March 16, 2010

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10028

AN ACT EXPANDING THE PROMOTION OF BREASTFEEDING, AMENDING

FOR THE PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7600, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "AN
ACT PROVIDING INCENTIVES TO ALL GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE HEALTH
INSTITUTIONS WITH ROOMING-IN AND BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES"

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the "Expanded

Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009". acEHSI

SECTION 2. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby amended

to read as follows:
"SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. — The State adopts rooming-
in as a national policy to encourage, protect and support the practice
of breastfeeding. It shall create an environment where basic physical,
emotional, and psychological needs of mothers and infants are
fulfilled through the practice of rooming-in and breastfeeding.
"The State shall likewise protect working women by providing
safe and healthful working conditions, taking into account their
maternal functions, and such facilities and opportunities that will
enhance their welfare and enable them to realize their full potential in
the service of the nation. This is consistent with international treaties
and conventions to which the Philippines is a signatory such as the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), which emphasizes provision of necessary supporting social
services to enable parents to combine family obligations with work
responsibilities; the Beijing Platform for Action and Strategic
Objective, which promotes harmonization of work and family
responsibilities for women and men; and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which recognizes a child's inherent right to life
and the State's obligations to ensure the child's survival and
development.
"Breastfeeding has distinct advantages which benefit the infant
and the mother, including the hospital and the country that adopt its
practice. It is the first preventive health measure that can be given to
the child at birth. It also enhances mother-infant relationship.
Furthermore, the practice of breastfeeding could save the country
valuable foreign exchange that may otherwise be used for milk
importation.
"Breastmilk is the best food since it contains essential nutrients
completely suitable for the infant's needs. It is also nature's first
immunization, enabling the infant to fight potential serious infection.
It contains growth factors that enhance the maturation of an infant's
organ systems.
"Towards this end, the State shall promote and encourage
breastfeeding and provide the specific measures that would present
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 opportunities for mothers to continue expressing their milk and/or
breastfeeding their infant or young child."
SECTION 3. Section 3 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby amended
to read as follows: SaDICE

"SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. — For purposes of this Act, the

following definitions are adopted:
"a) Age of gestation — the length of time the
fetus is inside the mother's womb.
"b) Bottlefeeding — the method of feeding an
infant using a bottle with artificial nipples, the contents of
which can be any type of fluid.
"c) Breastfeeding — the method of feeding an
infant directly from the human breast.
"d) Breastmilk — the human milk from a
mother.
"e) Breastmilk substitute — any food being
marketed or otherwise represented as partial or total
replacement of breastmilk whether or not suitable for that
purpose.
"f) Donor milk — the human milk from a non-
biological mother.
"g) Expressed breastmilk — the human milk
which has been extracted from the breast by hand or by
breast pump. It can be fed to an infant using a dropper, a
nasogastric tube, a cup and spoon, or a bottle.
"h) Expressing milk — the act of extracting
human milk from the breast by hand or by pump into a
container.
"i) Formula feeding — the feeding of a newborn
with infant formula usually by bottlefeeding. It is also
called artificial feeding.
"j) Health institutions — are hospitals, health
infirmaries, health centers, lying-in centers, or
puericulture centers with obstetrical and pediatric
services.
"k) Health personnel — are professionals and
workers who manage and/or administer the entire
operations of health institutions and/or who are involved
in providing maternal and child health services.
"l) Health workers — all persons who are
engaged in health and health-related work, and all
persons employed in all hospitals, sanitaria, health
infirmaries, health centers, rural health units, barangay
health stations, clinics and other health-related
establishments, whether government or private, and shall
include medical, allied health professional, administrative
and support personnel employed regardless of their
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 employment status. EIaDHS

"m) Infant — a child within zero (0) to twelve

(12) months of age.
"n) Infant formula — the breastmilk substitute
formulated industrially in accordance with applicable
Codex Alimentarius standards, to satisfy the normal
nutritional requirements of infants up to six (6) months of
age, and adopted to their physiological characteristics.
"o) Lactation management — the general care
of a mother-infant nursing couple during the mother's
prenatal, immediate postpartum and postnatal periods. It
deals with educating and providing knowledge and
information to pregnant and lactating mothers on the
advantages of breastfeeding, the risks associated with
breastmilk substitutes and milk products not suitable as
breastmilk substitutes such as, but not limited to,
condensed milk and evaporated milk, the monitoring of
breastfeeding mothers by health workers and
breastfeeding peer counselors for service patients to
ensure compliance with the Department of Health, World
Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the implementation of
breastfeeding policies, the physiology of lactation, the
establishment and maintenance of lactation, the proper
care of the breasts and nipples, and such other matters
that would contribute to successful breastfeeding.
"p) Lactation stations — private, clean, sanitary,
and well-ventilated rooms or areas in the workplace or
public places where nursing mothers can wash up,
breastfeed or express their milk comfortably and store
this afterward.
"q) Low birth weight infant — a newborn
weighing less than two thousand five hundred (2,500)
grams at birth.
"r) Nursing employee — any female worker,
regardless of employment status, who is breastfeeding
her infant and/or young child.
"s) Mother's milk — the breastmilk from the
newborn's own mother.
"t) Non-health facilities, establishment or
institution — public places and working places, as defined
in subparagraphs (u) and (y), respectively.
"u) Public place — enclosed or confined areas
such as schools, public transportation terminals, shopping
malls, and the like.DCIEac

"v) Rooming-in — the practice of placing the

newborn in the same room as the mother right after
delivery up to discharge to facilitate mother-infant
bonding and to initiate breastfeeding. The infant may
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 either share the mother's bed or be placed in a crib
beside the mother.
"w) Seriously ill mothers — are those who are:
with severe infections; in shock, in severe cardiac or
respiratory distress; or dying; or those with other
conditions that may be determined by the attending
physician as serious.
"x) Wet-nursing — the feeding of a newborn
from another mother's breast when his/her own mother
cannot breastfeed.
"y) Workplace — work premises, whether
private enterprises or government agencies, including
their subdivisions, instrumentalities and government-
owned and -controlled corporations.
"z) Young child — a child from the age of twelve
(12) months and one (1) day up to thirty-six (36)
months."
SECTION 4. Section 4 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby amended
to read as follows:
"SEC. 4. Applicability. — The provisions in this Chapter shall
apply to all private enterprises as well as government agencies,
including their subdivisions and instrumentalities, and government-
owned and -controlled corporations.
"Upon application to, and determination by, the Secretary of the
Department of Labor and Employment for the private sector, and the
Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission for the public sector, all
health and non-health facilities, establishments and institutions may
be exempted for a renewable period of two (2) years from Section 6
of this Act where the establishment of lactation stations is not
feasible or necessary due to the peculiar circumstances of the
workplace or public place taking into consideration, among others,
number of women employees, physical size of the establishment, and
the average number of women who visit.
"All health and non-health facilities, establishments or
institutions which are exempted in complying with the provisions of
this Act but nevertheless opted to comply are entitled to the benefits
herein stated: Provided, That they give their employees the privilege
of using the same."
SECTION 5. Section 10 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby amended
to read as follows: ESTcIA

"SEC. 10. Provision of Facilities for Breastmilk Collection and

Storage for Health Institutions. — The health institution adopting
rooming-in and breastfeeding shall provide equipment, facilities, and
supplies for breastmilk collection, storage and utilization, the
standards of which shall be defined by the Department of Health.
Health institutions are likewise encouraged to set up milk banks for
storage of breastmilk donated by mothers and which have undergone
pasteurization. The stored breastmilk will primarily be given to
children in the neonatal intensive care unit whose own mothers are
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 seriously ill."
SECTION 6. A new Section 11, under a new Chapter, is added to
read as follows:
"CHAPTER III
"LACTATION STATIONS
"SEC. 11. Establishment of Lactation Stations. — It is hereby
mandated that all health and non-health facilities, establishments or
institutions shall establish lactation stations. The lactation stations
shall be adequately provided with the necessary equipment and
facilities, such as: lavatory for hand-washing, unless there is an
easily-accessible lavatory nearby; refrigeration or appropriate cooling
facilities for storing expressed breastmilk; electrical outlets for breast
pumps; a small table; comfortable seats; and other items, the
standards of which shall be defined by the Department of Health. The
lactation station shall not be located in the toilet.
"In addition, all health and non-health facilities, establishments
or institutions shall take strict measures to prevent any direct or
indirect form of promotion, marketing, and/or sales of infant formula
and/or breastmilk substitutes within the lactation stations, or in any
event or circumstances which may be conducive to the same.
"Apart from the said minimum requirements, all health and
non-health facilities, establishments or institutions may provide other
suitable facilities or services within the lactation station, all of which,
upon due substantiation, shall be considered eligible for purposes of
Section 14 of this Act."
SECTION 7. A new Section 12 is hereby added to read as follows:
"SEC. 12. Lactation Periods. — Nursing employees shall be
granted break intervals in addition to the regular time-off for meals to
breastfeed or express milk. These intervals, which shall include the
time it takes an employee to get to and from the workplace lactation
station, shall be counted as compensable hours worked. The
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) may adjust the same:
Provided, That such intervals shall not be less than a total of forty
(40) minutes for every eight (8)-hour working period." DEaCSA

