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UNITED
NATIONS
Distr.
GENERAL
CEDAW/C/PHI/4
25 July 1996
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 18 OF THE
CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF
ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
Fourth periodic reports of States parties
THE PHILIPPINES*
CONTENTS
Part One
SUMMARY
Paragraphs Page
I. INTRODUCTION..............................1 - 5 3
II. DEVELOPMENTS............................. 6 - 35 3
A. Information updates on
the Philippines ........... 6- 22 3
B. Information updates on
the status of women ....... 23 - 27 6
C. Major policy and
programme developments.......... 28 - 35 7
III. REMAINING ISSUES AND
OBSTACLES....................... 36 - 46 9
PART TWO
PROGRESS REPORT ON EACH ARTICLE
OF THE CONVENTION
I. Articles 2-4............................. 1 - 42 12
II. Article 5................................ 43 -55 25
III. Article 6................................ 56 -93 27
IV. Article 7................................ 94 -125 34
V. Article 8................................ 126 -131 39
VI. Article 9................................ 132 40
VII. Article 10................................133 -171 40
VIII. Article 11................................172 -225 46
IX. Article 12............................... 226 -254 56
X. Article 13............................... 255 -278 62
XI. Article 14............................... 279 -310 66
XII. Article 15............................... 311 -315 72
XIII. Article 16................................316 -327 73
Part One
SUMMARY
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The present fourth Philippine report on the implementation
of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women covers
the period December 1992 to November 1995.
2. To ensure the participation of non-governmental
organizations as well as other government agencies in the
formulation of this report, a consultation workshop was
conducted on 27 October 1995 and the first draft of the report
was sent to pertinent organizations and agencies for
validation. During the workshop, participants expressed
concern regarding the numerous reports that the country had to
prepare with regard to the implementation of international
agreements among which is the Convention. They commented that
preparing reports took much of their time which they wanted to
devote to more substantial work and direct services for women.
They, therefore, recommended that the United Nations devise a
reporting system such that a country's implementation of
international conventions would be contained in just one
periodic report.
3. The report is a product of a consultative process between
the government organizations and non-governmental
organizations, a process to which the National Commission on
the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) adheres in the spirit of
partnership and collaboration with non-governmental
organizations. It consists of two main parts. The first part
provides information on the country's current social, economic,
political situation, including data on the present status of
women. The second part provides specific information regarding
the country's implementation of articles 2 to 16 of the
Convention.
4. This report focuses on policy, institutional and
programme/project developments resulting from the growing
consciousness of women's/gender issues/concerns in the country.
Facilitating factors, as well as those that hinder the efforts,
are likewise presented.
5. National developments and action plans resulting from the
Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, are
also covered by this report.
II. DEVELOPMENTS
A. Information updates on the Philippines
6. Since the results of the latest census, which was
conducted in September 1995, are not yet available, demographic
information such as total population and population
distribution are still the same as those contained in the
Philippines' third period report.
1. Political developments
7. In the 1992 national elections, President Fidel V. Ramos
succeeded former President Corazon C. Aquino. Aside from
carrying on with the thrusts of the previous administration,
President Ramos adopted the Social Reform Agenda as his
Government's centrepiece programme to be implemented hand-in-
hand with the Government's goal to transform the Philippines
into a newly industrializing country by the year 2000 - for
which the country's battle cry is "Philippines 2000". This was
meant to focus equally on economic and social reforms.
8. Local government units, whose decentralization was
authorized by the Local Government Code (1991) passed during
the Aquino administration, still need to acquire the capability
for effective self-governance.
2. Social developments
9. Since "people power" surfaced in 1986, its use as a tool
for political assertion has intensified the movement towards
popular participation. The Philippine experience at restoring
democracy had been a steady movement towards the inclusion of
excluded voices in the political mainstream. The mushrooming
of people's organizations, the vibrant non-governmental
organization community, and the high rate of voter turnout in
the last two major elections all indicate a decisive passage
from apathy to creative participation.
10. However, the country continues to face internal armed
conflicts posed by the communist insurgency and the Muslim
secessionist movements. It is, therefore, undergoing a
national unification process, consistent with the recognition
that political stability and national unity are major
prerequisites for economic development (Philippine country
report, 1986-1995).
11. People's organizations and non-governmental organizations
have observed the incongruity of the country's political and
social organization with indigenous arrangements of social
reality, manifested by conflicts over tribal land rights, the
secessionist movements, or the failure of the so-called
economic growth to "trickle down" to the common people.
12. Migration, both internal and international, is breaking up
families and exposing individuals to social prejudice and
stress. However, the influx of dollars from the remittances of
overseas contract workers gives a boost to the country's
economy.
13. Urbanization and its impact on the disintegration of
families and communities have become a major concern. Urban
areas grow at the expense of rural areas. Consequently, slum
communities grow rapidly, which results in social crowding and
increased competition for scarce community resources.
14. Migration movements have also been noted in the uplands,
increasing the forest population density and its attendant
environmental problems. A significant proportion of upland
migration is triggered by peace and order problems in the
lowlands.
15. A disturbing effect of armed conflicts is the increased
traffic in loose firearms and the drift of some insurgent
groups towards crime and terrorism. Likewise, the perceived
inability of the State to enforce its laws has encouraged
kidnapping for ransom and other related crimes.
16. To check corruption and show its resolve in seriously
tracking down criminal elements, the Government has embarked on
the Moral Recovery Program and has put in place mechanisms for
a tighter and more efficient government.
3. The economic environment
17. The Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) "People Power"
Revolution in 1986 ushered in the Aquino regime and along with
it a promise for a new sense of order and priorities for the
poor and made poverty alleviation one of its main
thrusts/programmes.
18. Reforms instituted by President Ramos have ushered in an
era of economic liberalization and the relative political
stability has lured more foreign investors. Maintaining a
favourable climate for foreign investors while keeping in check
rising criminality and searching for a lasting peace to solve
the country's insurgency problem have been major challenges to
the Government.
19. In 1994, 35.7 per cent of Filipino families were estimated
to live below the poverty threshold (placed at P 8,969.00 for a
family of six). In 1991, the estimate was 39.2 per cent. The
lack of distributive social justice or inequity in the access
of productive resources, employment opportunities and basic
services continue to be main reasons for poverty.
20. Between 1989 and 1993, the country suffered from negative
economic growth but started to rebound with a 4.5 growth rate
in 1994. According to the International Labour Organization
(ILO), the Philippine economy has to grow by an average of 8 to
10 per cent annually to generate enough jobs for labour
entrants.
21. The poverty situation in the country has been exacerbated
by several disasters and calamities. The eruption of
Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 continues to wreak havoc in central Luzon.
The consequent floods caused by volcanic lava or "lahar" bury
whole communities, resulting in massive homelessness and
suffering. Women and children, in particular, are the worst
victims of this catastrophe and until now families left
homeless by the lahar flows are still waiting for a
comprehensive programme that will successfully rehabilitate
them.
22. The typhoons of record-breaking strength which the country
experienced in 1995 devastated many provinces. The
Government's calamity fund has been depleted and the work of
facilitating the complete recovery of these provinces is far
from over. These calamities caused a major setback to whatever
economic gains the country was beginning to realize.
B. Information updates on the status of women
23. With the equality provision of the Constitution as well as
a number of significant laws that have been passed for the
benefit of women, the Philippine Government has committed
itself to the advancement of women. Apart from the very clear
legal mandate, there is relatively strong State machinery for
women, the bureaucracy has started to recognize the
significance of women's role in development and the women's
movement has started to be felt as a strong force. In spite of
these small successes, so much more remains to be done before
de facto equality for women is actualized.
