Magna Carta of the Poor

By Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan, Business Mirror, 3 Jun 2019

On April 12, 2019, President Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11291 known as the “Magna Carta of the Poor.” The Magna Carta is in implementation of the declared policy of the State “to uplift the standard of living and quality of life of the poor and provide them with sustained opportunities for growth and development.” It mandates the State “to adopt an area-based, sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation where every poor Filipino must be empowered to meet the minimum basic need through the partnership of the Government and the basic sectors” (RA 11291, Section 2).

The “poor” shall refer to individuals or families whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and/or who cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing, or other essential amenities of life, as defined under RA 8425, otherwise known as the “Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act.” In determining who constitute the poor, the Multidimensional Poverty Index determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shall be considered (Section 3 [f]).

“Basic Sectors” shall refer to the disadvantaged sectors of Philippine society including farmer-peasants, fisherfolk, workers in the formal sector, including migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples and cultural communities, women, persons with disability, senior citizens, victims of calamities/natural and human-induced disasters, youth and students, children, urban poor and members of cooperatives (Section 3 [a]).

Under Section 4 thereof, full enjoyment or realization of the following rights of the poor are requirements toward poverty alleviation:

a) Right to Adequate Food is the right of individuals or families to have physical and economic access to adequate and healthy food, or the means to procure it. (Implementing Agency: Department of Social Welfare and Development [DSWD], Department of Agriculture);

b) Right to Decent Work is the right to the opportunity to obtain decent and productive employment, in conditions of freedom, equity, gender equality, security and human dignity. (Implementing Agency: Department of Labor and Employment [DOLE]);

c) Right to Relevant and Quality Education is the right to attain the full development of the human person. (Implementing Agency: Department of Education [DepEd], Commission on Higher Education [CHED], Technical Education and Skills Development Authority [Tesda]);

d) Right to Adequate Housing is the right to have a decent affordable, safe and culturally appropriate place to live in, with dignity, security of tenure in accordance with RA 7279, otherwise known as the “Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992,” in peace, with access to basic services, facilities, and livelihood. (Implementing Agency: Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council [HUDCC]);

e) Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health is the right to have equitable access to a variety of facilities, goods, services and conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable standard of health. (Implementing Agency: Department of Health [DOH]).

The Magna Carta further provides for non-diminution of the rights of the poor provided under existing laws which shall remain in full force and effect (Section 5).

The Neda shall maintain and periodically review, in consultation with PSA, a single system of classification to be used for targeting beneficiaries of the government’s poverty alleviation programs and projects to ensure that such programs reach the intended beneficiaries.

The DSWD, in coordination with Neda and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), shall identify the target beneficiaries (Section 7).

All government agencies shall formulate, within 100 days from the issuance of the rules and regulations to implement this Act, a comprehensive and convergent plan to set the thresholds to be achieved by the government for each of the recognized rights of the poor. This plan shall consider development plans of provinces, cities and communities. NAPC with the technical assistance of Neda, shall be tasked to compile and harmonize these plans. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shall, likewise, review the National Poverty Reduction Plan for inclusion in the budget of implementing agencies (Section 8).

The NAPC shall ensure that the basic sectors and the local government units are engaged in the formulation and implementation of the NPRP. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) shall monitor the compliance of the LGUs in aligning their respective development, investment, and poverty reduction plans with the NPRP, and in implementing the same (Section 9).

The funding for the poverty alleviation programs and projects implemented under this Act shall be sourced from the existing appropriations as authorized under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of the different departments and agencies implementing these programs, including those enumerated below:

a) DSWD—Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Sustainable Livelihood Program, and Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services National Community Driven Development Program;

b) DOLE—Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) and Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers “TUPAD” Project;

c) Tesda—Skills Training, Private Education Student Financial Assistance and the Training for Work Scholarship Program;

d) DepEd—Alternative Learning System and Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education;

e) CHED—Student Financial Assistance Program (STUFAP);

f) National Housing Authority—Socialized housing program;

g) DOH—Basic health-care services;

h) Philippine Health Insurance Corp.—Expanded Primary Package for the Poor and Senior Citizens; and

i) Social Housing Finance Corp.—Community Mortgage Program for quality organized informal allocation of the agency budget.

Allocations for the implementation of these programs and projects shall be given preferential consideration in the funding allocation of the agency budget. Any additional funds to the existing appropriation of the pro-poor programs in the different departments and agencies shall be included in the GAA (Section 10).

Any donation, contribution and grant which may be made to the programs implemented under the NPRP shall be exempt from the donor’s tax in accordance with the specific provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended by RA 10963 or the “Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion” (Section 12).

A Social Weather Station Survey in the last quarter of 2018 revealed that 11.6 million families or half of the Filipino people considered themselves poor.

The last electoral exercise saw national and local candidates wasting hundreds of millions of pesos on campaign expenditures, media advertisements and vote buying. It would be tragic if these elected public officials divert public funds, especially those allocated for poverty reduction and alleviation, to recoup and replenish the monies they’ve spent. Then the poor, who they vowed in their campaign speeches to protect and provide for, will remain poor.