NINETEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
)
First Regular Session 
)
SENATE
s.No. 839
Cfe'i
of f'jP are
*22 JUL25 PI 34
RbXElVL'D BY,
Introduced by Senator Loren B. Legarda
AN ACT
SAFEGUARDING THE TRADITIONAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The Philippines is home to many indigenous peoples (IPs) and indigenous 
cultural communities (ICCs) who belong to different ethnolinguistic groups. They are 
known for their unique traditions, cultures, and practices.
Republic Act 8371, the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA), recognizes and 
promotes the rights of IPs and ICCs. Indigenous communities have a fundamental 
right to preserve their traditional cultural legacy, tangible or intangible, and this right 
must be maintained. The IPRA, however, does not provide specific provisions for 
protecting their cultural properties. The IPs and ICCs lack protection for their 
traditional cultural heritage, which includes dieir expressions through writings, 
songs, performances, and traditional arts and crafts, among others.
Through this measure, all cultural assets belonging to the various 
ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines will be organized and given an inventory. 
Additionally, this bill requires the payment of royalties for the use of indigenous 
peoples' cultural property.


By applying the norms of the traditional intellectual property system, this 
measure will serve as a source of their Lraditional intellectual property rights. This will 
also apply the traditional forms of intellectual property like copyright, royalties, and 
ownership and close the gap in the legal protection provided to works originating 
from traditional knowledge.
In view of the foregoing consideration, approval of this bill is earnestly sought.
REN LEGARDA


NINETEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
)
First Regular Session 
)
of ti)e jfe't'd etnrj^
■22 JUL 25 PI 34
SENATE 
s.No. 839
RECEIVED BV:
Introduced by Senator Loren B. Legarda
AN ACT
SAFEGUARDING THE TRADITIONAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled:
1 
Section 1, Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Traditional Property
2 
Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act".
3 
Sec. 2. Declaration of Principles and Policies. - It is declared the policy of the
4 
State to protect the traditional cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples of the
5 
Philippines; and safeguard the intrinsic values, whether tangible or intangible;
6 
and to support traditional artists and artisans in their contribution to their
7 
respective ethnic cultures and national heritage by ensuring that their rights are
8 
safeguarded.
9 
Sec. 3. Definition of Terms. - For purposes of this Act, the following terms shall
10 
be defined as follows:
11 
a. Commission shall refer to the National Commission for Culture and
12 
the Arts (NCCA);
13 
b. Cultural agencies shall refer to the following national government
14 
agencies with their specific areas of responsibility: National Museum
15 
(cultural property); National Library (books); National Historical
16 
Institute (Philippine history); National 
Archives 
(documents);
17 
Cultural Center of tlie Philippines (culture and arts); Komisyon sa
18 
Wikang Filipino (language);


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 
21 
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
c. Cultural heritage shall refer to the totality of cultural property 
preserved and developed through time and passed on to posterity;
d. Cultural property shall refer to all products of human creativity by 
which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches. 
Mosques, and other places of religious worship, schools, and natural 
history specimens and sites, whether public or privately owned, 
movable or immovable, and tangible or intangible;
e. Intangible cultural heritage shall refer to the practices, representations, 
expressions, knowledge, skills as well as instruments, objects, and 
artifacts associated therewith, that communities, groups, and 
individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage, such as (1) 
oral traditions, languages, expressions; (2) performing acts; (3) social 
practices, rituals, and festive events; (4) knowledge and practices 
concerning nature and the universe; and (5) traditional 
craftsmanship;
f. Intangible cultural property shall refer to the people's learned 
processes along with the knowledge, skills, and creativity that 
inform and are developed by them, the products they create, and the 
resources, spaces, and other aspects of social and natural context 
necessary for their sustainability;
g. Registry shall refer to the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property 
which is the registry of all cultural property of the country deemed 
of significant imponance to our cultural heritage as defined in RA 
10066;
h. Tangible cultural property shall refer to a cultural property with 
historical, archival, anthropological, archeological, artistic, and 
architectural value, md with exceptional or traditional production, 
whether of Philippine origin or not, including antiques and natural 
history specimens with significant value;
i. 
Tradition shall refer to the beliefs, customs, practices, industries, 
expressions, whether tangible or intangible, maintained and shared 
differentially by society, and handed down from generation to