24. The 1992 Labor Force Survey shows that only 46.8 per cent
of females are employed compared with 85.7 per cent of males.
In short, less than half of the women have direct access to
income from wages or formal sector employment. Women, however,
compensate for this by working in the informal sector but the
majority of their productive contribution to family subsistence
is invisible in national income accounts. In addition to their
home and family-related duties, women perform most of the
volunteer work needed to mobilize a community regarding health,
sanitation and other related activities.
25. From 1980 to 1993, the total fertility rate decreased from
5.0 to 4.08 children per woman. Despite the virtual standstill
of the family planning programme because of the strong
resistance from the Catholic Church, to which approximately
80 per cent of Filipinos belong, the contraceptive prevalence
rate rose from 32 to 40 per cent in 1993 (Philippine country
report for women, 1986-1995).
26. A critical phenomenon of the decade is the feminization of
overseas employment. Around 52 per cent of the total overseas
contract workers deployed in 1991 were women. This trend
reflects employment distress adversely affecting the working
women population more than the men. Women domestic helpers
deployed in neighbouring South-East Asian countries comprised
57 per cent of such workers in the service sector and
entertainers and nurses represented 34 per cent of the
professional sector. Issues such as non-payment of wages,
discrimination and sexual abuse abound. Inadequacy of
protective mechanisms to deal with abusive employers in host
countries is a major concern of the Government.
27. Beginning in late 1994, women's issues, such as rape,
domestic violence and reproductive rights, became a focus of
public debate. As a result, an increasing number of
legislators filed bills on these issues. Dealing with the new
forms of exploitation and discrimination, even as old ones are
mitigated, remains a continuing challenge for the NCRFW, the
prime government body for promoting the advancement of women in
the country. In its work NCRFW has found valuable allies, not
only among the many women's groups and non-governmental
organizations that sprang up in the wake of the political
turmoil of the mid-1980s. A strong women's movement in the
country has been one of the highlights of the last decade.
C. Major policy and programme developments
28. The Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development,
1995-2025, is the Philippine Government's 30-year perspective
framework for pursuing full equality and development for women
and men. It is the successor plan to the Philippine
Development Plan for Women, 1989-1992, and is the Government's
blueprint for gender mainstreaming. The Plan was approved and
adopted by virtue of Executive Order 273 which, inter alia,
prescribes that:
(a) The Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development
be the main vehicle for implementing in the Philippines the
action commitments made during the Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing;
(b) All government entities at the national, subnational
and local levels implement the Plan; incorporate gender and
development concerns in their agency performance commitment
contracts indicating key result areas for such concerns as well
as in their annual performance report to the President; and
incorporate gender and development concerns in agency budget
proposals and work and financial plans.
29. The Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, 1993-1998
enunciates priority attention being focused on gender and
development in all sectors.
30. The Philippine Human Rights Plan, 1996-2000, which was
prepared with the full participation of NCRFW, gives special
focus on women's rights as human rights.
31. Among the landmark laws passed by the present Congress are
the following:
(a) Republic Act 7877, the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of
1995, which defines and provides for penalizing sexual
harassment in the workplace and in an education or training
setting;
(b) Republic Act 8042, the Magna Carta for overseas
contract workers, seeks to institute policies for the welfare
of migrant workers, their families, and overseas Filipinos;
(c) Republic Act 7882 provides credit assistance to women
engaging in micro and cottage business enterprise.
32. Training on gender-responsive planning has been in full
swing for the different sectors and agencies and selected
regional offices since the start of the NCRFW-CIDA (Canadian
International Development Agency) institutional strengthening
project. Consequently, agencies have, in varying degrees,
initiated implementation and programming for gender and
development activities in which the most common problem raised
was the lack of additional budget for the implementation of
programmes, projects and activities on the subject. In
response to this, the following policy issuances were made:
(a) Presidential directives relative to budgeting for
gender and development;
(b) A joint memorandum circular on the integration of
gender and development into the agency plan and budget jointly
issued by the National Economic and Development Authority
(NEDA), the Department of Budget and Management and NCRFW;
(c) Inclusion for the first time of a provision on gender-
responsive projects in the 1995 General Appropriations Act;
(d) The 1996 Budget Call classified women in
development/gender and development activities among the
priority programmes of the Government, to ensure its
consideration even from the very start of the budgeting process
for 1996.
33. NCRFW also published The Women's Budget: Philippines,
1995-1996, a document which assesses the resources that the
Philippine Government, through its various agencies, spends for
the advancement of women.
34. In response to the Fourth World Conference on Women, the
NCRFW Board of Commissioners adopted a set of priority policy
imperatives (enumerated below) on the areas of concern of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and presented it
for the approval of the President. These policies will serve
to focus agencies' efforts to attain a more observable impact
in the immediate years.
(1) Women and poverty/women and economic inequality:
(a) in view of the increasing burden of poverty on
women, review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic
policies, including structural adjustment programmes
and development strategies that address the needs and
efforts of women to overcome poverty within the
framework of sustainable development; and
(b) strengthen the access of women to training,
economic resources (including land, credit, science
and technology, vocational training, information,
communication and markets), employment and promotion
opportunities.
(2) Women and the media/women and education: promote a
balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the
media, arts and education.
(3) Women and health: (a) achieve for Filipino women the
highest level of health throughout their life cycle;
and (b) promote the reproductive health and
reproductive rights of women.
(4) Women and violence: enact and implement integrated
measures to eliminate violence against women and
protect victims of such violence.
(5) Women in situations of armed conflict: (a) increase
and strengthen the participation of women in conflict
resolution and decision-making; and (b) protect women
in armed conflicts.
(6) Women in decision-making: (a) ensure women's equal
access to and full participation in power structures
and decision-making, in both the public and private
sectors; and (b) ensure women's full participation in
decision-making within the family structures.
(7) National machinery for women's advancement:
(a) strengthen the national machinery on women by
providing new and additional resources to enable it to
continue mainstreaming gender concerns in development;
(b) institutionalize the priority being given to
gender and development in the General Appropriations
Act; (c) generate and disseminate gender-disaggregated
data for planning and evaluation; and (d) integrate a
gender perspective into all legislation, public
policies, programmes and projects.
(8) Women and human rights: (a) promote and protect all
the human rights of women through the full
implementation of all United Nations conventions and
all international human rights instruments relevant to
women's rights; and (b) ensure the protection of the
rights of vulnerable groups of women such as women
belonging to minority groups, indigenous women,
refugee women, migrant women, women in poverty living
in rural or remote communities, destitute women, women
in institutions or in detention, female children,
women with disabilities, elderly women and women in
situations of armed conflict.
(9) Women and the environment: recognize the role of
women and involve women's activities in the management
of natural resources and in the safeguarding of the
environment.
(10) The girl child: (a) implement fully the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
especially the provision on the protection of the
rights of the girl child; (b) increase public
awareness of the values, needs and rights of the
girl child and protect her rights; and (c) promote
the rights of the girl child, balancing them with
parental rights and responsibilities.
35. Non-governmental organizations likewise have a translation
of the Beijing Platform for Action. The National Council of
Women of the Philippines (NCWP) prepared a plan of action which
would focus the efforts of its member organizations in
implementing the Platform. Through NCWP, which is composed of
149 national women's organizations, 3,081 councils of women in
the regions and approximately 10 million members reaching up to
the grassroots level, the impact of the Platform could be felt
nationwide. Other women's networks and coalitions have
likewise pledged to actively pursue implementation of the
Platform.
