The Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development chaired by Senator Imee Marcos is eyeing to draft a three- to five-year plan on the implementation of the proposed Magna Carta for Child Development Workers (CDWs) once it passed into law.
During a committee hearing on Tuesday, Marcos said the plan would ease the sourcing of funds that will most probably be coming from the national government.
“Gawan na natin to ng paraan kahit papaano (Let’s do something about this). Perhaps, what we can do na lang (what we can just do) is find some kind of a phased implementation because this has been pending for far too long and its consequences are grave on our children and education in the Philippines in general,” Marcos told the committee.
Several senators filed Senate Bill Nos. 343, 1086, 525, and 1205 seeking to establish the Magna Carta for CDWs that will institutionalize the standards of the profession.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Program Management Bureau said the proposed CDW 1 and CDW 2 salaries alone would require about PHP1.6 billion monthly and PHP21.3 billion annually for an estimated 65,424 accredited day care centers throughout the country.
Already 27 years in the making, Federation of Day Care Workers National President Pearl Reyes said the proposed measure was being lobbied to lawmakers since the 10th Congress.
“Ang nagbibigay pag-asa po talaga ngayon ay napag-uusapan po nang madalas at talagang we believe na maaaring marinig na ngayon ang sigaw at ang grievances ng ating mga day care workers (This gives us hope that it is now being discussed more and we really believe that the concerns and grievances of our day care workers can now be heard),” Reyes said.
She told the committee that some day care workers receive less than PHP1,000 in monthly stipend, especially those who are based in small barangays.
Meanwhile, Marcos and some invited representatives of various government agencies agreed that the funds that would be used in the implementation of the proposed Magna Carta for Child Development Workers cannot be sourced from the local government units (LGUs).
Instead, Marcos suggested to the Department of the Interior and Local Government to include in the criteria of Seal of Good Local Governance and other prestigious LGU awards the support that the nominees give to CDWs.
“Actually, a lot of them in NCR (the National Capital Region) I know full well are really doing that already. I know Davao City, for example, employs a lot of child development workers and that’s been the case for many areas, like Valenzuela here in NCR,” she said.
Marcos also proposed that CDWs be trained under Early Childhood Care and Development Council’s approved modules.
“We are fully aware that the most valuable years of learning are between the ages of 0-7 years old and yet we are not providing any support, any training, any assistance to our child development workers who are in charge of our children at the end of the day,” she said.
In the previous hearing, Marcos noted that day care workers abroad are receiving way more than what Filipinos are being paid here considering the complexity and sensitivity of the job. (PNA)
Photo credit: Department of Social Welfare and Development Official Website
