Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

RECEIVED
pate: 3 22 30 JUN 2016

TIME: Ape

REGISTRATION UNIT
BILLS AND INDEX SERVICE

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

875

House Bill No.

Introduced by REP. JOSE T. PANGANIBAN, JR.
of ANAC-IP Partylist

EXPLANATORY NOTE

To date, there is an estimated 22 million people who are members of Indigenous Cultural
Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs). However, almost 60% of them are not duly registered
under the Philippine Civil Registration Act, Worst, the surveys and census of population conducted by
the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), formerly National Statistics Office (NSO), did not include
the ethnic origin of a person. Thus, there is no available data of the ethno-linguistics origin of the
.e populace. Not even the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the primary
Government agency mandated in the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs
to recognize, protect, and promote the rights of ICCs/IPS in accordance with the provisions of the
1987 Constitution and RA 8371, has no compilation of this data.

Members of ICCs/IPs are discouraged to register their birth, marriage and death because of
the financial burden and not culturally sensitive method of the prevailing system of civil registration.
Because of the non-registration of their civil status, members of the ICCs/IPs are often neglected of
the basic social services from the Government.

This measure seeks to collect, update, and create a database of the members of the ICCs/IPs.
It will also provide a civil registration system that is sensitive to the culture, tradition and customary
ways of the members of the ICCs/IPs. Further, it mandates the Philippine Statistics Authority to
include the ethnic origin in the conduct of national census survey. And finally, this measure will
provide for penalties for specified violations of the provisions of this bill.

In view of the foregoing, urgent approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

HOUSE °F REPRESENTATIVES



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bil No, _ 975

Introduced by REP. JOSE T. PANGANIBAN, JR.,
of ANAC-IP Partylist

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR A FREE AND CULTURE-SENSITIVE SYSTEM OF
REGISTRATION CONCERNING THE CIVIL STATUS OF INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

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 “Free and Culture-
Sensitive Indigenous Peoples Civil Registration System Act of 2016.”

SECTION 2. Coverage. ~ This Act shall apply to all members of Indigenous Cultural
Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) defined in Section 3 hereof, regardless of their
present religion, including those who have converted to Islam

SECTION 3. Definition of Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples
(ICCs/IPs). — As provided under Section 3(h) of Chapter II of RA No. 8371, otherwise
known as, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, refer to a group of people or
homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have
continuously lived as an organized community on communally bounded and defined territory,
and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and
utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions, and other
distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social, and cultural
inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, became historically
differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise include peoples who are
regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the
country, at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous
religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all
of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been
displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral
domains.


SECTION 4. Culturally-sensitive Civil Registration System. — Within one (1) month
from the effectivity of this Act, the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), in collaboration
with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the Philippine Association of
Civil Registrars, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and
distinguished anthropologist and selected elders and leaders of the IPs, shall establish an
Indigenous Peoples Civil Registration System (IPCRS) that is sensitive and appropriate to the
unique cultural practices and identification systems of the IPs: Provided, that the IPCRS shall
harmonized with the existing laws and systems on civil registry.

SECTION 5. Ethnicity Details in the Civil Registry Documents. — The IPCRS shall
take into account the various ethnic affiliations of the IPs in the country. For this purpose, the
PSA Administrator, acting as the Civil Registrar General, instead of issuing separate forms
for the IPCRS shall cause the amendment of the existing civil registry forms, for uniformity
of all civil registry documents to ensure acceptability by end-user agencies or institutions of
the facts and information contained in said documents and ease of establishing filial bonds
between or among parents or parents and child.

SECTION 6. Free Civil Registration for Indigenous Peoples. — Any provision of
law to the contrary nonwithstanding, the IPs shall be exempted from the payment of all fees
in connection with the recording of their birth, marriage, death at the Local Civil Registry
Office and such exemption shall extend to any fine or fee for late registration. They are
likewise exempted from the payment of notarial fees and documentary stamp tax in cases
where the recording of the birth, marriage or death requires the execution of affidavits or
sworn statements and similar documents.

SECTION 7. Report of Birth by Parents or Tribal Doctor or Tribal Midwife
Conclusive Upon the Local Civil Registrar. - In recording the birth of the IPs delivered in
the traditional customs and practices of the indigenous community, the report as to the
circumstances of the birth by any of the parents or by the tribal doctor or tribal midwife who
attended the delivery shall be conclusive upon the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) without need
for further proof. The procedures and requirements set forth in Scetion 5 of Act No. 3753, or
the Civil Registry Law, shall apply only in cases where the child was delivered in a hospital
and birthing center and was attended to by a physician or midwife.

SECTION 8. Report of Marriage in Accordance with the Customary Indigenous
Laws and Practices and Dissolution of Marriage. — The report of the marriage among and
between IPs solemnized in accordance with customary laws, rites, traditions and practices by
the person duly authorized to perform the ritual or ceremony and by the parties to the
marriage shall be conclusive upon the LCR without the need for further proof. For this
purpose, the NCIP shall submit to the PSA the list of IP recognized by each indigenous
community to solemnized marriage according to its customary laws or practices. The PSA
shall issue a Certificate of Registration of Authority to Solemnized Marriage (CRASM) to
such IPs for free.

