President Rodrigo Duterte signed RA No. 11291 into law. This is a move to help provide the poor Filipinos with the means to meet their basic necessities. Republic Act No. 11921, which will also be called Magna Carta of the Poor, was signed by the President of the Republic on the 12th of April 2019. This would now require all government agencies and departments to give the poor people full access to all services of the government.
This law dictates that the poor will be classified as persons with below poverty income level as defined by the NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority). These include the people who won’t be able to afford even their basic needs such as food and housing, education, and health.
There will be government agencies that will be assigned to ensure that the poor will benefit from these;
1. Right to Food
- There should be available supplies of food for them.
- Encourage them to join in activities that will make them self-sufficient.
2. Right to Decent Work
- Ensure that they will have access to information on job openings
- Create livelihood for the poor
- Ensure that the poor will be given a chance to be employed by private contractors and subcontractors who have a contract with the local and national projects in the public sector.
- Ensure that there’s compliance with the main labor standards, skill mismatch, and local work projects. They should also be provided with education and training.
3. Right to Education
- Ensure that they will be given free education in public schools from kindergarten to high school level.
- Ensure that they will have access to higher education
- Make technical-vocational education & training accessible to the poor by providing financial assistance, subsidiaries, and scholarships.
4. Right to Decent Housing
- Implementation of socialized housing should be on top priority
- Immediate construction of housing services for the families that live within the areas that are considered danger zones and in the areas affected by calamities
- Speedy processing and approval of socialized housing
- Create an environment that will aid the poor to get access to the security of tenure with the smallest amount of financial load
5. Right to Good Health
- The poor should have access to good health
- They should be provided with universal, gender-responsive, comprehensive, non-discriminatory, and culture-sensitive services
- Ensure that they are given free education to health-related issues and information
