House panel OKs bill giving indigent job seekers 20% discount on some gov’t fees

The House poverty alleviation panel has approved a measure providing indigent job seekers a 20% discount on fees and charges for certain government certificates and clearances.

The unnumbered substitute bill, renamed the Kabalikat sa Hanapbuhay Act, specifies that the 20% discount covers:

• barangay clearance
• NBI clearance
• police clearance
• medical certificate
• Civil Service Commission certificate of eligibility
• and other documentary requirements issued by the government that may be required by employers from indigent job seekers, as determined and approved by the Inter-Agency Coordinating and Monitoring Committee provided under Section 9 of the bill

“By providing this charging scheme for the processing of these requirements, herein proponents fervently hope that the financial burden of our indigent kababayans seeking employment will be further alleviated,” Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte, one of the authors, said.

“This will be one of the landmark bills and laws of this 19th Congress,” 1PACMAN party-list representative Michael Romero, House poverty alleviation panel chairperson, added.

The bill defines an indigent job seeker as a person who is seeking gainful employment and has no visible means of income or whose income is insufficient to the subsistence of the applicant's family, as identified and certified by the  Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) based on the criteria set under the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

A public officer or employee, including the head of the government agency, who refuses or fails to provide the benefits granted to the indigent job applicant in violation of the bill will be meted a penalty of imprisonment of six months to one year or a fine of P10,000 to P50,000, or both, at the discretion of the court. — BM, GMA Integrated News