CHAPTER 2

SOCIAL REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT

 

VI. Priority Legislative Agenda

A. Health, Nutrition and Population

1. Amendments to the Local Government Code (RA 7160)

Amends Section 483, Article 13, Title 5 requiring the mandatory appointment of a municipal social welfare development officer (MSWDO) instead of an optional appointment. Health-related amendments include proper restructuring of public services available for health, and addressing other deficiencies in the Local Government Code (LGC) to improve the local government units' (LGUs) capability in managing their devolved functions.

 

2. Requiring the Fortification of Selected Foods with Micronutrients and for Other Related Purposes

Requires the mandatory fortification of flour and cooking oil with Vitamin A and rice with iron. The bill likewise provides the voluntary fortification of processed foods by food manufacturers with essential micronutrients to compensate for the loss in nutrients due to processing and/or storage of food. The bill shall apply to processed food or food products except dietary foods for which established standards already include specifications for nutrient composition or levels of fortification, as prescribed by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

 

3. National Health Facilities Development Bill

Rationalizes the development and improvement of public health facilities, equipment and services in the country, both local and national, especially directed toward the less-served and underdeveloped areas in the country. The bill also ensures the accessibility and affordability of health facilities and services to a greater number of the population, particularly the poor and depressed communities.

4. Prescribing Nutrition Labeling for Foods

Requires the provision for correct nutrition information on the labels of food products.

5. New Population Act

Establishes a new population policy and strengthens its implementation. The bill amends PD 79, incorporates the 1973 Constitutional provisions, and adopts the Philippine Population Management Programs (PPMP) Population-Resources-Environment (PRE) framework. It will give the Commission on Population (POPCOM) legislative mandate to continue its programs.

6. Amendment to the Hospital Licensure Act (RA 4226)

Empowers the Bureau of Licensure and Regulation (BLR) of the Department of Health (DOH) to protect public health by ensuring quality hospital services through regulation and licensure. The

BLR shall have the authority to adjudicate administrative cases and close down erring hospitals and shall be allowed to utilize its revenues to improve its capability to carry out its mandate.

7. Tobacco Regulation Bill

Seeks to ban tobacco advertisement which is proven to be an effective medium of persuading people to smoke. The bill prohibits the sale of cigarettes to minors as well as seeks to include information on the hazards of tobacco smoke in the elementary and high school curricula.

8. Amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 (RA 6425)

Clarifies terms currently used in the Act, e.g., dangerous drugs, precursors, etc. Imposes criminal liability for possession or use of drugs during social gatherings. Places admission and rehabilitation centers under the administrative rather than judicial commitment, except those for minors. Enlists the Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government in the fight against drug abuse.

 

 

B. Education and Manpower Development

General

1. Omnibus Education Finance Bill

  • Amends Section 16 of PD 1177 (Budget Decree) to guarantee that basic education gets the highest budget priority in education. The bill seeks to a) ensure that the allocation for education meets the full requirement of the sector and is provided annually in the GAA; and b) the share of education in the total budget for the year shall not diminish from the previous years and shall in fact be increased in proportion to enrolment.

  • Prioritizes adoption by LGUs of permanent arragements to support basic education. Adopts acceptable and dynamic formula for determining shares of the tertiary education in the overall available and anticipated resources.

  • Introduces an exit tax to recipients of public-funded tertiary education programs and scholarships given to those who emigrate.

  • Provides appropriate incentives for stock educational institutions to convert to nonstock, subject to the test of fiscal viability.

  • Provides appropriate incentives for tertiary institutions which are willing to be converted to community colleges, or those which refrain from being converted into SUCs.

  • Systematizes all programs of state financial assistance to students on the basis of the trifocalization of the management of educational system and setting up a voucher system.

 

2. National Coordinating Council for Education Bill

Aims to provide a sustained coordinative and advisory assistance for both the executive and legislative branches to address cross-cutting issues and policies/programs of national education and training. It shall consist of the heads of NEDA, DECS, DBM, CHED, TESDA, NCCA, PSC, PIA and DOLE. It shall provide for an efficient technical secretariat.

