New Bill To Punish Parents Who Decline To Provide For Their Child Is Officially Filed

Today, there are a lot of situations where the mother and the father of a child are not present in the child's life. It may be because the parents broke up, or one parent left the other parent, or worse, both parents just left the child in the custody of the grandparents.

There are a lot of stories and are not limited to these. Sometimes, women who got pregnant with a foreigner have no choice but to raise their children alone. There are a lot more, but it's a reality that there are a lot of parents who are not providing for their child.

New Bill

A new bill is released to punish these parents. It seeks to improve the Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children.

Under the House Bill 6079 that was filed by Manila Representative Rosena Ann Ocampo, the court's duty is to determine how much financial support should a parent give to their child, or to the legal guardian authorized to look after the child.

Thankfully, under this new bill, parents who disregard their children and do not provide for them can now be punished by law. Hopefully, this will reduce the counts of this situation.

First and second offenses

When a person is proven to be guilty under this bill, they will be asked to pay P25,000 penalty or an imprisonment of six months to one-year imprisonment.

On the second offense, the penalty will go up to P50,000 or one to two years of imprisonment.

Protection for the child and parent

Because of this growing prevalence of broken families, this bill seeks to protect both the child and the parent. If one parent is found guilty of not providing for a child, the child and the parents are protected by the law.