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"(g) That if an employee should give birth or suffer abortion or miscarriage without
the required contributions having been remitted for her by her employer to the SSS, or without
the latter having been previously notified by the employer of the time of the pregnancy, the
employer shall pay to the SSS damages equivalent to the benefits which said employee would
otherwise have been entitled to, and the SSS shall in turn pay such amount to the employee
concerned."
SEC. 2. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as to diminish existing maternity benefits under
present laws and collective bargaining agreements.
SEC. 3. All laws, executive orders, prodamations,.presidential decrees, rules and regulations,
and other issuances, or parts hereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby
repealed or modified accordingly.
SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette or
in at least two (2) national newspapers of general circulation, whichever comes earlier.
Section 1. It is the policy of the State to ensure and guarantee the enjoyment of the people of a
decent standard of living. Towards this end, the State shall take measures to protect Filipino
women from being exploited in utter disregard of human dignity in their pursuit of economic
upliftment.
Section 2. Pursuant thereto, it is hereby declared unlawful:
(a)
For a person, natural or juridical, association, club or any other entity to commit, directly
or indirectly, any of the following acts:
(1)
To establish or carry on a business which has for its purpose the matching of Filipino
women for marriage to foreign nationals either on a mail-order basis or through personal
introduction;
(2)
To advertise, publish, print or distribute or cause the advertisement, publication, printing
or distribution of any brochure, flier, or any propaganda material calculated to promote the
prohibited acts in the preceding subparagraph;
(3)
To solicit, enlist or in any manner attract or induce any Filipino woman to become a
member in any club or association whose objective is to match women for marriage to foreign
nationals either on a mail-order basis or through personal introduction for a fee;
(4)
To use the postal service to promote the prohibited acts in subparagraph 1
hereof.1awphi1alf
(b)
For the manager or officer-in-charge or advertising manager of any newspaper,
magazine, television or radio station, or other media, or of an advertising agency, printing
company or other similar entities, to knowingly allow, or consent to, the acts prohibited in the
preceding paragraph.
Section 3. In case of violation of this Act by an association, club, partnership, corporation, or any
other entity, the incumbent officers thereof who have knowingly participated in the violation of
this Act shall be held liable.1awphila1f
Section 4. Any person found guilty by the court to have violated any of the acts herein prohibited
shall suffer an imprisonment of not less than six (6) years and one (1) day but not more than
eight (8) years, and a fine of not less than Eight thousand pesos (P8,000) but not more than
Twenty thousand pesos (P20,000): Provided, That if the offender is a foreigner, he shall be
immediately deported and barred forever from entering the country after serving his sentence
and payment of fine.
XXX
in nation building and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of
women and men. The State shall provide women rights and opportunities
equal to that of men.
To attain the foregoing policy:
(1) (1) A substantial portion of official development assistance funds
received from foreign government and multilateral agencies and
organizations shall be set aside and utilized by the agencies concerned to
support programs and activities for women;
(2) (2) All government departments shall ensure that women benefit equally
and participate directly in the development programs and projects of said
department, specifically those funded under official foreign development
assistance, to ensure the full participation and involvement of women in
the development process; and
(3) (3) All government departments and agencies shall review and revise all
their regulations, circulars, issuances and procedures to remove gender
bias therein.
SECTION 3. Responsible Agency. The National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA) shall primarily be responsible for ensuring the participation of
women as recipients in foreign aid, grants and loans. It shall
determine and recommend the amount to be allocated for the development
activity involving women.
SECTION 4. Mandate. The NEDA, with the assistance of the National
Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, shall ensure that the different
government departments, including its agencies and instrumentalities which,
directly or indirectly, affect the participation of women in national development
and their integration therein:
(1) (1) Formulate and prioritize rural or countryside development programs
or projects, provide income and employment opportunities to women in
the rural areas and thus, prevent their heavy migration from rural to urban
or foreign countries;
(2) (2) Include an assessment of the extent to which their programs and/or
projects integrate women in the development process and of the impact of
said programs or projects on women, including their implications in
enhancing the self-reliance of women in improving their income;
(3) (3) Ensure the active participation of women and women's organizations
in the development programs and/or projects including their involvement
in the planning, design, implementation, management, monitoring and
evaluation thereof;
(4) (4) Collect sex-disaggregated data and include such data in its
program/project paper, proposal or strategy;
(5) (5) Ensure that programs and/or projects are designed so that the
percentage of women who receive assistance is approximately
proportionate to either their traditional participation in the targeted
activities or their proportion of the population, whichever is higher.
