The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a proposed Magna Carta of the Poor, which seeks to adopt an area-based, focused intervention in reducing poverty and mandate government to prioritize investments designed to uplift the quality of life of impoverished Filipino families.
Among the primary authors of the consolidated measure is National Unity Party (NUP) member and Bulacan Rep. Ma. Victoria Sy-Alvarado. The other authors of House Bill 4629, or An Act Providing for a Magna Carta of the Poor, are Representatives Raul Del Mar of Cebu City, Marcelino Teodoro of Marikina City and Erlinda Santiago of the 1-SAGIP partylist group.
Camarines Sur Rep. Salvio Fortuno, the chairperson of the House committee on poverty alleviation, pointed out that the bill was among the measures approved a week after the opening of the 2nd regular session. A total of 216 lawmakers voted in favor of HB 4629.
The main features of the bill are:
- It encourages the private sector to be an active partner in the financing and implementation of poverty alleviation programs and projects.
- All departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the government are required to provide full access of its services to the poor.
- It requires the government to establish a system of progressive implementation to provide the requirements, conditions, and opportunities for the full enjoyment of the rights of the poor, which are essential requirements towards poverty alleviation, such as the right to adequate food, the right to decent work, the right to adequate housing, and the right to the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health.
- The government shall also build an effective social protection system to ensure the protection of the poor from any risk or contingency, including social insurance, safety nets, social welfare, and labor market interventions, which are affordable and accessible.
- The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) shall design and establish 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.
- Within one hundred (100) days from the issuance of the rules and regulations, all government agencies shall formulate a comprehensive and convergent plan to set the thresholds to be achieved by government for each of the recognized rights of the poor called the National Poverty Reduction Plan.
The funding for the poverty alleviation programs and projects implemented under this measure shall be sourced from the existing appropriations under the General Appropriation Act of the different departments and agencies implementing these programs including the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) and Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) Project of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Socialized housing programs of the National Housing Authority, among others.