WHEREAS, it is necessary to direct intelligent efforts towards stimulating among the people greater interest in cooperative organizations which have gradually come to play a very important role in the economic life of many countries; and

WHEREAS, the first Saturday of July of each year is the day which organized cooperative movement in the world dedicates to the strengthening of the ties that unite the cooperators in the different countries as a manifestation of the high degree of organization that characterizes the cooperative movement.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, do hereby designate the first Saturday of July of each year as International Cooperative Day in the Philippines.

The National Cooperatives and Small Business Corporation is hereby designated to take charge of the observance of the International Cooperative Day in the Philippines, and all cooperative associations in this country are urged to join in the nation-wide celebration of this event.

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 29th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the third.

ELPIDIO QUIRINO
President of the Philippines

By the President:

TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary