Legarda bats for P4,000 salary for kasambahay

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Loren Legarda has called for the passage of a bill that would peg the minimum wage of household helpers at P4,000 a month.

Legarda re-filed the bill she first introduced in 1998, which would also provide the household helpers with memberships to the PhilHealth and Social Security System.

“Our kasambahay (househelper) deserve humane treatment. I treat them that way whether there’s a law or not,” Legarda said.

Legarda said that she wants this to be institutionalized so that all of the household helpers across the country would be able to enjoy higher wages and benefits.

“In the end, the employers would also benefit because if they get these benefits, they won’t borrow money from you anymore,” she said.

A similar bill was already passed in the 13th Congress but it failed to get the support of the House of Representatives.

The bill was authored by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who has also re-filed it under the present Congress as the proposed Freedom Charter for Household Workers.

Under Legarda’s proposed bill, all contracts and arrangements with the household helpers must also be in writing in a language or dialect that is understood by both employer and employee.

Legarda has also pushed for a number of her priority legislative agenda, such as the assurance that especially indigent Filipinos who are more vulnerable to health risks be granted basic healthcare services because access to basic healthcare from government continues to be a problem.

She also seeks the reduction in the prices of over 1,500 drug formulations because the existing law, Republic Act 9502, resulted in price reductions to merely 22 drug formations.

Legarda is seeking the adoption of a priority adaptation strategy from the provincial to the barangay level to green, rehabilitate and protect forest lands to prevent an ecosystem decline, which will aggravate the impact of climate change.

She wants to establish a “Migrant Workers Hospital” exclusively for overseas Filipino workers and their dependents, which shall be under the supervision and control of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Legarda seeks to strengthen Republic Act 4670, otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.

She is also urging President Aquino to further adjust the existing Compensation and Position Classification System of the uniformed personnel in the military service, the police establishment and the teachers and nurses in the government service by increasing their compensation to two salary grades higher than what they are currently receiving. –Marvin Sy (The Philippine Star)