Appended herewith for your information and guidance is a memorandum dated February 26, 1996 of Dir. Lourdes Z. Santiago of the Department of Finance quoting the content of the Memorandum dated February 9, 1996 of Executive Secretary Ruben D. Torres treating the subject on "Presidential Certification of Bills".

Adopted: 28 Feb. 1996


"Attachment"

MEMORANDUM

Presidential Certification of Bills

Quoted hereunder is the content of a memorandum dated February 9, 1996 of Executive Secretary Ruben D. Torres treating on the above-captioned subject matter:

"In order to rationalize the process of certification of Bills by the President, to avoid needless delay, confusion, duplication and other similar problems, the following guidelines shall be strictly observed in the submission of the action on requests for Presidential certification of Bills, to wit:

1. All requests for certification, either as "priority administration measures" or "for immediate enactment pursuant to Article VI Section 26 (2) of the Constitution shall be coursed through the Office of the Executive Secretary, (OES).

2. The letter request should include a copy of the Bill and the position paper of the proponent.

3. On the day that the request is received by the OES, the same will be referred to the Office of the Assistant Executive Secretary for Legislation (OAESL) who, upon receipt thereof, shall prepare the "Complete Staff Work" (CSW). In this connection, the OAESL may require the comments and/or recommendations of all concerned agencies.

4. The concerned agencies shall, upon receipt of the OAESL's request for comments/recommendations act on the matter as soon as possible. Such requests should be considered urgent. If necessary, the OAESL may call an inter-agency meeting so that comments can be obtained and issues may be resolved expeditiously.

5. Submission for the President's certification of proposed legislative measures without CSW should be avoided as it may contain provisions which are unconstitutional, legally objectionable or are inconsistent with declared policies, which could put the Administration in an untenable position.

6. The OAESL shall, as soon as possible, submit its recommendation thereon to the OES together with a complete set of all action documents, including among others, the Memorandum for the President, Certification Letter, as appropriate.

7. The OES shall act upon the recommendation of the OAESL and submit the matter to the President.

8. After action by the President, all documents shall be returned directly to the OES for immediate disposition. (The copy for the Malaca ang Records Office shall be provided by the OES through the OAESL.)

FOR YOUR GUIDANCE AND STRICT COMPLIANCE.

Adopted: 26 Feb. 1996