Basic education

1. Department of Basic Education (DBE) Bill

Seeks to transform the present DECS into a Department of Basic Education to make it a leaner but dynamic, responsive and flexible education bureaucracy capable of meeting the peculiar learning needs of the next millennium. The new bureaucracy shall have the following features: a) integration of the planning and curricular development of elementary and secondary levels into one whole education stretch; b) incorporation and organization of all basic non-school based learning opportunities and experiences under a technical coordinating, resource allocating and accrediting body; c) ensuring undivided and undiluted attention given to basic education by abolishing or transferring certain functions and concerns that clearly belong to or are better handled by other agencies; d) creation of regional inspectorates in lieu of the present regional offices, manned by people with proven technical competence and integrity; e) strengthening its development planning and project development and monitoring functions in both national and decentralized levels.

2. Amendments to Republic Act No. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991

Incorporates the prioritization of education expenditures of LGUs in both internally-generated income and resources from national government and rationalizes the Local School Board function and composition. The Board shall be expanded to include not only the elected officials, school authorities and parents but also representatives of local employers preferably from among prominent groups.

The function of the Board shall be broadened to include the following:

  • Developing local education plans and determining the investment program for such plans;

  • Exercising influence in the allocation of the social development fund and allocation and management of resources coming from the national government; and

  • On Section 99d, this function will include establishment, conversion or separation and appropriating funds for operations until such time that the school is included in the GAA.

The Act proposes the creation of School Advisory Councils (SACs) to serve as counterpart of the Local School Boards at the barangay or school level in order to make school-based management work. The SACs shall be composed of the following: School Heads (as Chairperson); a teacher representative; two parents (one male, one female); a representative of the Barangay Council preferably whose major concerns is in education; an educator or a local employer from the community; representative from the youth sector; and an early child development worker.

The SACs shall be mandated to:

  • Formulate school policy within the enabling national policy framework;

  • Prepare school improvement and effectiveness plans (SIEPs);

  • Mobilize resources from different sources to fund the school improvement programs;

  • Coordinate inputs from relevant public departments;

  • Prioritize and allocate resources to different components and activities of the SIEP; and

  • Monitor and review the implementation of the SIEP, particularly student learning outcomes at the end of each term.

 

3. Review of R.A. 7880 — "Fair and Equitable Access to Education Act" or "Roxas Law"

Amends some of the provisions of the Roxas Law due to noted weaknesses in allocating educational resources using the scheme. The current law does not address small areas that are disadvantaged in terms of access to educational resources, and does not close the gap between the well-endowed and less-endowed areas.

4. Bill on School Titling

Empowers the DECS to acquire ownership of the land occupied by either elementary or secondary schools. The bill also provides procedures to ensure quick titling rather than the present tedious way of obtaining a legal title of formerly entitled land or expropriation of titled land.

 

5. An Act Providing for the Modernization of School Health and Nutrition Program in the DECS, Authorizing the Appropriation of Funds Therefore, and for other Purposes (Senate Bill No. 1732)

Provides for the framework and mechanism for the modernization of the school health and nutrition program of DECS. Includes effective health care delivery in the schools, application of appropriate methods and procedures in preventive health care, reforms in the management and acquisition and upgrading of equipment and technology.

6. Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Act

This Bill shall be implemented by DECS in collaboration with DSWD. The salient features are as follows:

  • Making the kindergarten program mandatory for all five year old children as part of the formal elementary education ladder;

  • Implementing adequate kindergarden program that promotes physical, social, intellectual and skills stimulation and value-formation; and

  • In the implementation of the kindergarden education program, any of the following alternative approaches may be used:

a) Organization of community-based kindergarden classes with local government support;

b) Organization of kindergarden classes through service contracting with NGOs,private schools, and other learning institutions; and

c) In case where the Department of Social Welfare and Development provides for day care services for five year old children, such day care centers must be recognized by DECS.

This Act proposes to provide ECCD with the following program framework components:

  • ECCD curriculum focuses primarily on children's total development according to their individual uniqueness and sociocultural background;

  • Parent education and involvement, advocacy and mobilization of communities to harness and develop parents as providers of ECCD in the home;

  • Human resources development program which establishes mechanisms for the systematic professionalization of ECCD service providers;

  • ECCD management which focuses on a continuing process of planning, implementation, supervision, financial management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting; and

  • Standardization which ensures that each component in the ECCD system is effectively delivered to optimize the benefits of ECCD services to children.

