A proposed law seeking to penalize "deadbeat" parents who wish to neglect their financial obligations to their children moved an inch closer to its enactment.

The development follows the approval of the House Committee on Welfare and Children on Monday to an unnumbered bill subject to style and amendments.

The panel-approved measure is a substitute bill of six House Bills, with the same objective: to hold parents, especially fathers, who would fail or refuse to provide financial support to their children, accountable for their negligent actions.

A recent study by the Department of Health and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health revealed that single parents in the country number around 15 million, with 95 percent being women.

ACT-CIS Partylist Rep. Edvic Yap said this only highlights the prevalence of "deadbeat" fathers who neglect their paternal duties, leaving the burden of child-rearing solely on mothers.

"The current system has shortcomings," said Yap, one of the bill's proponents.

Notwithstanding the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (RA 9262) has already penalized economic abuse, which includes the withdrawal of child support, Yap underscored that "enforcing paternal child support comprehensively and establishing paternity – a prerequisite for a child support order – remains a challenge."

Deputy Majority Leader for Communications Erwin Tulfo, also one of the proponents, stressed the urgency of the bill's enactment, which is perceived to quell the long-standing problem single mothers face, including the financial strain of raising children alone.

"There is no need for mothers to get down on their knees and beg their exes, fathers of their children, for [child financial] support. Enough is enough, I would say. This has to end right now," said Tulfo, noting that some "irresponsible fathers" hold government positions.

According to Senior Minority Leader Paul Daza, the technical working group, which finetune the conflicting provisions of the proposed law, has already come up with a common position: imposing possible filing of criminal cases against non-payment of child support.

"If the non-custodial parent has the means and there's no dispute that it's their child and if they continue not to pay child support, then they could be exposed to a possible criminal case," said Daza, also one of the principal authors of the bill, who headed the TWG.

Daza’s bill initially obligates separated parents to provide their children with no lower than P6,00 monthly support, while Yap and Tulfo's bill suggests that the financial support should be set at 10 percent of an individual's salary, with a minimum threshold of P6,000.

However, these were redefined under the approved substitute bill, subjecting “any person who willfully and unjustly fails to pay child support despite having a gainful employment, business or any means” to a prison correccional, which includes, among others, suspension from public office, and perpetual special disqualification from the right of suffrage.

The bill also proposes a maximum six-year jail term if the offender is a public officer or employee.

Proponents of the measure firmly believe that the enactment of this proposal will further safeguard children abandoned by their parents.