WHEREAS, it is essential to provide the Intermediate Appellate Court with all the necessary facilities to enable it to discharge its duties and functions promptly and speedily;

WHEREAS, the Intermediate Appellate Court disburses a sizable amount of its budgetary appropriation for postage stamps for mailing its official communications and papers;

WHEREAS, in order to reduce its expenditures for postage stamps, it is necessary to extend franking privilege to the Intermediate Appellate Court;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree:

SECTION 1. The Intermediate Appellate Court may transmit thru ordinary mail and/or registered mail with return card, free of charge, all official communications and papers directly connected with the conduct of judicial proceedings.

The envelope or wrapper of the privileged mail matter shall bear on the left upper corner "Intermediate Appellate Court" together with its address and on the right upper corner, the words: "Private or unauthorized use to avoid payment of postage is penalized by fine or imprisonment or both.''

SEC. 2. The Minister of Transportation and Communications shall, within thirty (30) days from the publication of this Decree, promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to carry out the foregoing provisions; Provided, That any person who uses the privilege granted hereunder for private or unauthorized purposes shall be punished by a fine of five hundred pesos or imprisonment of not more than three years, or both, at the discretion of the Court.

SEC. 3. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 19th day of July, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty-five.

			(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS President of the Philippines
	By the President:
	(Sgd.) MANUEL M. LAZARO
		Presidential Assistant for Legal Affairs