Senate approves pro-OFW, journalist protection bills

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading three major bills, including extending the validity of passports to 10 years and strengthening the law to protect journalists from revealing their sources.

Passed were Senate Bill 1365 or the Philippine Passport Act; SB 1255, amending Republic Act 53 or the Sotto Law; and SB 1353 imposing higher penalties on hospitals or clinics that refuse to administer treatment to emergency patients.

SB 1365 was authored by Sens. Richard Gordon, Cynthia Villar, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Loren Legarda, Sonny Angara, Joel Villanueva, Grace Poe, Alan Peter Cayetano and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto.

Villar, vice-chair of the committee on foreign relations and sponsor of the bill, said the measure sought to extend the validity of the passport from five to 10 years to make travel abroad easier, especially for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“We owe our OFWs a lot. They keep our economy afloat with their remittances of approximately $50 billion annually. Giving them a 10-year guarantee on their right to travel abroad will certainly be a great help to them,” Villar said.

Angara said OFWs often have to file a leave from work for them to be able to travel back and forth to the nearest Philippine embassy or consular office to renew their passports.

The number of passports issued by the DFA has been increasing by an average of 29.3 percent yearly since 2010.

Also approved was SB 1255, which seeks to amend RA 53 or the Sotto Law.

The 70-year-old law, authored by the late senator Vicente Sotto, exempted publisher, editor, columnist or duly accredited reporter of any newspaper, magazine or periodical of general circulation from divulging their sources unless it endangered the security of the state.

Sotto’s grandson, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, is principal author of the measure.

“There is a need to expand the coverage to include journalists from broadcast and online news networks,” Sotto said, adding that the public now gets news not just from print media but from other sources such as television, radio and the internet.

But Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, said the measure could not be used to protect a person from libel. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is a co-author of the measure.

The Senate also passed SB 1353 imposing higher penalties on hospitals or clinics that refuse to admit patients during emergency.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, sponsor and principal author of the bill, said the measure primarily sought to protect “the rights and interests of patients from abuse and improve the country’s health profession.”  

“We want to a have a healthy nation where the poor are not turned away from hospitals and where no family will have to beg just so they can receive proper medical treatment,” she said. 

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Sotto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Gordon are also authors of the bill.

Hontiveros seeks to increase the penalties for violations committed under the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law or Republic Act 8344 first passed in 1997.

The current law prohibits and penalizes hospitals and medical clinics when they “request, solicit, demand or accept any deposit or any other form of advance payment as a prerequisite for confinement or medical treatment of a patient,” or when they “refuse to administer medical treatment and support as dictated by good practice of medicine to prevent death or permanent disability.”