00:00In a bid to strengthen filial responsibility, a Senate bill aims to make it a crime for adult children to abandon or fail to support their aging parents.
00:08Under the proposed Parents Welfare Act, offenders may face fines and years of imprisonment with the state providing legal aid to elderly complainants seeking justice.
00:17Harley Valbuena reports.
00:19Doribeth Devera, a 67-year-old mother, is already retired from being a beautician and currently has no regular source of income.
00:30Hence, she expects support from her three children, especially when she gets sick.
00:35Maganda pa rin yung talagang tumutulong ka. Ibig sabihin, tumatanaw ka pa rin ng utang na loob sa magulang mo, nagpalaki sa'yo, nag-alaga sa'yo, nagpaaral.
00:46Sana, maisip nila yun na pag naging magulang na rin sila, tulungan din sila ng anak nila.
00:53Doribeth is among those who are expected to benefit from a bill filed in the Senate which seeks to criminalize children who will abandon their aging, sick, and incapacitated parents.
01:05Under the proposed Parents' Welfare Act of Sen. Panfilo Ping Lakson, parents will be able to file petition in courts to issue support order against their children.
01:17They will be provided free legal representation from public attorney's office.
01:22Should the respondent fail to comply within the support order for three months, he or she will face one to six months' imprisonment and 100,000 pesos fine.
01:33Meanwhile, whoever has the care or protection of a parent in need of support and abandons him or her will face six to ten years in jail and 300,000 fine.
01:45Senator Lakson said the bill aims to strengthen filial responsibility of adult children to their parents, citing that the presence of abandoned elderly in the streets are becoming typical.
01:58National Commission of Senior Citizens expressed support for the bill, but they call for the inclusion of penalizing other violations of elderly's rights.
02:07We want it to be a criminal offense instead of just an administrative offense.
02:12When you talk about violence, just like domestic violence, it encompasses a range of actions na being, you know, suffered or being inflicted on an older person.
02:24So it can be emotional, it can be verbal, it can be physical, it can be economic event.
02:31NCSC added that safeguards should be considered against potential abuse of the bill.
02:37Citing the parents that abandoned their children first, but will eventually ask support from them.
02:43Medyo mas salimood pa yan eh. Mas maganda siya kung maiayos natin at maiplastada natin.
02:49Kung baga all the necessary, you know, criteria, protocols, including yung mga engagements should also be embedded.
02:57But I think that will be tackled in an IRR.
02:59Moreover, the bill also pushes for the establishment of old-age home in every province and highly urbanized cities for sick or incapacitated parents.
03:11NCSC, meanwhile, said that currently, there are only four residential care facilities for abandoned senior citizens handled by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, while others are private facilities.
03:25Hardy Valbena from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
