Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS:

First Regular Session

4700

House Bill No.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Eradicating poverty is conceivably the biggest continuing challenge we
face as a nation. Although reduction of indigence is an indispensable requirement
for sustainable growth, we still fail to implement a long-term and effective
solution. There is an array of schemes that seek to help the poor nationwide, but
the results are temporary and ineffectual. A standardized program with a uniform
application in all regions and provinces is meager and insufficient because
poverty does not have a singular identity with a universal solution. Poverty is
multidimensional and complex, it stems from a range of factors such as
geography, culture, population, availability of and access to resources, and so
many other influences. What therefore becomes necessary is a localized and
area-specific program that tackles poverty in a particular city or municipality to
compliment a parallel nationwide process of creating change.

To wage a successful war against poverty, it is important to know who the
poor are, where they are, and why they continue to remain poor — and create
solutions that are based on the specific answers offered. However, there is very
little regular, up-to-date, and disaggregated data available relating to the different
dimensions of poverty, particularly at the city, municipal and barangay levels. The
official poverty estimates are obtained from national surveys conducted by the
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA.) Although the information provided from
these surveys are useful as a starting point for studying poverty in the country,
the data that can be gathered from these are unfortunately insufficient. Not only
are the surveys conducted infrequently and at irregular intervals, but they have
also been conducted in different time periods, making it impossible to compare
and draw comprehensive conclusions for a specific point in time. Furthermore,
the information generated from these surveys are presented in aggregates, or at
most at the regional and provincial levels, making it even more difficult for local
government units to diagnose and analyze the proper intervention needed for
their particular territory.” ?

This bill seeks to address this problem by making it mandatory for all
barangays to establish and maintain a regular monitoring system that is



community based and area specific. The data collected shall form part of a
nationwide databank that may be used by national goverment agencies and
local government units in formulating and implementing focused and targeted
poverty-alleviation and development programs, and in monitoring the impacts of
these programs on the quality of life of the Filipino people over time. The end
goal is to finally eradicate poverty in the country by executing programs that are
truly responsive to the needs of the people.

This concept was initiated several years ago by the Department of Budget
and Management (DBM) with the goal of maximizing the use of government
resources. A small working group was established consisting of representatives
from the DBM, National Statistics Office (NSO,) National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA,) Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD,) and the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Network. of the
De LaSalle University. The idea arose with two end goals in mind, first, is to
reduce government spending on data gathering, and second is to streamline
generation processes to produce official nationwide statistics.

During the previous years, DBM spent roughly two billion pesos for the
conduct of data collection to come up with the Registry System for Basic Sectors
in Agriculture. This was intended to come up with a list of farmers throughout the
country, and was funded by DBM and implemented by the NSO, now the
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA.) DSWD also spent more than two billion
pesos for the National Household Targeting System to identify beneficiaries of
the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Meanwhile, various local goverment
units have been implementing CBMS using their own resources at cosis of P100
to P120 per household. This double spending and duplication of practices on
information gathering is easily avoidable through an updated and centralized data
gathering method.

The institutionalization of CBMS is necessary to provide data on each and
every household to be used by different program implementors at the national
and local levels. It is very timely given the new Sustainable Development Goals
which requires data to be disaggregated by geographic area, ethinicity, age
group, gender and the like. A CBMS will be the most cost-efficient, yet effective
way of updating and gathering information. Given the scale of data collection
involved (census of the entire population.) it becomes a good strategy for the
data collection to be done at the barangay level. This bill seeks to equip each
barangay unit with such capacities, enabling each one to become active
participants in nation building, leaving no man behind.

Support for this bill is eamestly sought

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REP. JOSE ENRIQUE S. GARCIA Ill
Second District, Bataan


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Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

First Regular Session
House Bill No. 4700

Introduced by Representative Jose Enrique S. Garcia Il

AN ACT INSTITUTIONALIZING COMMUNITY BASED MONITORING _
SYSTEM IN ALL BARANGAYS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR,
AND OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Community
Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Act of 2016.”

SECTION 2. Declaration of Principles — It is the policy of the State to
free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social
services, deliver a rising standard of living, promote full employment, and
make available an improved quality of life for all. -

It is also the policy of the State to adopt focused and specific measures
that will ensure poverty reduction wherein every citizen shall have access to
the minimum basic needs

It is likewise the policy of the State to adopt a system of public
spending that will warrant goverment allocation on areas and populaces that
are most wanting.

Towards this end, the State shall adopt a community based monitoring
system that shall be the basis of targeted poverty alleviation projects and
schemes.

SECTION 3. Definition of Terms — For purposes of this Act, the
following terms shall be defined as follows:

a. “Community Based Monitoring System’ shall mean an organized
electronic system of collecting and processing data at the local
level. It shall include, but not be limited to the compendium of
localized facts and figures on the different dimensions of poverty
including health, nutrition, housing, water and sanitation, basic

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education, income, employment, and peace and order;

b. “Barangay” shall mean the basic political unit as defined in Republic
Act 7160, otherwise known as “The Local Government Code”,

c. “DILG" shall mean the Department of Interior and Local
Government;

d. “DICT” shall mean the Department of Information and
Communications Technology;

e. “PSA” shall mean the Philippine Statistics Authority.

SECTION 4. Mandatory Community Based Monitoring System ~ A
community based monitoring system (CBMS) is hereby established and
instituted in every barangay as an economic and social tool towards the
alleviation of poverty. The monitoring system shall collect and generate
pertinent and regular data from each locality that will enable government
institutions to implement projects that are specific, targeted, and responsive to
the basic needs of each sector of the community.

Each barangay unit shall be the primary data collecting authority within
its locality. For purposes of data collection, it shall have full access to the
resources of, and be supported by the municipal/ city government to which it
belongs. The PSA shall likewise, give the corresponding assistance and
technical reinforcement as may be needed by each barangay.

SECTION 5. Periodicity of Data Collection — Synchronized data
collection must be conducted every three (3) years or as often as viable to
maintain an updated databank.

SECTION 6. Implementing Rules and Regulations / Role of DILG,
DICT and PSA — The PSA and the DILG shall work together and issue the
implementing rules and regulations necessary for the enforcement of this Act
within ninety (90) days from its effictivity. The agencies shall work in
consultation with the necessary government offices and other stakeholders
from both the private and public sectors in the relevant fields as identified in
the immediately succeeding paragraph

The PSA and the DILG shall ensure that the CBMS shall be as
comprehensive as practicable, taking into account the following key areas and
basic needs necessary for nationwide development:

a) Health;
b) Nutrition;

c) Housing;

d) Water and sanitation;


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e) Basic education;
f) Income;

9) Employment; and
h) Peace and order.

The DILG shall ensure adequate capacity building of each barangay to
guarantee proper data collection through intensive training, information
dissemination, and constant monitoring of all barangay personnel. Towards
this end, personnel re-organization may be directed.

The PSA shall be national repository of all CBMS data collected by the
local government units

The DICT, in coordination with the DILG, shall be given three (3) years
from the effectivity of this Act to provide all barangays with the necessary
equipment and training to implement the provisions of this Act. It shall
endeavor to establish a user-friendly, automated local system, as well as
provide the necessary hardware and digital connection necessary to maintain
a national databank accessible to government agencies as identified in
Section 6 hereof,

SECTION 7. Confidentiality of Data — The PSA, in coordination with the
DILG and the local government units, shall collect all data gathered from the
barangays and create a national databank of collated information. It shall take
measures to ensure the safety of the information gathered against
unnecessary leakage and access by unauthorized persons.

The barangay, municipalities, cities and provinces shall have access to
its local and territory-specific data, and shall be allowed to maintain its own
CBMS database for use for local level planning and program implementation.

Nationwide data may be released to national government offices upon
the written order of the President, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker
of the House of Representatives or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Data collected through the CBMS may be released for purposes of
formulating poverty-alleviating and other sustainable development projects
only. However, CBMS data may also be combined with other government
information for evidence-based decision-making.

SECTION 8. Guarantee of Privacy ~ The right to privacy of every
citizen shall remain inviolable. Participation in all data collection activities shall
be purely voluntary, and all who voluntarily partake may refuse to answer any
question or reveal information about himself at any point, or terminate the
activity with no further action needed. Data gathered shall be kept
anonymous, and will only be available to the government officials as allowed
in Section 7 of this Act


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SECTION 9. Appropriation — An initial amount of Two Billion Pesos
(PhP 2,000,000,000.00) is hereby appropriated and shall be made available
from the funds of the PSA, DILG and the DICT not otherwise appropriated for
the immediate implementation of this Act. Thereafter, such sums as may be
Necessary for the continued enactment of this Act shall be provided in the
yearly General Appropriation Act of the national government.

SECTION 10. Separability Clause — If, for any reason, any part or
Provision of this Act is declared invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining parts
or provisions not affected shall remain in full force and effect.

SECTION 11. Repealing Clause - All laws, presidential decrees,
executive orders, rules and regulations contrary to or inconsistent with the
Provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly,

SECTION 12. Effectivity — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days
upon the approval and publication thereof.

Approved.