SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Community-Based Monitoring System Act".

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It. is the policy of the" State to free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, deliver a rising standard of living, promote full employment, and make available an improved quality of life for all.

Pursuant to this policy, the State recognizes the need to adopt focused and specific measures that will ensure poverty-reduction wherein citizens have access to social protection and welfare programs that address their minimum basic needs. The State further recognizes that a system of public spending that warrants government allocation on areas and populace that are most wanting is necessary in lifting people out of poverty.

Towards this end, the State shall adopt a community-based monitoring system which generates updated and disaggregated data necessary in targeting beneficiaries, conducting more comprehensive poverty analysis and needs prioritization, designing appropriate policies and interventions, and monitoring impact over time.

This data collection system shall respect the fundamental human right of privacy, ensure data quality, and uphold data protection principles of legitimate purpose transparency, and proportionality.

SEC. 3. Definition, of Terms. - As used in this Act:

(a) Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) refers to an organized technology-based system of collecting, processing and validating necessary disaggregated data that may be used for planning, program implementation and impact monitoring at the local level while empowering communities to participate in the process. It involves the generation of data at the local level which serves as basis in targeting households in the planning, budgeting and implementation of government programs geared towards poverty alleviation and economic development. This system merges the methodologies used in data collection activities of all national agencies, geo-tagging, and the CBMS implemented by local government units (LGUs). It entails a census of households undertaken by the LGUs  with the participation of the community using accelerated poverty profiling system in the data collection, processing, mapping and analysis of data;

(b) Geo-tagging refers to the process of adding metadata about government projects to various media and of uploading to a web-based application. This enables the mapping of all areas in the Philippines and allows the government, the citizenry, and other stakeholders to check the progress of projects in real time;

(c) Data refers to the information to be generated by the CBMS which includes the compendium of localized facts, figures, and maps on the different dimensions of poverty such as health, nutrition, water, sanitation, shelter, education, income, employment, security, and participation;

(d) Repository refers to the agency tasked with receiving, storing, and managing socioeconomic data; and

(e) Respondent, refers to any citizen who participates as a data-source in the surveys conducted under the CBMS.

SEC. 4. Data Collection. - A CBMS is hereby established and instituted in every city and municipality as an economic and social tool towards the formulation and implementation of poverty alleviation and development programs which are specific, targeted and responsive to the basic needs of each sector of the community. The CBMS shall have the appropriate security measures for data protection.

Each city and municipality is the primary data collecting authority within its locality. For this purpose, each city and municipality shall have a statistician, whose primary function is data collection, preservation and safekeeping of the data retained at the city or municipal level. Further, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shall create additional positions for statisticians at the provincial level to monitor and manage enumeration activities of LGUs under their jurisdiction.

SEC. 5. Periodicity of Data Collection. - Regular and synchronized data collection shall be conducted by every city and municipality every three (3) years. In the conduct, of data collection, the LGU shall receive financial and technical assistance from the appropriate national government agencies.

Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, all cities and municipalities are enjoined to collect data at shorter intervals and at their own expense for purposes peculiarly useful to them.

Further, the implementing rules and regulations as provided under Section 15 of this Act may provide for a separate period for data collection depending on the needs of national government agencies whose data-collecting functions have been consolidated with the CBMS.

SEC. 6. Lead Agency. - The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shall serve as the lead agency in the implementation of the CBMS. It shall have the following functions:

(a) Set standards, develop and review data collection forms utilizing as base of existing CBMS forms used by LGUs;

(b) Capacitate the cities and municipalities in the collection of poverty data at the local level through the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute, in collaboration with state universities and colleges and in coordination with other government agencies;

(c) Conduct cross-posting as follow-up capacity building of the cities and municipalities;

(d) Monitor the data collection by cities and municipalities to ensure adherence to official concepts, definitions, and standards of poverty statistics;

(e) Act as the national repository of all poverty data collected by the cities and municipalities;

(f) Process the poverty data generated and submitted by the cities and municipalities;

(g) Generate poverty statistics at higher levels that will complement and supplement the local level data; and

(h) Perform such other functions as may be necessary or incidental to the proper implementation of this Act.