In the case of indigenous communities whose traditional marriage ceremony does not
require the presence of a solemnizing officer, as determined by the NCIP, the report by the
contracting parties shall be conclusive upon the LCR without need for further proof except
personal confirmation, orally or in writing, by any of the parents or by a tribal leader or elder
of the indigenous community to which any of the spouses belongs. For this purpose, the
NCIP shall furnish the PSA and the LCRs with a list of indigenous communities falling under


this paragraph: Provided, that pending the submission of such list, the oral or written
confirmation of the tribal leader or elder shall be conclusive upon the LCR.

The dissolution of marriage of IPs following customary indigenous laws and practices
shall directly be recorded with the LCR without the need of court intervention: Provided, that
such facts and information shall be confirmed orally or in writing by a tribal leader or elder of
the indigenous community to which any of the spouses belongs.

SECTION 9. Report of Death by Any Member of the Family or by a Tribal Doctor.
— The report as to the circumstances of death of IPs by any member of the family of the
deceased or by the tribal doctor in attendance during such death shall likewise be conclusive
on the LCR without need of further proof. Section 6 of Act No, 3753 shall apply only when
the death happened in a hospital and was attended to by a physician,

SECTION 10. Exemption from the Prescribed Period of Reporting. ~ All rules and
regulations, orders and circulars which prescribed a period for reporting to the LCR the birth,
marriage or daeth of any person shall not apply to the IPs.

SECTION 11. Establishing the membership of a Person to an Indigenous
Community. — In the absence of identifying document, the self —ascription or ascription by
any of the parents or tribal leader or elder shall suffice to establish the identity of IPs when
applying with the LCR for recording birth, marriage or death.

SECTION 12. Establishing Facts and Information About the Personal
Circumstances of IPs in Late Registration. — In late registration, the narration of facts and
information made by IPs regarding personal circumstances, such as name, name of parent or
parents, or date and place of birth, shall be conclusive upon the LCR without need of
execution of an affidavit: Provided such facts and information shall be confirmed personally
by any of the parents or by a tribal leader or elder of the indigenous community to which the
applicant belongs. The confirmation may be oral or written.

SECTION 13. Roster of Tribal Leaders and Elder s and Medicine Men and
Women. ~ To facilitate the verification of reports of birth, marriage and death made or filed
by IPs, the LCRs, in coordination with the NCIP, shall keep and continually update a roster
of IPs who are authorized or recognized by the indigenous community concerned to
solemnized marriage in accordance with customary laws and practices, including the tribal
leaders or elders and medicine men and women of the IPs in their respective areas of
jurisdiction. A compilation of such rosters shall be kept in the central office and in the
regional and provincial offices of the NCIP.

SECTION 14. Registration of Tribal Name as Official Name. —In the registration of
birth, the LCR shall register the name, regardless of form, such as a single name only
without middle or family name, preferred by IPs or by the parent or parents of the chid. For
those whose parent or parents had been Christianized or had converted to Islam or other
religions, the LCR shall also indicate in the birth registration form, if the applicant, parent or
parents so desire, the chosen Christian, Muslim or non-IP name which shall serve as the
“also-known-as” name of the child.

SECTION 15. Registration Campaign for IPs. — Within two (2) years upon the
effectivity of this Act, in complianc with the country’s obligations under the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Children and such other international protocols, conventions and


treaties to which it is a party, LCRs and concemed local government units (LGUs) shall
conduct within their areas of jusrisdiction, in coordination with the NCIP, periodic civil
registration campaigns targeting the IPs in far flung communities. The PSA and the NCIP
shall extend administrative and technical assistance in the conduct of mobile registration
campaign for the IPs.

SECTION 16. Information and Education Campaigns. ~The PSA and the NCIP in
coordination with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), other agencies
of the national government and the civil registry, offices of LGUs shall conduct information
and education campaigns to encourage IPs to avail of or participate in the IPCRS.

SECTION 17. Punishable Acts. — The following acts are prohibited and punishable
under this Act:

(a) Collection of fees, fines or penalties in cash or in kind by any government
official or employee or by any person in connection with the civil registration of birth,
marriage or death of IPs;

(6) Inducing IPs to pay in cash or in kind in order to be able to register a birth,
marriage or death;

(©) Mispresenting oneself as a tribal leader or elder or tribal doctor or midwife of
an indigenous community; and

(@)__ Misrepresenting oneself as a member of an indigenous community.

SECTION 18. Penalties. — The prohibited acts enumerated in the preceeding
paragraph shall be punished in the following manner.

For the prohibited act mentioned in Section 17 (a) hereof, a fine of Five thousand
pesos (P5,000.00) and imprisonment of six (6) months;

For the prohibited act mentioned in 17(b) hereof, a fine of Two thousand pesos
(2,000.00) and imprisonment of three (3) months; and

For the prohibited acts mentioned in Section 17 (c) and Section 17 (d) hereof, and
imprisonment of one (1) year.

SECTION 19. Implementing Rules and Regulations. ~ Within sixty (60) days after
the effectivity of this Act, the Philippine Statistics Authority shall promulgate the necessary
rules regulations for the implementations of this Act.

SECTION 20. Separability Clause.- If any portion of this Act is declared as
unconstitutional or invalid, the remaining portions not affected thereby shall continue to
have force and effect.

SECTION 21. Repealing Clause, — Act No. 3753 is hereby amended and modified.
All other laws, orders, issuances, rules and regulations which are inconsistent with this Act
are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SECTION 22. Effectivity Clause. ~ This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after
its publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general circulation

Approved,