[ EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 58, August 16, 1954 ]
DECLARING CORREGIDOR AND BATAAN NATIONAL SHRINES, OPENING THEM TO THE PUBLIC AND MAKING THEM ACCESSIBLE AS TOURIST ATTRACTIONS AND SCENES OF POPULAR PILGRIMAGES, AND CREATING A COMMISSION FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE.
1. All battlefield areas in Corregidor Island and Bataan province are hereby declared National Shrines, and, except such portions as may be temporarily needed for the storage of ammunition or deemed absolutely essential for safeguarding the national security, are opened to the public, accessible as tourist resorts and attractions, as scenes of popular pilgrimages and as recreational centers.
2. A Corregidor-Bataan National Shrines Commission is hereby created to lay out plans for the conservation and development of said National Shrines with a view to glorifying the memory and scenes of Philippine-American resistance to aggression and to inspiring the nation as well as the rest of the free world into on unremitting defense of democracy and freedom throughout the ages.
3. The Commission shall be composed of the Secretary of National Defense, as Chairman, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Secretary of Commerce and Industry, as Vice-Chairmen, the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Civil Aeronautics Administrator, the President of the Philippine Association, the President of the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association, the President of the USAFFE Veterans Supreme Councilor of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor and the Chairman of the Historical Markers Committee, as members.
4. The Commission shall immediately proceed to determine the historic areas to be preserved, developed and beautified for the purposes of this order, establish the boundaries thereof and mark them out properly. Within 30 days from the issuance of this Order, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shall have marked out the areas in the Corregidor-Bataan battlefields to be reserved exclusively for temporary military uses, at the same time taking immediate steps to remove military stores and other dangerous objects, especially unexploded mines, bombs and shells along the road leading to or within the historic sites.
5. The Commission shall conduct studies and prepare a general program for the development of national parks embracing all the historic areas and recommend to the President a plan for appropriate memorials or monuments wherever they are deemed desirable, taking into account the topography, vegetation and historical background of the places selected for the purpose.
6. The Commission shall also immediately take steps towards the reconditioning of the air-strip in Corregidor and the construction of another at a convenient site in Bataan as well as the construction of suitable rest-houses for tourists and visitors in convenient locations in both places. For rest-house purposes, preference shall be given to the reconstruction and restoration to as nearly like the original as possible of the cottage occupied by General MacArthur in Corregidor and of any building in Bataan which has historic background connected with the last war.
7. The Secretary of Public Works and Communications, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Civil Aeronautics Administration are hereby directed to give priority to these improvements and to make available for their immediate realization such funds as they may be in a position to dispose of out of their respective current appropriations for similar projects.
8. The Commission may cooperate with the U.S. Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Commission and, if it so deems proper, endeavor to bring about an integration of the plans of both bodies into a common project.
9. The Commission may call on any department, bureau, office, agency or instrumentality of the government for such assistance as it may need in the preparation and execution of its plans or in the maintenance of the services to be established.
10. All executive orders, administrative orders and proclamations or parts thereof inconsistent with any of the provisions and purposes of this Order are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
11. This Order shall take effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila, this 16th day of August, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the ninth.
(Sgd.) RAMON MAGSAYSAY
President of the Philippines
By the President:
(Sgd.) FRED RUIZ CASTRO
Executive Secretary