SECTION 8. Section 11, which shall be under the renumbered

Chapter IV of Republic Act No. 7600, is hereby amended to read as follows:
"CHAPTER IV
"INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND RE-EDUCATION DRIVE
"SEC. 13. Continuing Education, Re-education and Training
of Health Workers and Health Institutions. — The Department of
Health with the assistance of other government agencies,
professional and nongovernmental organizations shall conduct
continuing information, education, re-education, and training
programs for physicians, nurses, midwives, nutritionists-dietitians,
community health workers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs)
and other health workers on current and updated lactation
management.

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 "Information materials shall be given to all health workers
involved in maternal and infant care in health institutions."
SECTION 9. Section 12 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby
renumbered and amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 14. Information Dissemination and Educational
Programs to Pregnant Women and Women of Reproductive Age. —
During the prenatal, perinatal and postnatal consultations and/or
confinements of the mothers or pregnant women in a health
institution, it shall be the obligation of the health institution and the
health worker to immediately and continuously teach, train, and
support the women on current and updated lactation management
and infant care, through participatory strategies such as organization
of mothers' clubs and breastfeeding support groups and to distribute
written information materials on such matters free of charge.
"The Department of Health is hereby mandated to develop and
provide breastfeeding programs for working mothers whose
employers are encouraged to avail of it as part of their human
resource development programs.
"To equip women of reproductive age with accurate information
on maternal nutrition and proper nourishment in preparation for
successful and sustainable breastfeeding, the Department of Health
is likewise mandated to produce and make available relevant
information and programs which should be disseminated to all city,
municipal and barangay health centers.
"Employers are also highly encouraged to develop
breastfeeding or lactation support programs which main functions are
to assess the needs of lactating women in their company and provide
pregnant and lactating employees with adequate information
regarding lactation management in the form of brochures, pamphlets
and other educational materials."
SECTION 10. A new Section 15 is hereby added to read as follows:
"SEC. 15. Integration of Breastfeeding Education in the
Curricula. — To encourage and promote breastfeeding, the
Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and
the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority shall
integrate in the relevant subjects in the elementary, high school, and
college levels, especially in the medical and allied medical courses,
and in technical vocational education, the importance, benefits,
methods or techniques of breastfeeding, and change of societal
attitudes towards breastfeeding."
SECTION 11. A new Section 16 is hereby added to read as follows:
"SEC. 16. Breastfeeding Awareness Month. — To raise
awareness on the importance of and to further promote
breastfeeding, the month of August in each and every year
throughout the Philippines shall be known as 'Breastfeeding
Awareness Month'." TEcHCA

SECTION 12. A new Section 17 is hereby added to read as follows:

"SEC. 17. Public Education and Awareness Program. — To
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 ensure the meaningful observance of breastfeeding month as herein
declared, a comprehensive national public education and awareness
program shall be undertaken in order to achieve the following
objectives:
"a) To protect, promote and support
breastfeeding in the Philippines as the normal, natural
and preferred method of feeding infants and young
children;
"b) To guarantee the rightful place of
breastfeeding in society as a time honored tradition and
nurturing value as well as a national health policy that
must be enforced;
"c) To provide information about the benefits
and superiority of breastfeeding and the high risks and
costs of bottlefeeding;
"d) To generate awareness on, and full
enforcement of, national and international laws, codes,
policies and programs on the promotion and protection of
safe and adequate nutrition for infants and young
children by promoting and protecting breastfeeding and
by regulating the marketing of certain foods and feeding
bottles, teats and pacifiers; and
"e) To instill recognition and support and ensure
access to comprehensive, current and culturally
appropriate lactation care and services for all women,
children and families, including support for breastfeeding
mothers in the work force.CSDTac