III. REMAINING ISSUES AND OBSTACLES
36. Even as steady and significant strides have been taken to
effectively address the gender-based inequalities which the
Convention seeks to eliminate, a number of issues and obstacles
in the promotion of women's interest and welfare remain to be
resolved.
Issues related to government as an institution for improving
the situation of women
37. Inadequate tools and methodologies for gender
mainstreaming. The need to develop, test, adapt and
disseminate tools and methodologies for the effective
operationalization of gender mainstreaming remains a foremost
challenge to government considering the state of the art of the
gender and development approach all over the world where
principles and methods are still subject to further testing.
Development agents and key implementors in government have
continuously recognized the need to develop practical tools and
methodologies for gender and development which are appropriate
to Philippine conditions and setting.
38. Lack of a critical mass of women in top-level and
decision-making positions. Empowerment for the greater
majority of women must start with the sharing by women of
decision-making and the political power that men have
traditionally held. While Filipino women took an unprecedented
active role in the political events of the past decade which
toppled a dictatorship and catapulted into power the country's
first woman president, their participation in politics and
public governance continues to be limited. They remain largely
unable to influence policy and decision-making as legislators,
chief executives and top administrators at both the national
and local levels.
39. Need to enhance the level of awareness and skills on women
in development/gender and development concerns among government
officials and staff. While significant strides have been taken
to increase the level of awareness on such issues/concerns and
skills in gender-responsive planning and policy-making among
people in the bureaucracy, the majority of the people in
government remain unappreciative of the importance of
integrating the gender mainstreaming approach into their work.
There is a need, therefore, for adequate and sustained gender
and development sensitivity and skills training, not only among
those who plan and implement development policies, programmes
and projects but also among decision makers as well, to ensure
that policies, plans and programmes are developed and designed
taking into account the gender dimensions.
40. Absence of a comprehensive indicator system with clear
standards for gender-responsiveness per sector. One formidable
challenge that remains to be overcome is the need to develop
and institute a gender-responsive monitoring and indicator
system that sets the standards or criteria for gender-
responsiveness of policies, programmes and projects that are
being implemented by various line departments and agencies in
government. This requires the establishment of a database
system that will support planning and advocacy relating to
women in development/gender and development at the national and
local levels, and provide relevant inputs to track the impact
of interventions relating to women in development/gender and
development on the status of both women and men. Moreover,
there is still a need to fully incorporate the gender
perspective in the regular evaluation guidelines of the
government. Sector and area-specific guidelines need to be
developed for adaptation to the particular needs of each agency
or instrumentality of government.
41. Absence of political will and lack of commitment by
implementing agencies. Apart from technical problems and lack
of gender sensitivity, it has been noted that another
constraint to the advancement of women is the weak commitment
and low priority accorded by departments and agencies to
women's gender concerns. Among the issues raised by women in
development/gender and development focal points in the various
line agencies are the following: (a) difficulty in obtaining
support for gender and development from other units within
their respective agencies; (b) competing priorities between the
agency head and the technical staff; (c) work overload (gender
and development activities are performed as an "add on"
function); and (d) lack of resources and support from the
highest official.
Issues related to the public in general
42. Women in a poverty situation. The acute poverty situation
remains the country's priority focus of attention affecting
women more seriously as family treasurers and as health and
economic providers. With the diminished purchasing power of
the peso, more and more women are forced to find ways to
augment family income.
43. Lack of concerted and massive public education on gender
issues and concerns. Gender-responsiveness in the development
process has been difficult to achieve, mainly because of the
lack of public understanding of gender issues. A strong public
advocacy programme is strongly needed in order to create a
social environment supportive of women's gender concerns.
Issues related to social institutions
44. Stereotyping in schools. Among the social institutions,
schools continue to play pivotal roles in reinforcing and
perpetuating sex-role stereotyping and sexist concepts still
found in the curricula, textbooks and instructional materials.
Studies have consistently pointed out that such stereotypes not
only restrict the role orientation of learners but also
reinforce traditional views of female subordination. There is
a need therefore to continuously review the curricula and
educational and instructional materials across levels vis-a`-
vis their relevance to the changing roles of women and men.
There is also a continuing need to critique, review and
evaluate the Philippine educational system in terms of content,
methods and learning processes and institutional mechanisms and
structures vis-a`-vis its relevance and responsiveness to the
demands of contemporary times.
45. Negative influence of the media. As in the educational
institutions, women continue to be portrayed in very limited,
sexist and stereotyped roles in the news, radio, television
programmes, advertisements and movies. There is an
overabundance of movies that portray women as victims, sex
objects, weaklings and hopeless romantics. Similarly,
advertisements continue to confine women to homemaker roles or
depict them as glamour-obsessed objects of desire. While there
are plenty of broadcast programmes with women leads and
characters, as well as publications aimed at a female
readership, the local media in general remain untapped as a
potent means for advancing women's development.
46. The church's traditional views about women remain
unchanged. The Government, on the other hand, has been showing
an optimistic level of responsiveness to the gender equality
agenda, although its basic institutional make-up remains male-
oriented.
Part Two
PROGRESS REPORT ON EACH ARTICLE OF THE CONVENTION
I. ARTICLES 2-4
General policy of non-discrimination as reflected in the
Constitution etc.; adoption of positive measures;
establishment of legal protection of women; refraining
from engaging in any discriminatory activities; repeal
or modification of laws, customs etc.; adoption of
social, political, economic and cultural measures to
ensure advancement of women; adoption of temporary
special measures to accelerate de facto equality,
including measures aimed at protecting maternity
1. The present report covers initiatives by government and
non-governmental organizations in response to provisions of the
first three articles of the Convention. These initiatives are
categorized into three: policy developments, institutional
developments, and programme and project developments. The
policy developments include legislation (i.e. republic acts,
bills, presidential directives and memoranda, circulars etc.)
and other operational policies and strategies. For the
institutional developments, mechanisms that facilitate gender
equality are discussed (i.e. the strengthening of NCRFW, women
in development/gender and development focal points, women's
desks, crisis centres, the Department of Social Welfare and
Development's Bureau of Women's Welfare etc.). The programme
project developments include specific initiatives with regard
to the following: preparation of gender and development
guidelines, formation of project groups, training and advocacy,
information and education campaign, statistics programme, etc.
Policy developments
Legislation and other policy issuances
2. The period 1992-1995 saw the passage of laws on women that
reflected the Philippines' adherence to the Convention's policy
of non-discrimination and adoption of positive measures for the
advancement of women. The passage of Republic Act 7192 or the
Women in Development and Nation-building Act, in 1992, ushered
in more legislative initiatives, among which are the following:
(1) Republic Act 8042, known as the Migrant Workers
and Overseas Filipinas Act of 1995. This law
institutes the policies for overseas employment
and establishes a higher standard of protection
and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers,
their families and overseas Filipinos in distress.
This law was hailed as significant to women
considering the increasing feminization of
Philippine migration for overseas employment where
women become highly vulnerable to exploitation and
abuse.
(2) Republic Act 7882 provides credit assistance to women
engaging in micro and cottage business enterprise.
Recently, the Implementing Rules and Regulations for
this law were amended, increasing the maximum loanable
amount for women in microenterprises from P1.5 million
to P5 million.
(3) Republic Act 7877 declares sexual harassment to be
unlawful in employment, education or the training
environment. This law recognizes that sexual
harassment indeed exists. Women who are no longer
afraid to speak out and a society which is already
aware clamoured for this law.
(4) Republic Act 7688 gives representation to women in the
Social Security Commission. Out of nine seats in the
Board of Commissioners, two are reserved for women,
one each representing labour and management.
(5) Republic Act 7655 increases the minimum wage of
domestic househelpers, who are mostly women.
(6) Republic Act 7600 promotes and protects breast-feeding
by requiring government and private health
institutions with obstetrical services to adapt a
policy of rooming-in.
(7) Republic Act 7322 increases maternity benefits of
women workers in the private sector.
(8) Republic Act 7305, known as the Magna Carta for Public
Health Workers, grants additional benefits (i.e.
subsistence pay, laundry allowance, hazard pay etc.)
for public health workers, the majority of whom are
women.
(9) Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code,
provides seats for women in all of the 1,600 local
legislative assemblies nationwide. This is to
increase the participation of women in political and
public life. However, immediate implementation of the
law is undergoing problems with the delay of the
passage of its enabling law.
(10) Republic Act 6981 institutionalizes the Witness
Protection, Security and Benefits Program at the
Department of Justice. The programme benefits not
only women witnesses but also women victims,
because vital witnesses to crimes committed
against them are afforded security and protection
against harassment and threats from offenders or
perpetrators of the crimes.
(11) Republic Act 6972 mandates the establishment of
day-care centres in every barangay. However, the
majority of the barangays have not implemented
this for lack of funds and lack of support from
local officials.
(12) Republic Act 6955 bans marriage matching for a fee
and exportation of domestic workers to certain
countries which cannot ensure the protection of
their rights.
(13) Republic Act 6809 lowers the age of majority for
women from 21 to 18 years, thus equalizing it with
that for men.
3. The passage of these laws, however, does not necessarily
result in full de facto equality for women. The problems in
enforcement and implementation are many. Popularizing them so
that they become tools of empowerment needs to be done.
Information campaigns and dissemination mechanisms to promote
and explain the workings of these laws need to be strengthened.
Moreover, there is some resistance to the actual implementation
of these laws because of deep-seated sexist attitudes and
practices. Given this resistance, it has been difficult for
bills on women to be enacted. A case in point is House Bill
No. 4228 and Senate Bill No. 1413, or the Anti-rape Bill. The
Bill seeks to:
(a) Reclassify rape as a crime against the person;
(b) Redefine it to include other forms of sexual assault
on any person;
(c) Institutionalize measures for the recovery of the
victims;
(d) Prosecute offenders.
The Bill faced tremendous opposition from the majority of the
members of Congress, who are mostly men, despite its urgency.
Other bills that have been filed are the following:
(1) House Bill No. 12453 (1994), establishing a national
livelihood fund for women.
(2) House Bills Nos. 12430 (1994), 142 (1994) and 1228
(1993) and Senate Bill No. 1114 (1993), mandating a
minimum percentage of women employed in the private
and government workforce.
(3) House Bill No. 4367 (1994), amending Republic Act
3835, or Charter of the Women's Auxiliary Corps, and
allowing women to do combat duties.
(4) Senate Bill No. 1726 (1994)/House Bill No. 12399,
providing for a comprehensive programme against
cruelty to wives.
(5) Senate Bill No. 1718 (1994), amending section 14-A of
Republic Act 1161 (maternity leave benefits are given
to the first four deliveries) by providing maternity
benefits to all deliveries.
(6) Senate Bill No. 1675 (1994) and House Bills Nos. 12454
(1994), 143 (1994) and 10766 (1993), creating the
Philippine National Commission on Women, defining its
powers, functions and responsibilities and
appropriating funds for its expanded operations.
(7) House bill No. 8393 (1993), increasing maternity leave
benefits of women employees in the public and the
private sector.
(8) House Bill No. 7500 (1993), banning advertisements in
print and television where women pose in sexually
suggestive postures.
(9) Senate Bill No. 1322 (1993), making sexual intercourse
with a daughter or granddaughter below 17 years old
statutory rape and imposing a mandatory death penalty.
(10) House Bill No. 5143 (1992), institutionalizing
additional measures to prevent the commercial
"sexploitation" of Filipino women.
(11) House Bill No. 4389 (1992), penalizing any
advertising agency, television, radio station and
publication which exploits women and glorifies
sexual violence in its advertisements.
(12) House Bill No. 876 (1992) and Senate Bill No. 209
(1992), establishing a community women's support
centre in every depressed barangay in the country.
(13) House Bill No. 699, (1992), prescribing certain
conditions in the investigation and trial of cases
involving the crime of rape.
(14) Senate Bill No. 541 (1992), exempting a woman from
the battered wife syndrome from criminal liability
if she should kill her husband while in the act of
battery against her.
Presidential directives
4. Policy changes were also manifested through various
executive orders, presidential directives, memorandum
circulars, department orders, and other policy issuances. An
exhaustive list is presented below with only very brief
descriptions. Details and more substantive discussion and
analysis of their impact on women are further presented in
subsequent articles where they are directly relevant.
(1) Civil Service Commission (CSC), Series of 1995,
enhancing women's career opportunities in government
service by developing and implementing programmes that
will institutionalize support mechanisms for women's
career advancement.
(2) Department of Labor and Employment, Series of 1994,
designating the then woman Secretary of the Department
as additional NCRFW representative and advocate to the
Cabinet, ensuring that the NCRFW concerns are
articulated and given due consideration in the
discussion of policies and other measures during
Cabinet meetings. This designation was in addition to
the then Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare
and Development, another woman member of the Cabinet.
(3) Office of the Executive Secretary, Series of 1994,
requiring the consideration of women nominees for at
least one position to the Board of Commissioners of
the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). At present,
there is already a woman Commissioner in CHR.
(4) Department of Labor and Employment, Series of 1994,
requiring NCRFW representation at the eighty-first
session of ILO.
(5) Cabinet Cluster, Series of 1994, formalizing NCRFW
representation in observer status in the Cabinet
Cluster C (Human Resource Development Cluster) regular
meetings. Cabinet Cluster C is one of the seven
clusters of executive agencies that meet once a week
to discuss priority issues concerning the sector and
which feeds recommendations for the action of the
Cabinet.
(6) Department of Budget and Management, Series of 1994,
prescribing the guidelines for the inclusion of a
budget for women/gender and development programmes,
projects and activities in the 1996 budget call.
(7) Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Series of 1994,
prescribing concrete action planning and
implementation for the enhancement of the image of
women in the media.
(8) Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
Series of 1994, calling for the enhancement of women's
participation in environmental management and ecology
programmes and projects of government.
(9) Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
Series of 1994, enjoining the Department to adopt
gender-responsive policies and to implement programmes
considering the emerging typologies of families,
particularly single-parent and women-headed families.
(10) Livelihood Implementing Agencies, Series of 1993,
enhancing access of small and medium-scale women
entrepreneurs to livelihood programmes.
(11) Department of Labor and Employment, Series of
1993, protecting women overseas contract workers
by prioritizing the assignment of women attached
to countries where the majority of such workers
are women.
(12) Philippine National Police and NCRFW, Series of
1993, establishing women's desks in police
stations in priority areas. There are currently
300 trained policemen staffing women's desks all
over the country.
Presidential memoranda, circulars and resolutions
5. While the above policy pronouncements can be taken to be
indicative of the strong political will to address particular
concerns of women in various sectors, much remains to be done
in terms of concrete implementation and follow-through. A
current challenge for NCRFW as the national machinery for women
is to evolve a comprehensive monitoring scheme coupled with
appropriate technical assistance to agencies so that
implementation of these policies is institutionalized.
