FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
‘ 1  
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
First Regular Session 
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S E N A T E  
%No. !go5 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) cites the importance of linking the 
indigenous sector with the information highway. Further, UNDP Deputy Resident 
Representative Ms. Ricarda Rieger states that “providing the indigenous sector with 
access to information and communication technology will give them more chances to 
empower themselves and will eventually strengthen indigenous people’s governance 
initiatives.” 
A report of the G-8’s Digital Opportunity Task Force concludes that infomiation 
and communication technology or ICT, when wisely applied, offers enormous 
opportunities to narrow social and economic inequalities and support sustainable local 
wealth creation. The inequality in the access to ICT is referred to as the “digital divide” 
defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as the gap that 
exists in the opportunities to access advanced information and communication 
technologies between geographic areas or by individuals at different socio-economic 
levels. 
The bill seeks to provide Indigenous Cultural Communitieshdigenous Peoples 
(ICC/IP) access to ICT. It also seeks to direct the National Commission on Indigenous 
Peoples, in coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission and the 
National Computer Center under the Department of Science and Technology, to 
formulate plans and programs on ICT for ICC/IP. 


FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
1 ,-, 
~~r 
__,.‘ 
1 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
, First Regular Session 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
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~ 
AN ACT 
PROVIDING ACCESS TO INDIGENOUS CULTURAL 
COMMUNITIES/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO VARIOUS INFORMATION AND 
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives ofthe Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. -This Act shall be hown as the “Indigenous Peoples 
Connectivity Act of 2007.” 
SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is the declared policy of the State to 
recognize and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the 
framework of national unity and development; and to recognize the vital role of 
communication and information in nation-building. 
SECTION 3. Purposes. -The purposes of this Act are to - 
(A) 
Promote 
affordable 
and 
universal 
access 
among 
ICC/IP 
to 
telecommunications and information technology in their localized area; 
(B) Encourage and promote indigenous economic development, self-sufficiency, 
, and strong indigenous governments; 
(C) Enhance the health of ICC/IP through the availability and use of telemedicine 
and telehealth; 
(D) Improve the quality of kindergarten, primary, secondary, postsecondary, and 
job-related training of ICC/IP, through enhanced and sustained information technology 
infrastructure; and 
(E) Assist in the retention and preservation of native languages and cultural 
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traditions. 
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SECTION 4. DeBnitions. -For purposes of this Act the following tenns - 
(A) “Block Grant” -refers to a grant provided under Section 6. 
(B) “Chairperson” - refers to the Chairperson of the National Commission on 
Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). 
(C) “Commission” - refers to the NCIP created under Republic Act NO. 8571 or 
the “Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.” 
(D) “Council” - refers to the Indigenous Peoples Connectivity Coordinating 
Council, which formulates plans and programs in the implementation of the provisions of 
this Act. 
(E) “Eligible Activity” - refers to an activity carried out to - 
(1) acquire or lease real property (including licensed spectrum, water 
rights, dark fiber, exchanges, and other related interests) to provide 
telecommunications services, facilities, and improvements; 
(2) acquire, constrnct, reconstruct, or install communications facilities, 
sites, improvements (including design features), or utilities; 
(3) retain any real property acquired under this Act for ICC/IP 
communications purposes; 
(4) carry out activities necessary to - (a) develop a comprehensive 
telecommunications development plan; and (b) develop a policy, planning and 
management capacity so that an eligible entity can more rationally and effectively 
(i) determine the needs of the entity; 
(ii) set long-term and short-term goals; 
(iii) devise programs and activities to meet the goals of the entity, 
including, if appropriate, telehealth, 
(iv) evaluate the progress of the programs and activities in meeting 
the goals of the entity; and 
(v) carry out management, coordination, and monitoring of 
activities necessary for effective planning implementation. 
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(5) pay reasonable administrative costs and carrying charges related to the 
planning and execution of telecommunications development activities, including 
the provision of information and resources about the planning and execution of 
the activities to residents of areas in which telecommunications development 
activities are to be concentrated; 
(6) increase the capacity of an eligible entity to carry out 
telecommunications regulations and related regulatory matters; 
(7) provide assistance to institutions of higher education (including 
indigenous colleges and universities) that have a demonstrated capacity to carry 
out eligible activities; 
(8) enable an eligible entity to facilitate telecommunications development 
by - (a) providing technical assistance, advice, and business support services 
(including services for developing business plans, securing funding, and 
conducting marketing); and (b) providing general support (including peer support 
programs and mentoring programs) to ICC/IP in developing telecommunications 
projects. 
(9) evaluate eligible activities to ascertain and promote effective 
telecommunications and information technology development practices and 
usages among ICC/P; or 
(10) provide research, analysis, data collection, data organization, and 
dissemination of information relevant to telecommunications and information 
technology to ICC/IP for the purpose of promoting effective telecommunications 
and information technology development practices and usages among them. 
(F) “Eligible Entity” - refers lo an organization of indigenous peoples, indigenous 
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agreement with the ICC/IP. 
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cultural communities, private or public institution of higher education acting under an 
(G) “Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples (ICCIP)” - as 
defined in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, refers to a group of people or 
homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have 
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continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined 
territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, 
possessed customs, tradition and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through 
resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous 
religions and culture, became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. 
ICCs/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, 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 displaced from their 
traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains. 
(H) “Information Technology” - refers to any equipment or interconnected 
system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, 
analysis, evaluation, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, 
interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. It includes computers, 
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Science and Technology. 
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Section7. 
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(M) “Telehealth” - refers to the use of electronic information and 
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telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and 
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professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. 
ancillary equipment (including imaging peripherals, input, output, and storage devices 
necessary for security and surveillance), peripheral equipment designed to be controlled 
by the central processing unit of a computer, software, firmware and similar procedures, 
services (including support services), and related resources. 
(I) “NCC” - refers to the National Computer Center under the Department of 
(J) “NTC” - refers to the National Telecommunications Commission. 
(K) “Technical Assistance” - refers to the facilitation of skills and knowledge in 
planning, developing, assessing, and administering eligible activities. 
(L) “Training and Technical Assistance Grant” - refers to a grant provided under 
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SECTION 5. Indigenous Peoples Connectivity Coordinating Council. - A 
Coordinating Council shall be established to formulate plans and programs in connection 
with the implementation of the provisions of this Act. This Council shall be composed of 
the following officials or their representatives: Chairperson of the NCIP, the 
Commissioner of the NTC and the Director of the NCC. The Council shall be supported 
by a Secretariat. 
SECTION 6. Block Grant Program. - (A) Establishment. - There is established 
within the NTC a Rural Telecommunications Block Grant Program to provide grants on a 
competitive basis to eligible entities to cany out activities under Section 4(E). 
(B) Block Grants. - The Commissioner may provide a block grant to an eligible 
entity that submits a block grant application to the NTC for approval. 
(C) Eligible Activities. - A grant under this Section may only be used for an 
eligible activity. 
(D) Regulations. - Not later than one hundred eighty (180) days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Commissioner shall promulgate regulations establishing 
specific criteria for the competition conducted to select eligible entities to receive grants 
under this Section for each fiscal year. 
SECTION 7. Training ana' Technical Assistance Grants. - (A) Notification and 
Criteria - The Council shall provide notice of the availability of training and technical 
assistance grants and publish criteria for selecting recipients. 
(B) Grunts. - The NCC and NTG may provide training and technical assistance 
grants to eligible entities with a demonstrated capacity to carry out eligible activities. 