"The Department of Health shall lead in the implementation of

the comprehensive national public education and awareness program
on breastfeeding through a collaborative interagency and multi-
sectoral effort at all levels."
SECTION 13. A new Section 18, which shall be under the
renumbered Chapter V of Republic Act No. 7600, is hereby added to read as
follows:
"CHAPTER V
"MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
"SEC. 18. Department of Health Certification. — Any health
and non-health facility, establishment or institution satisfying the
requirements of Sections 6 and 7 herein relative to a proper lactation
station may apply with the local Department of Health office for a
'working mother-baby friendly' certification. The Department of
Health shall promulgate guidelines to determine eligibility for such
certification, which shall include an annual Department of Health
inspection to confirm the continued compliance with its standards.
"The Department of Health shall maintain a list of 'mother-
baby-friendly' establishments, which it shall make available to the
public."
SECTION 14. Section 13 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby
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 renumbered and amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 19. Incentives. — The expenses incurred by a private
health and non-health facility, establishment or institution, in
complying with the provisions of this Act, shall be deductible
expenses for income tax purposes up to twice the actual amount
incurred: Provided, That the deduction shall apply for the taxable
period when the expenses were incurred: Provided, further, That all
health and non-health facilities, establishments and institutions shall
comply with the provisions of this Act within six (6) months after its
approval: Provided, finally, That such facilities, establishments or
institutions shall secure a "Working Mother-Baby-Friendly Certificate"
from the Department of Health to be filed with the Bureau of Internal
Revenue, before they can avail of the incentive.
"Government facilities, establishments or institutions shall
receive an additional appropriation equivalent to the savings they
may derive as a result of complying with the provisions of this Act.
The additional appropriation shall be included in their budget for the
next fiscal year."
SECTION 15. A new Section 20 shall be added to read as follows:
"SEC. 20. Implementing Agency. — The Department of
Health shall be principally responsible for the implementation and
enforcement of the provisions of this Act."
SECTION 16. Section 14 of Republic Act No. 7600 is hereby
renumbered and amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 21. Sanctions. — Any private non-health facility,
establishment and institution which unjustifiably refuses or fails to
comply with Sections 6 and 7 of this Act shall be imposed a fine of not
less than Fifty thousand pesos (Php50,000.00) but not more than Two
hundred thousand pesos (Php200,000.00) on the first offense.
"On the second offense, a fine of not less than Two hundred
thousand pesos (Php200,000.00) but not more than Five hundred
thousand pesos (Php500,000.00).
"On the third offense, a fine of not less than Five hundred
thousand pesos (Php500,000.00) but not more than One million
pesos (Php1,000,000.00) and the cancellation or revocation of the
business permits or licenses to operate.
"In all cases, the fine imposed should take into consideration,
among others, number of women employees, physical size of the
establishment, and the average number of women who visit.
"In addition, the Secretary of Health is hereby empowered to
impose sanctions on health institution for the violation of this Act and
the rules issued thereunder. Such sanctions may be in the form of
reprimand or censure and in cases of repeated willful violations,
suspension of the permit to operate of the erring health institution.
"Heads, officials and employees of government health and non-
health facilities, establishments and institutions who violate this Act
shall further be subject to the following administrative penalties:
"First offense — Reprimand;
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 "Second offense — Suspension for one (1) to thirty (30) days;
and
"Third offense — Dismissal.
"This shall be without prejudice to other liabilities applicable
under civil service law and rules."
SECTION 17. Funding. — Government agencies, including their
subdivisions and instrumentalities, shall use their respective budget for
gender and development or their budgets for repairs, maintenance and
materials acquisition to comply with Section 6 hereof.
IHCSET

SECTION 18. Rules and Regulations. — The Department of Health,

as the lead agency, in coordination with the Department of Labor and
Employment, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of
Justice, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department
of Education, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Civil
Service Commission, the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority and professional and
nongovernmental organizations concerned, shall issue within one hundred
and twenty (120) days upon its effectivity the rules and regulations
necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
SECTION 19. Separability Clause. — If any clause, sentence,
paragraph or part of this Act shall be declared to be invalid, the remainder of
this Act or any provision not affected thereby shall remain in force and
effect.
SECTION 20. Repealing Clause. — All laws, presidential decrees,
executive orders, rules and regulations or parts thereof which are not
consistent with this Act are hereby repealed, amended or modified
accordingly.
SECTION 21. Effectivity Clause. — This Act shall take effect fifteen
(15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2)
newspapers of general circulation, whichever comes earlier.
Approved: March 16, 2010.

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