Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Philippines

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

3625
HOUSE BILL NO.

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE ALFRED VARGAS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Majority of the 17 Million population of Indigenous Culture Communities (ICCs) and
Indigenous People (IPs) in the Philippines reside in the uplands which they claim as part of
their traditional territories. They are mainly concentrated in the Cordillera Administrative
Regions of Northern Luzon (33%) and Mindanao (61%), with some groups in the Visayas area.

The Philippine Constitution uphold the protection, promotion, and fulfillment of the rights of
IPs. In addition, Republic Act 8371, also knowns as the “IndigenousPeople Right Act” (1997,
IPRA), recognizes the right of IPs to manage their ancestral Domains; in fact, it has become the
cornerstone of current national policy on IPs.

The bill seeks to include the ethnicity variable in the national census. Moreover, there is a need
employ additional enumerators for the data gathering.

In view of the foregoing, the immediate enactment of the measure is earnestly sought.

nor


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Philippines

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

3625
HOUSE BILL NO.

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE ALFRED VARGAS

AN ACT REQUIRING THE INCLUSION OF ETHNIC ORIGIN IN THE
NATIONAL SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE PHILIPPINE STATISTICS
AUTHORITY

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representation of the Philippine in Congress assembled:
SECTION 1. Short title. This Act shall be known as the “Ethnic Origin Act of 2019"

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. It is the policy of the State to recognize and promote the rights of
indigenous peoples or indigenous culture communities within the framework of national unity and
development. The State shall give the highest priority to the enactment of measures that protest and
‘enhance the right of all people to human dignity, reduce social, economic and political inequalities, and
removal culture inequities.

SECTION 3. Definition of Terms. The following terms shall mean.

a) Ethnic Origin or Ethnicity” includes nationality and ethno-linguistic origin shall be

understood within the context of the following definitions.

‘* Indigenous Peoples (IPs) or Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) shall

as provided under Section 3 (h) of Chapter II of Republic Act 8371 or the “Indigenous People Rights Act
(IPRA) of 1997, refer to a group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription by
others. Who have continuously lived as an organized community or communal-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 in roads of colonization,
non-indigenous religions and cultures, became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos.
ICCs and IPs shall likewise include people who regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from
the populations, which inhabited the country, at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and
cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of all of their own
social, economic, culture and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their
traditional domains or who may resettled outside their ancestral domains.

SECTION 4. Duty of the Philippine Statistic Authority. It shall be the duty of the Philippine Statistics
‘Authority (PSA), in coordination with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), to ensure
the coordination with the National Commission on NCIP employees, who are knowledgeable of the
different IPs and ICCs of the Philippines, and the language and appropriate manners of asking
culturally-sensitive question to IPs and ICs, in gathering data on Ethic Origin during the conduct of the


national census. Furthermore, the PSA should ensure that all surveys and documents issued by their
office should be culturally sensitive.

SECTION 5. Duty of the NCIP. It shall be the duty of the NCIP to conduct the proper training of PSA
enumerators, including the barangay indigenous guides, all over the country to ensure that they have
adequate knowledge of the different IPs and ICs in their area, their language, way of life, and culture,
and the manner of asking them culturally-sensitive questions.

An indigenous guide in each barangay, or any officer or member of the concerned Local Culture and Art
Council or Local Tourism Council, as the case may be, shall also be trained by the NCIP, who may assist
in the city municipal government in the conduct of cultural mapping within a local government unit.

SECTION 6, Funding. The amount of ONE HUNDRED MILLION PESOS (P100,000.00) that shall be to the
annual budget of PSA for the training of its enumerators shall be charged against any available
appropriations in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the year of its implementation. Thereafter,
such sums as may be necessary shall be included in the yearly GAA.

SECTION 7. Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR). The PSA, with the assistance of the NCIP,
shall promulgate the necessary implementing rules and regulations within 90 days from the effectivity
of this Act.

SECTION 8. Repealing Clause. All laws, rules and regulations or parts thereof inconsistent with the
provisions of this Act hereby repealed or modify accordingly.

SECTION 9. Separability Clause. If any part, section or provision of this Act shall be held invalid or
unconstitutional, no other part, section or provisions thereof shall be affected thereby.

SECTION 10. Effectively. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days following the completion of its
publication in the Official Gazette or two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,