WHEREAS, Republic Act No. 3779, as amended, requires that a public hearing be held by the Central Bank for every application to establish a proposed savings and loan association or a branch thereof; WHEREAS, the rationale behind this requirement was that, at the time of the passage of said Act, savings and loan associations were not under the supervision of the Central Bank and the savings and loan system as a whole had a poor image as a result of unscrupulous operators and organizers of so-called savings and loan associations;
WHEREAS, under the aegis of the Central Bank, the undesirable associations were weeded out and the savings and loan system has, since then, made tremendous progress and has regained the trust and confidence of the public;
WHEREAS, public hearing is not required of other financing institutions under the supervision of the Central Bank; and
WHEREAS, the removal of the requirement of public hearing will be in keeping with the objective of uniformity, simplicity and equality of treatment of banking institutions of the same category;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree and order: