MALACAÑANG

MANILA

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION NO.

976

DECLARING THE PERIOD JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1997 AS THE ANTI-MIGRANT TRAFFICKING YEAR

WHEREAS,

overseas employment continues to be an alternative source of income for over four million overseas Filipino workers;

WHEREAS,

in pursuit of overseas work, jobseekers continue to be victimized by illegal traffickers whose victims include women and children;

WHEREAS,

all the agencies of government and all sectors of society need concerted and collective action in order to eradicate illegal trafficking of migrants;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS,

President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare the period January 1 to December 30, 1997 as the Anti-Migrant Trafficking Year.

During this period, the Departments of Labor and Employment, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior and Local Government, Transportation and Communications and National Defense, are hereby tasked to adopt measures, including allocation of its resources, to the drive against illegal trafficking.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF,

I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

DONE

in the City of Manila, this 25th day of February in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Seven.

(Sgd.)

FIDEL V. RAMOS

By the President:

(Sgd.)

RUBEN D. TORRES