Magna Carta for the Poor: Rights and Aid

Declaration of policy and international duties

The State adopts an area-based, sectoral, and focused intervention to poverty alleviation that empowers every poor Filipino to meet minimum basic needs through partnership of the government and the basic sectors (Section 2).
The State undertakes to comply with international obligations to end poverty in all its forms and to ensure and promote health and well-being (Section 2).
The State prioritizes investments in anti-poverty programs to enable the poor to fully participate in growth and development (Section 2).
The State provides the poor full access to government services through departments, agencies, and instrumentalities (Section 2).
The State strengthens interventions addressing genuine concerns of the poor and institutionalizes long-term strategies for empowerment (Section 2).
The State enhances capabilities of basic sectors, NGOs, POs, and other development partners for effective delivery and implementation of anti-poverty programs and basic services through collaboration (Section 2).

Core definitions used in the law

“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 cooperative members (Section 3(a)).
“Development Partners” include NGOs, POs, and private organizations and corporations engaged in activities aimed at alleviating the condition of the poor (Section 3(b)).
“Hazardous/Danger Zones” are areas that, when occupied for residential or business purposes, pose danger to life and safety of occupants or the general public (Section 3(c)).
“NGOs” are duly registered nonstock, nonprofit organizations focusing on upliftment of basic sectors through advocacy, training, community organizing, research, access to resources, protection of the environment and conservation of natural resources, and similar activities (Section 3(d)).
“POs” are self-help groups belonging to basic sectors composed of members with a common bond of interest who voluntarily join to achieve a lawful common social or economic end (Section 3(e)).
“Poor” refers to individuals or families whose income falls below the poverty threshold defined by NEDA and/or who cannot, in a sustained manner, afford minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing, or other essential amenities of life as defined under Republic Act No. 8425; in determining who constitute the poor, the Multidimensional Poverty Index determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shall be considered (Section 3(f)).
“National Poverty Reduction Plan” is the aggregation and consolidation of sectoral and local plans through a bottom-up approach, from Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan to the formulation of the national plan (Section 3(g)).
“Progressive Realization” is a process of implementation paced according to availability of funds and adjusted to the exigencies of the times (Section 3(h)).

Fundamental rights of the poor

The government must establish a system of progressive realization/implementation to provide requirements, conditions, and opportunities for full enjoyment of the enumerated rights essential to poverty alleviation (Section 4).
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.
- DSWD, DA, and other implementing agencies must mitigate and alleviate hunger, especially during calamities/natural and human-induced disasters (Section 4(a)(1)).
- DSWD, DA, and other implementing agencies must fully implement and maintain supplementary feeding programs in day care centers and schools (Section 4(a)(2)).
- DSWD, DA, and other implementing agencies must ensure availability, accessibility, and sustainability of food supplies in quantity and quality sufficient to meet dietary needs of poor individuals and families (Section 4(a)(3)).
- DSWD, DA, and other implementing agencies must proactively engage the poor in activities to promote food self-sufficiency and strengthen access to resources and means to ensure food security (Section 4(a)(4)).
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.
- DOLE and implementing agencies must ensure access to information on employment openings in private enterprises and in government programs and projects, especially for available employment opportunities for families displaced by disasters or relocated from hazardous/danger zones (Section 4(b)(1)).
- DOLE and implementing agencies must ensure compliance of private contractors and subcontractors in national and local public work projects (funded by the national government or any LGU) to fill thirty percent (30%) of skilled labor requirements with qualified workers from the poor sector who are residents of the LGUs where projects are undertaken (Section 4(b)(2)).
- If available resources are less than the required percentage, skilled labor requirements must be based on the maximum number of locally available labor resources and certified as sufficient by the municipal, city, provincial, or district engineer (Section 4(b)(2) proviso).
- DOLE and implementing agencies must promote livelihood among the poor through technical and administrative support to help the poor establish livelihood enterprises (Section 4(b)(3)).
- DOLE and implementing agencies must ensure compliance with core labor standards, address job and skills mismatch, and enhance human capital through education and training (Section 4(b)(4)).
- DOLE and implementing agencies must provide an environment for more inclusive tripartism through social dialogue at firm and industry levels to achieve broader representation of interests and participatory decision-making (Section 4(b)(5)).
Right to Relevant and Quality Education is the right to attain the fullest development of the human person.
- DepEd, CHED, and TESDA (in coordination with concerned development partners) must maintain a system of free public education in kindergarten, elementary, and high school levels (Section 4(c)(1)).
- DepEd, CHED, and TESDA (in coordination with concerned development partners) must make higher education accessible to all poor individuals and families by expanding programs of free or socialized college education for the poor, including student loans or study-now-pay-later plans, in state/local universities and colleges, subject to reasonable academic requirements (Section 4(c)(2)).
- DepEd, CHED, and TESDA (in coordination with concerned development partners) must ensure access to quality technical-vocational education and training through scholarships, subsidies, and financial assistance, subject to compliance with qualification requirements (Section 4(c)(3)).
Right to Adequate Housing is the right to a decent, affordable, safe, and culturally appropriate place to live in with dignity and security of tenure in accordance with Republic Act No. 7279 (Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992), with access to basic services, facilities, and livelihood.
- HUDCC and implementing agencies must prioritize implementation of the socialized housing program with identified appropriate subsidies (Section 4(d)(1)).
- HUDCC and implementing agencies must immediately construct and provide housing facilities for families living in identified hazardous/danger zones and on areas affected by disasters/calamities where housing needs of the poor are urgent (Section 4(d)(2)).
- HUDCC and implementing agencies must create an enabling environment to assist the poor gain access to security of tenure with the least financial burden (Section 4(d)(3)).
- HUDCC and implementing agencies must provide a system with simple requirements and procedures and expeditious processing and approval, especially for community-based socialized housing/people’s proposals (Section 4(d)(4)).
Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health is the right to equitable access to facilities, goods, services, and conditions necessary for realization of the highest attainable standard of health.
- The DOH and implementing agencies must ensure equitable access to a system of good quality health care and protection available and accessible to the poor in keeping with reasonable standards (Section 4(e)(1)).
- The DOH and implementing agencies must provide comprehensive, universal, culture-sensitive, nondiscriminatory, and gender-responsive health services and programs including: maternal and child health care and nutrition; ethical, legal, medically safe and effective reproductive health services and supplies; promotion of breastfeeding; prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases (including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)); provision of immunization against major infectious diseases in the community; and prevention, treatment and control of epidemic and endemic diseases (Section 4(e)(2)).
- The DOH and implementing agencies must reduce financial burden through a socialized health insurance program with the end view of totally eliminating out-of-pocket expenses (Section 4(e)(3)).
- The DOH and implementing agencies must provide health-related education and information to the community (Section 4(e)(4)).

