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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
1st Regular Session 
House Bill No. ________ 
Introduced by Representatives ERIC G. YAP, EDVIC G. YAP, JOCELYN P. 
TULFO, RALPH TULFO, and JEFFREY SORIANO 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) is part of the Department of 
Social Welfare and Development's (DSWD) protective services for the poor, 
marginalized, and vulnerable / disadvantaged individuals / families. It has been 
implemented by the agency for decades, as part of its technical assistance and resource 
augmentation support to Local Government Units and other partners. 
Up to the present, it complements the social amelioration programs of the government 
and sustains the basic necessities of families affected by the health and socio-economic 
disruption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the First Quarter of 2022, 
484,784 individuals / households received assistance through the AICS program, in 
range of services, such as immediate rescue and provision of direct financial 
assistance, psychosocial support, and material assistance including medical, 
transportation, financial, burial, and other services.  
This bill seeks to institutionalize AICS, to further strengthen and enhance the existing 
assistance delivery system to benefit the Filipino people in need. It shall continue to 
serve as a social safety net or stop-gap measure to support the recovery of individuals 
and families suffering from unexpected life event or crisis.  
In view of the foregoing, approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
ERIC G. YAP  
JOCELYN P. TULFO 
       EDVIC G. YAP  
            RALPH TULFO 
    JEFFREY SORIANO 
September 5, 2022
3:20 pm
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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
1st Regular Session 
House Bill No. ________ 
Introduced by Representatives ERIC G. YAP, EDVIC G. YAP, JOCELYN P. 
TULFO, RALPH TULFO, and JEFFREY SORIANO 
AN ACT 
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE ASSISTANCE TO INDIVIDUALS IN CRISIS 
SITUATION PROGRAM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND 
DEVELOPMENT, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION OF 
CERTAIN UNLAWFUL ACTS, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the "Assistance to 
Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) Act."  
SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is the policy of the State to promote a 
just, humane, harmonious and productive society, which addresses the plight of the 
poor and disadvantaged through interventions that provide focused and adequate 
social services, thereby raising their standard of living and quality of life. To do this, 
the State shall provide assistance through projects, programs and services geared 
towards alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life of every Filipino, during 
both normal times and crisis situations, especially the marginalized sector and 
disadvantaged individuals and families. 
SECTION 3. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act: 
a. Assistive Devices and Technologies refer to those whose primary purpose is to
maintain or improve an individual’s functioning and independence to
facilitate participation and to enhance overall well-being and help prevent
impairments and secondary health conditions. These include wheelchairs,
prostheses, hearing aids, visual aids, and specialized computer software
and hardware, or any advancement in technologies that increase mobility,
hearing, vision, or communication capacities;
b. Burial assistance refers to assistance to help defray funeral and related
expenses, such as transfer of cadaver, burial site, and other related expenses
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incurred by the family of the deceased, with consideration to context, 
cultural, and religious backgrounds;  
 
c. Case Management refers to a process of assessing, planning, managing, 
coordinating and advocating for services and other interventions used by 
the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to enable the 
qualified beneficiaries to improve their functioning by dealing with their 
difficulties in addressing their needs; 
 
d. Crisis situation refers to a condition of an individual in a stressful situation 
that impairs psychosocial functioning or participation in socio-economic 
activities, including access to education, work, and health care, that requires 
series of interventions to prevent further exposure to vulnerabilities, 
exploitation or abuse; 
 
e. Disability support assistance refers to the monetary support to cover the 
purchase of assistive products, technologies, provision of sign language 
interpreter, personal assistant, maintenance medicines and hygiene needs, 
life support equipment, and other needs of persons with disabilities; 
 
f. Educational assistance refers to financial assistance extended to all eligible 
students to help defray school expenses and/or cost of sending 
students/children to school such as school fees augmentation, supplies, 
projects, allowance and other related expenses and to eradicate barriers to 
quality education, including those barriers faced by persons on account of 
their disabilities; 
 
