PB backs Senate bill for maternity benefits to single mothers in gov’t

The Cebu Provincial Board yesterday approved a resolution supporting Senate Bill 2221 seeking to grant maternity leave benefits to unmarried pregnant women in the government service.

The resolution, sponsored by PB member Victor Maambong, stated that the prevailing Commonwealth Act 674—granting maternity benefits to married women working permanently or temporarily in government——is already an outdated law.

The PB resolution further declared that it is now the time to amend the law and make it sensible to the needs of the modern society where being a single mother is somehow an acceptable condition.

“As a matter of right, unmarried pregnant women in government service should also enjoy maternity leave benefits as their counterparts in the private sector service,” otherwise the lack of a law that gives them such leverage is discriminatory, the resolution reads.

With the present law, only those working in the private sector, whether married or not at the time of pregnancy, can enjoy a 60-day maternity leave for normal delivery and 78-day leave for those undergoing caesarian delivery.

This “discriminatory policy against” women prompted Gabriela Women’s Partylist Representative Liza Maza to file last year House Bill 2221 seeking to grant government employees similar benefits enjoyed by private employees.

Recently, the Senate already had its own version of the bill, which the Cebu PB has supported now. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/RAE