QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 11291)
RA 11291 is the “Magna Carta of the Poor.” Its declared policy is to uplift the standard of living and quality of life of the poor through area-based, sectoral, and focused interventions for poverty alleviation, ensuring that every poor Filipino is empowered to meet minimum basic needs through partnership of government and basic sectors, consistent with international obligations to end poverty.
“Poor” refers to individuals or families whose income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by NEDA and/or who cannot, in a sustained manner, afford minimum basic needs (food, health, education, housing, or other essential amenities of life) under RA 8425. It also requires consideration of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) determined by PSA.
“Basic Sectors” include disadvantaged sectors such as farmer-peasants, fisherfolk, formal and informal sector workers (including migrant workers), 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.
It is a process of implementation paced according to the availability of funds and that adjusts to the exigencies of the times—meaning government is not required to implement all poverty alleviation programs immediately.
Section 4 enumerates: (a) Right to Adequate Food, (b) Right to Decent Work, (c) Right to Relevant and Quality Education, (d) Right to Adequate Housing, and (e) Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health.
DSWD, DA, and other concerned agencies must mitigate hunger (especially during disasters), maintain supplementary feeding programs, ensure sustainable and accessible food supplies meeting dietary needs, and proactively engage the poor for food self-sufficiency and food security.
For national and local public work projects funded by government or LGUs, private contractors and subcontractors must fill 30% of skilled labor requirements with qualified workers from the poor sector who are residents of the LGUs where the projects are undertaken; if fewer resources exist, requirements are based on maximum locally available labor and certified by the relevant engineer as sufficient compliance.
DepEd must maintain free public education for kindergarten, elementary, and high school. For higher education, CHED and implementing agencies must make higher education accessible, including expanded programs for free or socialized college education for the poor (including student loans or study-now-pay-later plans), subject to reasonable academic requirements; TESDA must ensure access to quality TVET through scholarships, subsidies, and financial assistance.
HUDCC and implementing agencies must prioritize socialized housing with appropriate subsidies, immediately construct and provide housing for families in identified hazardous/danger zones and on disaster-affected areas where needs are urgent, create an enabling environment for security of tenure with least financial burden, and provide simple requirements and expeditious processing for community-based socialized housing/people’s proposals.
DOH and other implementing agencies must ensure equitable access to good quality health care available and accessible to the poor; provide comprehensive, universal, culture-sensitive, nondiscriminatory, and gender-responsive services (including maternal and child health and nutrition, ethical/legal/medically safe reproductive health services and supplies, breastfeeding promotion, prevention/management of reproductive tract infections and STIs including HIV/AIDS, immunization, and prevention/treatment/control of epidemic and endemic diseases).
It requires reducing the financial burden of health care and protection of the poor through a socialized health insurance program with the end view of totally eliminating out-of-pocket expenses.
No. Section 5 provides non-diminution of rights: existing rights remain in full force and effect, and the poor may avail of greater rights offered by existing laws and those granted under RA 11291.
NEDA must maintain and periodically review, in consultation with PSA, a single system of classification used for targeting beneficiaries. DSWD, in coordination with NEDA and NAPC, identifies the target beneficiaries.
The NPRP is an aggregation and consolidation of sectoral and local plans using a bottom-up approach from Local Poverty Reduction Action Plans to the national plan. NAPC, with technical assistance from NEDA, is tasked to compile and harmonize these plans.
Funding comes from existing appropriations under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of departments and agencies implementing pro-poor programs, with preferential consideration for these allocations. Additional funds for existing pro-poor programs must be included in the GAA.
NAPC oversees and monitors compliance. Within six months from effectivity and every six months thereafter, implementing departments and agencies submit compliance reports to NAPC, which then submits a compliance report to the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation and the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development.
NAPC, in coordination with government departments and agencies with the participation of LGUs and basic sectors, must promulgate the IRR within six (6) months from the effectivity of the Act.
The private sector is encouraged as a financing/implementation partner, and implementing agencies may accredit development partners who may accept donations/aids/grants in cash or kind. Donations/grants for NPRP programs are exempt from the donor’s tax under the National Internal Revenue Code as amended by RA 10963.