(C) Use of Funds. - A training and technical assistance grant shall be used to - (1) 
develop a training program to facilitate local use and maintenance of new 
telecommunications technologies; (2) develop and implement - 
(a) telecommunications and information technology work study 
programs; 
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(b) 
post-secondary 
telecommunications 
and 
information 
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technology-related education, development, planning and management 
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programs; and 
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(c) a training program for telecommunications employees; 
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(3) provide assistance to students who - 
(a) participate in telecommnnications or information technology 
work study programs; 
(b) are enrolled in a full-time graduate or undergraduate program 
in telecommunications-related education, development, planning, 
or management. 
(D) Treatment. - A training and technical assistance grant to an entity shall be in 
addition to any block grant provided to the entity. 
(E) Provision of Technical Assistance by the Commission. - The Commission 
may provide technical assistance, directly or through contracts, to - (1) eligible entities; 
and (2) persons or entities that assist ICC/IP organizations. 
SECTION 8. Compliance. - 
(A) Audit by the Commission on Audit (COA). - 
(1) In General. - The COA may audit any financial transaction involving 
grant funds carried out by a block grant recipient or training and technical 
assistance grant recipient. 
(2) Scope of Authority. - In conducting an audit under paragraph (l), the 
COA shall have access to all books, acconnts, records, reports, files, papers, 
things, or property belonging to or in use by the grant recipient that relate to the 
financial transaction and are necessary to facilitate the audit. 
(B) Environmental Protection and Indigenous Peoples Rights. - 
(1) In General. - After consultation with rural communities, the Council 
may promulgate regulations to - (a) ensure that the policies of the Indigenous 
Peoples Rights Act of 1997 and other laws furtber the purposes of that Act (as 
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specified by the regulations), are most effectively implemented in connection with 
the expenditure of funds under this Act; and (b) assure the public of undiminished 
protection of the environment. 
(2) Substitute Measures. - The Council may provide for the release of 
funds under this Act for eligible activities to grant recipients that assume all of the 
responsibilities for environmental review, decision-making, and related action. 
SECTION 9. Remedies for Non-Compliance. - 
(A) Failure to Comply. - If the Council finds, on the record after opportunity for 
an agency hearing, that a block grant recipient or training and technical assistance grant 
recipient has failed to comply substantially with any provision of this Act, the Council, 
until satisfied that there is no longer a failure to comply, shall - 
(1) terminate payments to the grant recipient; 
(2) reduce payments to the grant recipient by an amount equal to the 
amount of payments that were not expended in accordance with this Act; 
(3) limit the availability of payments under this Act to programs, projects, 
or activities not affected by the failure to comply; or 
(4) refer the matter to the Solicitor General with a recommendation that 
the Solicitor General bring an appropriate civil action. 
SECTION 10. Reporting Requirements. - 
(A) Annual Report to Congress. - Not later than one hundred eighty (180) days 
afrer the end of each fiscal year in which assistance under this Act is provided, the 
Council shall submit to Congress a report that includes - 
(1) a description of the progress made in accomplishing the objectives of 
this Act; 
(2) a summary of the use of funds under this Act during the preceding 
fiscal year; and 
(3) an evaluation of the status of telephone, internet, and personal 
computer penetration rates, by type of technology, among ICCIIP. 
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(B) Reports to the Council. - The Council may require grant recipients under this 
,Act to submit reports and other information. 
SECTION 11. Consultation. - The Council shall consult with other government 
agencies 
administering 
grant 
programs 
relating 
to 
the 
development 
of 
telecommunications capacities or infrastructure. 
SECTION 12. Appropriations. - To carry out the provisions of this Act, such 
sums as may be necessary are hereby authorized to be appropriated from the National 
Treasury. 
SECTION 13. Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act or the provision not otherwise affected shall 
remain valid and subsisting. 
SECTION 14. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issuance, 
executive order, letter of instruction, administrative rule or regulation contrary to or 
inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended 
accordingly. 
SECTION 15. ESfectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days 
after its publication in at least two newspapers of general circulation. 
Approved, 
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