g. Financial assistance refers to monetary support in the form of cash, guarantee 
letters, coupons, checks, or vouchers that has monetary value, including 
burial assistance, transportation assistance, medical assistance, educational 
assistance, training assistance, food assistance, assistance for other support 
services and other allied assistance or physical aid such as food, clothing, 
and assistive devices and technologies; 
 
h. Food assistance refers to assistance to those in need due to human induced 
and natural calamities and those experiencing other forms of crisis or 
displacement, eviction, demolitions or requiring interventions for sector-
specific support which include hot meals, food or meal allowance, or the 
cash equivalent of the required hot meals and/or food packs; 
 
i. Guarantee letter refers to a document duly approved and issued by the 
DSWD, which ensures the payment of the amount appearing on the 
document, that the beneficiary presents to any public or government owned 
or controlled hospitals or other entities and to any similar private entity that 
is willing to provide services on credit and enter into a partnership 
agreement with the DSWD; 
 


 
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j. Material and other assistance refers to assistance given to individuals in crisis 
situations by providing them non-food items, non-financial assistance, and 
the likes, which may also include professional assistance available in the 
DSWD, such as psycho-social support and legal consultations; 
 
k. Medical assistance refers to out-of-pocket expenses in the form of coupons, 
stubs, guarantee letters, promissory notes, or vouchers of monetary value, 
given directly to recipients or beneficiaries to pay for hospitalization 
expenses, other medical treatments or procedures, as well as professional 
fees and consultation fees, purchase of drugs, medicines, goods or other 
services prescribed by a physician of a health facility to patients; 
 
l. Persons with disabilities refer to those who have long-term physical, mental, 
intellectual or sensory impairments that hinder their full and effective 
participation in society on an equal basis with others, including cancer 
patients and persons living with cancer and cancer survivors under 
Republic Act No. 11215, otherwise known as “National Integrated Cancer 
Control Act” and persons with rare disease under Republic Act No. 10747, 
otherwise known as “Rare Diseases Act of the Philippines”; 
 
m. Target Beneficiaries refer to individuals or families who are indigent, 
vulnerable, disadvantaged, or internally displaced persons or in crisis 
situation based on the assessment of the social workers of the DSWD; and 
 
n. Transportation assistance refers to the monetary support to cover the actual 
cost incurred on land, sea, and air travel, including travel insurance and 
such other related expenses as facilitated by the social workers of the 
DSWD. 
 
 
SECTION 4. Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS). - The DSWD 
shall effectively respond to the needs of individuals/families in crisis by giving 
qualified target beneficiaries financial, medical, transportation, food, and material 
assistance, and other forms of assistance that may be made available in this program. 
Such assistance shall include disability support services such as but not limited to 
psychosocial support or intervention for dysfunctional families and their children 
who need trauma care and management, legal counseling, and other available and 
appropriate professional services based on the assessment of social workers of the 
DSWD. 
 
 
For purposes of this Act, the provision of medical assistance by the Department 
of Health (DOH) and its health facilities shall be harmonized with that being provided 
by the DSWD and other agencies. Towards this end, Republic No. 11463, also known 
as the Malasakit Centers Act, shall have suppletory effect for purposes of streamlining 
the grant of medical and financial assistance to eligible beneficiaries at the Malasakit 
Centers, and to prevent duplication in providing medical assistance to beneficiaries in 
crisis situation. 
 


 
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SECTION 5. Type, Kind and Amount of Financial Assistance. - The type, kind 
and amount of assistance that the target beneficiaries may receive are based on the 
assessment and recommendation of the social workers or authorized personnel of the 
DSWD, duly approved by their authorized officials. 
 
a. Other forms of financial assistance such as transportation assistance for 
qualified target beneficiaries who come from geographically isolated and 
disadvantaged areas shall be given.  
 
b. In order to fully meet the medical needs of individuals in crisis situation, 
particularly persons with disabilities or people with special needs such as 
persons with spinal cord injury who need catheter and urine bag that entail 
additional costs, the DOH may provide the initial costing per type of 
disability for the effective assessment of social workers of DSWD. To ensure 
effective implementation, DSWD and DOH shall keep a database of all 
usual assistance and circumstances, which shall guide planning, 
programming, and procurement (if necessary). 
 
