WHEREAS, the medically indigent population of the country is the primary concern of the government;

WHEREAS, government hospitals, charity clinics, health centers, and dispensaries are established primarily for the treatment and care of the poor; and

WHEREAS, the socio-economic investigation of patients being conducted by the Department of Health, through its operating field health units, to determine their financial condition can be done more effectively with the cooperation and assistance of municipal and city treasurers;

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, I, Carlos P. Garcia, President of the Philippines, do hereby order all municipal and city treasurers to issue certificates of indecency, based on the classification made in Republic Act No. 747, as implemented by Executive Order No. 578, dated March 24, 1953, in favor of patients who may wish to take advantage of the benefits thereof. For this purpose, municipal and city treasurers are hereby authorized to enlist the assistance of other government agencies to determine accurately the income of patients for their proper classification under said Act, as implemented by Executive Order No. 578.

Done in the City of Manila, this 20th day of November, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the sixteenth.


By the President:
(SGD.) EDILBERTO B. GALLARES
Assistant Executive Secretary