(a) Memorandum Order No. 282, Series of 1995, directs
various government training institutions to incorporate in
their respective curricula gender and development concerns and
programmes.
(b) Presidential Directive dated 11 October 1995 directs
the Department of Agrarian Reform/Social Reform Council to
expand the Social Reform Agenda to cover implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action.
(c) CSC Memorandum Circular No. 19, Series of 1994, and
Department of Labor and Employment Administrative Order No. 68,
Series of 1992, define and set forth policies on sexual
harassment and lay down mechanisms that would help deter sexual
harassment in government.
(d) Department of Labor and Employment Administrative
Order No. 100, Series of 1995, focuses on an enforcement
programme on women workers.
(e) Resolution NFS-30 integrates gender concerns at the
policy and operations levels of all housing development
programmes and projects of shelter agencies.
Operational policies and strategies
Gender mainstreaming
6. On the other hand, the executive branch of Government has
been accelerating women's integration into the mainstream
development. Women and gender concerns had been incorporated
in the current Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, 1993-
1998, and the Philippine Human Rights Plan, 1996-2000. In
addition, a more comprehensive perspective plan for gender and
development has been completed and serves as the Government's
blueprint for action in promoting women's advancement and in
implementing the Government's commitment to the Fourth World
Conference on Women.
Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development, 1995-2025
7. This Plan is the Government's 30-year perspective
framework for pursuing full equality and development for women
and men. It spells out gender-related goals and objectives and
sets forth comprehensive policies, strategies and programmes
that need to be adopted and implemented by all governmental and
non-governmental organizations and the private sector to
address identified issues.
8. The Plan was approved and adopted through Executive
Order 273, issued on 8 September 1995. The Order directs all
government agencies, departments, bureaux, offices and
instrumentalities, including government-owned and -controlled
corporations, at the national, subnational and local levels,
to:
(a) Take appropriate steps to ensure the full
implementation of the policies/strategies and
programmes/projects outlined in the Plan;
(b) Institutionalize gender and development efforts in
government by incorporating such concerns, as spelled out in
the Plan, in their planning, programming and budgeting
processes, but more specifically to:
(i) Include/incorporate gender and development concerns in
the formulation, assessment and updating of their
annual agency plans and inputs to the medium and long-
term development plans; and preparation of their
inputs to sectoral performance assessment reports,
public investment plans and other similar documents;
(ii) Incorporate and reflect gender and development
concerns in their agency performance commitment
contract, indicting key result areas, as well as
in their annual performance report to the
President and annual agency proposals and work and
financial plans.
9. The Plan has the following vision for Philippine society:
gender equity and equality, actualization of the potential of
women and men, democratic participation, women's empowerment
and self-determination, respect for human rights, peace and
social justice, and sustainable development.
10. The extensive coverage of the Philippine Plan for Gender-
responsive Development ensures that no gender concern has been
overlooked. It has 24 chapters divided into six parts: the
development framework, the human development sector, the
economic and industrial sectors, infrastructure and technology
support, special concerns, and the development administration
sector.
11. The development framework situates the Plan in the overall
development efforts of the country taking into account possible
scenarios and trends at the macro level which could affect the
Plan's vision of the future. The human development sector
covers the following: education and human resources
development; health, nutrition and family planning, urban
development and housing, social welfare and community
development; the media; arts and culture; justice and peace and
order; and labour and employment. Sectors on economic and
industrial development include the following: agriculture and
fisheries, agrarian reform, the environment and natural
resources, and industry, trade and tourism. The infrastructure
and technology support sectors bring to the fore issues and
concerns affecting women as agents and workers and
beneficiaries and users of infrastructure and technology.
12. The Plan also covers special and emerging concerns of
women such as migration, prostitution, violence against women,
women and the family, indigenous cultural communities and the
ancestral domain, peace, and politics and governance. The
development administration sector discusses Plan implementation
and outlines operational strategies, policies and measures to
carry this out.
13. The gender mainstreaming strategy is being supported by
efforts at institutionalizing in the budget process of
government the concerns of gender and development.
Gender and development budgeting
14. An important accomplishment in this area of mobilizing
resources for gender and development activities has been the
inclusion, for the first time, in the 1995 General
Appropriations Act (the law on the annual budget and
expenditure programme of the Government) of a provision
(section 27) that directed government agencies to set aside an
amount from their 1995 appropriations for projects that address
gender issues. To implement this general provision, NCRFW, the
Department of Budget and Management and NEDA issued a joint
memorandum circular which outlined the guidelines for
integrating gender and development in agency plans and budgets.
Moreover, the National Budget Call for fiscal year 1996
(National Budget Memorandum No. 67), and again for 1997,
identified women in development/gender and development as a
priority concern of the administration towards which government
agencies should direct their financial resources. A task force
in the Department, headed by an Under-Secretary, has been
constituted to study the question and, more permanently, make
the budgeting for gender and development a regular feature of
the budget process.
The Medium-term Philippine Development Plan 1993-1998
15. The Plan provides the basic framework within which
government agencies design their work plans. The current plan
strongly subscribes to gender and development principles, such
as in its human development section, which prescribes the
development and expansion of schemes to ensure the integration
of gender-responsive concerns at all levels and stages of the
development planning process:
(a) Establish appropriate mechanisms and conduct an
extensive advocacy and consciousness-raising programme on
gender concerns to facilitate and effect gender-responsive
development planning and programme implementation;
(b) Reorient existing data generation, processing and
management systems to consider gender concerns;
(c) Provide education and training opportunities,
placement assistance, and incentives to women who desire to
enter non-traditional fields of training;
(d) Ensure the responsiveness of information, education
and communication, as well as infrastructure and basic services
to the needs of women.
16. Specific strategies are also identified in the human
development, agri-industrial development and development
administration chapters with their corresponding gender-
responsive activities in the agencies' priority subsector
activities.
Philippine Human Rights Plan, 1996-2000
17. The Plan embodies a call to national action for
appropriate legislative, administrative and programme measures
to address human rights concerns of vulnerable and
disadvantaged sectors of the country, including women.
18. In its action statement on women, the Plan reiterates the
Government's commitment:
(a) To remove obstacles to the participation of women in
development, either as contributor or beneficiary;
(b) To address the specific problems of women in different
regions and localities of the country;
(c) To affirm and protect the dignity of women amid
increasing gender violence.
19. The Plan's chapter on women has the following objectives:
(a) To recognize and promote women's rights as human
rights and to have them manifested in national and legal
instruments, and practice by people and society; and implement
ameliorative measures to correct violations of these rights;
(b) To develop gender-responsive policies and programmes
that will correct biases in social institutions which conceal
and justify the unequal relations of women and men; enhance
equality in dignity, status and opportunities; and improve the
welfare and conditions of women in all sectors;
(c) To protect women's rights to legal equality, ownership
of property, quality education, equal employment opportunities,
political participation, adequate social, health and other
support services and freedom from violence;
(d) To eliminate women's discrimination in all aspects of
their lives: economic, social, cultural and political.
Gender and development planning and implementation processes
and mechanisms
20. A pilot testing of gender and development processes and
mechanisms for planning and implementation was undertaken.
