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WHEREAS, ideals and practices hostile to our heritage of freedom have found lodgement in our midst, seeking to undermine and destroy our society and government which it has nourished;

WHEREAS, the family unit has always stood as the well-spring of strength of our society and government from the earliest times; and

WHEREAS, the “barangay” of old, as organized family units, best represent the solidarity, cooperation and loyalty most needed to protect and preserve the free institutions our people have come to value and cherish;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, in order to preserve and strengthen the civic virtues of the citizenry, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby promulgate the following rules and regulations governing the organization of barangay associations.

SECTION 1. Unless the public interest otherwise requires, and the Secretary of the Interior so recommends, barangay associations shall be organized by every city, municipal or district mayor under the following standards:

(1) Barangay associations to be organized shall be on the basis more or less of the territorial jurisdiction of the present barrios in each city, municipality or district. Where a barrio is too big or too densely populated for administrative purposes, it may be subdivided into two or more barangay associations composed of as many families as they may deem wise and necessary for the purpose of carrying out the objectives for which the barangay association is organized.

(2) There shall be a head in each barangay association who shall be chosen for a term of one year by a majority of all the members of legal age and who shall be moved in the manner provided in the rules and regulations of the association. Barangay associations shall provide in their articles of association for the appointment or election and removal of other officials and employees as may be necessary, prescribe their qualifications, and fix their term of office.

(3) Barangay associations shall be under the administrative supervision of the city, municipal or district mayor concerned through the respective councilors.

(4) Families situated in groups or residents living together within mining fields, factories or enterprises, all of whom cannot be organized into a Barangay association in accordance with the provisions hereof, may be organized into special barangays to function under the same rules and regulations herein prescribed under the supervision of the city, municipal or district mayor of the political subdivision comprising the mine, factory or enterprise concerned.

SEC. 2. Barangay associations, as basic civic units of the locality, shall perform the following duties and functions:

(1) To call all members within their respective territories to regular meetings of not less than once a month for the discussion of topics of general and local interest, or as often as the heads of Barangay associations or the mayor or councilors concerned may deem necessary, or as circumstances may demand;

(2) For the protection of the community, to establish a system of rotation duty so as to post guards (ronda) at important points or send residents on patrol for the purpose of keeping strict lookout or surveillance of the territory under the jurisdiction of each association;

(3) To prepare a family register of residents who have established their dwelling within the area under each association’s jurisdiction and assist in keeping an up-to-date census of the families at all times;

(4) To devise a system of keeping track of the whereabouts of transients in the locality;

(5) To extend and render all possible assistance, when requested by the military or police authorities;

(6) To cooperate, in every possible way, with any health, civic or welfare organization in the locality;

(7) To assist in food production campaigns and in the promotion of adult education;

(8) To organize cooperative associations under existing laws;

(9) To help in emergency relief work undertaken by the Government and in similar activities of civic or charitable organizations; and

(10) To adopt such measures, not contrary to law, as may be necessary to promote the welfare of the community, to provide for the mutual protection of the members of such association and their families, and to cooperate in the maintenance of peace in the locality.

Done in the City of Manila, this 22nd day of September, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the fifth.


By the President:
(SGD.) TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary