~ 
';";', 
SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
) 
j 
) 
.• ; ... t.tlt.~~· ' 
SENATE 
S.B. No.--.fL69 
'13 
JUL -9 A 9 :13 
Introduced by Senator LOREN LEGARDA 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Our indigenous peoples have suffered historical. injustices in, the form of 
discr:tmination, deprivation of their ancestral domains and lands, among many other 
human rights violations. To add salt to their wounds, there have been many 
reported incidences wherein their indigenous knowledge, dances, designs are being 
stolen by local and foreign entities, further marginalizing our indigenous 
communities and depriving them of their cultural property, their identity which has 
been passed on from their ancestors.' 
. 
The law protecting indigenous peoples' rights, namely the Indigenous Peoples 
Rights' Act (RA 9371) does not provide for specific provisions for the protection of 
their cultural properties, both intangible and tangible. It is with the passage of this 
bill that this void is sought to be filled . 
. ' With the help of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, National 
Museum, National Commission on Indigenous·Peoples and local government units, 
this bill shall create a comprehensive cultural' archive which shall organize and make 
an inventory of all cultural properties of the different ethnci-linguistic groups of the 
Philippines. This inventory of cultural properties shall then be submitted to the 
Commission tlu'u :the National Museum who shall ensure the registration of the 
ownership to the proper ethno-linguistic group for protection of their intellectual 
property. This bill also mandates the payment of royaities for the use of the cultural 
'property of indigenousgr~:lUps. 
In view of the foregoing considerations, approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
'~ 
=-=-------
. 
,LO 
'~ 
. 
enatOJ: 


SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
) 
) 
) 
SENATE 
S.B.No. 669' 
.seuff 
!tif.;. "MI!_ ~lt , 
'13 
JUL -9 A9 :13 
RECEIVED BY: y: 
________ ~~ 
________________ ~~(r 
Introduced by Senator LOREN LEGARDA 
'. 
. 
AN ACT 
SAFEGUARDING THE TRADITIONAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. OF 
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
1 
1 
SECTION 1. This Act shall be known as the "Traditional Property Rights of 
2 
Indigenous Peoples Act." 
3 
4 
SECTION 2. Declaration of Principles and Policies - It is declared the policy 
5 
of the State to protect the traditional cultural heritage of the indigenous 
6 
peoples of the Philippines; and safeguard the intrinsic values, whether 
7 
tangible or intangible; and to support traditional artists and artisans in their 
8 
contributions to their respective ethnic cultures and national heritage by . 
9 
ensuring that their rights are safeguarded. 
10 
11 
SECTION 3. Defiriition of Terms - For purposes of this Act, the following 
12 
terms shall be defined as follows: 
.13 
14 
a) "Commission" shall refer to the National Commission for Culture and the 
15 
Arts (NCCA); 
16 
17 
b)· "Cultural agencies" shall refer to the following national government agencies 
18 
with their specific areas of responsibility: National Museum (cultural 
. 
, 
. 
19 
property); the National Library (books); National Historical Institute 
~O 
(Philippine history); National Archives (documents); Cultural Center of the 
21 
Philippines (culture and the arts); and Kornisyon sa Wikang Filipino 
22 
(language); 
1 


I 
c) "Cultural heritage" shall refer to the totality of cultural property preserved and 
2 
developed through time and passed on to posterity; 
3 
4 
d) "Cultural property" shall refer to all products of human creativity by which a 
5 
people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques and 
6 
other places of religious worship, schools and natural history specimens and 
7 
sites, whether public or privately-owned, movable or immovable, ,and 
8 
tangible or intangible. 
9 
10 
e) "Intangible cultural heritage" shall refer to the practices; representations, 
II 
expressions, knowledge, skills as well as the instrum~nts, objects and artifacts 
12 
associated therewith, that communities, groups and individuals recognize as 
13 
part of their cultural heritage, such as (1) oral traditions, languages, 
14 
expressions; (2) performing,acts; (3) social'practices, rituals and festive events; 
15 
(4) knowledge and practic.es concerning nature and the universe; and (5) 
16 
traditional craftsmanship; 
17 
18 
f) "Intangible cultural property" shall refer to the people's learned processes 
19 
along with the knowledge, skills and creativity that inform and are developed 
20 
by them, the products they create and the resources, spaces and other aspects 
21 
of social and natural context necessary for their sustainability; 
22 
23 
g) "Registry" shall refer to the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property which is 
24 
the registry of all cultural property of the country deemed of significant 
25 
importance to our cultural heritage as defined in RA 10066; 
26 
27 
h) "Tangibl~ cultural property" shall refer to ~ cultural property with historical, 
28 
archival, anthropological, archeological, artistic and architectural value, and with 
29 
exceptional or traditional production, whether of Philippine origin or not, 
30 
induding antiques and natural history specimens with significant value; 
31 
i.) "Tradition" shall refer to the beliefs, customs, practices, industries, expressions, 
32 
whether tangible or intangible, maintained and shared differentially by society, 
33 
and handed down,from generation to generation. Tradition in this respect is a 
34· 
continuum that change and may arise in time shall not therefore be subject to 
35 
time limitation; 
2 