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 
21 
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
generation. Tradition in this respect is a continuum that changes and 
may arise in time $hall not, therefore, be subject to time limitation;
j. 
Community shall refer to the congregation of people with social 
cohesion and identity organized among common values interacting 
with intimacy and reciprocity in a shared circumscribed location in 
units larger than a household; and has more similarities in the types 
and forms of their material goods;
k. Indigenous peoples shall refer to people, communities, and nations 
who claim a historical continuity affinity with societies endemic to 
their original territories. They have historically formed and are still 
currently forming the minority/non-dominant sectors within 
majority-culture societies and are intentioned towards preserving, 
reviving, and enhancing the efficacy, cohesion, and uniqueness of 
their traditional social values and customary ties along with a 
conscientious effort to transmit this knowledge to future generations;
l. 
Derivative work is one that is primarily a new work but incorporated 
some previously published material. This previously published 
material makes the v,rork a derivative work under the copyright law. 
To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough 
from the original to be regarded as a "new work" or must contain a 
substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or 
additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the 
work as a new version for copyright purposes. The new material 
must be original and copyrightable in itself. Titles, short phrases, and 
format, for example, are not copyrightable;
m. Communal ownership shall refer to common ownership within a 
community;
n. Royalty shall refer to the payment to the holder of a patent or 
copyright or resource for the right to use of their property;
o. Craft describes the family of artistic practices within the decorative 
arts, traditional, is defined by their relationship to functional or 
utilitarian products (such as sculptural forms in the vessel tradition)


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 
21 
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
or by their use of such natural media as wood, clay, glass, textiles, 
and metal;
p. Social process shall refer to the means by which culture and social 
organization change or are preserved due to process of practice;
q. Oral expression shall refer to the expression uttered by the mouth, 
spoken, oral testimony or transmitted by speech;
r. Rites shall refer to formal or ceremonial acts or procedures prescribed 
or customary in religious or other solemn use, or a particular form of 
system of religious or other ceremonies;
s. Rituals shall refer to an established or prescribed procedure for a 
religious or other rite, a system or collection of religious or other 
rites; observance of set forms in public worship; a prescribed or 
established rite, ceremony, proceeding, or service: the ritual of the 
dead; prescribed, established or ceremonial acts or features 
collectively, as in religious services; any practice or pattern of 
behavior regulating social conduct;
t. Petformance shall refer to the acting out of a ceremony, play, piece of 
music, etc., the execution or accomplishment of work acts, feats, etc., 
a particular action, deed, or proceeding the manner in which or the 
efficiency with which something reacts or fulfills its intended 
purpose, and not necessarily as part of the social process;
u. Ownership shall refer to the legal right of possession or 
proprietorship; the state, relation, or fact of being an owner; also, the 
rights or interests of an owner, ownership especially by a single 
person that is free of any encumbrances or limitations other than 
statutory;
V. Culture shall be defined based on the UNESCO Conference on 
Cultural Policies (Mexico, 1982) which defines culture, in its widest 
sense, as the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, 
intellectual, and emotional features that characterize a society or a 
social group. This includes not only the arts and letters but also 
modes of life, value systems, traditions, and beliefs. Culture,


1 
however, can also be looked at as an aggregate and internally
2 
inconsistent body pf knowledge and meanings, imevenly distributed
3 
among individuals of a community and acquired by these
4 
individuals through experiences and transactions in everyday life.
5 
Sec. 4, Implementing Agency. - The National Commission for Culture and the
6 
Arts (NCCA) hereinafter referred to as the Commission, shall implement the
7 
provisions of this Act.
8 
Sec. 5. Period of Ozvnership. - Traditional cultural property, whether tangible or
9 
intangible, of all the etlinolinguistic groups that make up the people of tlie Philippines
10 
shall not lapse into public domain after fifty (50) years from creation and shall
11 
continue indefinitely to be exclusive property of these ethnolinguistic groups that
12 
communally own them. Traditional heritage, both tangible and intangible, are to be
13 
held in perpetuity in ethnic memory and considered valid as ethnic intellectual
14 
property.
15 
Sec. 6. Inventory and Registration of Cultural Properties. - Under the guidance of
16 
the Commission and the National Museum (NM), or any other pertinent national
17 
cultural agency, the Local Government Units (LGUs) with the assistance of the
18 
National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) shall organize inventories of
19 
cultural properties of the different ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines that are
20 
distinctive, characteristic of or derived from their particular traditional culture, to the
21 
exclusion of those of others and shall submit these to the Commission through the
22 
National Museum to establish communal ownership, and to be registered under the
23 
group's name for protection within existing copyright laws.
24 
Further that these registries of the tangible and intangible cultural properties
25 
thus accomplished shall be incorporated in the Philippines Registry of Cultural
26 
Property (PRECUP) as established by Republic Act 10066 and administered by the
27 
Commission.
28 
Sec. 7. Retention of Original Rights of Ownership. - While recognizing that
29 
traditions change through time, the rights of the ethnolinguistic groups to their
30 
intellectual property changing in continuum shall retain original rights to these
31 
properties.


