Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Rules, Committee on Labor and EmploymentNow
Parliament Bill No. 270
In committeeAn Act Providing for Bereavement Leave of Five (5) Days with Half-Pay to Regular and Contractual Employees in Public and Private Sector
Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Rules, Committee on Labor and EmploymentNow
Under committee study or floor debate. Amendments are still possible, and this is the stage where public input carries the most weight.
What this measure does
This grants 5 days of bereavement leave at half pay to any employee — regular, casual or contractual — in a public office or private establishment, on the death of an immediate family member.
Immediate family is defined in 3 categories: biological or adopted parents, biological or adopted children, and siblings.
Section 4 sets a strict window. The leave must be taken within 2 days of the death, and failure to take it within that period "shall be considered as a waiver thereof". Section 5 makes the leave non-commutable — if unused it becomes neither leave credits nor cash.
Section 6 protects existing arrangements: the benefit is without prejudice to bereavement leave under a company policy or practice, and where a company policy, collective bargaining agreement, law or similar document is more beneficial, that takes precedence over this Act.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment is to coordinate with the Civil Service Commission for BARMM and with both the private and public sectors in drafting the rules, within 30 days of effectivity.
Why it was proposed
The declaration grounds the measure in 2 constitutional provisions: Section 1 of Article XV, recognising the family as the foundation of the nation, and Section 18 of Article II, recognising labour as a primary social economic force.
The case is that a death in the family is not an ordinary absence, and that an employee who must either use accrued leave or lose pay to bury a parent is being asked to choose between the obligation and the wage. National law provides no general bereavement leave, so the region either legislates one or leaves it to each employer.
Who it affects
- Every employee in the region, public or private, regular, casual or contractual.
- Employees whose spouse dies, who are not covered — the definition of immediate family omits the spouse.
- Employees who cannot arrange the leave within 2 days of a death, who are treated as having waived it.
- Employers already granting bereavement leave by policy or agreement, whose more generous terms prevail.
- The Ministry of Labor and Employment and the Bangsamoro Civil Service Commission, which write the rules within 30 days.
Who would implement it
- Ministry of Labor and Employment, coordinating with the Civil Service Commission for BARMM and with the private and public sectors, for rules within 30 days of effectivity
Funding
No appropriation. No appropriation. The cost falls on employers as half a day's wage for each of 5 days, and on the regional and local governments as employers for their own staff.
What changes if it becomes law
- Employees gain 5 days of leave at half pay on the death of a parent, child or sibling.
- The leave must be claimed within 2 days of the death or is waived.
- Unused leave cannot be converted into credits or cash.
- More generous company policies and collective agreements continue to prevail.
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
The definition of immediate family leaves out the spouse. Parents, children and siblings are covered; a husband or wife is not. Set beside Bill No. 281, which lists "spouse, parents, or child, brother or sister", the omission looks like a drafting slip rather than a policy — but as filed, the death that most obviously stops a person working is the one this bill does not reach.
The 2-day window is the provision that would cause the most trouble in practice, and it runs against the grain of the bill's own purpose. A person notified of a parent's death has to arrange travel, often to another province or island, in a region where a journey can take a day by boat; requiring them to commence the leave within 2 days or forfeit it entirely converts a benefit into a test of administrative speed at the worst moment for it. Bill 281 sets no deadline at all and instead lets the employer ask for a death certificate or obituary.
Half pay against full pay is the headline difference between the 2 bills and the more defensible half of this one. Half pay splits the cost between employer and employee, which is a real argument in a region of small establishments — and 5 days at half pay is, in cash terms, 2 and a half days' wages, which is less than the funeral it is meant to accommodate.
What this bill lacks entirely is enforcement. There is no penalty for an employer who refuses the leave and no protection for an employee who takes it. Bill 281 supplies both — a fine of up to ₱15,000 and an express guarantee that taking the leave cannot be treated as misconduct or grounds for demotion or dismissal. A leave entitlement with no consequence for denying it is an instruction to employers rather than a right held by workers.
The same member filed Bill No. 59, the Labor and Employment Code, which became BAA 82 in November 2025. A general bereavement leave is the kind of provision a labour code is the natural home for, and this bill's continued residence in committee is worth reading against that.
Two bereavement leave bills sit in this registry, filed 2 weeks apart in early 2024. Bill No. 270 is MP Sema's, granting 5 days at half pay; Bill No. 281 is MP Hashim's, granting 5 working days at full pay with a penalty for employers who refuse. Both are still at Second Reading, Committee Stage, and the region has no bereavement leave.
Sources