Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño said House Bill 1460 seeks to include data on indigenous peoples (IPs) such as ethnicity by descent, bloodline and language in all national censuses to generate demographic data on IPs and ethno-linguistic groups.
The bill, to be known as Ethnic Origin Act of 2010, mandates the National Statistics Office (NSO) to ensure the inclusion of people with ethnic origin in its national surveys, censuses and other data gathering methods.
The NSO, in coordination with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) and the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), is tasked to conduct a special survey to ascertain the actual number and other demographic data of indigenous peoples in the country.
"These data are indispensable in knowing the real state of the country's indigenous peoples as basis for national planning and decision-making," Casiño, principal author of the bill, said.
Casiño, Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development, said there is no available accurate count of the IPs population in the country.
"National statistics fail to reflect IP situations because data are hidden on national averages," Casiño said.
Provisions of Republic Act 8371 otherwise known as the "Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997" are not fully realized because of a yawning lack of disaggregated data on indigenous peoples in the country, according to Casiño.
Rep. Neri Colmenares (PL-Bayan Muna), a co-author of the bill, said "deficient disaggregated data on indigenous peoples has a significant implication on the government's planning and decision-making."
There should be timely and accurate statistics on IP population to make the government's policies and programs responsive to the needs of indigenous peoples, Colmenares said.
Under HB 1460, IPs refer to a group of people who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the population which inhabited the country at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or resettled outside their ancestral domains.
Other authors of the measure include Reps. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. (Lone District, Ifugao), Eleanor Bulut-Begtang (Lone District, Apayao), Maximo Dalog (Lone District, Mountain Province), Eric Singson Jr. (2nd District, Ilocos Sur), Luzviminda Ilagan (PL – GABRIELA), Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan), Bernardo Vergara (Lone District, Baguio City), Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro City), Victorino Socrates (Palawan, 2nd District) and Jeci Lapus (3rd District, Tarlac).
source: http://www.congress.gov.ph
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