A bigger number of solo parents would soon start reaping the benefits of a new law that grants them food price discounts, tax exemptions, free legal aid, and medical care, tuition subsidies, parental leaves and other privileges.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte co-authored Republic Act 11861 or the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act, which is due for implementation in a month’s time.
Under the law, solo parents who earn minimum wages or below would also get a monthly cash aid of P1,000 each from their local government units, Villafuerte noted.
He issued thetatement as the implementing rules and regulations of RA 11861 were signed just recently by Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Erwin Tulfo and the other members of the interagency coordination and monitoring committee that drafted the IRRs.
The act lapsed into law last June 4.
The Department of Health and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health estimated in a 2017 study that there are 14 to 15 million solo parents in the country.