Non-diminution, social protection, and targeting

The rights of the poor under existing laws remain in full force and effect (Section 5).
No provision of this Act diminishes enjoyment of rights of the poor, including rights offering greater protection than those under this Act (Section 5).
The government must implement a sustainable mechanism to build an effective social protection system ensuring poor access to protection from risks or contingencies (Section 6(a)).
The social protection system must include social insurance, safety nets, social services, and labor market interventions, and these must be affordable and accessible (Section 6(a)).
Social protection must be pursued during bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including arrangements with international financial institutions (Section 6(a)).
NEDA must maintain and periodically review, in consultation with PSA, a single system of classification for targeting beneficiaries of government poverty alleviation programs and projects to ensure they reach intended beneficiaries (Section 7).
DSWD, in coordination with NEDA and NAPC, must identify the target beneficiaries (Section 7).

National Poverty Reduction Plan and coordination

The government agencies must formulate within one hundred (100) days from issuance of rules and regulations a comprehensive and convergent plan setting the thresholds to be achieved for each recognized right of the poor (Section 8).
The plan must consider development plans and plans of provinces, cities, and municipalities (Section 8).
NAPC, with technical assistance of NEDA, must compile and harmonize these plans (Section 8).
DBM must review the NPRP for inclusion in the budget of implementing agencies (Section 8).
NAPC must ensure engagement of basic sectors and LGUs in formulation and implementation of the NPRP (Section 9).
The DILG must monitor LGU compliance in aligning their development, investment, and poverty reduction plans with the NPRP and in implementing the same (Section 9).

Funding, private sector role, and tax incentives

Poverty alleviation programs and projects under this Act must be sourced from existing appropriations authorized under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of different departments and agencies implementing these programs (Section 10(a)).
The Act enumerates pro-poor programs and projects funded under existing appropriations, including:
- DSWD: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Sustainable livelihood Program (SUP), and Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahivapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services National Community Driven Development Program (KALAHI-CIDSS NCDDP) (Section 10(a)(a)).
- DOLE: Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) and Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) Project (Section 10(a)(b)).
- TESDA: Skills Training, Private Education Student Financial Assistance (PESFA), and the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) (Section 10(a)(c)).
- DepEd: Alternative Learning System (ALS) and Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) (Section 10(a)(d)).
- CHED: Student Financial Assistance Program (STUFAP) (Section 10(a)(e)).
- NHA: Socialized housing program (Section 10(a)(f)).
- DOH: Basic health care services (Section 10(a)(g)).
- PhilHealth: Expanded Primary Care Package for the Poor and Senior Citizens (Section 10(a)(h)).
- SHFC: Community Mortgage Program for qualified organized informal settlers (Section 10(a)(i)).
Allocations for implementation of these programs and projects must receive preferential consideration in the agency budget (Section 10(b)).
Any additional funds to existing appropriations of pro-poor programs must be included in the GAA (Section 10(c)).
The private sector is highly encouraged as an active partner in financing and implementation of poverty alleviation programs and projects (Section 11).
Government agencies implementing these programs must be authorized to accredit development partners who may accept donations, aids, or grants in cash or in kind from duly accredited sources to meet demands and uphold the basic rights of the poor (Section 11).
Acceptance and use of donations, aids, or grants must be transparent and subject to applicable government regulations (Section 11).
Donations, contributions, and grants made to programs implemented under the NPRP are exempt from the donor’s tax in accordance with the specific provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended by Republic Act No. 10963 (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) (Section 12).
Implementation must follow the principle of Progressive Realization (Section 13).
The President and Congress have the prerogative to allocate funds to all poverty alleviation programs as deemed necessary through the GAA (Section 13).
No provision requires the government to undertake immediate implementation of all poverty alleviation programs (Section 13).

Compliance reporting and implementing rules

NAPC must oversee and monitor compliance with the Act (Section 14).
Implementing departments and agencies must submit a compliance report to NAPC within six (6) months from the effectivity of the Act and every six (6) months thereafter (Section 14).
NAPC must submit a compliance report to the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation and to the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development (Section 14).
Within six (6) months from effectivity, NAPC must promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the Act in coordination with government departments and agencies with participation of LGUs and the basic sectors (Section 15(a)).

Separability, repealing, and effectivity rules

If any section or provision is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the unaffected sections or provisions continue in full force and effect (Section 16).
All laws, decrees, executive orders, proclamations, rules and regulations, or parts inconsistent with the Act are repealed, amended, or modified accordingly (Section 17).
The Act takes effect fifteen (15) days after publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation (Section 18).