Pilot testing was done in three selected regions and one line
agency. The accomplishments were: (a) review of regional
development plans, key policies, programmes to determine the
extent by which gender concerns are integrated; (b) assessment
of the impact of gender and development initiatives since 1989;
(c) the setting up of regional focal points for gender and
development; (d) creation of a gender and development trainers
pool in the Department of Agriculture and in region VIII; (e)
formulation of guidelines towards integrating gender and
development into regional and subregional development
processes; (f) formulation of gender-responsive training
modules adaptable to the regions; and (g) the holding of gender
and development briefing and training for top officials,
project implementors, and prospective gender and development
advocates in the three regions and the Department of
Agriculture.
21. While the above are positive developments, enforcement,
implementation and monitoring of implementation need to be
strengthened. The problems are many. The majority of the
implementors are not aware that gender concerns and issues
exist. They have difficulty in understanding and accepting the
necessary changes with regard to women's subordinate situation.
A continuing concern of NCRFW and the non-governmental
organizations working along these areas is the need for
continuing advocacy to translate these laws and policies into
actual programmes and projects that will truly make a
difference in women's lives.
Institutional developments
Strengthening of NCRFW
22. Because concerns of women are growing, Executive Order 268
(amending Order 208, dated 10 October 1994) was issued on 1
August 1995 to redefine the composition, powers and functions
of NCRFW. Essentially, this Order strengthens the mandate of
NCRFW to ensure gender mainstreaming in government, redefines
the composition of its Board of Commissioners to include
selected Cabinet Secretaries as ex officio members, and defines
a limited organizational expansion. Moreover, a Philippine
Commission on Women (PCW) bill has been filed in the current
session of Congress to further strengthen the Commission to
enable it to access more resources for its operations.
23. As the chief adviser to the President with respect to
women's concerns, NCRFW meets with him on a quarterly basis to
update him on issues related to priority women's concerns and
on the status of the overall programme for gender and
development in general.
The women in development/gender and development focal points
24. To facilitate mainstreaming of women's and gender concerns
in the bureaucracy, the establishment of women in
development/gender and development focal points has been
accelerated. There was also pilot-testing of model
inter-agency focal points at the regional and local government
levels in selected geographical areas. Sectoral inter-agency
mechanisms to coordinate initiatives directed towards common
sectoral goals, i.e. Women Advancing Government Action for
Shelter (WAGAS), Women in Science and Technology Development
Foundation (WSTDF) and the Department of Agrarian Reform Ladies
Association (DARLA) contributed to the advancement of women in
development/gender and development initiatives in their
respective agencies.
Quick response mechanisms for specific issues
25. To respond to specific issues, such as violence against
women, various mechanisms have been introduced by the
Government. As a result of the furore over the execution of
Flor Contemplacion, a Filipina overseas contract worker in
Singapore accused of double murder, Executive Order 231 was
issued on 20 March 1995 creating the Gancayco Commission, a
presidential fact-finding and policy advisory body to
investigate the matter. The Commission was specifically tasked
to (1) determine particular and general facts and circumstances
involving the policies and actions of the Philippine Government
in relation to the protection of overseas Filipinos,
particularly cases in which the worker faces charges or has
been convicted; and (2) make recommendations for improving the
workers' protection consonant with international conventions
and standards. The Executive Director of NCRFW was part of the
crucial Fact-Finding Commission that advised the President and
the Cabinet on the Flor Contemplacion case. Another body, the
Assistance to Nationals Committee, was convened composed of
multi-agency representation (which includes NCRFW) to ensure a
more efficient assistance mechanism for overseas contract
workers in problematic situations.
26. Cases of rape and other incidences of violence against
women had been increasing within the last four years but only a
number of offenders have been apprehended and convicted. Women
victims, in most cases, refuse to report the crimes committed
against them for fear of reprisal from the offenders,
humiliation accompanying the stigma of rape, insensitive police
officers and investigators handling their cases and the
gruelling and lengthy period of court trials.
27. In response to this problem, several institutional
responses have been put in place:
(a) A presidential directive (8 March 1993) which
established women's desks in 198 police stations;
(b) Government and non-governmental organizations have set
up centres for women victims of violence:
(i) The Department of Social Welfare and Development
"Substitute home care for women in especially
difficult circumstances";
(ii) The Congressional Spouses Foundation's (CSF)
halfway house and sanctuary for women victims of
violent circumstances was recently inaugurated and
is now fully operational;
(iii) The Department of Health and NCRFW, in cooperation
with a non-governmental organization, the Women's
Crisis Center (WCC), initiated implementation of
Project HAVEN (Hospital Assistance for Women
Victims/Survivors of Violent Environment), a pilot
hospital-based crisis centre located at the East
Avenue Medical Center providing services to women
victims of violence;
(iv) National Bureau of Investigation crisis centre for
women and children victims of violence;
(v) Third World Movement Against Exploitation of Women, a
non-governmental organization, has set up halfway
houses for prostituted women.
28. These efforts notwithstanding, violence against women
remains a serious problem nationwide. Strong public education
is necessary.
Creation of the Bureau of Women's Welfare in the Department of
Social Welfare and Development
29. Executive Order 123, Section 13, provides for the creation
of the Bureau of Women's Welfare (BWW) in the Department with
specific attention to the prevention and eradication of the
exploitation of women in any form, such as, but not limited to,
prostitution and illegal recruitment, as well as the promotion
of skills for employment and self-actualization.
Programme/project developments
30. In support of the policies that give more chances for
women's advancement and their protection, the Government and
non-governmental organizations have undertaken various
programmes and projects.
Guidelines for Developing and Implementing Gender-responsive
Programmes and Projects
31. A technical working group composed of NEDA and NCRFW staff
formulated generic Guidelines for Developing and Implementing
Gender-responsive Programmes and Projects which aim to
integrate the gender perspective into all aspects of the
project development cycle, from identification to post-project
evaluation. The guidelines were supposed to be a vehicle to
ensure the implementation of gender-responsive development
programmes and projects in government.
32. At the regional level, NEDA Region X has developed a
region-specific set of guidelines for integrating gender
concerns into the development process.
NCRFW-GTZ project groups
33. A series of consultations between NCRFW and women's groups
in 1994 identified the most pressing issues of women. With
funding assistance from the German Technical Cooperation Agency
(GTZ) NCRFW embarked on a project to create project groups for
each of these concerns: ecology, family, the media, peace,
prostitution, and violence against women. They were tasked to
come up with recommendations towards the institutionalization
of policy and programme interventions in government agencies.
This project resulted in presidential directives directed to
concerned line agencies. However, no adequate follow-through
was done so that only one of the project groups had seen
through the concrete translation of their recommendations into
action. This was the Violence Against Women (VAW) group, which
became instrumental in evolving a tie-up between the WCC (a
non-governmental organization), the Department of Health and
NCRFW for the pilot operation of a hospital-based crisis centre
in one of the government hospitals.
Training and advocacy
34. One of the nationwide programmes undertaken was
consciousness-raising on gender issues and dynamics and gender-
responsive development for the bureaucracy (department
secretaries, under-secretaries, planners, trainers, and other
decision makers, government officials assigned abroad, etc.);
and training focused on violence against women for law
enforcement officers, and on sexual harassment for male
managers/directors in the bureaucracy.
Information campaign
35. NCRFW, with funding assistance from CIDA, developed and
disseminated primers and other information materials for mass
dissemination and for training use. Primers were on the
following subjects: women and population, sexual harassment,
domestic violence, politics, environment and migration.
Posters on sexual harassment were developed and disseminated by
the Department of Labour and Employment and the Civil Service
Commission (CSC).
36. Women's studies are included in the curriculum of 40
colleges and universities in undergraduate and graduate levels.
The Philippine Women Studies Association, a non-governmental
organization, was established to facilitate exchange of
information among teachers and advocates of women's studies.
