Creation of Executive Committee of the Cabinet

August 10, 1979

EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 551-A

CREATING AN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE CABINET

WHEREAS, the President/Prime Minister, as chairman of the NEDA and presiding officer of all its meetings, has found very often that papers elevated to him are without benefit of proper staff study;

WHEREAS, some Ministers are endorsing to the President/Prime Minister pending problems of their respective Ministries without recommendations, proposed solutions or presentation of options and alternatives, as well as the consequences of the action that may be taken thereon;

WHEREAS, to relieve the President/Prime Minister of his multifarious functions, there is a necessity of creating an Executive Committee of the Cabinet to pass upon all papers and problems presented by the Ministers in their respective Ministries before they are finally brought to the President/Prime Minister for decision-making.

WHEREAS, it is now desirable that possible successors in the Presidency be trained, and that this objective may be achieved to some extent by preparing certain members of the Cabinet to exercise such discretion and judgment as are proper to the highest office of the land;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby create an Executive Committee of the Cabinet, as follows:

SECTION 1. Composition. — The Executive Committee of the Cabinet shall be composed of the following:

The Minister of Finance	Chairman
The Minister of the Budget	Member
The Minister of Public Highways	Member

The President/Prime Minister of the Philippines may, in the interest of the public service, increase the members of the Committee as the need arises.

SECTION 2. Functions of the Committee. — The Committee shall have the following functions:

a) To monitor all economic problems of the Government which require daily assessment and solution;

b) To receive and make proper staff studies on all problems presented to it by the various Ministries;

c) To outline all courses of action to be taken on all problems presented to it to help the President/Prime Minister in the decision-making process;

d) To receive and attend to all problems brought to it by any Ministry;

e) To organize its own staff which shall thoroughly study any problem presented to it before the Committee submits its recommendations, together with a set of options and alternatives, to the President/Prime Minister;

f) To call upon any official to participate in its meeting so that any matter brought up to it may be adequately ventilated.

g) To seek the assistance/advice of any ministry, office, agency or entity of the government in the performance of its tasks; and

h) To meet as often as possible and cut through bureaucratic red tape in attending to the urgent economic problems spawned by the increase of oil prices and monitor their implications and effect on the economy.

SECTION 3. Secretariat of the Committee. — In the absence of any organized staff of its own, which will be drawn from the respective offices of the members of the Committee, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Presidential Management Staff shall provide the basic core of the secretariat of the Committee which shall be assisted by the officials assigned to the President's Study Room.

SECTION 4. This Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 10th day of August, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Nine.

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 75 No. 35, 6849-1 Supp., on August 27, 1979.