SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
First Regular Session
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SENATE
S.B. No. 1327
RECEIwLD Li.
Introduced by Senator SONNY ANGARA
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A MAGNA CARTA OF THE POOR 
EXPLANATORY NOTE
Poverty incidence among Filipinos in the first semester of 2015 was estimated at 
26.3 percent. This translates to about 26.48 million Filipinos, based on the Philippine 
population in 2015 of 100.7 million. On the other hand, subsistence incidence among 
Filipinos, or the proportion of Filipinos whose income fall below the food threshold, was 
estimated at 12.1 percent or about 12.18 million Filipinos. The subsistence incidence 
rate indicates the proportion of Filipinos living in extreme poverty.1
Based on the July 2015 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (ElU), despite 
the faster economic growth enjoyed during the past few years, the poverty rate in the 
Philippines will still be high as the gap between the poor and the rich widens. By 2019, it 
is projected that the Philippines will remain one of Southeast Asia’s poorest economies, 
with a lower level of gross domestic product (GDP) per head than the majority of the 
region’s other major economies. Large numbers of Filipinos will continue to live in 
poverty.2
This bill seeks to uplift the lives of the impoverished through employment, feeding 
programs, housing, health care and education. Under the bill, all government agencies 
are mandated to formulate its own poverty reduction plan with utmost consideration to 
the following fundamental rights of the poor: right to adequate food, decent work, 
relevant and quality education, adequate housing, and the highest standard of mental 
and physical health.
In view of the foregoing, the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly sought.
SONNY ANGARA
1 https://psa.gov.ph/content/poverty-incidence-among-filipinos-registered-263-first-semester-2015-psa
2 http://pages.eiu.com/rs/783-XMC-
194/images/EIUJULY_Report_EmergingAsianMarkets_FINAL.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRouva7JZKXonjHpfs
X57+4vXqGg38431UFwdcjKPmjrlYQFTcZ0aPyQAgobGp5l5FEPQrPYRKljt6QEXw


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SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
First Regular Session
)
SENATE
S.B. No. 1327
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Senate
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FFB 14 P4 ^8
RECtivto fiv. Ip
Introduced by Senator SONNY ANGARA
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A MAGNA CARTA OF THE POOR
Be It enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Republic of the 
Philippines in Congress assembled:
SECTION 1. Title. -  This Act shall be known as the "Magna Carta of the Poor.”
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. -  It is the declared policy of the State to uplift the 
standard of living and quality of life of the poor and provide them with sustained 
opportunities for growth and development. It shall adopt an area-based, sectoral, and 
focused intervention to poverty alleviation where every poor Filipino family must be 
empowered to meet their minimum basic needs, through the partnership of the 
government and the basic sectors. It is likewise vital that the State complies with its 
international obligations to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal 
primary education; promote gender equality and empowerment of women; reduce child 
mortality improve maternal health; combat Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired 
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), malaria and other diseases; and ensure 
environmental sustainability and development of a global partnership for development. 
To attain the foregoing policy:
(a) The government shall prioritize investments in anti-poverty programs to 
enable the poor to fully participate in the Country's growth and development;
(b) All departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the government shall 
provide full access of its services to the poor;
(c) The government shall strengthen interventions to addiess the genuine 
concerns of the poor and shall institutionalize long-term strategies and 
solutions for the empowerment of the poor; and
(d) Government strategies shall enhance and promote the capabilities and 
competencies of the basic sectors, the nongovernment organizations (NGOs) 
and people's organizations (POs), as development partners of the


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government for the effective delivery and implementation of a wide range of 
anti-poverty programs and basic services.
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. -  As used in this Act;
(a) Basic sectors refer to the disadvantaged sectors of Philippine society 
including farmer-peasants, artisanal fisher folk, workers in the formal sector 
including migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples 
and cultural communities, women, persons with disability, senior citizens, 
victims of calamities and natural and human-induced disasters, youth and 
students, children, the urban poor and members of cooperatives;
(b) Development partners refer to NGOs, POs and private corporations that are 
engaged in programs and activities aimed at alleviating the condition of the 
poor;
(c) Hazardous/danger zones refer to areas which, when occupied for residential 
or business purposes, pose a danger to the life and safety of the occupants or 
of the general public;
{d) Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) refer to duly registered non-stock, 
nonprofit organizations focusing on the upliftment of the basic sectors of 
society by providing advocacy, training, community organizing, research, 
access to resources, protection of the environment and conservation of 
natural resources and other similar activities;
(e) People's organizations (POs) refer to self-help groups belonging to the basic 
sectors composed of members having a common bond of interest who 
voluntarily join together to achieve a lawful common social or economic end;
(f) Poor refers to individuals or families whose income falls below the poverty 
threshold as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority 
(NEDA) and/or who cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their 
minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing, or other essential 
amenities of life; and
(g) National Poverty Reduction Plan refers to the aggregation and consolidation 
of sectoral and local plans through a bottom-up approach, from the Local 
Poverty Reduction Action Plan towards the formulation of the national plan.
SEC. 4. Scope of the Fundamental Rights of the Poor. -  The government shall 
establish a system of progressive realization or implementation to provide the 
requirements, conditions and opportunities for the full enjoyment of the following rights 
of the poor, which are essential requirements towards poverty alleviation:


