Republic of the Philippine! ii
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. RECENMVED

Quezon Cit:
4 DATE: 3.0 JUN. 20i6

TIME: 120
By: (Md

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House BiLL No. _ 31

Introduced by: REP. RAUL V. DEL MAR

EXPLANATORY NOTE

In essence, social justice in a democracy is caring for the poor, a continuing
and sincere concern for the underprivileged, a genuine and serious effort to improve
their quality of life. This is what the attached bill, The Magna Carta of the Poor, is all
about.

It must be recalled that the Magna Carta was approved by this House and the
Senate in the last Congress, but was vetoed by the President on ground of
“substantial infirmities”. They were largely questions of funding and implementation
which are now sought to be clarified or otherwise addressed by this bill, foremost, is
emphasizing a system of progressive realization for purposes of implementation as
specifically provided in Section 12 hereof which states, “Sec. 12. Principle Governing
Implementation. - Nothing in this Act shall be construed in any manner as requiring
the Government to undertake the immediate implementation of all the mandated
benefits and programs for the poor. The Government shall implement the provisions
of this Act in accordance with a system of progressive realization or program of
progressive measures over time, considering the critical poverty alleviation concerns
and related priorities that need sustained allocation of resources.” Moreover, we
welcome from the Executive Department such additional amendments that will
further provide more effective mechanisms for the alleviation of poverty.

While there may be existing laws touching on the need of the poor, the
jobless, the homeless and the landless as part of an overall national strategy to
alleviate poverty, this proposed legislation puts in sharp focus by stating in
unequivocal terms what is felt to be the basic irreducible rights of the poor as
essential requirements towards poverty alleviation, rights without which it is



pointless to talk about poverty reduction. These rights are: the right to employment,
the right to free healthcare and medicine ~ the “minimum standards of decency”

More than a bill of rights of the poor, it declares that Government must now
take the side of the poor because the issue of poverty has now become a critical
question of survival; that Government intervention, given the present situation, is the
only realistic route to take to uplift the poor while long term measures, strategies and
solutions for poverty reduction are being put in place, and that government must
invest heavily in anti-poverty programs for the economic empowerment of the poor.

The attached bill recognizes that, under the present economic environment,
the top priority should be the creation of jobs or creation of employment
opportunities. The lack of employment appears to be the core of the problem of
poverty. Jobs mean income and income translates into access to food, shelter, land,
education and healthcare services. This means income spending which means
payment and collection of taxes which in turn means more services to the poor. The
government, therefore, must create jobs, must establish employment opportunities
for the poor.

Likewise, the government must implement a system of subsidy to help the
poor in their food and housing requirements, and a system of free quality education
and free health services and medicine. Employment will not come immediately for
all the poor and the income may be grossly inadequate for those who may be
employed, Hunger and sickness should not incapacitate and disable the poor in the
pursuit of their rights.

The value of education ~ not mere education but free quality educations even
at the college level is envisioned — in poverty alleviation cannot be denied. Simply
put, an educated poor would have better chances of surviving and enduring, even
prevailing, in the market of employment and business. As stressed somewhere,
those left out of public education programs are likely to be left out of economic
opportunities, a misfortune that will surely be inherited by the next generation. The
government must treat this concept of free quality education as a national
investment, equipping the citizenry with tools for the future, for a better future.

In the end, to make democracy work, the government must firstly work for the
poor, the greater majority of the people. We can only have strong democratic
institutions when such greater majority of the people are given the opportunities to
participate in the benefits, growth and development of a democratic society. Only
when the poor are economically empowered will they be able to participate in the
democratic process of setting national goals that affect their daily lives.

But to put things in a realistic framework, the proposed legislation is not a
demand to put everything in place now, in the first year or first few years or even the


next decade after its passage, knowing that government resources can only do so
much for so many programmed priorities in a given period. For purposes of
implementation, therefore, a system of progressive realization, which is the settled
practice and prerogative of the executive department, is fully recognized, Stated a
little differently, the only way to go, the only way to have this proposed legislation
implemented, which is now expressly provided in the bill, is through a bundle of
progressive measures over time; otherwise it can never be implemented.

In this light, approval of the bill is earnestly sought.

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Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 31

Introduced by: REP, RAUL V. DEL MAR

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR A MAGNA CARTA OF THE POOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 responsibly 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 address 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 (GOs) and
people's organizations (PPOs, as development partners of the 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 fisherfolk, workers in the formal sectors
including migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples and
cultural communities, women, persons with disability, senior citizens, victims of
calamities/natural and human-induced disasters, youths and students, children, the
urban poor and members of cooperative;.

(b) Development partners refer to NGOs, POs and private corporations which
are engaged in programs and activities aimed at alleviating the conditions 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 nonstock,

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 and 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 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

(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;

(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 tripartism 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 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.

(e) The Right to the Highest 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 hugest 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 community.

SEC. 5. Non-Dimunition 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. The social protection shall
likewise be afforded in and during bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including
arrangements to be entered into with international financial institutions.

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 (DILG) 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 in Private Education (GASTPE);

(e) CHED ~ Student Financial Assistance Program, (STUFAP);

(f) NHA ~ Socialized housing program;

(g) DOH ~ Basic health care services including potable water system; and

(h) PhiHealth - 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 implementation 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.

SEC. 15. Compliance Report. - The NAPC shall be tasked to oversee and
monitor compliance with this Act. Within six (6) months from the effectively 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 form
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. - \f, 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 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,