MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 14, 2012) – Cagayan Representative Jack Enrile is optimistic that 2013 will be a banner year for almost 2 million domestic workers in the Philippines.
He said that is, if — hopefully — the Batas Kasambahay is signed into law by President Benigno Aquino before the year ends.
Enrile was the first member of the House of Representatives who seriously looked into the plight of local domestic workers back in 1998 during his first term in office. Sensing that they are the most vulnerable sector of the labor force, he initiated the filing the Magna Carta for Household Helpers, now House Bill 553.
“It is unfortunate that our household helpers like yayas are not covered by any laws or legislation. This, sadly, drives some of them to commit crimes because they think they can get away with it, and conversely, others who are abused because they have no protection under our laws,” Enrile said.
Since then, the Magna Carta for Household Helpers has spawned 16 more similar bills on domestic rights which were eventually consolidated into House Bill 6144.
Last September, the House approved the bill on its third and final reading. Its Senate counterpart known as Senate Bill No. 78 was passed on December 2010.
“Never mind if it took us 13 or 14 long years to get here. The important thing is we have formulated another landmark legislation that will benefit a major sector in our labor force,” Enrile ssaid.
“This is the success not only of Jack Enrile, it is the success of the House of the Representatives, it is the success of the Senate of the Philippines and it is the success of a very progressive and independent-minded President Noynoy Aquino,” he added.
An administration-backed measure and certified urgent by President Aquino during his State of the Nation Address on July 2011, Batas Kasambahay effectively provides a set of standard protection for almost 2 million domestic workers in the country.
Under the provisions of HB 6144, employers are mandated to provide their kasambahay with three basic things: board, lodging, and medical assistance. In addition, they are also required to register their household helpers as members of SSS, Pag-IBIG, and Philhealth.
The proposed legislation also identifies the following acts against domestic workers as unlawful. These include requiring domestic workers to make deposits, where deductions will be made in case they lose or destroy household materials, debt bondage or requiring a person to render service to a household for an unspecified amount of time as a form of debt payment, hiring minors as household help, assigning domestic workers to non-household work, and interfering with a worker’s freedom to dispose his or her wages as they wish, as well as withholding the wages of a domestic worker. (With a report from Francis Hidalgo, Jr.)
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