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(a) The Right to Adequate Food is the right of individuals or families to have 
physical and economic access to adequate and healthy food, or the means to procure it. 
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of 
Agriculture (DA), and other implementing agencies concerned shall;
(1) Undertake necessary actions to mitigate and alleviate hunger 
especially in times of calamities/natural and human-induced disasters;
(2) Fully implement and maintain supplementary feeding programs in day 
care centers and schools;
(3) Ensure the availability, accessibility and sustainability of food supplies 
in a quantity and quality sufficient to meet the dietary needs of poor individuals 
and families; and
(4) Proactively engage the poor in activities intended to promote their food 
self-sufficiency and strengthen their access to resources and means to ensure 
food security.
(b) The Right to Decent Work is the right to the opportunity to obtain decent and 
productive employment in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. 
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other implementing agencies 
concerned shall:
(1) Ensure that the poor shall have access to information regarding 
employment openings in private enterprises and in government programs and 
projects especially regarding available emergency employment opportunities for 
families displaced by calamities/natural and human-induced disasters or 
relocated from hazardous/danger zones;
(2) Ensure the compliance of private contractors and subcontractors doing 
national and local public work projects, funded by either the national government 
or any local government unit (LGU), to fill in thirty percent (30%) of the skilled 
labor requirements by qualified workers who come from the poor sector and who 
are residents of the LGUs where these projects are undertaken: Provided, That 
where the number of available resources is less than the required percentage 
provided therein, said requirements shall be based on the maximum number of 
locally available labor resources and shall be certified by the municipal, city, 
provincial or district engineer as sufficient compliance with the labor requirements 
under this Act;
(3) Promote livelihood among the poor. These implementing agencies 
shall provide technical and administrative support to help the poor establish their 
livelihood enterprise using loans obtained from them;


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(4) Ensure compliance with core labor standards, address the job and 
skills mismatch, and enhance human capital through education and training; and
(5) Provide an environment for more inclusive tri-partism to achieve more 
broad-based representation of interests and make decision-making highly 
participatory through social dialogue at the firm and industry levels.
(c) The Right to Relevant and Quality Education is the right to attain the full 
development of the human person. The Department of Education (DepEd), the 
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills 
Development Authority (TESDA), in coordination with development partners concerned, 
shall:
(1) Maintain a system of free public education in the kindergarten, 
elementary and high school levels;
(2) Make higher education accessible to all poor individuals and families. 
They shall expand the programs of providing socialized college education to the 
poor, including student loans or study-now-pay-later plans, in state/local 
universities and colleges; Provided, That the students qualify and maintain good 
academic standing; and
(3) Ensure access to quality technical vocational education and training 
through scholarships, subsidies and financial assistance to ensure access to 
decent and productive employment, subject to compliance to qualification 
requirements and availability of funds.
(d) The Right to Adequate Housing is the right to have a decent, affordable, 
safe and culturally appropriate place to live in, with dignity, security of tenure, in peace, 
with access to basic services, facilities, and livelihood. The Housing and Urban 
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and other implementing agencies 
concerned shall:
(1) Prioritize the implementation of the socialized housing program with 
identified appropriate subsidies;
(2) Immediately construct and provide housing facilities for families living 
in identified hazardous/danger zones where the housing needs of the poor are 
urgent;
(3) Create an enabling environment that will assist the poor gain access to 
security of tenure with the least financial burden; and
(4) Provide a system consisting of simple requirements and procedures, 
and expeditious processing and approval especially for community-based 
socialized housing/people's proposals.


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(e) 
The Right to the Higliest Attainable Standard of Mental and Physical 
Health is the right to have equitable access to a variety of facilities, goods, services and 
conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable standard of health. The 
Department of Health (DOH) and other implementing agencies concerned shall;
(1) Ensure equitable access to a system of good quality health care and 
protection that is also available, accessible, and acceptable to the poor;
(2) Provide for comprehensive, universal, culture-sensitive, and gender- 
responsible health services and programs, which include:
(i) maternal and child health care and nutrition:
(ii) access to ethical legal, medically safe and effective reproductive 
health services and supplies;
(iii) promotion of breastfeeding;
(iv) prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, 
sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS;
(v) provision of immunization against major infectious diseases 
occurring in the community; and
(vi) prevention, treatment and control of epidemic and endemic 
diseases;
(3) Reduce the financial burden of health care and protection of the poor 
through a socialized health Insurance program with the end view of totally 
eliminating out of pocket expenses; and
(4) Provide health- related education and information to the comm^jnity.
SEC. 5. Non-Diminution of the Rights of the Poor. -  All other rights of the poor 
provided under existing laws shall remain in full force and effect. Nothing herein shall be 
construed in a manner that will diminish the enjoyment of such rights by the poor who 
shall have the right to avail of greater rights offered by existing laws, including those 
granted under this Act.
SEC. 6. Social Protection. -  The government shall build an effective social protection 
system to ensure the protection of the poor from any risk or contingency. The system 
shall include social insurance, safety nets, social welfare, and labor market 
interventions, which are affordable and accessible. This social protection shall likewise 
be afforded in and during bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including arrangements 
to be entered into with international financial institutions.


