The late Eddie Garcia

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has highlighted the benefits of the recently-enacted "Eddie Garcia Law", which was named after an iconic actor in Philippine cinema. 

Villafuerte said the law, designated as Republic Act (RA) No.11996, shall provide labor protection to all workers in movie and television industry, including independent contractors who are hired to do production work and other services like distribution and exhibition of content. 

“The proposed labor protection covers the industry workers’  out-of-town shoots and/or lock-in production requiring them to stay within  sets or location sites for days or even months,” he said. 

“This law benefits all  industry workers, including independent contractors hired to do production work and other services like distribution and exhibition of content, and to include  out-of-town shoots and/or lock-in production work that require them to stay in location sites for 24 hours straight or even for several days or months,” noted Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP). 

This pro-workers bill was named after the late multi-awarded actor-director Eduardo Garcia (screen name: Eddie Garcia), who died in June 2019, following an accident caused by alleged negligence on safety protocols on the site where a new TV series featuring him was being taped. 

RA No.11996 states that all industry workers shall be “adequately insured” by the employer or principal, at no cost to the workers, for work-related accidents or death in every movie and television production, Villafuerte said. 

During the previous Congress, Villafuerte filed House Resolution (HR) No.195, which urged the House Committee on Labor and Employment to probe the occupational health and safety of workers in the entertainment industry, 

This was in light of Garcia’s death during the production of the teleserye “Rosa Agimat” on GMA Network Inc. 
 
As noted in HR No.195, Garcia had fallen face down on the pavement after tripping on a cable wire,  leading to “a cervical fracture which allegedly caused his untimely death 12 days into comatose". 

Villafuerte had authored HB Mo.1270, the lead bill of RA No.11996, with his fellow Camarines Sur Congressmen Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata along with Bicol Saro Party-list, in the hope of providing full workplace protection to all industry workers and prevent a repetition of Garcia’s accident.