RA
8972: The Solo Parents and their
Children Act of 2000
On November 7,
2000, Republic Act 8972 or the Solo Parents Welfare Act was signed into law. It
mandated the development of a comprehensive package of social, developmental
and welfare services for solo parents and their families. The law also mandated
the national government agencies (NGAs), non-government organizations (NGOs),
and local government units (LGUs) to pool their resources and participate in an
inter-agency effort to help the solo parents.
This
law was a mere page and a half; quite short compared to other social welfare
legislation intending to address the needs of a whole “new” category of a vulnerable
and marginalized sector which also has many cross-cutting and intersecting
concerns with other sectors like women and children. Given the many sectoral
issues it seeks to face, including a potential gamut of socio-economic problems
like family financial support, education and healthcare, it appeared “rushed”
and not really well-thought of.
While
admittedly, it was passed by Congress as a means to satisfy the clamor for
gender equality, women being the more common single parents, it should have
been based on more solid evidence, such as a clear assessment of the actual
needs and concerns of Solo Parents. The provisions on benefits and privileges
were not thoroughly fleshed-out and resulted in the intention of the law
getting “lost in translation”.
It is true that
every law should provide for a framework, a “skeleton” so to speak, to express
the real objective behind the measure. It is upon which the Implementing Rules
and Regulations will rely on to anchor its own specific provisions detailing
the operationalization of the law, without departing or veering too far from
the original and true intent of the legislation.
Unfortunately, the
problem with RA 8972 is that there was not much to hang on to. It failed to
cite the specific mechanism by which the different agencies were to
operationalize the Solo Parents Act. In fact, because the provisions did not
provide clear instructions or directions for operationalization, the
comprehensive benefits package supposedly developed, as lead by DSWD, to be
extended to single parents was not implemented well. Except for the issuance of
Solo Parents Identification Cards and a few referrals for financial assistance
and legal counseling, solo parents themselves believe the law is all about
leave benefits at work, and did not apply to the majority of them who are not
in the formal, employed sector.[1]
In addition, the
law failed to mention the establishment of an actual monitoring and
coordinating body which will primarily be in-charge of implementation. Meanwhile,
Article VI, Section 28 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the
Solo Parents Act (RA 8972) provided for
“a special review and monitoring committee comprised of the Department
of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), Department
of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Commission on Higher Education
(CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), National
Housing Authority (NHA), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other
related government agencies and non-government organizations or civil society
involved in the implementation of the provisions of the Act”. DSWD was tasked
to head this inter-agency review committee for the purpose of evaluating the
effectiveness and relevance of the provisions of the Act to the current
situation of the solo parents.
This act to
correct a seeming gap in the law was highly irregular. The Special Review
Committee (SRC) was created only by virtue of the IRR, thereby putting the
legitimacy of this inter-agency body in question because they were not included
in the law itself, and any additional provision outside the original law may be
considered ultra vires. Thus, when several member agencies were not active or
refused to make any concrete commitments under RA 8972, they could not be
compelled by the SRC chaired by the DSWD because there was nothing specific in
the law directing them to actually provide clear programs or services.
Other obvious
defects are the clear disparities between the law and the IRR. These include
the reference to the Department of Education (DepEd) when the law stated
Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), and the poverty threshold
criteria as being determined by the National Economic and Development Authority
(NEDA) in the law while the IRR assigned this role to the National Statistical
Coordinating Board (NSCB).
It also did not
help that the IRR was only finished after two (2) years from the passage of RA
8972, even when the law specifically mandated that the IRR be formulated within
ninety (90) days only. This delay could have possibly added further to
implementation problems, and could be indicative of the apparent “neglect” of
this law.
In 2003, the
DSWD issued two (2) Administrative Orders (AOs) namely A.O. No. 38, Series of
2003 or the ”Guidelines on the Assessment of Solo Parents” and A.O. No. 86
Series of 2003 or the “Guidelines in the Implementation of Psychosocial
Services for Solo Parents and their Children.” These guidelines were issued to
ensure partnership and collaboration among agencies in relation to the
implementation of the program at all levels. Roles and responsibilities
stipulated in these Administrative Orders are provided for in the Implementing
Rules and Regulations (IRR) and presumably agreed upon by member agencies.
Still various problems cropped up, highlighting a variety of gaps and loopholes
which can be traced back to the weaknesses in the law itself. For certain, the
law and its IRR left much to be desired to the chagrin of the poor Solo Parents
sector.
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