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SEC. 7. System for Targeting of Beneficiaries. -  The NEDA shall design and 
establish a single system of classification to be used for targeting beneficiaries of the 
government’s poverty alleviation programs and projects to ensure that such programs 
reach the intended beneficiaries.
SEC. 8. The National Poverty Reduction Plan (NPRP) and Enhanced Coordination 
and Convergence among Government Agencies. — All government agencies shall 
formulate, within one hundred (100) days from the issuance of the rules and regulations 
to implement this Act, a comprehensive and convergent plan to set the thresholds to be 
achieved by the government for each of the recognized rights of the poor. This plan 
shall consider all sectoral and local poverty reduction plans of each barangay, 
municipality/city and province. The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), with the 
technical assistance of the NEDA, shall be tasked to compile and harmonize these 
plans. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shall likewise review the 
NPRP for inclusion in the budget of implementing agencies.
SEC. 9. Participation of the Basic Sectors and of the Local Government Units 
(LGUs). -  The NAPC shall ensure that the basic sectors and the LGUs are engaged in 
the formulation and in the implementation of the NPRP. The Department of the Interior 
and Local Government (D1LG) shall monitor the compliance of the LGUs in aligning 
their respective development, investment, and poverty reduction plans with the NPRP, 
and in implementing the same.
SEC. 10. Funding Requirements. -  The funding for the poverty alleviation programs 
and projects implemented under this Act shall be sourced from the existing 
appropriations as authorized under the General Appropriations Act of the different 
departments and agencies implementing these programs including those enumerated 
below;
(a) DSWD - Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Sustainable 
Livelihood Program (SLP);
(b) DOLE - Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) and Tulong 
Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers "TUPAD" Project;
(c) TESDA - Skills Training, Private Education Student Financial Assistance 
(PESFA) and the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP);
(d) DepEd - Alternative Learning System (ALS) and Government Assistance to 
Students and Teachers III Private Education (GASTPE);
(e) CHED - Student Financial Assistance Program (STUFAP);
(f) NHA - Socialized housing program;


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(g) DOH - Basic health care services including potable water system; and
(h) PhilHealth - Expanded Primary Care Package for the Poor.
Allocations for the implementation of these programs and projects shall be given 
preferential consideration in the funding allocation of the department/agency budget. 
Any additional funds to the existing appropriations of the pro-poor programs in the 
different departments and agencies shall be included in the General Appropriations Act 
of the year following its enactment into law and thereafter.
SEC. 11. Private Sector Participation. -  The private sector is highly encouraged to be 
an active partner in the financing and implementation of poverty alleviation programs 
and projects. The government agencies implementing these programs shall be 
authorized to accredit development partners, who may accept donations, aids or grants, 
in cash or in kind, from duly accredited sources, to meet the demands of and uphold the 
basic rights of the poor to adequate food, decent work, relevant and quality education, 
adequate housing, and the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health. 
Acceptance and use of such donations, aids or grants, shall be transparent and subject 
to government applicable regulations. The government shall recognize top performing 
development partners.
SEC. 12. Tax Exemptions. -  Any donation, contribution and grant which may be made 
to the sponsored program shall be exempt from the donor's tax and shall be considered 
as allowable deduction from the gross income in the computation of the income tax of 
the donor in accordance with the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 
1997, as amended. The implementers of the socialized housing resettlement program 
shall enjoy the incentives stated in Section 20 of Republic Act No. 7279, otherwise 
known as the "Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992".
SEC. 13. Rational Allocation of Funds. -  The DBM shall be principally responsible for 
the efficient and rational allocation of available funds to the different government 
departments and agencies to support the implementation of this Act.
SEC. 14. Implementation through a System of Progressive Realization. -  Nothing 
in this Act shall be construed in any manner as requiring the government to undertake 
the immediate implementation of all poverty alleviation programs. The government shall 
set programmatic standards to be achieved over time depending upon the availability of 
necessary resources and in consideration of economic resource constraints.


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SEC. 15. Compliance Report. — The NAPC shall be tasked to oversee and monitor 
compliance with this Act. Within six (6) months from the effectivity of this Act and every 
six (6) months thereafter, all implementing departments and agencies shall submit a 
report to the NAPC on their respective compliance with the provisions of this Act which, 
in turn, shall submit a compliance report to the house Committee on Poverty Alleviation 
and to the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development.
SEC. 16, Implementing Rules and Regulations. -  Within six (6) months from the 
effectivity of this Act, the NAPC shall, in coordination with the government departments 
and agencies, with the participation of the LGUs and the basic sectors, promulgate rules 
and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 17. Separability Clause. -  If, for any reason, any section or provision of this Act 
is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the other sections or provisions which are not 
affected shall continue to be in full force and effect.
SEC. 18. Repealing Clause. -  All laws, decrees, executive orders, proclamations, rules 
and regulations or parts thereof inconsistent herewith are repealed, amended, or 
modified accordingly.
SEC. 19. Effectivity. -  This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in 
the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
Approved,