i 
THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
-le, , 
5 AUi; 23 , 2. . 
OF THE PHILIPPIM?S 
1 
Second Regular Session 
1 
& 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
0 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) cites the importance of linking the 
indigenous sector with the information highway. 
Further, UNDP Deputy Resident 
Representative Ms. Ricarda Rieger states that “providing the indigenous sector with access to 
information and communication technology will give them more chances to empower 
themselves and will eventually strengthen indigenous people’s governance initiatives.” 
A report of the G-8’s Digital Opportunity Task Force concludes that information and 
communication technology or ICT, when wisely applied, offers enormous opportunities to 
narrow social and economic inequalities and support sustainable local wealth creation. The 
inequality in the access to ICT is referred to as the “digital divide” defined by the Organization 
for Economic Cooperation and Development as the gap that exists in the opportunities to access 
advanced information and communication technologies between geographic areas or by 
individuals at different socio-economic levels. 
The bill seeks to provide Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICC/Ip) 
access to ICT. It also seeks to direct the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, in 
coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission and the National Computer 
Center under the Department of Science and Technology, to formulate plans and programs on 
ICT for ICC/IP. 
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I -  
THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
5 AUG 23 ?Z’’ 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
) 
Second Regular Session 
1 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
AN ACT 
PROVIDING ACCESS TO INDIGENOUS CULTURAL COMMUNITIES/INDIGENOUS 
PEOPLES TO VARIOUS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY 
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 “Indigenous Peoples 
Connectivity Act of 2005.’’ 
R 
SECTION 2. Declurution of Policy. - It is declared policy of the State to - 
(A) Recognize and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities within 
the framework of national unity and development; and 
(B) Recognize the vital role of communication and information in nation- 
building. 
SECTION 3. Purposes. - The purposes of this Act are to - 
(A) Promote 
affordable 
and 
universal 
access 
among 
ICCAP 
to 
telecommunications and information technology in their localized area; 
(B) Encourage and promote indigenous economic development, self-sufficiency, 
and strong indigenous governments; 
(C) Enhance the health of ICCAP through the availability and use of telemedicine 
and telehealth; 
@) Improve the quality of kindergarten, primary, secondary, postsecondary, and 
job-related training of ICCAP, through enhanced and sustained information technology 
infrastructure; and 


. 
(E) Assist in the retention and preservation of native languages and cultural 
traditions. 
SECTION 4. Deflnttfons. - For purposes of this Act the following terms - 
(A) “Block Orant” -refers to a grant provided under Section 6. 
(B) “Chairperson” - refers to the Chairperson of the National Commission on 
Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). 
(C) “Commi8sion” - refers to the NCIP created under Republic Act NO. 8571 or 
the “Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.” 
(D) “Council” - refers to the Indigenous Peoples Connectivity Coordinating 
Council, which formulates plans and programs in the implementation of the provisions of 
this Act. 
(E) “Eligible Activity” -refers to an activity carried out to - 
(1) acquire or lease real property (including licensed spectrum, water 
rights, dark fiber, exchanges, and other related interests) to provide 
telecommunications services, facilities, and improvements; 
(2) acquire, construct, reconstruct, or install communications facilities, 
sites, improvements (including design features), or utilities; 
(3)retain any real property acquired under this Act for ICCDP 
* 
communications purposes; 
(4) cany out activities necessary to - 
(a) develop a comprehensive telecommunications development 
plan; and 
(b) develop a policy, planning and management capacity so that an 
eligible entity can more rationally and effectively - 
(i) determine the needs of the entity; 
(ii) set long-term and short-term goals; 
(iii) devise programs and activities to meet the goals of the 
entity, including, if appropriate, telehealth, 


(iv) evaluate the progress of the programs and activities in 
meeting the goals of the entity; and 
(v) carry out management, coordination, and monitoring of 
activities necessary for effective planning implementation. 
( 5 )  pay reasonable administrative costs and carrying charges related to the 
planning and execution of telecommunications development activities, including 
the provision of information and resources about the planning and execution of 
the activities to residents of areas in which telecommunications development 
activities are to be concentrated; 
. 
(6) increase the capacity of an eligible entity to cany out 
telecommunications regulations and related regulatory matters; 
(7) provide assistance to institutions of higher education (including 
indigenous colleges and universities) that have a demonstrated capacity to cany 
out eligible activities; 
(8) enable an eligible entity to facilitate telecommunications development 
bY - 
(a) providing technical assistance, advice, and business support 
services (including services for developing business plans, securing 
funding, and conducting marketing); and 
(b) providing general support (including peer support programs 
and mentoring programs) to ICC/IP in developing telecommunications 
projects. 
(9) evaluate eligible activities to ascertain and promote effective 
telecommunications and information technology development practices and 
usages among ICC/IP; or 
- 
(10) provide research, analysis, data collection, data organization, and 
dissemination of information relevant to telecommunications and information 
technology to ICC/IP for the purpose of promoting effective telecommunications 
and information technology development practices and usages among them. 


(F) “Eligible Entity” - refers lo an organization of indigenous peoples, indigenous 
cultural communities, private or public institution of higher education acting under an 
agreement! with the ICC/IP. 
(G) “Indigenous Cultural Gommunitiedlndigenous Peoples” - as defined in the 
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, refers to a group of people or homogenous 
societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously 
lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who 
have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed customs, 
tradition and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, 
social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and culture, 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. 
* . 
(H) “Information Technology” - refers to any equipment or interconnected 
system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, 
analysis, evaluation, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, 
interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. It includes computers, 
ancillary equipment (including imaging peripherals, input, output, and storage devices 
necessary for security and surveillance), peripheral equipment designed to be controlled 
by the central processing unit of a computer, software, firmware and similar procedures, 
services (including support services), and related resources. 
(I) “NCC” - refers to the National Computer Center under the Department of 
Science and Technology. 
(J) “NTC” - refers to the National Telecommunications Commission. 


