IRR for Magna Carta of the Poor beats House deadline
by Ellson QuismorioThe proposed implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the Magna Carta of the Poor Act just beat the buzzer at the House of Representatives.
This, as the House Committee on Poverty Alleviation ended its consultations with the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) in connection with the all-important IRR, which is scheduled to be presented to Malacañang in less than two weeks.
The main authors of the Republic Act (RA) 11291 – Cebu first district Rep. Raul del Mar and Deputy Speaker, SAGIP Party-List Rep. Rodante Marcoleta – ultimately gave their approval to the draft IRR that NAPC head researcher Fernando Cao presented to the panel last Wednesday, which was the final day of House consultations.
Suffice it to say that the IRR underwent major revisions after the authors first laid eyes on it during a panel hearing last November 8.
“The deadline given to us is up to today (Wednesday), to finish the consultations with us. Because they have to prepare all these things for submission to the President on the 11th [of December],” Del Mar said.
“I’m happy to report that we did the best we can considering the deadline we were given.
“I also thank Mr. Cao for understanding. He explained to us that the problem was in the provisions introduced by the different government agencies. We told him that in case of conflicts with provisions from other agencies, including different agencies, it is ours that should prevail,” Del Mar said, alluding to the earlier problems found in the IRR.
NAPC initially submitted to the panel a 41-page draft IRR, something that the authors found incredulous since the Magna Carta itself was only 10 pages long. Back then, Marcoleta said the IRR contained “unnecessary platitudes.”
NAPC managed to produce a more coherent 19-page version by the time of the second hearing last November 18. The Committee began a line-by-line review but it was cut short due to the start of the plenary session that day.
Del Mar bared that he and Cao sat down on the IRR afterward to speed up the process.
“The IRR might not be the most ideal one that we have or hoped for, but I think the best parts…are already there,” Marcoleta said on Wednesday.
“With everything else having been said about the IRR, we believe that it’s a realistic guidepost toward the implementation of the law we have enacted. Hopefully, it can be implemented in the best way it can, and as soon as possible,” added the Deputy Speaker.
Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last April 12, RA 11291 mandates the State “to adopt an area-based, sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation where every poor Filipino must be empowered to meet the minimum basic need through the partnership of the Government and the basic sectors.” Magna Carta means “Great Charter.”
As the term implies, the IRR is a key tool in the implementation of the law, which was first pursued by Filipino legislators way back in the 14th Congress, or around 12 years ago.
Although satisfied with the outcome, Del Mar was apparently rubbed the wrong way by the absence of NAPC lead convener, lawyer Noel Felongco during the House consultations.
“The lead convener of NAPC never showed up in these hearings of ours. I attended another hearing but I haven’t seen him. I don’t know what he looks like. Nevertheless, because of the pressing deadline, we would just let this go…had we not been facing the deadline, we would not have proceeded with any hearing without his presence,” he said.
To this, Cao said: “He has been very busy the past few days crisscrossing all the islands to in order to roll out anti-poverty projects.”
Cao thanked the authors, saying NAPC was “emboldened by your concern for the poor, which are our chief mandate and reason for being.”
“We express our eternal gratitude for equipping us with the Magna Carta of the Poor in order to finally rid the country of abject poverty and deprivation,” he added.