Statistics programme
37. Spearheaded by the NCRFW Clearinghouse and Information
Center on Women and Development, efforts were made to influence
the Philippine Statistical Development Plan which sets down the
key statistical requirements to support, monitor and evaluate
the implementation of the country's medium-term plan. Some of
these are activities that influence the various regional
statistical coordinating committees to produce gender-
responsive statistics and indicators.
38. During the period under review, the statistics programme
of NCRFW, with funding assistance from the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), completed the following:
(a) Framework/indicators development which produced a
Gender-responsive Indicator System to measure the status of
women and men and the extent of gender inequalities prevailing
at a given period of time;
(b) Compilation/processing of data from censuses and
surveys which accomplished (1) identification of data gaps by
area of concern which can serve as a basis in engendering the
Philippine statistical system; and (2) availability of
benchmark information on the status of women in various areas
of concern which can serve as a basis for planning and policy-
making;
(c) Production of statistical publications of women/men
which produced the following outputs:
(i) Availability of organized benchmark information for
monitoring the status of women over time;
(ii) Availability of comprehensive reference documents
for understanding and increasing the level of
awareness on gender issues and concerns and as
bases in coming out with bills, policies and other
measures to address existing gender inequalities;
(d) Development of a computerized database system which
will serve as a repository of data on gender concerns;
(e) Institutionalization of gender concerns in the regular
statistical activities of major data-producing agencies;
(f) Capability-building of NCRFW staff and partner
agencies.
39. NCRFW has likewise developed a manual, the National
Gender-disaggregated Indicator System. It also published the
following:
(a) Filipino Women: Issues and Trends - a compendium of
statistics on women in population, families and households,
employment, education, health, and public life;
(b) Trends in Women's Employment in the Regions: 1991-
1994 - a publication that compares women's and men's selected
employment data across the 15 regions and in two reference
periods;
(c) Statistical Factsheets consist of six factsheets
(population, families and households, employment, public life,
education, and health) and are a handy reference for users;
(d) Filipino Women Migrants: A Statistical Factbook -
provides basic information on Filipino women overseas contract
workers and women emigrants, which includes mail-order brides.
Other government programmes
40. The departments of social welfare and development, health,
agrarian reform, education, environment and natural resources,
among others, have specific programmes and services for women
that were implemented during this reporting period. However,
these are reported in detail under subsequent articles.
Programmes/projects of non-governmental organizations
41. The non-governmental organizations have always been active
partners of government in formulating and implementing
programmes and projects for women. NCWP created, within its
structure, a regional mechanism by which the Philippine
Development Plan for Women could be implemented down to the
grass-roots. It produced a Handy Guide Series used for
trainers training of their members who then formed women in
development action teams to implement the Development Plan.
42. Philippine non-governmental organizations have been very
active in terms of direct services, such as for women victims
of violent situations, prostituted women etc., legal services,
information drives and campaigns, legislative advocacy,
organizing and training grass-roots women, among others.
II. ARTICLE 5
Adoption of measures to modify socio-
cultural patterns of conduct towards
eliminating stereotyped roles for women
and men; and ensuring sharing of
responsibility in the upbringing and
development of children
43. Women's oppression is created and reinforced by a host of
institutions. The socialization process in the family, the
educational system with its textbooks, teachers' attitudes and
policies, the portrayal of women in the media, the blindness of
government programmes and the legal system to women's needs,
the teachings of various religions on women, all contribute to
the further discrimination against them.
44. Government and non-governmental organizations, jointly or
separately, are addressing the problem of gender-role
stereotyping.
45. The Philippine Government, through NCRFW, adopted the
gender mainstreaming approach in order to eliminate gender
discrimination and to ensure that women and gender concerns are
fully integrated by the rest of Government in their planning
and programming. Two vehicles were used in this approach: a
separate plan for women and the main economic plan of the
country.
46. The first Philippine Development Plan for Women, 1989-
1992, has been updated into a long-term perspective plan, the
Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development, 1995-2025.
The second Plan recognizes gender-stereotyping as one of the
structural and historical determinants of the status of
Filipino women today. Socio-cultural issues and the
corresponding policies and strategies and programme project
areas have been identified in chapters of the Plan such as
education and human resources development; women and family;
the media; and indigenous cultural communities and the
ancestral domain.
47. Since the adoption of the Philippine Plan, the economic
plan, or the Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, has
always carried general and sectoral policies on women/gender
and development. This is as a result of the institutional
structures that have been put in place such as the
representation of NCRFW and women non-governmental organization
representatives and expert advocates from the academe in the
different technical subcommittees for development planning.
48. To give recognition to the role of women regardless of
their social, economic and political standing in society,
Republic Act 6949 was enacted declaring 8 March as National
Women's Day. Every 25 November to 10 December, on the other
hand, women's groups join a worldwide campaign against gender
violence and educate the public that women's rights are human
rights.
49. The country's third periodic report mentioned the CIDA-
funded consciousness-raising programme of NCRFW targeting the
different layers of the bureaucracy from department secretaries
and under-secretaries to the planners, trainers and other
decision makers. Between 1989 and 1992, 76 seminars have been
conducted, which include such topics as gender issues, gender
dynamics and gender-responsive development. A joint project
between CIDA-NCRFW and the Women's Feature Service produced
primers on population, sexual harassment, domestic violence,
politics, environment and overseas workers. Recently, an
executive order was signed by the President requiring all
government training institutes to include gender orientation in
their programmes.
50. Because of the need to create a new perspective by which
students can begin to question and analyse gender relations in
society and understand the factors that led to the current
status of women, women's studies were introduced in 40 colleges
and universities; among these were state colleges and
universities at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The
Philippine Women's Studies Association undertakes teacher
training in women's studies as well as develops gender-
sensitive modules in the natural and social sciences. The
Development Institute for Women in Asia-Pacific (DIWA) also
conducts awareness-raising programmes to address the issues of
sexism and women's discrimination in education. These
non-governmental organizations work closely with the Department
of Education, Culture and Sports.
51. There have been curricular innovations in order to counter
the stereotyping of sex roles. Among these is the adoption of
practical arts subjects such a work education and home
economics as common learning areas for girls and boys. The
gender and development focal point of the above Department has
identified as priority intervention the integration of gender-
fair core values and concepts in the curricula of the three
levels of education as well as in the in-service training
programmes for teachers and school administrators.
52. In view of the issues which involve Filipino overseas
contract workers, studies have been made to find out how
Government officials assigned abroad, especially in countries
where female workers abound, can become more gender-sensitive
and responsive. Already a gender reorientation is conducted
regularly by NCRFW at the Foreign Service Institute; diplomats,
consular officials, and other personnel posted abroad have to
undergo this training before their foreign assignments.
53. Various non-governmental organizations, such as the
Women's Legal Bureau, Pilipina Legal Resource Center, Kalayaan,
Sibol (a network of women's organizations advocating pro-women
legislation) conduct legal literacy programmes to popularize
human rights. Makabayang Kababaihan ng Masa (MAKAMASA)
conducts a feminist literacy programme among urban poor women
to celebrate womanhood, foster sisterhood and promote feminist
values. KABAPA, a peasant women's organization, conducts
awareness and information campaigns on the Convention.
54. Media groups such as the Center for Media Freedom and
Responsibility, and the Center for Investigative Journalism,
and individual women from the media, are undertaking workshops
to sensitize media practitioners.
