Volunteer-workers during times of calamities or emergencies like the virus pandemic will get protection for acts or omissions if a House of Representatives-approved bill gets enacted.
House Bill 6091 or the Emergency Volunteer Protection Act provides that volunteers who commit acts or omissions while in the performance of their duties during emergency situations will not be held liable.
The bill was passed on third and final reading with 248 members voting in favor of the bill. San Jose del Monte Rep. Florida Robes of San Jose del Monte, chairman of the House committee on people’s participation, was among the legislators who sponsored the bill.
To fall under the protection of the bill, Robes said the volunteer must be acting under the following conditions: 1.) the volunteer was acting in an emergency situation at the scene of an accident; 2.) the volunteer was property licensed, certified, or authorized by the appropriate authorities, either government entities or non-government organizations, for the activities undertaken in an emergency at the time of the act of omission; and 3.) the harm was not caused by willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the individual harmed by the volunteer.
However volunteers who commit acts of misconduct constituting a crime under the Revised Penal Code or an offense in any special penal law will not be covered as well as those under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any dangerous drug at the time of the act or omission, she added.
Volunteers from business organizations that employ volunteers for pecuniary purposes will likewise not be covered by the said proposed law.
The approved bill has already been transmitted to the Senate where a version will need to be passed before the same is submitted to the President for his signature to become a law.
