The House of Representatives unanimously ratified on Monday, Jan. 24. the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed amendments to the “Solo Parents Welfare Act that will grant additional benefits to an estimated 15,000 Filipinos.
The consolidated House Bill 8097 and Senate Bill 1411 proposes to grant additional benefits to solo parents that would include educational scholarship for a child and grant of ten percent discount and exemption from value added tax on the purchase of children’s clothing; baby’s milk, food and micronutrient supplements and diapers; basic school supplies; medical and dental services and diagnostic and laboratory fees and duly prescribed medicines and vaccines and medical supplements.
The House version of the bill contained provisions from at least 21 separate legislative measures filed by various authors.
Among the authors are Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero (1PACMAN Partylist); Ferdinand L. Hernandez (2nd District, South Cotabato) and Marlyn Alonte (Lone District, Biñan City) and Reps. Robert Ace Barbers (2nd District, Surigao del Norte); Dan Fernandez (1st District, Laguna); Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales (3rd District, Pampanga); Wilton “Tonton” Kho (3rd District, Masbate); Alfred Vargas (5th District, Quezon City); Romulo “Kid” Peña ( 1st District Makati City); John Reynald Tiangco (Lone District, Navotas City); Princess Rihan M. Sakaluran (1st District, Sultan Kudarat); Luis “Jon” Ferrer IV (6th District, Cavite); Precious Hipolito Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City); Lawrence Fortun (1st District, Agusan del Norte) and Jose “Bong Teves (TGP Partylist).
The six-man Makabayan partylist bloc also co-authored one of the bills.
Under the bill, a qualified solo parent is one who is earning less than P250,000 annually, thus entitled to additional benefits of ten percent discounts from purchases of basic necessities of a child or children under his or her sole responsibility.
The legislative proposal also mandates the creation of the solo Parent Office in local government units.
The bill penalizes any person who refuses or fails to provide for the additional benefits, misrepresents a status or falsifies any document in order to avail of the additional benefits granted by the law.
In proposing passage of the measure, Barbers stressed the need to amend the 22-year-old law to further assist solo parents in raising their family.
“Financial problems are more or less the first problem that most one-parent families face,” the Surigao del Norte lawmaker stated.
Romero lauded both the Lower House and the Senate for acting swiftly in approving the bill, stressing that the currently law needs to be fine tuned to the current needs of solo parents in order to address the difficulties they face in raising their family.
“After almost two decades of implementation of RA No. 8972, it is imperative to revisit and amend some of its provisions to correspond to the present times,” he said.