1 
j.) "Community" refers to the congregation .of people with social cohesion and 
2 
idehtity organized around common values interacting with intimacy and 
3 
reciprocity in.a shared circumscribed location in:units larger. than a household; 
4 
and has more similarities in the types and forms of their material goods; 
5 
k) "Indigenous peoples" are people, communities and nations who claim a 
6 
historical continuitY and cultural affinity with societies endemic to their original 
7 
territories. They have historically formed and still currently form the 
8 
minority / non- dominant sectors within majority~culture societies and are 
9 
intentioned towards preserving, reviving, and enhancing the efficacy, cohesion, 
10 
imd uniqueness of their traditional social values and customary ties along with a 
11 
conscientious effort to transmit this knowledge to future generations; 
12 
1.) "Derivative work" is one that is primarily a new work but incorporated some 
13 
previously published material. This preyiously published material makes the 
14 
work a derivative wmk under the copyright law. To be copyrightable, a 
15 
derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a 
16 
"new work" or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor· 
17 
changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the 
18 
work 'as a new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be. 
19 
original and copyrightable in itself. Titles, short phrases and format for example, 
20 
are not copyrightable; 
21 
m.) "Communal ownership" refers to common ownership within·a community; 
22 
n.) "R:oyalty" refers to the payment to the holder of a patent or copyright or 
23 
resource for the right to use their property; 
24 
0.) "Craft" describes the family of artistic practices within the decorative arts, 
25 
traditionally, is defined by their relationship to functional or utilitarian products 
26 
(such as sculptural forms in the vessel tradition) Or by their use of such natural 
27 
media as wood, clay, glass/textiles and metal; 
28 
p.) "Social process" refers to the means by which culture and social organization 
29 
change or are preserved due to process or practice; 
30 
q. "Oral expression" refers to the expression uttered by the mouth; spoken; oral 
31 
testimony or transmitted by speech; 
32 
1'. "Rites" refer to formal· or cer~monial acts or procedures prescribed or 
, 
3 
, 


1 
customary in religious or other solemn use, or a particular fonn of system of 
2 
religious or other ceremony; 
3 
s.) "Rituals" refer to an established or prescribed procedure for a religious or 
4 
other rite, a system or collection of religious or other rites; observance of set 
, 
' 
5 
forms in public worship; a prescribed or established rite, ceremony, proceeding. 
6 
or service: the ritual of the dead; prescribed, established or ceremonial acts or 
7 
features collectively, as in religious services; any practice or pattern of behavior 
8 
regulating social conduct; 
9 
t.) "Performance" refers to the acting out of a ceremony, play, piece of music, etc., 
10 
the execution or accomplishment of work acts, feats, etc., a particular action, 
11 
deed or proceeding the manner in which or the efficiency with which something 
12 
reacts or fulfills its intended purpose, and not necessarily as part of social 
13 
process; 
14 
. u.) "Ownership" refers to the legal right of possession or proprietorship; the state, 
.15 
relation, or fact' of being an owner; also, the rights or interests of an owner, 
16 
ownership especially by a single person that is free of any encumbrances or 
17 
limitations other than statutory. 
18 
v.) "Culture" - The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies (Mexico, 
19 
1982) defines culture, in its widest sense, as the whole complex of distinctive 
20 
s'piritual, material, intellectual, and en;lOtional features that characterize a society 
21 
or a social group. This includes not only the arts and letters but also modes of 
22 
life, value systems, traditions and beliefs. Culture, however, can also be looked at 
23 
as an aggregate and internally inconsistent body of knowledge and meanings, 
24 
unevenly distributed among individuals of a community, and acquired by these 
25 
individuals through their experiences and transactions in everyday life. 
26 
SECTION 4. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) 
27 
hereinafter referred to as the Commission, shall implement the provisions of the 
28 
Act. 
29 
SECTION 5. Traditional cultural property, whether tangible or intangible, of all 
30 
the ethno-linguistic groups that make up the people of the Philippines shall not 
31 
lapse into public domain after 50 years from creation, and shall continue 
32 
indefinitely to be exclusive property of theseethno~linguistic groups that 
33 
communally own them. Traditional heritage, both tangible and intangible are to 
4 