1 
Sec. 8. Derivative Work. - The infusion of personal or individual variations on a
2 
traditional object would result in a derivative work or craft, which is one that is
3 
primarily a new work but incorporates some previously established material. A
4 
derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a "new
5 
work" or must contain a substantial amoimt of new material. Making minor changes
6 
or additions of little substance to a pre-existing work will not qualify the work as a
7 
new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be original and
8 
copyrightable in itself.
9 
Sec. 9. Term of Rights. - The rigiits of an ethnolinguistic group to a traditional
10 
item will lapse into public domain in fifty (50) years, if after such period, it is no longer
11 
in production or used in cultural context within the society.
12 
Sec. 10. Creation of an Office. - Pursuant to the above, the Commission will
13 
create an office within its structure to (oordinate all efforts of government and private
14 
agencies that have forms of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in making the
15 
above-mentioned registry; and to undertake the safeguarding of national cultural
16 
heritage stipulated therein that are viable.
17 
Sec. 11. Reorganization. - With the approval of the Board, the Commission shall
18 
have the authority to reorganize its structure and staffing pattern in order to carry out
19 
its functions. The incumbents in the leadership structure of the existing Commission
20 
shall automatically be upgraded to these analogous positions, with respect to the rest
21 
of the personnel.
22 
Sec. 12. Deposit and Notice, r Moral rights would vest upon creation; hence,
23 
authorship would have to be established to avail of moral rights such as right of
24 
attribution. Moral rights to ownership of newly created items by members of an
25 
ethnolinguistic group should be registered with the Commission for protection under
26 
copyright law. Copyright vests from the moment of creation; and registration is one
27 
of the ways to prove authorship, although it is not exclusive.
28 
a. The Commission through the relevant government cultural agency,
29 
shall assist in identifying works and attributing authorship, and
30 
further shall be res]?onsible for maintaining and populating this
31 
registry;


1 
b. The Commission shall assist the claimants and relevant government
2 
agencies in resolving conflicts of ownership and attribution who will
3 
give permission to people who wish to use the work upon discovery
4 
of the same iri the da tabase; and
5 
c. The Coinmission shall assist relevant government agencies in the
6 
prosecution of unauthorized use of intellectual property of
7 
indigenous peoples.
8 
Sec. 13. Free, Friar, and Informed Consent - Free, prior, and informed consent for
9 
the use of indigenous peoples7 intellectual property should be articulated by a defined
10 
authority that is provided with a circumscribed jurisdiction, associated with the
11 
culture of an ethnolinguistic group. The corresponding elected official, as the case
12 
may be, assisted by cultural experts, shall dispense the required free, prior, and
13 
infomied consent for the item/items in question for the concerned intellectual
14 
property owners.
15 
Sec. 14. Designation of Society. - Indigenous communal copyright (intellectual
16 
property) owners may designate a society with legal personality to act in their behalf
17 
to enforce their economic and moral rights.
18 
Sec. 15. Royalties. - Indigenous communal copyright (intellectual property)
19 
owners shall be compensated for the use of their work. The amount, process of
20 
collecting, and distributing this royalty and other pertinent details will be determined
21 
by the Commission.
22 
Sec. 16. Appropriations. - For the initial implementation of this Act, the amount
23 
of Fifty Million Pesos (Php 50,000,000.00) is hereby appropriated and shall be sourced
24 
from the President's Contingent Fund.
25 
Sec. 17. Implementing Rides and Regulations. - The Commission, in consultation
26 
with other relevant cultural agencies mentioned in this Act, shall promulgate the
27 
implementing rules and regulations within ninety (90) days after the effectivity of this
28 
Act.
29 
Sec. 18. Penalties. - In addition to the penalties under existing laws, any person
30 
found guilty of violating any provisions of this Act shall be imprisoned for a term not
31 
exceeding ten (10) years or a fine not exceeding One Hundred Thousand Pesos (Php
32 
100,000.00) or both such imprisonment and fine at the discretion of the court.


Sec. 19. Repealing Clause. - The provisions of Philippine copyright law and other 
related laws to the extent that they are inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed 
or amended accordingly.
Sec. 20. Separability Clause. - If, tor any reason, any part or provision of this Act 
is declared invalid or unconstitutional, the parts or provisions not affected thereby 
shall remain in full force and effect.
Sec. 21. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days following 
its publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general circulation, 
whichever comes first.
Approved,