The House Committee on Welfare of Children on Monday, Dec. 12, began initial deliberations on a bill that would consolidate several proposed measures for the Magna Carta of day care workers, which seeks to improve the working conditions of the workers by increasing their allowances and other benefits.

The House panel, chaired by BHW Party-list Rep. Angelica Natasha Co, threshed out the details of some 15 proposed measures—House Bills (HBs) 218, 1199, 1260, 1268, 1830, 1902, 2023, 2247, 2644, 3101, 3266, 3278, 3531, 3780, and 4682 (Instituting the Magna Carta of Day Care Workers/ Child Development Workers and providing funds therefor) currently pending in the 19th Congress.

The bills would institute, grant, and establish a Magna Carta of day care workers.

Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing underscored the importance of day care workers in communities.

“To our communities, day care workers serve as our second parents playing an integral role in character molding and personality development in the formative years of our nation’s youth,” she said during the hearing.

“With their crucial role in upbringing of our youth and young children, it is then incumbent for our government to provide our day care workers with the proper compensation, renumeration, income and jobs security that they deserve,” the lawmaker added.

Suansing lamented that under the present law, day care workers are only entitled to receive a monthly allowance of P500, “which is definitely insufficient to sustain their needs.”

Deputy Minority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon (BH) Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera described the measure as “a very important bill.”

“Hopefully, with your leadership this can see the light of day kasi napakalahaga nito sa ating (because this is very important to our) day care workers,” she said.

A representative from international children’s organization Save the Children also recognized a recommendation to use child development workers instead of day care workers in communities, saying that the organization is behind it.

Suansing raised concerns on the eligibility of the day care workers to qualify for the positions of Child Development Worker (CDW) 1 and 2.

Noting that there are 86,045 daycare workers as of December 2022, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the lawmaker was elated to know that most of the day care workers have almost 10 years of experience.

One of the requirements of HB 218, which she co-authored with her father, Sultan Kudarat 2nd District Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr., is for CDW2 to have five years of working experience and 12 hours of relevant training.

However, Zamboanga Sibugay 1st District Rep. Wilter Palma suggested to lower the requirement for CDW2 to two years of experience, which the House committee approved “with no objection.”

National Federation of Day Care Workers President Perla Reyes thanked the House panel for taking up the proposed measures.

“It is our prayers and it is plea, 27 years ago sabi nga po nila (as they said this has been going on since the) 10th Congress pa po ito. I’m touched na pinag-uusapan ang (that we are talking about the) welfare ng (of ),” she said.

“Patuloy po kami umaasa malaki-laki at maganda-gandang liwanag na po ang amin natatanaw (We continue to hope the bigger and better chance that we see),” Reyes added.

Under HB 218, one of the measures to be consolidated, the Magna Carta of day care workers “seeks to improve the social and economic welfare of Day Care Workers by granting them benefits and privileges.”

“This bill then mandates the creation of plantilla positions in all Day Care Centers nationwide, allowing them to enjoy security of tenure and other benefits provided under Civil Service rules and regulations. They shall also be duly entitled to receive other additional compensation and allowances such as overtime pay, hazard pay and subsistence allowance,” the explanatory note added.