ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 145, October 17, 1968

CREATING A COMMITTEE TO FACILITATE THE DISPOSAL AND DISSEMINATION OF TRADE INFORMATION MATERIALS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES

WHEREAS, our country is a member of the Universal Postal Union with the privilege of free exchange of written and printed materials through the regular international mail;

WHEREAS, trade information materials from foreign countries, including the member countries of the socialist bloc, are important in trade relationships; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to facilitate the collection, entry and delivery to the proper parties of said trade information materials and at the same time provide necessary measures of security against the influx of subversive propaganda;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby create a committee to facilitate the disposal and dissemination of trade information materials from foreign countries, including member countries of the socialist bloc, to be composed of the following:

The Secretary of Commerce and Industry.........................................................	Chairman
The Secretary of Public Works & Communications ........................................	Member
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs .......................................................................	Member
The Director, National Bureau of Investigation .................................................	Member

The Committee shall adopt ways and means to facilitate the collection, entry and disposal of trade information matters coming into the country from the aforementioned countries.

The Department of Commerce and Industry (DCI), through a duly accredited commercial attaché, shall communicate with the different state trading firms and relay the information obtained to the home office.

In cooperation with representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Bureau of Investigation, the DCI shall act as a clearing house of postal matters involving trade information. This unit shall process trade information materials, carefully segregating materials with propaganda motives. The pure trade information thus selected shall then be disseminated to the different trade organizations or to the proper parties concerned for their guidance.

After ways and means have been found out to effectively thresh out propaganda “chaff” from the purely trading “grain”, the procedure of segregating materials for dissemination may be entrusted to the local trade association themselves.

Done in the City of Manila, this 17th day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) JOSE J. LEIDO, JR.

Acting Executive Secretary