c. Aside from the regular AICS referral for their services such as legal services, 
psychosocial interventions, and admission to residential facilities or 
temporary shelter, a referral system for financial assistance augmentation 
shall be utilized by the DSWD. 
 
d. Appropriate documentation as provided for in the DSWD AICS Guidelines 
shall support all disbursements of funds. 
 
e. A social case study report is required of those whose assistance is higher 
than ten thousand pesos (P10,000.00) 
 
 
SECTION 6. Provision of Assistance Through Adoptive Means. - The DSWD 
shall adopt means in order to efficiently, expeditiously, and effectively deliver the 
financial and material assistance to the clients. [and communities needing assistance 
from the government, – may be deleted already] These means may include 
establishment of a mobile command center at the DSWD Central Office and in all 
regions (or affected regions) and establishment of an automated information system 
that can (i) process requests for assistance, (ii) facilitate release of assistance to 
beneficiaries, (iii) keep track of and facilitate payments for the necessary service or 
financial charges for the delivery of assistance, and (iv) other relevant functions as 
stated in Section 5 and 7 of this Act. 
 
 
SECTION 7. Case Management System. - There shall be established a case 
management system to improve service delivery of the AICS to the qualified 
beneficiaries.  
 
 
In keeping with the principle if equitable access [and ensuring that access to 
the AICS is maximized - may already be deleted], and as stipulated in relevant 
sections of this Act, a mechanism for real-time data sharing between the DSWD and 
the LGUs shall be institutionalized, subject to the statutory limitations under the Data 


 
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Privacy Act of 2012. Under this mechanism, concerned agencies and LGUs may share 
information from the centralized database in order to monitor the assistance given to 
qualified beneficiaries for purposes of assistance augmentation, prevention of abuse, 
[of the assistance given to those in crisis situations - may already be deleted], and 
planning.  
 
 
SECTION 8. Crisis Intervention Program Management Office (CIPMO). - A 
Crisis Intervention Program Management Office is created at the Central Office of the 
Department of Social Welfare and Development. The office shall monitor and evaluate 
the implementation of AICS Program and prepare monitoring and evaluation reports 
for submission to the Secretary of the DSWD. The monitoring and evaluation reports 
must be available and accessible to any stakeholder at the national, regional, and local 
levels. - This is problematic given the plans for “rightsizing the bureaucracy”. /we 
can’t keep on creating new offices. (See also comments of DBM-they are correct, for 
the most parts.) We need to rationalize the offices, programs, etc. in DSWD vis-a-vis 
LGUs, Local Government Code, Mandanas ruling, etc. I suggest to replace this with:  
 
 
SECTION 8. Reengineered DSWD Specialized Programs Sub-Cluster. In 
keeping with the plans of government in rightsizing the bureaucracy, mandate of local 
governments, Mandanas-Garcia ruling, and the whole-of-government approach, the 
DSWD shall undergo an organizational review and re-engineering to allow more 
efficient and effective delivery of AICS and other relevant services under the Special 
Programs Sub-Cluster. The current structure and personnel complement shall 
continue managing the functions of the AICS program until such time that a re-
engineered organization has been established. If necessary and practical, some 
functions may already be fully or partially devolved to the local governments while 
other national-level functions may become part of the ongoing rightsizing efforts such 
as but not limited to the following: 
 
a. Development of databases shall already be undertaken directly by relevant 
agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications 
Technology, Philippine Statistics Authority, and National Economic and 
Development Authority, provided that such function shall be done with 
supervision of and in coordination with DSWD; 
 
b. All medical-related services that are usually provided by the Department of 
Health shall automatically be lodged with it unless the qualified 
beneficiaries automatically fall within the care of DSWD (e.g., abused 
women and children, PWDs, victims of calamities, etc.); and 
 
c. Other functions where transfer to relevant agencies and/or LGUs shall lead 
to seamless and more efficient delivery of services. 
 
