PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 1538

PROVIDING FOR MICROFILMING OF PAID TREASURY WARRANTS AND CHECKS CHARGEABLE AGAINST TREASURY CHECKING ACCOUNT FOR AGENCIES (TCAA), AND THE DISPOSAL OF THEIR ORIGINALS

WHEREAS, under item No. 4 of General Records Schedule 3, General Circular No. 4. of the Secretary of General Services, dated October 11, 1963, it provides that Treasury Warrants shall be disposed of ten years after post audit, provided they are not needed for pending civil, criminal or administrative proceedings;

WHEREAS, past experience has shown that compliance with the required ten years retention period results in the accumulation of large number of paid Treasury Warrants and PNB and PVB Checks chargeable against Treasury Checking Account for Agencies (TCAA) and the Bureau of the Treasury which is charged with the function of storing these documents may find itself continually saddled with storage and maintenance problems;

WHEREAS, there is a felt need to decongest the existing storage facilities for these treasury warrants and checks issued by the government;

WHEREAS, there is also a need to preserve the evidentiary value of these paid treasury warrants and TCAA checks as they may be the subject of present or future investigation and litigation;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree:

Section 1. Paid treasury warrants as well as PNB and PVB checks chargeable against Treasury Checking Account for Agencies (TCAA) that are not needed for pending civil, criminal or administrative proceedings shall be microfilmed at the earliest possible time and that their originals disposed off after three years from the date they were paid; Provided, That notwithstanding any law to the contrary, microfilm-copies of treasury warrants and TCAA checks, duly certified as such the Treasurer of the Philippines or his representative, shall have the same evidentiary value as the originals and shall be admissible as evidence in all legal proceedings.

Section 2. All laws, circulars, orders, rules and regulations or any and all portions thereof that are inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

Section 3. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 11th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight.