A four-year medium jail term awaits a parent who willfully refuses to pay support for his child if Senate Bill 1338 is passed into law.

Sen. Loren Legarda filed Monday SB 1338 whose aim is to defend the right of a child for financial support from his or her parent.

The current laws on child support are Republic Act 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act and Presidential Decree 603, also known as the Child and Youth Welfare Code.

Under the Legarda bill, child support refers to any amount determined by a court judgment, decree or order to be due from a person for the support and maintenance of a child.

The measure provides that any person who willfully fails to pay child support will be punished by “prision correccional” under the Revised Penal Code (RPC) if such an obligation has remained unpaid for at least one year or has an outstanding amount due of P50,000.

The penal sanction of prision correccional ranges from six months and one day to six years.

“A law punishing the willful failure to pay child support must therefore be enacted,” Legarda said.

But Toto Causing, a lawyer, wanted Legarda to go one step further by suggesting that she should press for the immediate action on temporary child support by empowering barangay captains to force the errant father to deliver the financial support for the immediate economic need of the child based on the National Statistics Office (NSO) record of birth.