Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL NO. ________ 
Introduced by Honorable Representatives 
ARLENE D. BROSAS (Gabriela Women’s Party);   
FRANCE L. CASTRO (ACT Teachers Partylist);  
and RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL (Kabataan Partylist) 
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A FRE AND CULTURE-SENSITIVE SYSTEM OF  
REGISTRATION CONCERNING THE CIVIL STATUS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
This bill proposing a free and culture sensitive registration system for indigenous peoples is 
premised on the following: 
1.) More than 60% of our Indigenous Peoples are unrecorded in our civil registry. 
2.) They have been discouraged to register their biological milestones (birth, marriage and 
death) because they find the prevailing registration system as financially prohibitive and 
„not friendly‟ to their unique ways, tradition and culture. Many still use the single 
cognomen while the prevailing system of registration is designed for the dominant 
Christianized population (replete with a first name, middle name and last name). another 
example, civil registration forms have a space for religion but none for ethnicity which is 
a factor why this country has no accurate data on our IP population, in addition, marriage 
in many tribal communities does not have the effect of the wife being legally compelled 
to use her husband‟s surname. 
3.) Theoretically, people who are not recorded in the civil registry do not exist in 
contemplation of law and may come under the international category of „stateless 
persons‟. 
4.) Unregistered, may IPs, their wives and children have been deprived of certain social 
services. For example, their children are refused school enrollment because they cannot 
produce the required birth certificate.  
5.) The deprivation of social services of non-registration aggravates the ethnic 
discrimination of our IP‟s. 
For these reasons, this bill aims to institute a civil registration system for IPs that is free and 
sensitive to their unique ways, tradition and culture. It has the following main features: 
1.) It provides for a civil registration system that is free from any charge/fines for IPs; 
2.) It provides for a civil registration system that is sensitive to the unique ways, tradition 
and culture of IPs. in particular, it recognizes and respects their system of naming their 
members, recognizes the conclusive legal effect of their tribal authorities and elders in 
officiating marriages and dissolving marriages, and recognizes their elders / tribal 
doctors / midwives as reportorial authorities in cases of birth and death of IPs; 
3.) It mandates the Philippine Statistics Authority to redesign its civil registry forms in order 
to achieve the objectives of this Act but harmonized with existing laws and systems in 
civil registry; and 
4.) It provides for penalties for specified violations of the provisions of this bill. 
Gabriela Women‟s Party has filed this proposal for a free and culture sensitive registration 
system since the 15th Congress, and the Committee on Indigenous Cultural Communities and 
Indigenous Peoples has conducted extensive deliberations, which included a regional 
consultation with IP communities. This proposed measure is the consolidated version of various 
2:06 pm
August 31, 2022
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measures filed in the 15th Congress. In the 18th Congress, the House Committee on Indigenous 
Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples approved the committee report on the said 
proposed measure.  
It is humbly sought that the passage of this bill be considered a priority and passed without 
delay. 
ARLENE D. BROSAS 
Gabriela Women’s Party 
  FRANCE L. CASTRO 
RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL 
ACT Teachers Partylist 
Kabataan Partylist 


Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Batasan Hills, Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL NO. ________ 
Introduced by Honorable Representatives 
ARLENE D. BROSAS (Gabriela Women’s Party);   
FRANCE L. CASTRO (ACT Teachers Partylist);  
and RAOUL DANNIEL A. MANUEL (Kabataan Partylist) 
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A FRE 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 2019.” 
SECTION 2. Definition of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples (IPs) refer to a group of 
people or homogeneous 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 and 
utilized such territories sharing common bonds of language, through resistance to political, 
social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, became 
historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos.  
The 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, of 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 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in collaboration with the National 
Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), 
Philippine Association of Civil Registrars, National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), 
and distinguished anthropologists and selected elders and leaders of IPs, shall establish an 
Indigenous Peoples Civil Registration System (IPCRS) that is sensitive and appropriate to the 
unique cultural practices and identification system of IPs: Provided, That the IPCRS shall be 
harmonized with 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 case of establishing filial bonds between or among 
parent or parents and child.  
SECTION 6. Free Civil Registration for Indigenous Peoples. Any provision of law to the 
contrary notwithstanding, IPs shall be exempted from the payment of all fess in connection with 
the recording and processing of their birth, marriage and 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 case where the 
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recording of the birth, marriage or death requires the execution of affidavits or sworn statements 
and similar documents. 
 
SECTION 7. Report of birth by the parents or tribal doctor or tribal midwife conclusive 
upon the Local Civil Registrar.- In recording the birth of IPs delivered in the traditional 
customs and practices of the indigenous community, the report as to the circumstances of the 
birth by any pf the parents or by the tribal doctor or tribal midwife who attended to the delivery 
shall be conclusive upon the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) without need for further proof. The 
procedures and requirements set forth in Section 5 of Act No. 3753, or the Civil Registry Law, 
shall apply only in cases where the child was delivered in a hospital or birthing center and was 
attended to by a physician or midwife.  
 
SECTION 8. Report of marriage performed in accordance with customary indigenous 
laws and practices and dissolution of marriage.- The report of 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 need for further proof. For this purpose, the NCIP shall submit 
to the PSA a list of IPs recognized by each indigenous community to solemnize marriage 
according to its customary laws or practices. The PSA shall issue a Certificate of Registration of 
Authority to Solemnize 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 be 
directly recorded with the LCR without 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 for reporting.- All rules and 
regulations, order and circulars which prescribe a period for reporting to the LCR the birth, 
marriage or death 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 any 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, 
That 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 elders 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 solemnize marriage in 
accordance with customary laws or 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 parents or parent of the child. 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, parents or parent so desires, 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 compliance 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 concerned local government units shall conduct within their areas of 
jurisdiction, in coordination with the NCIP, periodic civil registration campaigns targeting the IPs 
in far-flung communities. The PSA and NCIP shall extend administrative and technical 
assistance in the conduct of mobile registration campaigns for the IPs. 
 
SECTION 16. Information and education campaigns.- The PSA and NCIP, in coordination 
with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), other agencies of the national 
government and the civil registry offices of local government units 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: 
1. Collection of fees, fines or penalties in cash or in kind by any government employee 
or official or by any person in connection with the civil registration of birth, marriage 
or death of IPs; 
2. Inducing IPs to pay in cash or in kind in order to be able to register a birth, marriage 
or death; 
3. Misrepresenting oneself as a tribal leader or elder or tribal doctor or midwife of an 
indigenous community. 
4. Misrepresenting oneself as a member of an indigenous community. 
 
SECTION 18. Penalties.- The prohibited acts enumerated in the preceding paragraph shall be 
punished in the following manner: 
1. For the prohibited act mentioned in paragraph 1, a fine of Five Thousand Pesos 
(P5,000.00) and imprisonment of six (6) months;  
2. For the prohibited act mentioned in paragraph 2, a fine of Two Thousand Pesos 
(P2,000.00) and imprisonment of three (3) months; and  
3. For the prohibited acts mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 4, imprisonment of one year. 
 
SECTION 19. Implementing Rules and Regulations.- Within sixty (60) days after the 
effectivity of this Act, the PSA shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations for the 
implementation of this Act. 
 
SECTION 20. Separability Clause.- If any portion of this Act is declared as unconstitutional or 
invalid, the remaining portions not affected 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 newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines. 
 
 
Approved,