WHEREAS, nearly eighty per cent of the people of the Philippines live in the barrios, the improvement and development of which is the key to nationwide development, prosperity, and progress;

WHEREAS, it is necessary to improve existing conditions in the rural areas and to help the barrio people attain a better life, more opportunities for creative living, and a higher level of social, educational, and economic development;

WHEREAS, the above objectives may be achieved by extending to the people in the barrios the benefits of scientific farming, cottage industries, and other new sources of livelihood; improving their health and environmental sanitation; eradicating illiteracy among them; and awakening their civic consciousness and community spirit; and

WHEREAS, the rural reconstruction movement being undertaken by voluntary private civic-spirited elements and the community development program being carried out by the government deserve full encouragement and support from the public;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Carlos P. Garcia, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare the third week of May of every year as Barrio Communities Week. I designate the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Community Development and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement to take charge of the observance thereof in cooperation with other civic organizations and local educational institutions. I enjoin the public in general to extend its cooperation in the appropriate observance of the week.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 10th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the twelfth.

CARLOS P. GARCIA
President of the Philippines

By the President:

JUAN C. PAJO
Executive Secretary