Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 72
In forceAn Act Providing for 7 Days Forfeitable Bereavement Leave Privileges Annually with Pay to Employees in the Public and Private Sectors Within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
Seven working days of paid bereavement leave a year becomes a legal entitlement. An application not acted on within five working days is automatically approved, and using the leave cannot be a ground for dismissal, demotion or a bad performance rating.
Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Signed into law and operative unless later amended or repealed.
What this measure does
This gives every employee in the region 7 days of paid leave a year when someone in their immediate family dies — and it is written by someone who has thought about how such entitlements fail in practice.
The 7 days are working days: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are excluded from the count, so a death on a Thursday does not consume the weekend. It applies to anyone in an employer-employee relationship, public or private, regardless of employment status — contractual and casual workers included.
Then the enforcement, which is what distinguishes it. If an employer or head of agency does not act on the application within five working days of receiving it, the leave is deemed approved by operation of law. Taking it cannot be a ground for termination, constructive dismissal, demotion of any kind, or an unsatisfactory performance rating. And a private sector employee unjustly refused can bring the matter to the Minister of Labor and Employment, who may hear and decide it through summary proceedings; public sector complaints run through the civil service administrative rules.
The leave is forfeitable — unused days do not accumulate and cannot be converted to cash — and small and micro enterprises are exempt from granting it.
Why it was proposed
The policy section grounds it in the Bangsamoro Government's general welfare powers and in something more specific: recognition of 'the unique and societal aspects of bereavement', and a commitment to foster a workplace culture that upholds the welfare of its people. In a region where funeral and mourning obligations are communal and time-bound, that is not an abstract concern.
Who it affects
- Every employee in an employer-employee relationship in the BARMM, in the public or private sector, whatever their employment status.
- Employers, who must grant the leave and act on applications within five working days — unless classified as a small or micro enterprise.
- Employees with more than one spouse: Section 5 says 'legitimate spouse/s', so a marriage recognized under Muslim personal law falls within the definition.
- Employees of small and micro enterprises, who are outside the entitlement entirely.
Who would implement it
- Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE), which issues implementing rules and hears private sector complaints through summary proceedings
- Civil Service Commission for the BARMM, which co-issues the rules
- Heads of agency and employers, who must act on applications within five working days
Funding
No appropriation. The act appropriates nothing. The cost falls on employers as paid leave, and on government agencies within existing personnel budgets.
What changes if it becomes law
- Seven paid working days of bereavement leave becomes a legal entitlement rather than a matter of employer discretion.
- Silence from an employer for five working days now approves the leave instead of denying it.
- Retaliation for taking the leave is expressly barred.
- A named complaint route exists, with summary proceedings, for unjustified denial.
- More generous existing benefits are preserved rather than displaced.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
Section 9 is the reason this act works, and it is the most quietly effective provision encountered anywhere in this registry. The ordinary way a leave entitlement is defeated is not refusal — refusal can be appealed — but delay: the application sits on a desk until the funeral is over and the question is moot. Deeming an unacted application approved after five working days removes that tactic entirely, and does it without needing anyone to complain, litigate, or prove bad faith. It converts the employer's inaction from a weapon into a concession.
Pair that with Section 8, which bars the retaliation that would otherwise deter anyone from relying on Section 9, and with a named forum for complaint in Section 4's absence — and this is one of the few acts in the registry where the entitlement, the deadline, the protection and the remedy are all present in the same document. Against the broader pattern of duties without sanctions, it stands out sharply.
The real limit is Section 4. Small and micro enterprises are exempt, and in the Bangsamoro those enterprises employ a very large share of the workforce — precisely the workers with the least bargaining power and the fewest existing benefits. The act is at its strongest for those already in formal employment and silent for those outside it.
One narrower gap worth noting: immediate family covers full-blood siblings only. A half-sibling or step-sibling raised in the same household is outside the definition, which sits awkwardly with an act whose stated purpose is to respect the societal reality of bereavement.