Solon refiles bill granting P2k/month conditional pay to poor housewives

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/REM ZAMORA

MANILA, Philippines — Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda has refiled his bill providing compensation to poor, jobless and full-time housewives.

House Bill No. 80, which was referred to the committee on women and gene equality Tuesday, seeks to provide a P2,000 monthly compensation to all full-time housewives below the poverty threshold, without part-time or home-based work.

“The State must… recognize the work of stay-at-home women… as valuable economic activity. It is time to appreciate their worth and contribution in nation-building…” Salceda, an economist, said in his explanatory note of HB 80.

“Some studies show that if we quantify the work of stay-at-home women, it approximates the work of kasambahay (maid), thus housewives also deserve to get paid at least what a kasambahay earns,” the district lawmaker added.

Salceda said that in January 2018, about 29.5 million or 40.3 percent of the total population 15 years old and up were not in the labor force. He added that about 67.5 percent of those were women.

“The principal reason by (58 percent of) women of working age for being economically inactive, i.e., being outside the labor force, is unpaid care work…” Salceda noted.

Conditions

The assistance is subject for review by Congress and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) every three years, according to the bill.

The grant is also subject to the following conditions:
– child/children should be enrolled with at least 85 percent attendance;
– child/children should manifest responsible behavior;
– the family should attend quarterly barangay assembly.

The bill also states that at the onset of the implementation, DSWD’s National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction database will be used to identify initial beneficiaries. After the first year of the roll-out, the DSWD and the local Social Welfare and Development Office of each local government units will set-up mechanisms for annual updating of beneficiaries.

Salceda also filed the same bill in the previous 17th Congress but it remained pending at the women and gender equality panel until that Congress ended.