, in addition to other authorities provided in this chapter, all the rights and powers necessary and convenient to carry out the abovementioned public policy and objectives, including without limitation, the following:
(a) To adopt a corporate seal which shall be judicially noticed.
(b) To sue and be sued.
(c) To enter into agreements and contracts.
(d) To establish the norms and bylaws necessary for the internal operation and functioning and for handling the programs and activities of the Corporation.
(e) To provide and obtain any funds, donations or aids from the Federal Government, the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including its instrumentalities and political subdivisions, or private sources, to carry out the purposes of this chapter under the conditions established in the legislation, regulation, agreement or contract applicable. The Corporation is hereby authorized to sponsor projects originated under federal laws; to act as a delegating or delegatory agency; and to supervise the use of the funds so acquired. This authorization does not extend to those federal programs where other agencies of the Commonwealth have been designated by law as the agencies in charge of participating in such programs, except if the functions of such agencies have been transferred to the Corporation.
(f) To have exclusive control over its properties and activities.
(g) To decide on the character and need of all its expenses and the manner in which they must be incurred, authorized and paid.
(h) To acquire in any legal form and to hold, administer, lease, sell or in any way dispose of properties or any interest therein.
(i) To acquire through condemnation lands and any other properties and rights. When in the judgment of the Corporation it is necessary to take immediate possession of the properties to be condemned, it shall request the Governor to acquire them in the name and on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Governor shall have power to acquire, for the use and benefit of the Corporation, by any means authorized by law, the properties and real property rights necessary and adequate to carry out the purposes and ends thereof. The Corporation shall advance to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico the necessary funds estimated as the value of the properties and rights to be acquired. Any difference in value that the court may decree shall be paid by the Corporation and in its default by the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Corporation shall be bound to reimburse said difference. By order of the court, the title deed shall be transferred to the Corporation after total reimbursement thereby. In cases where, to speed up the fulfillment of the corporate ends and purposes, the Governor may deem convenient and necessary that the title to the property and rights so acquired be recorded directly in behalf of the Corporation, he may so request from the court at any time during the eminent domain proceedings, and the court shall so order. All personal and real properties and rights or interests therein that the Corporation deems necessary for its corporate purposes are hereby declared of public interest and may be condemned by or for the use of the Corporation without the previous declaration of public utility provided by the General Law of Eminent Domain. Once the petition for acquisition is filed, the court shall have power to fix the term within which, and the conditions under which, the persons in possession of the properties object of the proceeding shall make physical delivery thereof to the Government of the Commonwealth or to the Corporation. No writ of appeal or surety given shall delay the acquisition by, and delivery of the properties to, the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the Corporation.
(j) To purchase, sell, lease, produce, promote, create, acquire, construct, own, operate, exploit, develop, formulate, maintain, repair, administer, study, dispose of, assign, use, grant, take or give as loan or in lease, impose any lien in relation with personal or real properties, use these properties as surety of any kind, or carry out any action related with lands, money, farm products, services, facilities, equipment, materials, machinery, crops, animals, buildings or any other properties, products, businesses, operations, conditions, necessary or useful means and facilities for the production, distribution, conservation, processing, packing, transportation, storage, purchase, sale, disposition or any other activities of or related with farm products or byproducts, or products necessary or useful for farming or for any other activities befitting its purposes.
(k) To establish appropriate operations and activities, or by any means support, subsidize, promote or participate in activities and operations of others that provide jobs of any kind or that tend to the rural development and wellbeing of the residents of the countryside. Likewise, it may also establish or stimulate and participate in creating and developing pilot and demonstration projects. However, such operations and activities shall lay greater emphasis on those that follow the cooperative model.
(l) To render services, technical assistance and the use of its personal or real property, with or without compensation. Likewise, to accept assignments of payment of debts from its debtors against other persons to cover debts contracted with the Corporation, and to process assignments of payment made by any person in favor of another, with respect to any amount that the Corporation is bound to pay for any reason.
(m) To cancel those debts which it considers uncollectible or whose collection may cause expenses exceeding their value.
(n) To grant loans, with or without interest or at low interest rates, and to establish the terms of payments; to grant extensions for the payment of principal and interest; to contribute investment and working capital, and give technical and economic assistance to persons who perform or intend to perform activities related with its purposes, as well as to exercise the supervision or auditing considered advisable in cases in which it provides investment and/or working capital.
(o) To hold, control and exploit lands without limitation as to area.
(p) To sell, lease or otherwise dispose of lands or other properties not suitable or necessary for the purposes of the Corporation.
(q) To acquire, own and dispose of common and preferred stock, as well as debentures and any other form of sharing in the capital; and to procure the organization of and exercise partial or full control over, companies, associations or private or public corporations, for profit or nonprofit, whenever advisable or necessary for the purposes of the Corporation or the exercise of its powers.
(r) To enter, upon permission of its owner or holder, or of its representative, any land or building to make any study or investigation or to carry out any other action or activity related with the discharge of the duties imposed and the exercise of the powers conferred by this chapter. If the owner or holder, or his representative, refuses his permission to enter the property for the purposes expressed, any judge of the Court of First Instance upon receiving an affidavit expressing the intention of the Corporation to enter said lands or buildings for said purposes, shall issue an order authorizing any one or more officers, employees or representatives of the Corporation to enter the property described in the affidavit, for the purposes set forth in this provision.
(s) To appoint and employ personnel, to hire workers, officers, agents, employees and professional or technical services; to compensate those services and to pay any other emoluments.
(t) To transfer funds and resources with the approval of the Governor or the officer onto whom he/she may delegate, to agencies or instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to carry out specific phases or activities of the programs that may be established by virtue of this chapter, when in its judgment, such action facilitates or accelerates the attainment of the objectives sought. However, it is hereby provided that the Corporation shall give preferential treatment to the Puerto Rico Cooperative Development Commission as to the transfer of funds, for it to carry out the promotion, education, technical and administrative support, as necessary to attain the purposes of this chapter. The intervention of the Puerto Rico Cooperative Development Commission shall be contingent on the transfer of sufficient funds to defray any expenses incurred.
History —May 30, 1973, No. 63, p. 282, § 5; Aug. 20, 2009, No. 83, § 4.