For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of Commonwealth Acts Numbered Ninety and Two hundred and sixty-six, which state that the funds therein appropriated shall be expended through such official, office, entity, or agency as the President may designate, and with a view to achieving efficiency and economy by consolidating the different relief activities of the Government under one management and coordinating such Government relief activities with those being undertaken by private relief institutions, I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby create a National Social Security Administration under the general supervision and control of a board herein designated as the National Social Security Board, to be composed of one chairman, one vice-chairman, an executive officer, and such members as the President may from time to time appoint.

The duties of the National Social Security Administration shall be as follows:

(a) To investigate the extent of the damages caused by typhoons, floods, fires, and other public calamities in the different provinces, cities and municipalities; and to determine the amounts of money needed for relief and rehabilitation work.

(b) To establish and organize rapid and adequate measures for relieving the sufferers and rendering aid and assistance to them.

(c) To give training to, and to provide for, a corps of workers, such as physicians, engineers, nurses, and others, including volunteer workers who can be called for active service during emergencies.

(d) To coordinate the relief activities of the Government with those being undertaken by private relief institutions.

(e) To serve as a coordinating agency for the placement in public works and land settlement projects of the different branches, departments, bureaus, offices, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Government of persons in need of employment.

(f) To extend relief to the indigents who are physically incapacitated for work either directly or through the Bureau of Public Welfare or the charitable institutions under the latter ™s supervision.

(g) To take charge of all the funds appropriated under Commonwealth Acts Numbered Ninety and Two hundred sixty-six, and such other funds as may be appropriated, set aside or donated to or by the Government or any of its instrumentalities including the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office, for relief or rehabilitation purposes, and, subject to the ˜approval of the President, to make allotments out of said funds for the purpose of this Executive Order, directly or thru such government agencies or charitable institutions as the National Social Security Board may designate.

(h) And to perform such other functions or do such other work as the President may assign thereto from time to time.

The National Social Security Administration shall establish branches or agencies or may appoint subcommittees in the provinces, cities and municipalities with a view to carrying out within their respective jurisdictions the purpose of this Executive Order.

Subject to the approval of the President, the National Social Security Administration is hereby authorized to appoint such personnel, as may be necessary to perform all or any of the duties entrusted to it by virtue of this Executive Order or any other subsequent order of the President.

All expenses which may be incurred by the National Social Security Administration to carry out the provisions of this Executive Order, or any other subsequent order, including traveling and other incidental expenses of officers and employees rendering relief work, shall be a proper charge against the appropriations under its control.

All officers and employees of the National, provincial, city and municipal governments, as well as those of the institutions receiving financial aid from the Government are hereby enjoined to cooperate with the National Social Security Administration in the performance of its duties and, when necessary, to serve as representatives or members of subcommittees or to render such other service as the National Social Security Board may require of them.

The work of taking a census of the unemployed persons in the Philippines shall hereafter be performed by the National Social Security Administration. The Executive Officer of the National Social Security Administration shall advise the proper departments, bureaus, offices, subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities of the Government from time to time as to the unemployment situation in the different localities in the Philippines, and it shall be the duty of these departments, bureaus, offices and other dependencies of the Government to get their supply of laborers from the list furnished by the National Social Security Administration, with a view to giving employment, as far as practicable, to those in need of aid in public works and land settlement projects and other works carried out by any branch or agency of the Government. He shall further seek to enlist the cooperation of private employers in the distribution of employment in such manner as to provide the maximum amount of relief from unemployment.

The National Social Security Administration shall also take and keep a census, of the indigents, who are physically incapacitated for work, in the Philippines and shall from time to time advise the Bureau of Public Welfare of the necessary aid that should be extended: to the said indigents.

Executive Order No. 139, dated January 14,. 1938, as amended by Executive Order No. 188, dated February 23, 1939, Executive Order No. 197, dated March 24, 1939, and Executive Order No. 216, dated July 28, 1939, and all other Orders which are inconsistent herewith are hereby revoked: Provided, That until the members of the National Social Security Board are appointed and qualified, the present National Relief Board shall continue performing its functions as heretofore.

Done at the City of Manila, this 19th day of August in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the fifth.


By the President:

(Sgd.) JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President