Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is optimistic that more Filipinos who are now considered solo parents will soon start reaping the benefits of a new law that grants them food price discounts, tax exemptions, free legal aid, and medical care, tuition subsidies, parental leaves, and other privileges.
Under Republic Act (RA) 11861 or the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act which is due for implementation in a month’s time, solo parents who earn minimum wages or below will also get a monthly cash aid of P1,000 each from their respective local government units (LGUs), said Villafuerte, who is a co-author of this law.
“We are looking forward to the immediate and full release of this monthly pension to low-income solo parents plus the application or provision of other benefits due them and all other Filipinos who have single-handedly been raising their children, following the release of RA 11861’s IRR.”
Villafuerte issued this statement as the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 11861 were signed just recently by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo and the other members of the inter-agency coordination and monitoring committee that drafted the IRR.
Tulfo told the media that with the signing of the IRR, this law will be implemented by late October.
This act lapsed into law last June 4.
The Department of Health (DOH) and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) estimated in a 2017 study that there are 14 to 15 million solo parents in the country.
Villafuerte, who is the president of the National Unity Party (NUP), explained that the grant of the P1,000 monthly pension along with all new benefits in addition to those privileges provided in the original law—RA 8972—that was passed in the year 2000, will put flesh to RA 11861’s declared policy for the State to “promote a just and dynamic social order that ensures the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living and an improved quality of life.”
“We are looking forward to the immediate and full release of this monthly pension to low-income solo parents plus the application or provision of other benefits due them and all other Filipinos who have single-handedly been raising their children, following the release of RA 11861’s IRR,” Villafuerte said.
He said, “This expanded social protection program for solo parents is timely, considering that a number of single dads or moms were likely on last year’s bigger list of Filipinos who lived below the poverty line.”
According to a recent Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) report, its 2021 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of 165,029 families nationwide showed there were 19.99 million Filipinos living below the poverty level last year, or higher by 2.3 million than the 17.67 million recorded in the comparable period in 2018—translating into a poverty rate of 18.1% in 2021 from 2018’s 16.6%.
Under this new law, single parents earning the minimum wage or below are entitled to a P1,000 monthly pension from their LGUs, provided that they receive no other cash assistance program from the government.
Solo parents are also entitled to a 10-percent discount and exemption from the value-added tax (VAT) on baby’s milk and sanitary diapers; food and micronutrient supplements; duly prescribed medicines, vaccines and other medical supplements from the birth of the child until he or she is six years old.
Villafuerte said the pitch by President Marcos for solo parents in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) should prompt local executives to put up Solo Parents Offices (SPOs) or Solo Parents Divisions (SPDs) in their respective localities, if they haven’t done so, in compliance with RA 11861.
The former Camarines Sur governor likewise appealed to LGU executives to back the President’s support for solo parents by submitting to the DSWD, on a quarterly basis, their respective lists of solo parents who will avail of the benefits of the new law.
“The expanded protection and promotion of the welfare of solo parents and their children under RA 11861 further concretizes the government’s commitment to the constitutional provision for the State to recognize the sanctity of family life and protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution.”
“A more comprehensive package of social welfare services and development initiatives for solo parents will help the Marcos government further ease their burden in rearing their children towards becoming productive citizens,” said Villafuerte.
Villafuerte also urged the DSWD, in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), to immediately establish and maintain, as provided in this new Act, a centralized database of all solo parents who are to be issued Solo Parent Identification Cards (SPICs) and booklets by the LGUs.
He said this new law broadened the definition of “solo parents” to cover more Filipinos as beneficiaries of the original RA 8972 benefits, as well as additional aid such as exemption from the payment of income taxes in the amount of P50,000; discounts on purchases of baby’s milk, food supplements and medicines; discounts on tuition fee payments in both public and private schools, and on purchases of school supplies.
According to Villafuerte, a more comprehensive package of social welfare services and development initiatives for solo parents will help the Marcos government further ease their burden in rearing their children towards becoming productive citizens.
Most of the additional benefits in RA 11861 that beneficiaries can now avail of plus the bigger list of Filipinos now considered legally as solo parents were contained in House Bill (HB) 6051, the bill authored by Villafuerte that was incorporated with HB 8097, the final and consolidated version passed by the House of Representatives.
Aside from parents whose spouses have passed away, unmarried fathers or mothers, and rape victims who opted to keep their offspring, those legally considered as “solo parents” under RA 11861 include the spouses or family members of semi-skilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have been away from the Philippines for a period of 12 months; grandparents and other family members or qualified guardians who bear sole responsibility over children; and those whose spouses have been detained for at least three months for a criminal conviction.
Also classified now as “solo parents’ are those whose spouses have been medically certified as physically or mentally incapacitated; those who have been separated from their spouses for at least six months and have taken on sole parental care and support of their children; those whose marriages have been nullified or annulled and have been entrusted with solo parental care; and those who have been abandoned by their spouses for at least six months; and those whose spouses have been in detention for a criminal conviction.
Alongside leave privileges under existing laws, solo parents are likewise entitled to a seven-day parental leave with pay regardless of employment status, and they get priority in any telecommuting program of their workplaces, said Villafuerte, who also co-authored RA 11165 or the Telecommuting Act of 2018.