 
SECTION 9. No Additional Plantilla Positions. - The DSWD shall no longer 
create new plantilla positions for the AICS program but where necessary and 
applicable due to the rightsizing and streamlining efforts, the staffing pattern 
necessary for the implementation of this Act and other services under the Specialized 


 
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Programs Sub-Cluster shall be modified in coordination with the Department of 
Budget and Management and the Civil Service Commission. 
 
 
SECTION. 10. Personnel Complement. - The Specialized Programs Sub-
Cluster, the Crisis intervention Sections, and the Social Welfare and Development 
Satellite Offices that implement AICS programs shall be adequately staffed by 
licensed social workers and support staff. If necessary and based on the organization 
development or re-engineering process, a program director at the Central Office shall 
be assigned/reassigned or promoted from current roster while the regional directors 
in the field offices shall support the reorganization process and rationalize their 
personnel and operations to ensure effective implementation of the AICS program 
and other programs in the sub-cluster. 
 
 
SECTION. 11. Unlawful Acts and Penalties. - It shall be unlawful for any 
individual or organization to: 
 
a. Defraud the government by issuing or presenting falsified or misleading 
documents, or using false pretenses or other fraudulent acts to require the 
assistance provided under this Act; 
 
b. Coerce, invite or encourage persons to seek assistance from the DSWD for 
purposes of acquiring from the beneficiary a portion of the assistance, 
before or after the receipt of assistance. 
 
c. Mislead an individual or group to join, pay or cooperate with a group 
falsely representing connection or affiliation with DSWD or falsely 
promising priority in the processing of assistance. 
 
 
Any person who commits any of the foregoing unlawful acts shall be punished 
by imprisonment of not less than one (1) year but not more than six (6) years and a 
fine of not less than but not more than triple the amount of the assistance, at the 
discretion of the court. If the offender is an organization, the president, manager, or 
any officer of the organization who directly participated in the violation of the 
unlawful acts shall be held liable. 
 
 
SECTION. 11. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. - A congressional 
oversight committee is hereby constituted to monitor, set the overall framework, and 
review the implementation of this Act. The committee shall determine the inherent 
weaknesses in the law and recommend necessary remedial legislation or executive 
measures. 
 
 
The oversight committee shall be composed of five (5) members from each 
House to be appointed by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, respectively, and co-chaired by the Chairpersons of the Committee 
on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development of the Senate and the Committee on 
Social Services of the House of Representatives. 
 


 
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For purposes of determining remedial legislation, the oversight committee 
shall, within three (3) years after the effectivity of this Act, conduct a review which 
shall include a systematic evaluation of the impact of this Act, accomplishments of the 
program, and the performance of the implementing agencies. 
 
 
SECTION. 12. Implementing Rules and Regulations. - Within six (6) months 
from the effectivity of this Act, The Secretary of the DSWD in consultation with the 
Secretary of the DOH and the Commission on Audit (COA), shall promulgate the 
necessary rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act. 
 
 
SECTION. 13. Appropriations. - The amount necessary for the initial 
implementation of this Act shall be charged against the current year’s appropriations 
of DSWD. Thereafter, such sum as may be necessary for the continued 
implementation of this Act shall be included in the annual General Appropriations 
Act, including the payment for the necessary service fees, financial charges, or 
administrative cost, and capital outlay for the establishment of the necessary offices 
for the delivery of assistance. 
 
 
SECTION. 14. Separability Clause. - If any provision or part of this Act is held 
invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining parts or provisions not affected shall 
remain in full force and effect. 
 
 
SECTION. 15. Repealing Clause. - All laws. presidential decrees or issuances, 
executive orders, letter of instructions, administrative orders, rules, and regulations 
or parts thereof contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are 
amended, repealed, or modified accordingly. 
 
 
SECTION. 16. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
publication in the Official Gazette or in a national newspaper of general circulation. 
 
Approved,