Otherwise, the following should be stated in the program/project paper,
proposal or strategy:
(a) (a) The obstacles in achieving the goal;
(b) (b) The steps being taken to overcome those obstacles; and
(c) (c) To the extent that steps are not being taken to overcome those
obstacles, why they are not being taken.
(6) (6) Assist women in activities that are of critical significance to their
self-reliance and development.
SECTION 5. Equality in Capacity to Act. Women of legal age,
regardless of civil status, shall have the capacity to act and enter into contracts
which shall in every respect be equal to that of men under similar
circumstances.
In all contractual situations where married men have the capacity to act,
married women shall have equal rights.
To this end: (1) (1) Women shall have the capacity to borrow and obtain loans and
execute security and credit arrangements under the same conditions as
men;
(2) (2) Women shall have equal access to all government and private sector
programs granting agricultural credit, loans and nonmaterial resources
and shall enjoy equal treatment in agrarian reform and land resettlement
programs;
(3) (3) Women shall have equal rights to act as incorporators and enter into
insurance contracts; and
(4) (4) Married women shall have rights equal to those of married men in
applying for passports, secure visas and other travel documents, without
need to secure the consent of their spouses.
In all other similar contractual relations, women shall enjoy equal rights and
shall have the capacity to act which shall in every respect be equal to those of
men under similar circumstances.
SECTION 6. Equal Membership in Clubs. Women shall enjoy equal
In the case of a work-related environment, the committee shall be composed of at least one (1)
representative each from the management, the union, if any, the employees from the
supervisory rank, and from the rank and file employees.
In the case of the educational or training institution, the committee shall be composed of at least
one (1) representative from the administration, the trainors, teachers, instructors, professors or
coaches and students or trainees, as the case may be.
The employer or head of office, educational or training institution shall disseminate or post a
copy of this Act for the information of all concerned.
SEC. 5. Liability of the Employer, Head of Office, Educational or Training Institution. The
employer or head of office, educational or training institution shall be solidarily liable for
damages arising from the acts of sexual harassment committed in the employment, education or
training environment if the employer or head of office, educational or training institution is
informed of such acts by the offended party and no immediate action is taken thereon.
parents to combine family obligations with work responsibilities; the Beijing Platform for Action
and Strategic Objective, which promotes harmonization of work and family responsibilities for
women and men; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes a child's
inherent right to life and the State's obligations to ensure the child's survival and development.
"Breastfeeding has distinct advantages which benefit the infant and the mother, including the
hospital and the country that adopt its practice. It is the first preventive health measure that can
be given to the child at birth. It also enhances mother-infant relationship. Furthermore, the
practice of breastfeeding could save the country valuable foreign exchange that may otherwise
be used for milk importation.
"Breastmilk is the best food since it contains essential nutrients completely suitable for the
infant's needs. It is also nature's first immunization, enabling the infant to fight potential serious
infection. It contains growth factors that enhance the maturation of an infant's organ systems.
"Towards this end, the State shall promote and encourage breastfeeding and provide the
specific measures that would present opportunities for mothers to continue expressing their milk
and/or breastfeeding their infant or young child.
Sec. 4. Applicability. - The provisions in this Chapter shall apply to all private enterprises as well
as government agencies, including their subdivisions and instrumentalities, and governmentowned and -controlled corporations.
Upon application to, and determination by, the Secretary of the Department of Labor and
Employment for the private sector, and the Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission for the
public sector, all health and non-health facilities, establishments and institutions may be
exempted for a renewable period of two (2) years from Section 6 of this Act where the
establishment of lactation stations is not feasible or necessary due to the peculiar circumstances
of the workplace or public place taking into consideration, among others, number of women
employees, physical size of the establishment, and the average number of women who visit.
All health and non-health facilities, establishments or institutions which are exempted in
complying with the provisions of this Act but nevertheless opted to comply are entitled to the
benefits herein stated: Provided, That they give their employees the privilege of using the same.
Sec. 10. Provision of Facilities for Breastmilk Collection and Storage for Health Institutions. The health institution adopting rooming-in and breastfeeding shall provide equipment, facilities,
and supplies for breastmilk collection, storage and utilization, the standards of which shall be
defined by the Department of Health. Health institutions are likewise encouraged to set up milk
banks for storage of breastmilk donated by mothers and which have undergone pasteurization.
The stored breastmilk will primarily be given to children in the neonatal intensive care unit whose
own mothers are seriously ill.