Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

7339

House Bill No.

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE ALFRED VARGAS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Majority of the 17 Million population of Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) and
Indigenous Peoples (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 known as the “Indigenous
Peoples Rights 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 secks 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 this measure is earnestly
sought.

FRED VARGAS


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

House Bill No. 7889

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 Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the “Ethnic Origin Act of 2018.”

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. It is the policy of the State to recognize and promote the
tights of indigenous peoples or indigenous cultural 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 cultural 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 (ICs) shall
as provided under Section 3 (h) of Chapter II of Republic Act 8371 or the
“Indigenous Peoples 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
like wise include people who are 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 their own social,
economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been

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displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside
their ancestral domains.

SECTION 4. Duty of the Philippine Statistics 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 employment of enumerators, or the deployment of
NCIP employees, who are knowledgeable of the different IPs and ICs of the Philippines, and
the language and appropriate manner of asking culturally-sensitive questions to IPs and ICCs, 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 Arts Couneil or Local Tourism Council, as the case may be, shall also be trained by
the NCIP, who may assist in the city or 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 Regulations (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 are hereby repealed or modify accordingly.

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

SECTION 10. Effectivity. 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,