HOUSE Deputy Majority Leader Erwin Tulfo announced on Monday that “deadbeat” fathers who fail to pay paternal child support will soon face of up to six years imprisonment.

This after the House Committee on Welfare of Children approved on Monday the substitute bill or “An Act Ensuring Child Support and Penalizing Parental Refusal or Neglect Thereof.”

The said substitute bill was authored by Rep. Tulfo and his colleagues from the ACT-CIS partylist Reps. Edvic Yap and Jocelyn Tulfo and two other solons Benguet Rep. Eric Yap and Quezon city 2nd District Rep. Ralph Wendel Tulfo.

Other authors were Reps. Paul Ruiz Daza, Patrick Michael Vargas, Paolo Z. Duterte, Gus Tambunting, Ma. Victoria Co-Pilar, Jude Acidre, Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, Baio Dimple Mastura, Ma. Rene Ann Lourdes Matibag, the late Edward Hagedorn, Noel Rivera, Wilbert Lee, and Angelica Natasha Co.

“This bill will help our sole parents, numbering around 15 million of our population, will be their tool to be able to support their children. Hindi na po kailangan lumuhod at magmakaawa ng mga ina sa mga ex nila at ama ng mga bata para sa sustento,” Tulfo said before the committee.

“Enough is enough, I would say. This has to end right now, kaya kailangan pong ipasa ang batas na ito. What is really unfortunate, some of these irresponsible fathers are holding government positions while most are working in the private sector,” Tulfo added as he reiterated that once the law will be implemented, deadbeat fathers will soon face a jail term of up to six years.

For his part, Rep. Edvic Yap also told the committee that this bill aims to address a critical but often overlooked issue: ensuring that fathers fulfill their financial obligations to their children.

“The current system has shortcomings. Republic Act No. 9262, the Anti-VAWC Act, already penalizes economic abuse, which includes the withdrawal of child support.

However, enforcing paternal child support comprehensively and establishing paternity – a prerequisite for a child support order – remains a challenge,” Rep. Yap noted.

Under the bill, “any person who willfully and unjustly fails to pay child support pursuant to a Support Order despite having a gainful employment, business or enterprise, property, or any means or source income, shall be liable for willful failure to pay child support, which shall be furnished with prison correctional in its minimum period.”

It added: “if the offender is a public officer or employee, the penalty shall be imposed in its maximum period” or up to six years jail term.

Meanwhile, PBA partylist Rep. Margarita Nograles raised question during the hearing that the bill could be facing violation of “forum shopping” as the same case could be filed for Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC).

However, the Department of Justice clarified that if the intention is to file two separate cases to the erring parent, the legislators may add the provision to the bill that “without prejudice to filing another criminal case under a separate law,” to avoid violation of “forum shopping.”