TO :
WHEREAS, the Honorable Enrique M. Garcia has been recently appointed Minister of Health;

WHEREAS, the attainment of health for all Filipinos is both a means and an end of the overall national development program of the New Society;

WHEREAS, the Ministry of Health is charged with the supervision and coordination of all health and health-related activities within the Philippines;

WHEREAS, these health and health-related activities must be integrated with other activities of the overall national development program of the New Society;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby instruct the Minister of Health and all officials and personnel of the Ministry of Health to:

1. Design, develop and implement programs which will:
   
   

   	1.1.	Focus on Health Development at the community level particularly in rural areas by:
   		a)	Strengthening health, care delivery at primary levels and immediate support systems at secondary levels;
   		b)	Developing, a strong primary health care system in coordination/cooperation with all the Ministries and agencies engaged in social, political and economic development;
   		c)	Lowering the cost of drugs; and
   		d)	Rotation and increase of medical service personnel
   	1.2.	Effectively utilize those systems in order to control or eradicate the immediate and specific health problems confronting Filipino communities by:
   		a)	Strengthening and re-orienting existing specific programs in family planning, nutrition, malaria eradication, schistosomiasis control, cancer control, and others to conform to the thrust of the peripheral services;
   		b)	Development of a plan to eradicate tuberculosis by means of a strong program which will be interpreted with the health development at community levels.
   	1.3.	Redirect and re-orient the organization of all its agencies at the central level so as to provide efficient and adequate administrative, planning and other support services for health development by:
   		a)	Strengthening their staff functions and capabilities;
   		b)	Streamlining their programs of activities.

   
   
2. Review all projected expenditures within the Ministry's budget including those for projects funded from external sources, with the end in view of ensuring that the Ministry's financial resources are distributed according to priorities dictated by this Letter of Instructions.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 19th day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-nine.