House bill vs parental neglect reaches appropriations committee

MANILA – The House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations is assessing the funding needed to establish a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) office to oversee the implementation of House Bill (HB) 8987 or Act Ensuring Child Support and Penalizing Parental Refusal or Neglect Thereof.

The Committee on Welfare of Children has approved the bill that proposes a penalty of up to six years of imprisonment for deadbeat fathers.

It was agreed during the hearings that the financial support fathers must provide will depend on the child’s needs.

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The law will mandate the DSWD, in collaboration with the National Economic and Development Authority, to determine the amount of child support.

“Kailangang kailangan na natin itong batas na ito. Kailangang maparusahan ang mga tatay na ayaw bigyan ng suporta ang kanilang mga anak lalo na kapag iniwan na niya ang kanyang pamilya (We really need this kind of proposed law. Fathers who refuse to support their children must be punished, especially those who abandoned his family),” House Deputy Majority Leader and ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, one of the bill’s authors, said in a news release Sunday.

“Nagpapasalamat tayo sa ating mga kasamahan sa Kongreso sa pag-usad nitong panukalang batas pero sana ay mas madaliin pa ito para tuluyan nang mapanagot ang mga walang pusong ama na tinalikuran ang kanilang mga sariling anak (We thank our colleagues in Congress for pushing this proposed measure but we hope for more pressure to it to finally hold these heartless fathers who abandoned their children),” Tulfo said.

The bill said mothers raising their children alone, numbering around 15 million, will no longer have to beg or plead with their ex-partners or the fathers of their children for financial support.

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