WHEREAS, General Orders No. 11, dated October 1, 1972 providing for an increased rate of base pay for commissioned officers on active duty contains a proviso excluding1 officers who retired from the service prior to September 30, 1972 from the readjustment of their gratuity or pensions;

WHEREAS, the persons who were excluded from the benefits of said General Order were mostly officers who, during the bleak years of World War II, defended the Philippines at Bataan, Corregidor and other war fronts, many of whom died in the process, many others became disabled and the rest were lucky to survive the war until they retired from the military service;

WHEREAS, these groups of retirees used to receive automatic readjustment of gratuity or pension every time a new rate of monthly base pay is prescribed for officers in the active service, pursuant to the provisions of Republic, Act Numbered Three Hundred and Forty, as amended;

WHEREAS, officers who retired from the military service after September 30, 1972 are now receiving their monthly pensions based on the existing pay scales of officers in the active service;

WHEREAS, all other government retirees in the civil service have recently been granted increases in their pensions due to the high cost of living brought about by the spiralling prices of prime commodities:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081 dated September 21, 1972, General Order No. 1 dated January 17, 1973, do hereby decree and order that:

SECTION 1. The monthly base pay prescribed for commissioned officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under General Orders No. 11, dated October 1, 1972 shall be the basis of the retirement gratuity or pensions of officers retired from the military service prior to October 1, 1972.

SEC. 2. This Decree shall take effect upon approval.

Done in the City of Manila, this 12th day of November, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-four.