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SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
Second Regular Session
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'14 SEP 24 P5 :34
SENATE
S.B. No.
2426
Prepared jointly by the Committees on Cultural Communities and Finance,
with Senator Loren Legarda as author thereof
AN ACT TO INCLUDE ETHNIC ORIGIN IN THE NATIONAL SURVEY
CONDUCTED BY THE PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:
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Section 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Ethnic Origin Act of2014."
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Scc. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is the policy of the State to recognize and promote
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the rights of indigenous peoples or indigenous cultural communities within the framework of
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national unity and development. The State shall give the highest priority to the enactment of
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measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social,
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economic and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities.
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Sec. 3. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act, the following terms shall mean the
following:
(a) "Ethnic Origin or Ethnicity" includes nationality and ethno-linguistic origin.
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(b) "Indigenous Peoples (IPs) or Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs)" shall, as
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provided under Section 3 (h) of Chapter II of RA No. 8371 or the "Indigenous
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People's Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997", refer to a group of people or homogenous
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societies identified by self-ascription by others, who have continuously lived as an
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organized community on communally-boundcd and defined territory, and who
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have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and
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utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions,
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and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political,
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social, and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures,
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became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs and IPs
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shall likewisc include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their
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descent from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest
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or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures,
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