WHEREAS, the Philippine Centers in the United States of America have been recognized as effective instruments in the effort to expand trade with and investments in the United States;

WHEREAS, the Philippines-United States Business Development Council has been created to coordinate and integrate the trade and investment promotion efforts of Philippine government agencies and their establishments in the United States, to ensure effectiveness and avoid wasteful duplication;

WHEREAS, the above-mentioned Council has been authorized to coordinate the activities of consular posts, service attaches, Philippine Centers, government-operated Philippine houses, trading centers, and all other government corporations and their subsidiaries operating in the United States, in the implementation of the said Council ™s trade and investments promotion program;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and by Presidential Decree No. 1416, as amended, do hereby order:

SECTION 1. The powers, functions and duties of the Office of the Chairman of the Management Board of all Philippine Centers in the United States of America, as created under Presidential Decree Nos. 188 and 487, are hereby transferred from the Philippine Consul General in New York and the various Chiefs of Mission concerned to the Chairman of the Philippine-United States Business Development Council. Henceforth, the Chairman of the Philippine-United States Business Development Council shall be the Chairman of the Management Board of all Philippine Centers in the United States of America. The Philippine Consul General in New York shall be the Co-Vice Chairman of the Management Board of the Philippine Center in New York, while each Chief of Mission shall be the Co-Vice Chairman of the appropriate Management Board of the other Philippine Centers in the United States of America.

SECTION 2. The Chairman of the Management Board is hereby authorized to promulgate new rules and regulations or to amend existing ones issued by the said Management Board governing the operations of Philippine Centers as may be consistent with the objectives of Executive Order No. 831.

SECTION 3. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, Philippines, this 19th day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty-two.


By the President:

(SGD.) MANUEL M. LAZARO
Presidential Assistant for Legal Affairs