SEC. 7. Information Dissemination. - The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is tasked to develop institutional arrangements on data-sharing. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is tasked to regularly disseminate information relating to activities of the CBMS. The National Statistician of the PSA is tasked to submit an annual accomplishment report to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives containing collective poverty statistics generated by the CBMS, where identities of respondents, cities and municipalities are kept confidential.

SEC. 8. Storage and Access of Data. — The cities and municipalities are allowed to maintain their own CBMS database for use in local level planning and program implementation. The PSA shall receive and store all aggregated data gathered by the cities and municipalities to create a national CBMS databank of collated information. It shall undertake measures to ensure the integrity and safety of the gathered information against unnecessary leakage and access by unauthorized persons.

Provinces shall have access to their respective local and territory-specific data.

SEC. 9. Prioritizing Social Protection Programs. - The appropriate national government agencies shall use the data generated by the CBMS in prioritizing timely, relevant and much-needed social, protection programs of government in areas identified to have the highest incidence of poverty.

SEC. 10. Confidentiality of Information. - The right to privacy of every respondent remains inviolable. The citizen participating in the data collection shall be fully informed of the nature and extent of processing intended for his or her personal data. Participation in all data collection activities is purely voluntary. Notwithstanding Section 4 of this Act, respondents may refuse to answer any question or reveal any information at any point, or terminate data collection activities with no further action needed. The person conducting the data collection shall ask the respondents whether they would like to make an explicit waiver to authorize the city and municipality to disclose their identity and other relevant information about their household to the government agency which provides social protection programs for them.

SEC. 11. Prioritization of Assistance. - The income class of cities and municipalities shall be considered in prioritizing the allocation of financial assistance to implement the provisions of this Act. Fourth, fifth and sixth class cities and municipalities shall be given assistance in the first three (8) years of implementation of this Act. Thereafter, other cities and municipalities shall progressively be given assistance to ensure the full implementation of this Act.

SEC. 12. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. — Upon the effectivity of this Act. a Congressional Oversight Committee, hereafter referred to as the CBMS Oversight Committee, is hereby constituted. This Committee shall set the overall framework to review the implementation of this Act. It shall likewise determine inherent weaknesses in the law and recommend necessary remedial legislation or executive measures. The CBMS Oversight Committee shall be composed of fourteen (14) members with the Chairpersons of the Committee on Poverty Alleviation, of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development of the Senate as Co-chairpersons; and six (6) members from each House, to be designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President, respectively. For purposes of determining remedial legislation, the CBMS Oversight Committee shall, within two (2) years after the effectivity of this Act, conduct a systematic evaluation of the impact of this Act. accomplishments of the system, and the performance of the cities and municipalities on data collection, and of the PSA on its functions as the lead agency.

SEC. 13. Appropriations. - The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.

SEC. 14. CBMS Council. - For purposes of achieving secure and efficient data sharing arrangements between and among concerned cities and municipalities and national government agencies to be used for their particular social protection and welfare programs and projects, there is hereby created a CBMS Council composed of the PSA, DILG and DICT. to be headed by the PSA. The implementing rules and regulations shall define other appropriate functions of the CBMS Council.

SEC. 15. Implementing Rules and Regulations. -Within ninety (90) days from the effectivity of this Act, the National Statistician of the PSA. in consultation with the DILG, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Privacy Commission, DICT, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute, CBMS Network, League of Provinces of the Philippines, League of Cities of the Philippines and League of Municipalities of the Philippines, shall promulgate the rules and regulations necessary for the effective implementation of this Act. The PSA shall work in consultation with the appropriate government offices and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors in the relevant fields to be covered by the data collection initiative.

SEC. 16. Transitory Provision. - The national government agencies which currently collect poverty data for purposes of targeting deserving beneficiaries to their respective social protection programs shall continue to perform their duties and responsibilities in a holdover capacity for a period of one (1) year from the effectivity of the implementing rules and regulations, or for such period as may be determined by the PSA to ensure compliance with the requirements of this Act.

SEC. 17. Separability Clause. - If any provision or part of this Act is held unconstitutional or invalid, the remaining parts or provisions not affected shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 18. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree, executive order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified, or amended accordingly.

SEC. 19. Effectivlty. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,

Approved: APR 17 2019

(SGD.) RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE
    President of the Philippines