Abusive, neglectful parents excluded from Parents Welfare bill – Lacson

Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed Parents Welfare Act of 2025 does not include parents who have abused, hurt or neglected their children.

This clarification was made by Senator Panfilo Lacson in response to misconceptions about the measure. The lawmaker is the author of Senate Bill 396, which seeks to ensure parents get support from their children in their time of need.

“Abuse, abandonment or neglect by parents of their children are exempting circumstances. Under the proposed measure, the child has no obligation to support parents who abused, abandoned, or neglected him/her,” he made it clear in a statement.

Some quarters said the bill does not consider the situation of people who are not financially capable, as well as those who have been abused or neglected by their parents.

Lacson’s bill seeks support for parents who are senior citizens or sickly or who, regardless of age, are permanently incapacitated or not capable of supporting themselves.

But the senator noted that under Section 16 of the bill, if the court determines, after due notice and hearing, that the parent in need of support had abandoned, abused, or neglected the child, it may dismiss the petition or reduce the quantum of support.

He cited Article 195 of the Family Code, which stresses the legal obligation of each member of the family to support each other.

But under his bill, children who have no financial capability to support their parents are not obliged to do so.

Also, Lacson pointed out that the bill does not mean the government is passing the burden of supporting elderly parents to the children.

“Taking care of the elderly members of society) is a shared responsibility of government and the children of said elderly. The care for the aged is neither an exclusively private matter to be left to the family nor an exclusively public concern best left to the government,” he said. /apl