De Lima wants 5-day paid calamity leave for disaster victims

MANILA - Workers affected by natural disasters should be entitled to a 5-day calamity leave, according to a bill filed by detained Senator Leila de Lima.

Employees, whose homes were affected by floods, landslides, typhoons and other natural disasters, should be given paid leaves to "soften the blow of the unforeseen and the inescapable," De Lima, who chairs the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, said in a statement.

Under Senate Bill 1123, "those stranded in affected areas, those who incurred diseases brought about by the disaster, those caring for immediate family members affected by natural calamity or disaster, or those needing to urgently repair and clean up damaged houses" are entitled to avail of the calamity leave.

"It is incumbent upon the State to allow workers to protect not only themselves and their families, but also their properties, in times of natural calamities or disasters," the senator's statement read.
"[The] proposed measure would both aid Filipinos to stand up after the onslaught of calamities and disasters and provide them a few days of respite to facilitate the resumption of their daily activities," it said.

De Lima released the statement days after a series of quakes jolted parts of Mindanao, leaving at least 22 people dead and hundreds homeless.