A party-list lawmaker has filed a bill seeking to grant a mental health wellness break to all employees and students.
AGBIAG Rep. Michelle Antonio filed House Bill 7400, which seeks to institutionalize mental health wellness breaks of three days for both employees and students.
The bill provides that employees are entitled to full compensation for those breaks, while students are excused from their classes with a condition that the break is availed of only during regular class days, and not on examination days.
In her explanatory note, Antonio stressed the need for the government to address the mental health problem, considering that mental illness ranks third in the most common disabilities in the country— affecting one of five of the hundred million Filipinos.