magna carta special leave for women and filing of SSS sickness benefit

Hi, I'm about to undergo endometrial curetagge this Sept 27 2018.

I've filed for the magna carta leave. So this means that I will not be using up my SL for this year and my banked SL from my unused SLs from previous years.

I understand that I can still file the SSS sickness notification even if I have not yet used up my 2018 SLs and banked SL, is this right?

Our HR Benefits team is saying I can only use the sss sickness benefit once SLs and banked SLs had been utilized.

I found this:
Sec. 1 (a) of DOLE Department Order No. 112-11 states that, the Special Leave Benefit shall be in addition to leave privileges granted under existing laws. Thus, the sickness benefit and special leave benefit can be applied for at the same time.

Your HR is right, leave benefits must be used up first before you can be paid for the Special Leave (Magna Carta)

If you check the SSS Sickness Benefit Form, and other policies surrounding the Sickness Benefit of SSS, it would state that SSS would only pay you after the company leave is exhausted.