 

There will be a national ECCD Coordinating Council composed of 15 members, 13 of whom are from the Council for the Welfare of the Children created by virtue of PD No. 503 which shall be further strengthened and enlarged under this Act to function as the national ECCD coordinating qualified ECCD practitioners. They shall meet once a month or as often as necessary. The Secretary of the DSWD shall be the Chairperson while the Secretaries of DECS, DOH, and DILG shall be cochairpersons.

The Council shall have the following functions:

  • Promulgate and implement policies/guidelines for ECCD;

  • Establish ECCD programs standards that reflect appropriate and culturally relevant practices for ECCD programs;

  • Develop a national system for registration of ECCD providers;

  • Promote a system for registration, continuing education and professionalization of ECCD service providers, supervisors/administrators of ECCD program implementors;

  • Develop awards system and recognition to deserving ECCD program implementors;

  • Coordinate and monitor the various ECCD programs of each line agency and beneficiaries;

  • Evaluate and assess the impact and outcome of various ECCD programs nationwide through effective information system;

  • Develop and establish a national system for early identification, screening, surveillance of early childhood disabilities, development problems and giftedness;

  • Develop and implement various support mechanisms that maximize public and private resourses for implementing ECCD program.

 

Under this Act, the Coordination Council has been extended up to provincial, city and municipal levels.

The Senate and the House of Representatives versions are similar in contents with respect to ECCD programs, composition and functions of the ECCD Coordination Council.

Tertiary Education

1. Amendment of the Apprenticeship Law

Considers the apprenticeship program as a form of training rather than employment modality within the broader framework of the Dual System of Training. All matters about apprenticeship which are at present subsumed under the Labor code shall form part of this legislation. Provisions reflecting recent developments in apprenticeship such as apprenticeable age trades and safety mechanisms shall be included.

2. Omnibus Higher Education Reform Bill

Incorporates reforms in the areas of SUCs restructuring and improvement of external governance; efficient resource allocaion; review of the enabling laws and delineating roles of public tertiary institutions, promotion of institutional responsiveness, academic freedom, fiscal autonomy, program relevance and greater accountability and efficiency.

 

3. Magna Carta for Students

Provides a code that balances the enjoyment of student's rights and privileges with responsibility. It guarantees the students to self-government and participation in decision-making directly affecting their welfare. The right to campus publication is guaranteed by the penal clause for the violation of the Act, definition of the duties of the CHED and all stakeholders and entitlements of student journalists to legal assistance. Self-determination in student government and campus publication will be enhanced by the free exercise of generating and managing their resources without having to depend on school administration.

Culture, Arts and Media

1. An Act Promoting Self-Regulation Among Service Providers of Electronic Media to Make it an Instrument for Inculcating Values

Directs the service providers of electronic media to serve as creative channels for a forceful and determined inculcation of values, propagation of leadership, moral recovery, gender and development, increased productivity and a culture of peace and unity.

2. Omnibus Cultural Heritage Bill

Aims to protect and preserve the nation's cultural properties or attributes in order to conserve the ethnicity of local communities and the nation as a whole. It proposes to develop key cultural programs and increases the capacity of cultural/arts institutions in utilizing culture and arts as instruments of diplomacy.

3. An Act Strengthening Coordination and Relationship of all the Cultural Agencies of the Government

Aims to strengthen coordination and relationship of all the cultural agencies of the government for economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The cultural agencies are: a) National Museum; b) Records Management and Archives Office; c) National Library; d) National Historical Institute; e) Komisyon ng Wikang Pilipino; Cultural Center of the Philippines; and g) National Book Development Board.

C. Shelter and Urban Development

1. Amendment to the Home Financing Act or (RA 580)

Extends the corporate life of the Home Insurance and Guaranty Corporation (HIGC) and increases its capitalization in recognition of its indispensable role in assisting the public and private sectors in addressing the country's growing need for decent and affordable dwelling.

2. Creation of the Local Housing Boards for Urban and Urbanizable Areas all over the Philippines

Mandates every local government unit, through the local housing boards, to formulate, develop, implement, and monitor policies on the provision for housing resettlement areas, and on the observance of the right of the underprivileged and homeless to a just and humane eviction and demolition. The bill requires LGUs to prepare local shelter plans; assist in the formulation of comprehensive land use plans (CLUPs); ensure compliance with the Balanced Housing Requirement; identify lands for socialized housing; and coordinate with national government housing agencies involved in assisting LGUs in their respective socialized housing projects.

