[ LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 581, August 02, 1977 ]

TO: The Secretary of National Defense
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs
The Secretary of Finance
The Secretary of Local Governments & Community     Development   The Secretary of Health
The Secretary of Trade
The Governor, Central Bank of the Philippines
The President, Philippine National Bank
To ensure the viability of privately organized and managed pilgrimages to Mecca by Muslim Filipinos in the manner the Hajj of 1976 was conducted under the provisions of Letter of Instructions No. 450, I hereby direct that you provide on a continuing basis the necessary advisory, administrative, technical and supervisory assistance to Muslim Filipinos on their pilgrimages to Mecca.

The Department of National Defense is designated the primary action office for the purpose of coordinating the participation of all government entities involved in these privately managed pilgrimages.  It shall be the principal point of contact between the government and the leaders/organizers of these pilgrimages.

The Secretary of National Defense shall choose from among the applicants for each Hajj period the Muslim leaders and the groups that shall be recognized as representatives of the pilgrims capable of managing the pilgrimage wholly on their own, from the selection of their respective members, the choice of and the contracting for their transportation, to the funding of their activities. He shall issue such rules and guidelines and organize such bodies as he may deem necessary for the safe and orderly pilgrimages to Mecca.

Done in the City of Manila, this 2nd day of August, in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-seven.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines