Short answer. No. The paternity leave law contains a non-diminution clause, so it cannot be read to cut any benefit you already enjoy. If your contract, a company policy, or another law already grants you more than the statutory paternity leave, that larger benefit stands and your employer cannot lower it.
What the law says
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to reduce any existing benefits of any form granted under existing laws, decrees, executive orders, or any contract, agreement or policy between employer and employee.
RA 8187, Section 6 — Existing Benefits Not Reduced. Read the full provision →
What the non-diminution clause protects
Section 6 of Republic Act No. 8187, the Paternity Leave Act, carries a non-diminution clause. It says that nothing in this Act shall be construed to reduce any existing benefits of any form granted under existing laws, decrees, executive orders, or any contract, agreement or policy between employer and employee. In plain terms, the law sets a minimum paternity benefit but expressly refuses to be used as an excuse to pull down anything better that you already have. If your employment contract or your company handbook promises you more paternity leave, or a paid benefit tied to the birth of your child, that promise is safe from being trimmed back to the bare statutory level.
The statute is a floor, not a ceiling
The Paternity Leave Act grants a married male employee seven days of paid leave for the delivery of his lawful wife, up to the number of deliveries the law allows. That figure is a floor. An employer is free to be more generous, and many are, through a contract clause, a collective bargaining agreement, or a long-standing company practice. Once a more generous benefit exists, the non-diminution rule keeps it in place. The employer cannot cite the statute to say seven days is all you are entitled to when your own agreement already gives you more. The greater benefit, whatever its source, is the one that governs your situation.
A benefit in your contract cannot be withdrawn at will
A benefit written into your contract is part of the bargain you were hired on, and Philippine labour law strongly disfavours the unilateral reduction of benefits an employee already enjoys. Combine that general principle with this specific non-diminution clause and the position is clear: an employer who tries to shrink a contractual paternity benefit is going against both. Renaming it, capping it, or quietly dropping it from a revised policy does not defeat the rule. If the benefit was genuinely granted, it stays unless you freely and knowingly agree to give it up, or a valid legal ground for the change actually exists.
What the clause does not do
The non-diminution clause preserves benefits that already exist; it does not invent ones you never had. If your contract never promised extra paternity leave, this section does not create it. It also does not override lawful conditions attached to a benefit, such as needing to be a married employee, giving notice, or documenting the birth. And it does not freeze an honest correction of a plain mistake, like a payroll error that briefly overstated your entitlement. The point of the clause is narrow but firm: what you truly enjoy today cannot be reduced by treating this Act as a licence to level everyone down to the minimum.