WHEREAS, Section 1 of Act No. 536, as amended by Act No. 2206, provides that whenever any recognizances, stipulations, bond or undertaking conditioned for the faithful performance of any duty or any contract made with any public authority, national provincial, municipal, or otherwise, or of any undertaking, or for doing or refraining from doing anything in such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking specified is, by laws of the Philippines or by the regulation or resolutions of any public authority therein, required or permitted to be given with one surety or two or more sureties, the execution of the same or the guaranteeing of the performance of the conditions 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 or 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 œthat no head of department, court, judge, officer, board, or body, whether 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 accordance with 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 Metropolitan Insurance Company, 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 Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby authorize the Metropolitan Insurance Company, Inc., to become a surety upon official recognizances, stipulations, bonds and undertakings, in such manner and under such conditions as are provided by law, subject to the conditions that the total amount of government bonds that it may issue, shall not, at anytime, exceed its admitted assets and that the contributed surplus fund shall not, at anytime, be withdrawn and paid back in cash to the contributing stockholders without prior recommendation and justification by the Insurance Commissioner duly approved by the Secretary of Finance.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 29th day of September, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Nine.

(Sgd.) JOSEPH EJERCITO ESTRADA
President of the Philippines

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