|
|
| History |
PMS's history cannot be traced completely without looking back at the time when former President Diosdado Macapagal created the Program Implementation Agency (PIA) to be his technical staff for socio-economic priorities on 24 August 1962. In time for the second wave of economic development after World War II, PIA under the leadership of then Assistant Executive Secretary Sixto Roxas and Armand Fabella as Director-General, helped the President in bringing about a new economic order in the country.
As its name suggested, PIA ensured that the government programs were implemented as planned and scheduled. Reporting directly to the President, PIA conducted socio-economic planning, formulated policy recommendations, established priorities, and programmed the utilization of public funds, manpower resources, materials and equipment.
In 1965, Ferdinand E. Marcos won the presidential elections over President Macapagal. In the early administration of President Marcos, PIA was dissolved and in its place, the Presidential Economic Staff (PES) was created through Executive Order No. 8 issued on February 1, 1966. PES retained the duties of PIA. In addition, it was tasked to establish and sustain working relationships with various international financial institutions and assist the government and private entities in tapping foreign resources for credit or other forms of assistance.
Headed by Placido Mapa and Apolinario Orosa, PES translated the production and investment targets set by the erstwhile National Economic Council into complementary packages of projects and provided a clearing house where private investors can bring in their investment projects.
On July 29, 1970, while PES was still in existence, President Marcos issued Executive Order No. 250 creating the Development Management Staff (DMS) within the Office of the President (OP). Through the assistance of PES personnel, DMS tackled its first jobs in its Arlegui office some meters away from Malacanang Palace, the same place where the First Family now resides.
With the implementation of the integral Reorganization Plan in 1972 and the subsequent absorption of PES by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), DMS was retained as a permanent agency in OP, serving as the principal information resource base and immediate staff arm of the President on matters involving presidential monitoring, coordination, and control of development programs at the execution level.
Former Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor was called to run DMS, then enriched with some 50 young men and women, including Col. Luis M. Mirasol, its Managing Director.
Right at the former San Miguel Building in San Miguel, Manila, now popularly known as the New Executive Building at the Malacanang Grounds, DMS penned Status Reports on the 21 Presidential Priority Programs, which the President wanted to receive periodically, and provided staff support to government programs and agencies in need of assistance. The status reports on land reforms, housing, education, infrastructure, rural electrification, and a number of other areas where among the information resources vital during private briefings and Cabinet Meetings of the President. They provided a frame of reference within which to assess the reports given by the various Cabinet members.
A large part of DMS's early work also went to the Development Performance Evaluation System (DPES) which consisted of audits of various departments in the exective branch. The DPES aimed at pinpointing problem areas and recommending solutions in order to orient the departments towards development objectives.
During the reorganization of the Office of the President in 1976, the DMS was reconstituted and renamed as the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) pursuant to Presidential Decree no. 955 dated July 8, 1976.
|
|
|
