EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 250, July 29, 1970

CREATING THE DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT STAFF WITHIN THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

WHEREAS, it is the primary responsibility of the President to effect the development of the country and secure to its people and their posterity social and economic benefits under a stable and secure political system;

WHEREAS, as the executive and administrative head of the vast government machinery, it should therefore be the President’s concern to see to it that the management and administration of the bureaucracy in going after long-range aims and the conduct of its day-to-day activities should be geared toward development;

WHEREAS, there is need for a body equipped with necessary expertise that can readily provide for the President and his top-level advisory councils the necessary staff studies and recommendations as a basis for decision-making and policy formulation vis-à-vis the pursuance of national developmental objectives as well as coping with sudden crisis-situations; and

WHEREAS, such a body should have a broad overview of national problems, goals and their solutions unhampered by the bias and prejudices of the regular departments, bureaus, agencies and other instrumentalities of the government, which were created for particular and limited purpose or purposes;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and the law, do hereby establish and create the Development Management Staff (DMS) within the Office of the President.

The DMS shall have the mission of serving as the principal and central resource base for the President and other top-level Presidential advisory councils or bodies in the decision-making and policy-formulating process, especially as these functions are connected to national development and meeting crisis situations.

In making staff studies and recommendations, the DMS shall give special emphasis to the coordination and control of the various project content of the national development program. In this context, the DMS shall study and recommend how resources can be husbanded and balanced, how different projects and activities are scheduled so as to reinforce one another, and how diverse efforts and activities can be effectively unified or harmonized in the realization of the development objective.

The DMS shall keep itself informed of the progress of development projects and the conduct of all activities connected to their implementation and shall make continuous evaluations, give critiques and analyses of results, and recommend corrective action in relation thereto.

The DMS shall also assist and give staff support in the meeting and solution of crisis situations and shall find ways and means of heading off crisis situations by making a continuous analysis and evaluation of national trends leading to crisis development.

It shall also be the responsibility of the DMS to study and recommend methods of expediting projects that encounter operational problems during implementation.

In view of the nature of its staff functions, the organization of the DMS shall be made highly flexible. The organization, however, shall revolve around a permanent group composed of members trained and/or oriented in different academic disciplines. To give the DMS the needed insight and appreciation of operation problems at the execution level, the permanent group shall be supplemented by an inter-agency group to be composed of detailed personnel from the various departments and agencies of government, whose stint or service with the DMS shall be terminated at designated intervals when they shall be replaced by another inter-agency group.

The DMS shall be headed by the Executive Secretary and shall be placed under his immediate and direct supervision and control. The Executive Secretary shall organize the DMS along the concept outlined in the next preceding paragraph and shall provide secretariat services therefor.

Operational expenses of the DMS, including salaries and allowances, shall be funded from the various lump sum appropriations for the Office of the President.

The number of positions to compose the permanent or continuing staff of the DMS shall not be fixed, but the number of staff personnel shall be added to or reduced as the need therefor arises. In consideration of the basic postulate for the creation of the DMS that its function shall be policy determination, technical and highly confidential, and the need for flexibility, positions of staff personnel therein shall not be proposed for classification or itemization under the Appropriation Act. In the event, however, that the positions in the DMS are converted into classified or itemized positions by act of Congress, all such positions shall be, as they are hereby, declared to be primarily technical or highly confidential in nature.

All departments, bureaus, offices, agencies and instrumentalities of the government, including government-owned or controlled corporations, as well as local government instrumentalities, shall give assistance to the DMS whenever such assistance is requested.

(SGD.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(SGD.) ALEJANDRO MELCHOR

Acting Executive Secretary