We raise the alarm over a Senate proposal that seeks to criminalize adult offspring who fail to financially support their elderly parents — a move that the labor group says is not only misguided but also tone-deaf to the economic realities of Filipino workers.
Let’s be real, most young workers today are struggling to keep their own families afloat, juggling bills, inflation and poverty wages. Millions of them are contractual and precarious work with no security of tenure. Instead of penalizing them with prison time, the government should focuse on building a reliable and inclusive social protection system.
The proposed Senate Bill 396 invokes Article XV, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution, which states: “The family has the duty to care for its elderly members.” But criminalizing a civil duty is too harsh. The State may also do so through just retirement pensions or programs of social security.
Unfortunately, the government has long ignored the latter half of that sentence. The State has largely failed to fund its part of the deal, especially the Social Security System (SSS).
In fact, Section 20 of Republic Act 8282, or the Social Security Act of 1997, mandates government support for social insurance annually including indigent and informal workers’ social protection, but the contribution from public coffers has been missing in action since 1957, save for the token P500,000 in initial capital.
Sixty eight years without support from government, and now they want to lock up cash-strapped offspring for doing the same? That’s unjust.
We urge Sen. Panfilo Lacson and other proponents to rechannel their energy into fulfilling what the law actually demands.
Instead of prioritizing Senate Bill 396, the Senate should focus on appropriating funds for SSS pension reform, improved healthcare coverage for senior citizens and pass a P250 across-the-board wage increase, as workers — both young and experienced — continue to suffer under starvation wages.
The intention to protect the elderly is noble, but making poverty a crime is not the solution. If we criminalize every unpaid obligation, perhaps we should start with the State’s own 68-year delinquency to the SSS that would have benefited the elderly and the workers.
Support for the elderly shouldn’t come from court subpoenas or writs — it should come from State subsidies.