WHEREAS, Section 1 of Act No. 536, as amended by Act No. 2206, provides that whenever any recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking conditioned for the faithful performance of any duty or of any contract made with any public authority, national, regional, city, provincial, municipal or otherwise, or of any undertaking, or for the doing or refraining from doing anything in such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking specified, is, by the laws of the Philippines or by the regulations or resolutions of any public authority therein, required or permitted to be given with one surety or with two or more sureties, the execution of the same or the guaranteeing of the performance of the condition thereof shall be sufficient when executed or guaranteed solely by any corporation organized under the laws of the Philippines, having power to guarantee the fidelity of persons holding positions of public or private trust and to execute and guarantee bonds or undertakings in judicial proceedings and to agree to the faithful performance of any contract or undertaking made with any public authority;

WHEREAS, said section further provides that no lead of department, court, judge, officer, board, or body, executive, legislative or judicial, shall approve or accept any corporation as surety on any recognizance, stipulation, bond, contract, or undertaking, unless such corporation has been authorized to do business in the Philippines in the manner provided by the provisions of said Act No. 536, as amended, nor unless such corporation has, by contract with the Government of the Philippines, been authorized to become a surety upon official recognizances, stipulations, bonds, and undertakings; and

WHEREAS, the GREAT DOMESTIC INSURANCE COMPANY OF THE PHILIPPINES, INC., is a domestic corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines and fulfills the conditions prescribed by said Act No. 536, as amended.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH EJERCITO ESTRADA, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the power in me vested by law, do hereby authorize the GREAT DOMESTIC INSURANCE COMPANY OF THE PHILIPPINES, INC., to become a surety upon official recognizances, stipulations, bonds and undertaking in such manner and under such conditions as are provided by law, except that the total amount in any single immigration bonds that it may issue shall not, at any time, exceed its admitted assets.

Done in the City of Manila, Philippines, this 13^th day of NOV., in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Eight.

(Sgd.) JOSEPH EJERCITO ESTRADA
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) RONALDO B. ZAMORA
Executive Secretary