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WHEREAS, Republic Act No. 5859, amending Republic Act No. 610, has raised by one hundred percent (100%) the death and disability benefits payable to the surviving kins of officers and enlisted men whose death was the proximate result of wounds or injuries sustained or sickness or disease contracted in line of duty or whose disability likewise service-connected was due to any of those causes;

WHEREAS, R.A. No. 5859 merely authorized to be appropriated such amounts as may be needed to cover the increased death and disability benefits;

WHEREAS, since 1969 when R.A. No. 5859 was approved to the present, the inadequate finances of the National Government have made it impossible to implement said law;

WHEREAS, to date, there is due the amount of P2,949,908.72 as back pensions and death gratuities of ex-servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Constabulary who died or were retired and/or separated from the service as a result of service-connected wounds or injuries sustained or sickness contracted in line of duty; and

WHEREAS, the interest or earnings of the thirty-one million dollars ($31,000,000) paid by the United States Government representing Veterans Claims Settlement Fund and deposited with the Philippine Veterans Bank may be tapped as partial payment for back pensions and death gratuities of the ex-servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Philippines;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, pursuant to the powers in me vested by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree that the amount of two million pesos (P2,000,000) be drawn From the interest or earnings of the $31-M Trust Fund deposited with the Philippine Veterans Bank to be made available to pay partially the accrued back pensions and death gratuities of the ex-servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or their surviving kins pursuant to R.A. No. 5859.

Done in the City of Manila, this 30th day of December, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.