· . 
I 
be held in perpetuity in ethnic memory and considered valid as ethnic 
2 
intellectual property. 
3 
SECTION 6. Under the guidance of the Commission and National Museum 
4 
(NM), or any other pertinent national cultural agency, the Local Government 
5 
Units (LGU) with the assistance of the National Commission for Indigenous 
6 
Peoples (NCIP) shall organize inventories of cultural properties of the different 
7 
ethno-linguistic groups of the Philippines that are distinctive, characteristic of or 
8 
derived from their particular traditional culture, to the exclusion of those of 
9 
others and shall; submit these to the Commission thru the National Museum to 
10 
establish communal ()wnership, and to be registered under the group's name for 
II 
protecti~n within existing copyright law. 
12 
Further that these registries of the tangible and intangible culturafproperties 
13 
thus accomplished shall be incorporated in the Philippines Registry of Cultural 
14 
Property (PRECUP) as established by Republic Act 10066 and administered to by 
15 
the Commission. 
16 
, SECTION 7. While recognizing that traditions change through time, the rights of 
17 
the ethno-linguistic groups to their intellectual property changing in continuum 
18. 
shall retain original rights to these properties: 
19 
SECTION 11. The infusion of personal or individual variations on a traditional 
20 
object would result in'a derivative work or craft, which is one that is primarily a 
21 
new work but incorporates some previously published material. A derivative 
22 
work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a "new work" , 
23 
or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or 
I 
24 
additions of little substance to a pre-existing work will not qualify the work as a 
25 
new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be original and 
26 
copyrightable in itself. 
27 
SECTION 9. However, the rights of an ethno-linguistic group to a traditional 
28 
item will lapse into public domain in 50 years, if after such period, it is no longer 
29 
in production or used in cultural context within the society. 
30 
SECTION 10. Pursuant to the above, the Commission will create an office within 
31 
its str~cture to coordinate all efforts of government a~d private agencies that 
32 
have forms of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in making the above-
33 
mentioned registry;. and to undertake fhe safeguarding of national cultural 


, . 
1 
heritage stipulated therein that are viable. 
2 
SECTION 11. Reorganization - With the approval of the Board, the Commission 
3 
shall have the authority to reorganize its structure and sta,ffing pattern in order 
4 
to carry out its functions. The incumbents in the leadership structure of the 
5 
existing Commission shall automatically be upgraded to these analogous 
6 
positions, with respect to the rest of the personnel. 
7 
SECTION 12. Deposit and Notice. - Moral rights would vest upon creation; 
8 
hence, authorship would have to be established to !'Ivail 'of moral rights such as 
. 
. 
9 
right of attribution. Moral rights to ownership of newly created items by 
10 
members of an ethno-linguistic group should be registered with the commission 
11 
for protection under copyright law. Copyright vests from the moment of 
12 
creation; and registration is one of the ways to prove authorship, although this is 
13 
not exclusive. 
14 
a. The Commission thru the relevant government cultural agency, shall assist in 
15' 
identifying works and attrib~ting authorship, and further shall be responsible for 
16 
maintaining and populating this' registry; 
17 
·b. The Commission shall assist cl<iimants and relevant government agencies in 
18 
resolving conflicts' of ownership and attribution who will give permission to 
, 
. 
19. 
people who wish to use the work upon discovery of the same in the database; 
20 
c. The Commission shall assist relevant government agencies in the prosecution 
21 
of unauthbrizeduse of intellectual property of indigenous peoples. 
22 
SECTION 13. Free, Prior and Informed Consent.' - Free,prior and informed 
23 
consent for the use of indigenous peoples' intellectual property should be 
24 
articulated by a defined authority that is provided with a circumscrib.ed 
25 
jurisdiction, associated with the culture of an ethno-linguistic group. The 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
.' 
corresponding elected official, as the case may be, assisted by cultural experts, 
shall dispense the required free, prior and informed consent for .the item(s) in 
question for the concerned intellectual property owners. 
SECTION 14. Indigenous communal copyright (intellectual property) owners 
may designate a society with legal personality to act in their behalf to enforce' 
their economic and moral rights; 
SECTION 15. Royalties. -
Indigenous communal copyright (intellectual 
6 


I 
property) owners shall be compensated for the use of their work. The amount, 
2 
process of collecting and distributing this royalty and other pertinent details will 
3 
be determined by the Commission. 
4 
' SECTION 16. Appropriations. - For the initial implementation of this Act, the 
5 
amount of fifty million pesos (Php 50,000,000) is hereby appropriated and shall 
6 
be sourced from the President's Contingent Fund. 
7 
SECTION 17. Implementing Rules and Regulations. - The Commission, in 
8 
consultation with other relevant government cultural agencies mentioned in'!his 
9 
Act, shall promulgate the implementing rules and re~lations within ninety (90) 
10 
days after the effectivity of this Act. 
11 
SECTION 18. Penalties- In addition to the penalties under existing laws, any 
12, 
person found guilty of violating any proviSion of this Act shall be imprisoned for 
13 
a term not exceeding ten (10), years or a fine not exceeding one hundred 
14 
thousand pesos (PI00,000.00) or both such imprisonment and fine at the 
15 
discretion of the court 
16 
SECTION 19. Repealing Clause - The provisions of Philippine copyright law 
17 
and other related laws to the extent that they are inconsistent with this Act, are 
18 
hereby repealed or amended accordingly. 
19 
SECTION 20. Separability Clause - If, for imy reason, any part or provision of 
20 
' this Act is declared invalid or unconstitutional; the parts or provisions not 
21 
affected thereby shall remain in full force and effect. 
22 
SECTION 21. Effectivity Clause ~ This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days 
23 
following, its publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of 
24 
general circulation, whichever comes first. 
25 
Approved, 
7