Legal basis and insurance coverage trigger
- Executive Order No. 183 is anchored on the Government Service Insurance Act under Commonwealth Act No. 186.
- Commonwealth Act No. 186 provides compulsory membership insurance without medical examination for the persons enumerated in Section 4, and for certain permanent and regular employees, including those in provincial, city, and municipal governments, the University of the Philippines, and government-owned or controlled corporations that opted to join.
- Executive Order No. 183 applies specifically when a proposed appointment—if approved—would grant the appointee compulsory membership insurance under Commonwealth Act No. 186.
- Executive Order No. 183 also recognizes Act No. 3050, as amended, by treating some positions as “subject to” or “not subject to” its provisions for purposes of temporary appointment.
Purpose: fitness and insurance risk acceptability
- Executive Order No. 183 requires examinations for the welfare of the Government and to help ensure the solvency of the Government Service Insurance System.
- The examination determines: (a) fitness for work, (b) the presence of contagious diseases, and (c) acceptability as an insurance risk.
- The examination also identifies physical conditions that could make the proposed appointee a menace to co-workers and an unacceptable insurance risk.
Scope and covered appointing contexts
- Executive Order No. 183 covers proposed appointees in the classified service of the Government.
- It covers proposed appointees in the University of the Philippines.
- It covers proposed appointees in government-owned or controlled corporations.
- It covers proposed appointments that would entitle the appointee to compulsory membership insurance.
- It directs that medical examination requirements apply to proposed appointees that may be sent to departments and offices with physicians, including proposed appointees in the University of the Philippines and government-owned or controlled corporations.
Required medical examination and responsible officials
- Every proposed appointee within the scope of the Government Service Insurance Act must submit to a physical and medical examination before appointment approval.
- The examination must determine the proposed appointee’s fitness for work and whether there are disqualifying diseases or physical impairments making the person a menace to co-workers and an unacceptable insurance risk.
- A Government physician duly authorized performs the medical and physical examination.
- The examining physician must accomplish the medical form prescribed for the purpose by the Government Service Insurance Board.
- The examining physician must send the properly accomplished form to the Government Service Insurance System.
- The Government Service Insurance System must forward the completed form to the relevant approving office—the Bureau of Civil Service, the University of the Philippines, or the relevant government-owned or controlled corporation—together with its comment and recommendation on the advisability of approving the appointment.
Insurance risk findings and appointment outcomes
- When the Government Service Insurance System considers a proposed appointee a poor insurance risk due to old age and/or poor physical condition, the Department Head or appointing official concerned must not approve the proposed appointment.
- The Department Head or appointing official may approve the appointment as temporary in the situation where the position is not one subject to the provisions of Act No. 3050, as amended.
- A temporary appointment may be made permanent and regular only upon certification by the System that the employee’s physical condition warrants such change.
Department and bureau physician assignment
- Heads of Departments and Chiefs of Bureaus and independent offices of the Government that have physicians in their employ must assign medical officers to perform the required physical and medical examination.
- These assigned medical officers must conduct examinations for proposed appointees sent to them from time to time for examination, including those for the University of the Philippines and government-owned or controlled corporations.
Existing military and paid-organizations practices
- Executive Order No. 183 preserves existing practice by providing that regulations contrary to the present practice for the Philippine Army and the Philippine Constabulary are superseded.
- The medical-physical examination practice conducted prior to commission or enlistment of their officers and enlisted men is to be followed.
- Practices adopted by paid organizations in the future are also to be followed, notwithstanding contrary provisions of Executive Order No. 183.
Execution details and signing
- The order is executed in the City of Manila on February 02, 1939.
- Manuel L. Quezon signs as President of the Philippines.
- Jorge B. Vargas signs “By the President” as Secretary to the President.