Efforts to ensure employment for the Philippines’ senior citizens gained a boost after the House committee on ways and means yesterday approved a bill for it.
The panel chaired by Rep. Joey Salceda passed the unnumbered bill, which consolidates related measures expanding employment opportunities for the elderly.
The bill mandates the state to employ seniors with the capacity and desire to work or be re-employed.
Seniors would be matched with available job opportunities by the Department of Labour and Employment.
“All government agencies and private entities shall institute an employment programme that shall promote the general well-being of senior citizens and ensure access to employment opportunities to those who have the qualifications, capacity and interest to be employed,” the bill reads.
The Philippines Congress took 32 years to harmonise benefits and employment opportunities given to people with disabilities (PWDs), Salceda noted.
The measure shall be known as the “Employment Opportunities for Senior Citizen and Private Entities’ Incentives Act.”
The proposed legislation “goes beyond creating jobs,” ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo said.
“It fosters social inclusion, keeps seniors mentally and physically stimulated and contributes to their financial security,” Tulfo, one of the bill’s principal authors, said in his sponsorship remark.
“(Companies) employing senior citizens can bring stability, loyalty and wealth of experience to the workplace,” he added.
He noted that seniors often require less training and can serve as mentors to their younger colleagues.
