MALACAÑAN PALACE
MANILA
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES
[ EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 188, February 23, 1939 ]
REVISING EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 139, DATED JANUARY 14, 1938, CREATING A NATIONAL RELIEF ADMINISTRATION
For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of Commonwealth Acts Numbered Ninety, Two hundred and thirty-nine, and Two hundred and sixty-six, which provide that the funds therein appropriated shall be expended through such official, office, entity, or agency as the President may designate, and with a view to achieving efficiency and economy by consolidating the different relief activities of the Government under one management and coordinating such Government relief activities with those being undertaken by private relief institutions, I, MANUEL L. QUEZON, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby create a National Relief Administration under the general supervision and control of a board to be composed of the Secretary of the Interior as Chairman and the Secretary of Finance and the Secretary of Public Works and Communications as members. The Commissioner of the Budget shall be the Executive Officer of the Board.
1. The duties of the National Relief Administration shall be as follows:
(a) It shall investigate the extent of the damages caused by typhoons, floods, and other public calamities in the different provinces, and shall determine the amounts needed for relief and rehabilitation work;
(b) It shall take a census of all unemployed and indigent persons in the Philippines; shall ascertain their needs and determine upon ways and means for relief and ameliorating their conditions;
(c) It shall advise the appropriate Departments, Bureaus, offices, subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities of the Commonwealth Government from time to time as to the unemployment situation in the different localities in the Philippines with a view to giving employment, as far as practicable, to those in need of aid in public works projects and other works carried out by any branch or agency of the Government. It shall further seek to enlist the cooperation of private employers in the distribution of employment in such a manner as to provide the maximum amount of relief from unemployment;
(d) It shall take charge of all the funds appropriated under Commonwealth Acts Numbered Ninety, Two hundred thirty-nine, and Two hundred and sixty-six and such other funds as may be appropriated or donated to or by the Government for relief or rehabilitation purposes, and shall, subject to the approval of the President, make allotments out of said funds for the purposes of this Executive Order, directly or through such Government agencies or charitable institutions as it may designate.
2. The National Relief Board shall establish branches or agencies in the provinces, chartered cities, and municipalities with a view to carrying out within their respective jurisdiction the purposes for which the National Relief Administration is created.
3. The National Relief Board is hereby authorized to appoint such personnel, subject to the approval of the President, as may be necessary for the proper functioning of the National Relief Administration.
All expenses which may be incurred by the National Relief Administration to carry out the provisions of this Executive Order, including traveling and other incidental expenses of officers and employees rendering relief work, shall be a proper charge against the appropriations under the control of the National Relief Administration.
4. All officers and employees of the National, provincial, and municipal governments, as well as those of the institutions receiving financial aid from the Government, are hereby enjoined to cooperate with the National Relief Administration in the performance of its functions and, with the approval of the corresponding Head of Department, shall, when necessary, render such service as the National Relief Board may assign to them.
Done at the City of Manila, this twenty-third day of February, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the fourth.
MANUEL L. QUEZON
President of the Philippines
By the President:
JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President
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