WHEREAS, APEC is composed of eighteen (18) economies in the region, including the major economic partners of the Philippines;

WHEREAS, APEC offers great opportunities for training and skills upgrading of manpower and educational exchanges and cooperation in improving the country ™s HRD facilities and programs;

WHEREAS, APEC can serve as a forum for promoting the country ™s national interests, such as, among others, the promotion, development and protection of human resources, as enunciated in the Philippines ™ œAnnex to APEC Economic Leaders ™ Declaration of Common Resolve  which was presented at the APEC Economic Leaders ™ Meeting in Bogor, Indonesia, in November 1994;

WHEREAS, at the First APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) for the Seventh APEC Ministerial Meeting which was held in Fukuoka, Japan, on 13-15 February 1995, the Philippines announced that it will host an APEC Ministerial Meeting on Manpower in Manila in January 1996, the first in a series of APEC meetings which the Philippines will host in 1996;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and other lwas, do hereby order the creation on a National Organizing Committee for the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Manpower, (MOC-APEC-MMM), as follows:

1.	COMPOSITION - The NOC-APEC-MMM shall be composed of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as Chairman, with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as members.
	The NOC-APEC-MMM shall have the authority to select and invite other agencies as members, as the Committee may deem necessary and useful in the accomplishment of its objectives.
2.	FUNCTION AND PURPOSES - The NOC-APEC-MMM shall oversee and undertake all necessary preparations to ensure the success of the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Manpower which will be held in Manila 10-11 January 1996. It shall perform all others functions as may be necessary for the successful implementation of the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Manpower.
3.	BUDGET - The NOC-APEC-MMM shall have a budget in the amount of ONE MILLION AND THREE HUNDRED FORTY-SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED PESOS (P1,346,500.00), to be taken from the General Appropriation Fund ™s allocation for 1996 APEC Activities.
	Pending Congressional approval of the aforementioned allocation, the amount of EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS (P800,000.00) is hereby allocated for the preparation and hosting of the APEC Expert ™s Meeting on Manpower which will be held in Manila in October 1995, to be taken from the President ™s Contingency Fund.
4.	EXPIRATION - The NOC-APEC-MMM shall cease to exist upon the completion of its objective.

This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 10th day of July, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Five.

(Sgd.) FIDEL V. RAMOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) RUBEN D. TORRES
Executive Secretary