Preamble
WHEREAS, a need exists for the optimum exploitation of employment generating measures currently available to the Government so that their potentials for contributing to the solution of the country's unemployment problem may be fully realized; WHEREAS, the economic growth of this country also depends to a large extent upon the availability of a labor force that is both well-trained and adequate in number to meet the manpower requirements of the various levels of employment; WHEREAS, apprenticeship, being both a training and employment generating device, is among the existing measures which could contribute to the attainment of the foregoing objectives if the law on apprenticeship could be liberalized and freed from its traditionalist and restrictive provisions; and WHEREAS, it is accordingly in the national interest, pursuant to Section 9, Article II of the New Constitution, to align apprenticeship as an instrument of employment generation and manpower development to the overall manpower policy of the New Society as well as the reforms introduced by the Integrated Reorganization Plan as adopted by and under Presidential Decree No. 1; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1.972, as amended, and in order to effect the desired changes and reforms in the economic and social structures of our society, do hereby order and decree the further amendment of Republic Act No. 1826, as amended, as follows: