Solo Parents’ Welfare Act of 2000: What Every Filipino Solo Parent Should Know About

I gave birth to my one and only son in 2001 and since then have been living and raising my child alone after ending a tumultuous relationship with his father.

This has been quite a challenge to a single parent like me, as it is no joke raising a child alone at a time when the prices of commodities rise and hardly fall, and salaries have become stagnant at a certain range allowing little space for one to adjust it with the changing rates of services and prices of goods, and when layoffs and early retirements have caused a lot of families unimaginable misery and misfortune.

Landing a job that is stable and pays you well without eating up much of your time is a hard find these days, that in order for some workers to survive the financial crisis, they would need to augment their income by rendering overtime work or getting a second job or putting up a business on the side.

To do that would not only cost you your extra time for leisure or rest, but also a huge part of your quality time with your child / children.

Suffice to say that life back then was so much hard to cope with, until I learned about the Solo Parents’ Welfare Act of 2000 last year.

It took seven years before I discovered something like this exists, and I am not sure why I didn’t have the chance to hear about it then.

I guess I was so busy being a single parent that I overlooked one very important aspect of my single-motherhood: that is, knowing my rights and privileges.

Then after giving that a thought,  I started to think about how many single parents out there are like me, who may be unaware of their rights, too.

In my circle of friends and acquiantances alone, I ended up realizing that 2 out of 10 people I know are solo parents.  And out there somewhere in our more than 7 thousand islands, may be more of my kin.

So, I dug a little bit more and found out that in the Philippines, statistics show that the number of solo parents has increased over the recent years.

A study by  Jorge V. Sibal, Maragtas S.V. Amante and Ma. Catalina Tolentino titled “Globalization and Changes in Work & Employment Conditions in the Philippines”, has noted the following interesting results about solo parents in our country today:

1)  Among the workers, 7 percent of those who are not married indicated that they have children (solo parents, with an average of 2 children).

2)  Unmarried workers who support dependents constitute a significant 45.3 percent of the sample.

3)  There are more women solo parents than men (5.3 percent women, compared to only 1.8 percent of the men).

4)  The proportion of women who support dependents are even greater: 30 percent, as opposed to 15.3 percent for the men.

5)  The highest incidence of solo parents is in the business processing and telecommunications sectors, averaging at 16 solo parents in each enterprise, compared to the over all average of 11 solo parents.

6)  Women solo parents are highest (100 percent of all solo parents) in the engineering and construction sector, while in the call centers, it is about 84 percent.

I am part of the 84 percent of female solo parents in the call center industry and I must say working in such an environment may be far different from and more challenging than other regular, day jobs where one is entitled to more flexible working hours, rest days, leaves and other benefits.

Due to the strict work requirements in Call Centers (the shifting schedule, the graveyard shift, the scheduled breaks and the need to render “after-office” work or Overtime to name a few), single parents, especially women, find it hard to cope with the demands of the job while single-handedly raising her kid or her children.

Either the job suffers, or her poor child / children is/are taken for granted.  But at the rate things are going, given our economic set up, no parent can afford to lose his / her job these days, not even for a day.

So, how does a solo parent deal with it, especially those working in companies with stricter or more restrictive rules?

Fortunately, the emergence of Republic Act 8972 which I have earlier mentioned as the Solo Parent Act of 2000, has defined the rights and privileges of solo parents in the Philippines.

It caters to single parents who may be in need of additional leave benefits, livelihood, self-employment and skills development, employment-related benefits, psychosocial, educational, health and even housing services.

These benefits constitute the comprehensive package that can be availed via the Solo Parent Act, and for me, the best part of it is the privilege that allows a single parent to avail additional 7 days of leave on top of the other mandatory leaves in order to perform his / her individual parental duties.

For any parent for that matter, I guess any chance to an extra time with his / her family is gold.  This privilege has also given me the chance to have a flexible work schedule which I am currently enjoying. In fact, a lot of my officemates now envy me and calls me “Anak ng Diyos”.

That’s how we refer to call center employees who are lucky to get a good schedule or be granted a Saturday-Sunday Off, as these are considered such rare commodities in a call center environment.

With a flexi-schedule and Sat-Sun for my Rest Days, people now call me the “Chosen One”.  However, I’d rather not have a claim on any of such titles,  instead I must say I just happen to know my rights, and so should you solo parents out there.

To know whether you may avail the Solo Parent privileges, check out the following criteria used by The Department of Social Welfare and Development in determining who may qualify:

A parent left alone with the responsibility of parenthood due to:

(1) death of spouse,

(2) physical and mental incapacity of spouse as certified by public medical practitioner,

(3) imprisonment of the spouse for at least one year,

(4) legal or de facto separation from spouse for at least one year,

(5) annulment of marriage as decreed by a court or church,

(6) abandonment of spouse for at least one year,

(7) a woman who gives birth a result of rape and crimes against chastity, provided the woman keeps and raises her child,

(8) unmarried mother or father who has preferred to keep the child instead of others caring for him/her,

(9) any other person who solely provides parental care and support to a child provided he/she is a duly licensed foster parent of DSWD, or duly appointed legal guardian by the court through adoption or legal guardianship, and

(10) any family member who assumes the responsibility as head of family as a result of death, abandonment, prolong absence or disappearance of parents/solo parent for at least one year.

To avail the package of services, the following steps and requirements are needed:

A) A solo parent shall apply for a Solo Parent Identification Card (Solo Parent ID) from the City/Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office.

B) Once the solo parent ID is issued by the city/municipal social welfare and development officer, a solo parent can apply for services he/she needs from the C/MSWD office or to specific agencies providing such assistance/services.

C) The solo parent may be asked to submit the following:

(1) Barangay certificate residency in the area.

Be prepared for a lot of questioning.  They would need to establish proof that you are indeed a resident in the area and that you are requesting for the certificate for this specific purpose alone.

Per my experience, it used to be so easy to get a barangay certificate years back.   But not anymore, at least in our area, and it surprised me that even barangays now have a computerized system that would take a digital photo of you for their file.  Awesome.

(2) Documents / evidence that the applicant is a solo parent (e.g. death certificate of spouse, declaration of nullity of marriage, medical certificate (if incapacitated).

In  my case, since I  never married and no longer have any communication with my son’s dad, I was asked to secure a notarized document stating that I am raising my child alone who is under my care and that I am not currently living with a partner.

(3) ITR or certification for the brgy./municipal treasurer

I think this is where they would base it whether you would qualify for financial benefits or not and this is where I failed (Sigh).

After submitting the requirements, the social worker has to complete first the assessment/evaluation of the solo parents situation. ID is issued after 30 days of filing. The validity of the ID is one year.

Below is a sample of an actual Solo Parent Id.  I had the photo, name and Id number deleted for security reasons.

A solo parent may inquire from the following agencies for the availment of services:

Health Services (DOH)

Educational Services (CHED, TESDA)

NHA (Housing)

Parental Leave (Employee of solo parent, DOLE, CSC)

If you want to know more about The Solo Parent Act, you may find more information in the following links:

http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2000/ra_8972_2000.html

http://www.census.gov.ph/data/specialevents/welfare_act.pdf

Sounds cool, right?

So, if you’re a solo parent eager to exercise your rights and avail such privileges, what are you waiting for?

Go to the nearest DSWD office now and apply for a Solo Parent Id! (Sounds like I got paid to advertise this, but nope, this is just an act of concern from someone who has been around the business of being a single mom for a relatively long period of time).

I got mine December of last year and immediately availed the additional leave benefit, just in time for the many events during the holidays.

This year, I have used up almost all of my leave credits and wisely allotting the remaining days to the most important activities in my son’s school.

RA 8972 has indeed helped me have more time to perform my duties and responsibilities as a parent to my 8-year old son and although I may not have qualified for the other services in the package, I feel already grateful for the extra time off which I believe is priceless and is more important than anything that can be bought by money.

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