(K) “Technical Assistance” - refers to the facilitation of skills and knowledge in 
planning, developing, assessing, and administering eligible activities. 
(L) “Training and Technical Assistance Grant” - refers to a grant provided under 
Section 7. 
(M) “Telehealth” - refers to the use of electronic information and tele- 
communications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and 
professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. 
SECTION 5. Indigenous Peoples Connectivity Coordinating Council. - A Coordinating 
Council shall be established to formulate plans and programs in connection with the 
implementation of the provisions of this Act. This Council shall be composed of the following 
officials or their representatives: Chairperson of the NCIP, the Commissioner of the NTC and the 
Director of the NCC. The Council shall be supported by a Secretariat. 
SECTION 6. Block Grant Program. - 
(A) Establishment. - There is established within the NTC a Rural 
Telecommunications Block Grant Program to provide grants on a competitive basis to 
eligible entities to carry out activities under Section 4(E). 
(B) Block Grants. - The Commissioner may provide a block grant to an eligible 
~ 
entity that submits a block grant application to the NTC for approval. 
(C) Eligible Activities. - A grant under this Section may only be used for an 
eligible activity. 
(D) Regulations. - Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Commissioner shall promulgate regulations establishing specific criteria for the 
competition conducted to select eligible entities to receive grants under this Section for 
each fiscal year. 
SECTION 7. Training and Technical Assistance Grants. - 
(A)Notifrcation and Criteria. - The Council shall provide notice of the 
availability of training and technical assistance grants and publish criteria for selecting 
recipients. 


(B) Grants. - The NCC and NTG may provide training and technical assistance 
grants to eligible entities with a demonstrated capacity to carry out eligible activities. 
(C) Use of Funds. - A training and technical assistance grant shall be used to - 
(1) develop a training program to facilitate local use and maintenance o,f 
I 
new telecommunications technologies; 
(2) develop and implement - 
(a) telecommunications and information technology work study 
programs; 
(b) postsecondary 
telecommunications 
and 
information 
technology-related education, development, planning and management 
programs; and 
(c) a training program for telecommunications employees; 
(3) provide assistance to students who - 
(a) participate in telecommunications or information technology 
work study programs; 
(b) are enrolled in a full-time graduate or undergraduate program 
in telecommunications-related education, development, planning, or 
management. 
(D) 
Treatment. - A training and technical assistance grant to an entity shall be in 
- . 
addition to any block grant provided to the entity. 
(E) Provision of Technical Assistance by the Commission. - The Commission 
may provide technical assistance, directly or through contracts, to - 
(1) eligible entities; and 
(2) persons or entities that assist ICClIP organizations. 
SECTION 8. Compliance. - 
(A) Audit by the Commission on Audit (COA). - 
(1) In General. - The COA may audit any financial transaction involving 
grant funds carried out by a block grant recipient or training and technical 
assistance grant recipient. 


(2) Scope of Authority. - In conducting an audit under paragraph (l), the 
COA shall have access to all books, accounts, records, reports, files, papers, 
things, or property belonging to or in use by the grant recipient that relate to the 
financial transaction and are necessary to facilitate the audit. 
(B) EnvironmentaZ Protection and Indigenous Peoples Rights. - 
(1) In General. - After consultation with rural communities, the Council 
may promulgate regulations to - 
I( 
(a) ensure that the policies of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 
1997 and other laws further the purposes of that Act (as specified by the 
regulations), are most effectively implemented in connection with the 
expenditure of funds under this Act; and 
(b) assure the public of undiminished protection of the 
environment. 
(2) Substitute Measures. - The Council may provide for the release of 
funds under this Act for eligible activities to grant recipients that assume all of the 
responsibilities for environmental review, decision-making, and related action. 
SECTION 9. Remediesfor Non-Compliance. - 
(A) Failure to Comply. - If the Council finds, on the record after opportunity for 
an agency hearing, that a block grant recipient or training and technical assistance grant 
recipient has failed to comply substantially with any provision of this Act, the Council, 
until satisfied that there is no longer a failure to comply, shall - 
(1) terminate payments to the grant recipient; 
(2)reduce payments to the grant recipient by an amount equal to the 
amount of payments that were not expended in accordance with this Act; 
(3) limit the availability of payments under this Act to programs, projects, 
or activities not affected by the failure to comply; or 
(4) refer the matter to the Solicitor General with a recommendation that 
the Solicitor General bring an appropriate civil action. 


SECTION 10. Reporting Requirements. - 
(A) Annual Report to Congress. - Not later than 180 days after the end of each 
fiscal year in which assistance under this Act is provided, the Council shall submit to 
Congress a report that includes - 
(I) a description of the progress made in accomplishing the objectives of 
this Act; 
(2) a summary of the use of funds under this Act during the preceding 
fiscal year; and 
(3) an evaluation of the status of telephone, internet, and personal 
computer penetration rates, by type of technology, among ICCIIP. 
(B) Reports to the Council. - The Council may require grant recipients under this 
Act to submit reports and other information. 
SECTION 11. Consultation. - The Council shall consult with other government agencies 
administering grant programs relating to the development of telecommunications capacities or 
infrastructure. 
SECTION 12. Appropriations. - To carry out the provisions of this Act, such sums as 
I 
may be necessary are hereby authorized to be appropriated from the National Treasury. 
SECTION 13. Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act or the provision not otherwise affected shall remain 
valid and subsisting. 
SECTION 14. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive 
order, letter of instruction, administrative rule or regulation contrary to or inconsistent with the 
provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended accordingly. 
SECTION 15. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
publication in at least two newspapers of general circulation. 
Approved,