MANILA, Philippines?After enduring criticism for his bill seeking a stop to the ?overloading? of school bags, Sen. Manuel ?Lito? Lapid has turned his attention to elderly and impoverished people abandoned by their children.

Lapid has filed a measure titled ?Maintenance of Parents Act of 2010,? which will enable parents to ask the courts to require their children to provide them financial support.

In the explanatory note to Senate Bill No. 2519, the action-star-turned-lawmaker observed that ?the incidence of elderly people neglected by their children is becoming not uncommon.?

?The onset of urbanization and commercialization has brought with it certain factors that tend to erode Filipino family ties and values,? Lapid said.

?This bill reinforces the duty of children to care for their elderly parents, providing elderly persons ? recourse to the law,? he said.

Right to demand support

SB 2519 tackles a serious subject matter that runs deep in Philippine culture?respect for the elderly.

?The state shall provide legal assistance to elderly people in the enforcement of their right to demand support from their relatives,? it reads in part.

Section 4 of the bill states that ?children shall maintain and support their father or mother or other direct ascendants who are in need.?

It seeks to enable the elderly to file a court petition with the assistance of a representative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. During trial, the petitioner will also be represented by the Public Attorney?s Office ?and shall be exempt from all charges and fees.?

In ruling on a petition, the court ?shall take into consideration the financial resources of the child/children and his obligation to maintain his own family before it orders the maintenance and support of the elderly member,? according to the bill.

Childhood experience

Last month, Lapid drew criticism from Education Secretary Armin Luistro for proposing that schools limit the load of students? bags to 15 percent of their body weight.

Luistro commented that he had found Lapid?s SB 2179 quite trivial.

But Lapid argued that the measure was partly the product of his own childhood experience.

?If only I did not go through such hard labor in the mountains?I was a wood gatherer and I carried sugarcane when I was young?I should have been taller because the Lapids are very big. I should have been taller than my father who was 5 [feet] 11 [inches],? said the senator who stands 5?9?.