Section 2
SEC. 2. Paragraph (b), (c) and (d) of Section three of the same decree are hereby amended to read as follows: "b. Draw up a program, after consultation with the private sector, for the nation-wide use of the metric system and standard metric packaging patterns, including the respective starting and completion dates, in the different agricultural, commercial, industrial, utilities, scientific, services and other sectors; Provided. That the metric system shall be fully adopted in all sectors throughout the Philippines by January first, nineteen hundred and seventy-seven; Provided, however, that for financial, technological and other reasons, the Board may grant extensions in highly meritorious cases. The Board shall consider the need to provide adequate time for the modification of existing devices or acquiring new devices in conformity with the metric system and the need to disseminate widely information on the metric system, the metric conversion programs and implementing rules and regulations; "c. Promulgate rules and regulations for the implementation hereof, and, after approval thereof by the President of the Philippines, widely disseminate the same to all government offices and instrumentalities and the general public, including publication once for three consecutive weeks in at least three newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines; "d. Appoint personnel from division chief level and above, preference to be given to qualified persons who were laid off from the government service as a result of reorganization; Provided, that professional, highly technical and executive personnel maybe employed under such terms and conditions as the Board or the Chairman may prescribe."