Robin Padilla files bill giving Bawal Bastos Law more teeth vs sexual harassment

Senator Robin Padilla has filed a bill seeking to increase penalties on employers who failed to impose proper measures to address gender-based sexual harassment and those who failed to act on sexual harassment complaints.

Senate Bill 2810, filed on Wednesday, seeks to amend Republic Act 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act by increasing the fine from P5,000-P10,000 to P100,000-P300,000 for an employer's failure to take proper measures to combat gender-based sexual harassment or to create an internal mechanism or a committee on decorum.

The bill also increases the penalty from P10,000-P15,000 to P300,000- P500,000 for the employer's failure to act upon sexual harassment complaints.

Padilla also proposed an automatic award of exemplary damages in the amount of P300,000 upon conviction.

Further, Padilla is seeking to increase the prescriptive period for filing a complaint from five years to 10 years.

The lengthening of the prescriptive period is to recognize the "stigma and social exclusion that go together with coping with the trauma caused by sexual harassment," Padilla said. —Hana Bordey/KBK, GMA Integrated News