THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC 
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OF THE PHlhlPPllNE 
First Regular Session 
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$5. No. 
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Introduced by Senator S. R. OsmeAa 111 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Evaluating the country’s economic numbers, it becomes evident that our 
economy is primarily consumption driven. In 1988, Real Personal Consumption 
Expenditures was estimated at P480.5B1 and was approximately 73% of the 
country’s Real Gross Domestic Prodiict. By 2002, this figure had reached 
P810.7B or 78% of the Real Gross Domestic Product, growing at an average of 
4% per year for the period 1988 to 2002 and comprising an average of 77% of 
GDP. 
However, based on preliminary data as of January 2004 released by the 
Department of Labor and Employment, the national unemployment rate stood at 
1 I % ,  up from the 2003 rate of 10.6%. Furthermore, as published in the 2003 
National Statistical Yearbook, in 1992, unemployment stood at 8.6% increasing 
to 10.2% in 2002, representing some 33.6 million individuals. 
Without increasing employment numbers, such growth in consumption 
expenditures is not sustainable, thus placing in jeopardy the country’s economic 
health. It thus becomes increasingly important to provide a kind of safety net for 
workers, especially those displaced due to industry slumps. 
It is with this in mind that this bill is hereby being proposed. This bill seeks 
to provide monetary benefits not exceeding P3,OOO.OO per month to dismissed or 
terminated employees provided they qualify with the requirements set forth in this 
bill. 
To avert further damage or trauma to dismissed or terminated employees, 
early passage of this bill is earnestly requested. 
It 
SERGIO OSMEfiA Ill 
Senator 


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THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC 
) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
6 
First Regular Session 
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t.w 
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S E N A T E  
83 
s. No. 3 
introduced by Senator S. R. Osmeiia 111 
AN ACT 
INSTITUTING AN UNEMPLOYMENT WELFARE PROGRAM FOR DISMISSED, 
TERMINATED 
OR 
SEPARATED 
EMPLOYEES AND 
FOR 
OTHER 
PURPOSES 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assem bled: 
SECTION 1. Title. - This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 
“Unemployment Welfare Benefits Act of 2004.” 
SECTION 2. Unemployment Welfare Program - An employment welfare 
program for dismissed, terminated, or separated employees from the private and 
public sector is hereby instituted. 
SECTION 3. Coverage. - Any employee who is dismissed, separated, or 
whose employment is terminated and who has been a member of the Social 
Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for 
the private and ‘public sector respectively for at least five (5) years or for whom 
sixty (60) monthly contributions have been paid prior to the semester of 
unemployment shall be entitled to monthly unemployment benefits equivalent to 
seventy (70) percent of the highest monthly salary credit in the last twelve month- 
period prior to the semester of unemployment, but in no case be less than one 
thousand (PI ,000) or exceeding three thousand pesos (P3,OOO) a month. 
SECTION 4. Conditions. - The payments of benefits herein granted shall 
be subject to the following conditions: 
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a) No benefit shall be paid before the lapse of thirty (30) days from the 
date of separation; 
b) The benefit shall be paid only for the period on unemployment but not 
more than one hundred eighty (180) days from separation; and 
c) The right to the benefit shall be barred if the claim is filed beyond one 
hundred eighty (180) days from separation; and 
d) The right to unemployment insurance shall be availed of only once 
every five (5) years. 
SECTION 5. Funding. - The benefits herein granted shall be sourced 
from the funds of the SSS or GSlS reserved for retirement benefits. Fifty (50) 
percent of the total amount availed of under this Act shall be repaid by said 
employee within five (5) years upon his reemployment under such liberalized 
conditions as the SSS or GSlS may prescribe, provided however that any benefit 
arising therefrom shall be deducted from any back wages that the employee may 
receive if he is reinstated to his former work within one (1) year from his 
separation. 
SECTION 6. Administering Body, - The benefits herein granted shall be 
administered and disbursed by the Social Security System (SSS) and the GSlS 
which shall, within sixty (60) days from the approval of this Act, promulgate such 
rules and regulations as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this 
Act. 
SECTION 7. Penal Clause. - a) Any person who for the purpose of 
securing entitlement to unemployment benefit or payment under this Act or the 
issuance of any certificate or document for any purpose connected with this Act, 
whether for him' or for some other person, commits fraud, collusion, falsification, 
misrepresentation of facts, or nay other kind of anomaly, shall be punished with a 
fine of not less than ten thousand pesos (P10,OOO) nor more than twenty five 
thousand pesos (P25,OOO) and imprisonment of not less than twelve (12) years 
and one (I) 
day nor more than twenty (20) years; and b) whoever fails or refuses 


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to comply with the provisions of this Act or with the rules and regulations 
promulgated thereunder by the administrating body, shall be punished by a fine 
not less than ten thousand pesos (PlO,OOO), nor more than twenty five thousand 
pesos (P25,OOO) and imprisonment of not less than twelve (12) years and one (1) 
day nor more than twenty (20) years, 
SECTION 8. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) 
days after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) 
national newspapers of general circulation, whichever comes earlier. 
Approved, 
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