SEN. Panfilo Lacson has refiled a bill that seeks to strengthen the Filipino family’s ties and sense of filial responsibility by obliging children to provide support to their elderly parents in times of need.
Lacson said the Parents Welfare Act of 2025 seeks to penalize children who fail to provide the necessary support to their aging, sick and incapacitated parents.
Lacson filed similar bills during the 15th, 17th, and 18th Congresses, but these were left pending at the committee level.
“We, Filipinos, are well-known for our close family ties. Because of this, it is not surprising that we have the usual inclination to care for our elderly. However, even with these close family ties, there are cases of elderly, sick, and incapacitated parents who were abandoned by their own children. Nowadays, the sight of abandoned elderly people in our streets has become typical. Children fail to provide the necessary support to their aging, sick, and incapacitated parents. This happens despite our moral and natural obligation to maintain our parents who are in need of support,” he said.
“This proposed bill seeks to further strengthen filial responsibility and make it a criminal offense in case of flagrant violation thereof. Abandonment of a parent in need of support shall likewise constitute a criminal act,” he added.
While the Family Code imposes legal obligations for children to support their elderly parents, Lacson said that many elderly people who no longer have the means to support themselves are neglected and abandoned by their children.
Under the bill, a parent who is in need of support may file a petition for support before the court and pray for the issuance of a support order for their children who have failed or refused to provide for them.
He said parents will be represented by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office and no court fees will be assessed on them.
The bill also provides for a support order to compel children to provide the necessary support to their parent/s, which shall be immediately executory and no restraining order or injunction shall be issued by any court, except the Supreme Court, to stay it.
Failure to comply without sufficient reason may allow the court to issue a warrant for levying the amount due for every breach of order.
If the respondent fails to give support for three consecutive months without a justifiable reason, he or she shall face imprisonment of one to six months, or a fine of P100,000.
Persons or entities who have care or protection of a parent in need of support shall face six to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of P300,000 if they abandon the parent.
Lacson said the bill also proposes to establish an Old Age Home for the elderly, sick or otherwise incapacitated parents in every province and highly urbanized city, each home accommodating 50 parents.
“While government is doing its best to provide support in the form of food and shelter as well as enacting legislations like the Senior Citizens Act, it cannot be over-emphasized that taking care of the elderly members of the society is not only the function of government, but rather it is a shared responsibility of government and the children of said elderly. The care for the aged is neither an exclusively private matter to be left to the family nor an exclusively public concern best left to the government,” Lacson said.
