By Marjorie Gorospe
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA -- A measure filed in Congress seeks to grant maternity leaves to unmarried pregnant government employees.
House Bill 4684, principally authored by General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action (Gabriela) Representative Emmi De Jesus, states that women in government service should be given the maternity leave regardless of marital status.
De Jesus stressed that the government should recognize the important role of women in society and it is the state’s obligation to protect working women as specifically stated in the Article III, Section 14 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
This, however, is not yet fully recognized by the government as present legislation is still discriminatory to women, said De Jesus, who is also the vice chair of the House Committee on Population and Family Relations.
De Jesus further reiterated that the present law also violates the equal protection principle under Philippine laws.
Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, A co-author of the bill, added that the present law on maternity leave deprives both the unmarried woman and the unborn child of the protection they are entitled to.
Maternity leave benefits are being given to pregnant women in the private sector regardless of marital status in accordance to RA 8282 or the Social Security System Act.
Women’s groups are also supporting the granting of maternity leaves to unmarried pregnant workers in government.
hope this passes
ReplyDeleteI can't believe maternity leave is not given to single moms? There is just no sense to give this only to married moms. Single or married moms - we both give birth and undergo the same difficulty. We all need the time to recover and have some quality with our newborn. I do hope this gets passed because otherwise, shame on our government!
ReplyDeleteBy the way sis, it looks like powdered yeast is the same with baking powder. What I was actually using is called levadura en polvo here. I translated it literally to powdered yeast... and since yeast is different from baking powder, I thought powdered yeast and baking powder are different. Anyways, the other day, I saw a different brand of the levadura en polvo and it has english translation in the package.. it does say baking powder. So yun... you can use baking powder :-D Sorry about the confusion!
Spanish Pinay