It helped that Sen. Jinggoy Estrada helped champion the cause of Bonita Baran, the domestic worker who had accused her former employers of maltreating her and causing her blindness in one eye.
Baran came out to speak about such abuses which continue to this day.
Her story helped moved other lawmakers to hasten the approval of House Bill 6144, otherwise known as the “Kasambahay bill,” which aims to provide additional benefits to domestic workers and ensure their protection against abuses.
Baran is physical proof on the need for further protection of local domestic workers, whatever happens in her case which is now with the courts.
Her former employers also recently came out to belie Baran’s claims. But that is for the courts to determine. Whatever truth is there at the back of Baran’s story, the domestic workers have already won half their fight for better working conditions and other benefits they deserve.
The House of Representatives has approved the bill on its third and final reading. Minimum wage for domestic workers employed in the National Capital Region will soon receive a minimum wage rate of P3,500 a month.
That is not much.
The amount can only cover for part of their families’ living requirements in the provinces. But for them, it is better than nothing.
Majority of these domestic workers have left their idyllic living in the provinces to help alleviate their families’ plights. Their salaries can only cover for their children’s allowances and school needs.
Part of their salaries would cover for food, which many of them — in my experience — claimed was not much of a problem for them before they decided to try their luck in the big cities in search of the proverbial greener pastures.
If the bill becomes a law, as we’re sure it will, it will also limit working opportunities for domestic workers, especially in Metro Manila, where majority of the people needing domestic services support are also daily wage earners.
The cost of hiring kasambahays have become prohibitive of late. Government’s cash alleviation program, as other kasambahays have told this rubbernecker, are also keeping them from leaving their families. They have cash in waiting, anyway.
Those I’ve interviewed, however, claimed part of this support is  not being spent by some recipients wisely. These monies, they claimed, are being used to bet on jueteng and masiao, while it was also a revelation that even women recipients sometimes misspend their monies on ginebra and tuba.
Whatever they do with their money, however, domestic workers deserve better salaries and improved working conditions.
For those working in the NCR, a P3,500 monthly salary would be assured. Domestic workers employed in first class municipalities are entitled to P3,000 a month while those working in other municipalities should receive P2,000 a month.
The House of Representatives’ version is slightly better than the Senate version, passed in 2010, which seeks to provide a minimum wage rate of P3,000 in Metro Manila, P2,500 in first and second towns and P2,000 for the rest of municipalities.
Domestic workers shall also enjoy basic necessities of food, board and lodging and medical assistance.
They should also also receive a 13th month pay, aside from provision by employers with Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Inc. and Pag-Ibig Fund coverage.
A contract shall be executed between the domestic worker and the employer, detailing the period of employment, duties and responsibilities, and rest days and allowable leaves. They are entitled to a daily rest period of eight hours a day, and at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in a week.
The bill also prohibits debt bondage or the rendering of service of a domestic worker to pay debt, and the employment of minors.
A penalty of P10,000 to P40,000 will face violators of the measure once it is enacted into law.
Estrada’s brother, San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito, among the 51 authors of the bill, estimates that there are at least 1.9 million domestic workers to benefit from the proposed law.
“After 15 years in the making, Congress has finally enacted a bill that is for the benefit of our 1.9 million kasambahays. This will be one of the major legacies the 15th Congress will leave behind,” Ejercito said in a newspaper report.
Estrada, for his part, said: “I can’t really speculate why it took long (for the House) but I communicated with them to hasten the passage of the bill. This is also a priority legislation of Malacañang.”
A bicameral conference committee composed of representatives from the House and the Senate will be convened in two weeks to come up with a unified version. It will then be sent to President Aquino for his signature.
It is worth the wait.