A bill has been filed at the House of Representatives providing benefits and privileges to single persons and their dependents.
PBA party-list Rep. Margarita Nograles filed House Bill 1364 saying “many of such single individuals function like a solo parent and bear the most burden in the family.”
“The typical Filipino family is, by its nature, extended and closely-knit. It is not unusual in a number of Filipino families that the children who have already graduated from college and have begun working, or even those who stopped attending school to find work due to poverty, would eventually become the breadwinners of their families,” Nograles said in the bill’s explanatory note.
She added that the older children usually support the schooling of their younger siblings while unmarried or single children usually support their parents as they age or are limited by disabilities.
Nograles, a lawyer, also acknowledged in the bill’s explanatory note that some single or unmarried individuals also provide financial support to the children of their siblings or serve as guardians in cases where their siblings are abroad or are financially incapable of supporting their own children.
“This stark reality behooves us to provide additional benefits and privileges to single or unmarried individuals with dependents through giving them leave privileges and a flexible working schedule, both of which will enable them to have more time to attend to various family matters,” she said.
“This is to recognize their sacrifice and their financial and moral contribution for the strengthening of the Filipino family,” she added.
The proposal, Nograles said, is also in recognition of the sacrifice and financial and moral contribution to the strengthening of the Filipino family.
Nograles’ proposal provides that the employers shall endeavor to provide a flexible working schedule and other considerations for single employees with dependents or function as the provider or head of the family.
The employer shall also endeavor to provide at least once a week a work-from-home schedule to qualified singles provided that such will not affect the individual and company productivity.