3. National Land Use Code

Seeks to undertake the following:

  • Undertake, promote, commission and/or contract the gathering of data, conduct of studies and the development and application of technology pertaining to land use planning and real estate management;

  • Promulgate national and regional standards and guidelines, as well as local model zoning ordinances, on land use classification, physical planning, and estate development zoning;

Issue rules and regulations to enforce compliance;

  • Resolve conflicts in land use planning, classification and allocation; and

  • u Adopt rules of procedure for the exercise of regulatory and quasi-judicial powers.

 

4. Amendments to Presidential Decree No. 1752 as amended, or the Home Development Mutual Fund Charter

 

D. Social welfare and community development

1. Defining Domestic Violence, Providing Protection Orders and Penalties

Seeks to maintain the sanctity and solidarity of the family whenever it is threatened, disrupted and weakened by any form of violence and oppression by providing immediate relief to victims thereof, through the issuance of "protection order," and penalizing acts which constitute "domestic violence."

2. Anti-Trafficking of Filipino Women

Defines forms of trafficking of women and provides penalties for those acts as well as measures for the rehabilitation of victims. It covers all forms of trafficking of women such as the "mail-order-bride" scheme, sex tourism, prostitution, trafficking through recruitment for employment and sexual slavery under the military or custodial forces.

3. Amendment to RA 7610 or the Children Protection Act

Seeks to expand the coverage of the crime of child abuse to include pedophilia and incestuous acts, imposing the penalty from reclusion perpetua to death and a fine of not less than P100,000.

4. Magna Carta for Senior Citizens

Seeks the establishment of a comprehensive long-term national program that would empower older persons by giving them continued opportunities for employment, livelihood projects and access to formal and non-formal education and social services, such as health and housing.

 

5. Amendments to RA No. 8185 which amended Sec. 324 (d) of RA No. 7160 Otherwise Known as the Local Government Code of 1991, on the Use of the 5% Local Calamity Funds for Preparedness Activities

Seeks to set aside five percent of the estimated revenue from regular sources as a "local disaster management fund for preparedness, mitigation and prevention activities for potential

occurence of disaster as well as for disaster response and other works or services in connection with disaster or calamities, whether natural or man-made." The amendment likewise enumerates the specific uses of the fund.

6. Bill on Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Administration

Establishes instrumentalities within the five pillars of the criminal justice system in order to protect the rights of children who are accused of violating state laws.

7. Amendment to RA 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons -Granting the Disabled Persons the same Privileges Enjoyed by Senior Citizens (as embodied in HB 811, and HB 2133; SB 1224 and SB 494)

Seeks to extend privileges to disabled persons in the form of discounts and exemptions on income taxes, access to social security benefits(GSIS, SSS and PAG-IBIG), as well as access and utilization of public establishments (e.g., medical, dental, recreational) and transportation services.

8. Amendment to Batas Pambansa Blg. 344, otherwise known as the Accessibility Law and Imposing Stricter Penalties for Violators

Enhances the mobility of disabled persons by requiring certain buildings, institutions, establishments and public utilities to install facitlities and other services.

9. Magna Carta for Social Workers

Seeks to institutionalize the granting of rights and privileges to all persons engaged in social development and welfare-related work, employed in all social welfare and development offices, centers and institutions and other social development and welfare-related establishments owned and operated by the government or its political subdivisions as well as by non-government organizations (NGOs).

10. Ratification of ILO Convention 169, otherwise known as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989

ILO Convention 169 is an international convention which binds signatory states to cooporate in promoting and securing the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the same degree as the rest of population of the states in which they live. The Convention improves on the 1957 Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention and other similar international instruments on the prevention of discrimination, by recognizing the aspirations of IPs to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life, and economic development and develop their identities, languages and religions.

11. Establishment of Human Rights Action Centers in all Legislative Districts and Approriating Funds Therefor

Aims to provide legal assistance, protection and security to people who have been victimized by government officials and employees.

12. Philippine Development Authority for Women Act. An act creating the Philippine Commission on Women, defining its powers, functions and responsibilities, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes

Seeks to strengthen the capability of National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) primarily as the policy-making advisory body of the President and Cabinet, and as the coordinating machinery for achieving gender equality, institutionalizing gender mainstreaming in government as well as in the private sector and the civil society.

 

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