Senator seeks to increase maternity leave from two months to four months

(Updated 4:58 p.m.) Citing the vital role of women in nation-building, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is seeking to double the maternity leave benefits from 60 days or two months to 120 days or four months.

In filing Senate Bill 2656, Trillanes seeks to amend Article 133 of Presidential Decree 422, as amended by Republic Act 7322.

If approved by Congress, the provision would read: “Every employer shall grant to any pregnant woman employee, who has rendered an aggregate service of at least six months for the last 12 months, maternity leave of at least two weeks prior to the expected date of delivery and another twenty-two weeks after normal or caesarian delivery, with full pay based on her regular or average weekly wages.”

Trillanes said in his explanatory note that the bill seeks to recognize maternity as a vital function played by women and to protect  the rights of working women and their infants to proper health care by increasing the maternity leave.

He said the extended maternity leave would allow mothers to breastfeed their child for at least six months.

Trillanes said the World Health Organization recognizes breastfeeding as an ideal way of providing infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development.

“In 2008, UNICEF cited the Philippines' Mortality Rate wherein 32 Filipino children (per 1,000 live births) die before the age of five and the Philippines ranked 86th among 190 countries with the highest under-five mortality rate. The report also cited several recommendations that would help reduce our country's mortality rate among which is access to exclusive breastfeeding for a long period of time,” he said.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that a bill proposing to extend maternity leaves has been filed in the Senate.

• Paid at least three monthly Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) contributions in the twelve-month period preceding childbirth, abortion or miscarriage;
• Notified the head of their office of the pregnancy and the probable date of childbirth who in turn notifies the GSIS;
• Full payment of the daily maternity benefits will be advanced by the employer within 30 days from the filing of the notice;
• Payment of daily maternity benefits shall be a bar to the recovery of sickness benefits provided under Republic Act No. 8291, or the GSIS Act of 1997, for the same period for which daily maternity benefits have been received; and
• The maternity benefits will be paid only for the first four deliveries or miscarriage.