55. In spite of these efforts, more effective networking is
needed to carry out sustained information campaigns among the
rural poor who are the primary consumers of radio broadcasts in
which women continue to be stereotyped in dramas and
advertisements. Even greater effort is needed to curb the
current trend in Philippine movies where true-to-life massacres
of mostly women and children are shown; in television
programmes where women are often depicted as dumb, weak,
hopeless romantics etc.; and in tabloids which sensationalize
rape and other violence against women.
III. ARTICLE 6
Suppression of traffic in women and exploitation of
prostitution
56. After some 15 years of fighting against the trafficking
and exploitation of women, prostitution and sexual exploitation
in different forms are still very much around. Women
non-governmental organizations have pointed out that
"development" prostitution has flourished in port areas,
industrial estates, regional capitals and tourist resorts that
provide transients with women for sex. For the reporting
period, some progress has been made in terms of policies and
programmes. However, much more needs to be done given the
magnitude of the problem.
Policy developments
57. The Department of Tourism has issued statements to the
effect that the promotion of tourism should not be undertaken
at the expense of women and children, indigenous cultures, and
the environment. A shift in Philippine tourism policy from sex
tourism (before 1986) to the "Fiesta Islands" campaign in the
1990s focuses on Philippine culture and traditions, domestic
tourism and people-to-people encounters.
58. The Department has also made specific pronouncements that
promotional materials of private entities in the industry
should be checked to determine whether these have a negative
impact on the image of women. It has also recommended stronger
inter-agency coordination to help mobilize other pivotal groups
in the drive against prostitution. It has called for the
improvement of networking and information systems with other
law enforcement agencies on the strict implementation of the
ban against organized "sex tours". It has proposed to allied
business establishments not registered with the Department that
they report gender-specific data on tourism programme
participant-beneficiaries and domestic tourists.
59. The Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development,
1995-2025, the Government's blueprint for integrating women's
concerns into the development process, has devoted one chapter
to prostitution and another to violence against women. The
chapter on industry, trade and tourism likewise incorporates
concerns regarding prostitution.
60. The following bills have been filed in Congress to address
traffic in women and other related problems:
(a) House Bill No. 2037, which considers criminal the
exploitation of women through pornography;
(b) House Bill No. 3461 (Traffic in Women Bill), creates a
Human Rights Code that includes articles against traffic in
women and protection against wife-beating;
(c) House Bill No. 4228, or the Anti-rape Bill, which
seeks to check the current sensationalism in media coverage of
rape cases. Under the Bill, all investigations, procedures and
trial of rape cases should be held behind closed doors, unless
the complainant opts for an open trial. The Bill also provides
for a P100,000.00 fine for undue publicity of a rape case;
(d) House Bill No. 5142 (Anti-pornography Bill) amends
article 201 of the Revised Penal Code to delineate pornography
as a particular crime and provides a higher penalty therefor;
(e) House Bill No. 6804 (Anti-prostitution) imposes
various penalties for those found to be guilty of promoting
prostitution;
(f) Senate Bill No. 169, which explicitly prohibits
advertising materials that "degrade our (Filipino) people,
particularly women";
(g) Senate Bill No. 585 (Anti-White Slave Trade) amends
article 341 of the Revised Penal Code to provide deterrents to
the promotion of prostitution.
Programme/project developments
61. Most of the programmes directed at prostituted persons in
the last few years have been in the areas of "rehabilitation"
or renewal; health, principally in the control of AIDS and
sexually transmitted diseases; and education and advocacy.
Although the efforts of government organizations and
non-governmental organizations are commendable and represent
real gains, they are able to serve only a small minority of
prostituted persons.
62. As mentioned in the third periodic report, a Project Group
on Prostitution was formed as part of the NCRFW-GTZ project
which culminated in 1993. In connection with this, a dialogue
between the Project Group and the technical staff of the Lower
and Upper Houses was held to level off a common understanding
of the concepts of prostitution and decriminalization and to
look into the implications of this new understanding. There
was a consensus in viewing prostitution as a violation of human
rights since it destroys one's personhood; as a system rooted
in the patriarchal culture and promoted by a highly organized
sex industry; as victimization of persons whose sexual services
are sold to bring profits to the flesh trade.
63. The Project Group, confronted by the magnitude and
complexity of the problem in a Philippine setting, realized the
need to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the three "B's" of
prostitution: the bought, the buyer and the business. For the
bought, mainly women and children, the proposal was to
decriminalize the prostituted and to provide restitution
through an alternative lifestyle and livelihood programme.
This implies a need for a bill to decriminalize prostitution.
It was recommended that this new legislation should contain a
redefinition of prostitution that shifts the penalty to the
perpetrators. With the abolition of prostitution as an end
goal of decriminalization, the group concluded that there was a
need:
(a) To repeal article 202 of the Revised Penal Code which
penalizes vagrants and prostitutes;
(b) Strengthen article 341 of the Revised Penal Code
(White Slave Trade) with an insertion of a new definition of
prostitution;
(c) Enact social laws to provide for a renewal programme
for an alternative lifestyle and livelihood programme for those
who opt out of prostitution.
64. The Women Governmental and Non-governmental Organization
Network on Violence Against Women and Prostitution, which was
established in 1993, holds forums and workshops mainly on
policy issues. Together with the Project Group on
Prostitution, the Network held a policy workshop on
prostitution, a public hearing on the sexual exploitation of
women as a violation of human rights, and a post-Vienna, pre-
Beijing forum focusing on prostitution and violence against
women. The Network also seeks to mobilize government, non-
government and people's organizations throughout the
Philippines up to the barangay level to address these issues
collectively.
Drop-in centres
65. The Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women
is a pioneer in giving prostituted women, mail-order and
holiday brides, migrant workers and other exploited women a new
lease on life and empowering them. It runs a chain of drop-in
centres and homes in the Ermita/Malate tourist belt of Manila,
in three other urban centres serving ship prostitutes, and in
Quezon City (serving street hawkers, massage attendants).
These centres respond to these women's economic, educational,
physical, spiritual, psychosocial and cultural needs.
66. The Buklod drop-in centre was founded in Olongapo City by
the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the
Mennonite Central Committee and the General Assembly Binding
Women for Reform, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action
(GABRIELA). For a time it ran night care for the children of
bar women. As part of the Task Force on Amerasian Children, it
works for the benefits due the Amerasians left behind by
American servicemen. It has also shifted emphasis to socio-
economic work with the acquisition of high-speed sewing
machines from Japanese donors.
67. The Dayang Women's Center, also a drop-in centre for
street prostitutes established in 1990 by the National Council
of Churches and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines,
works towards the empowerment of prostituted women through
education, organization, advocacy, networking, research and
documentation.
68. The Good Shepherd Sisters at Caritas Manila run the
Morning Glory shelter for sexually exploited and abused
children, including victims of rape, incest and paedophilia.
Temporary shelter with therapy is offered to victims of
domestic violence and sexual assault.
69. In 1991, the Department of Social Welfare and Development
developed Substitute Home Care for Women in Especially
Difficult Circumstances, an institution-based programme which
gives women temporary residential care to protect female
victims of illegal recruitment, prostitution, battering and
sexual abuse from further harm and to extend them support
services. From 1991 to 1994, 2,852 cases of women in
especially difficult circumstances have been served at the four
existing substitute home care for women centres. Some 7,802
women, who need not be institutionalized, were managed by
senior social workers of the Department right in their own home
or community.
70. The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) provides
counselling to prospective brides of foreigners, including
those who have been propositioned via mail order and other
marriage matching arrangements. Cases of abuse of Filipinas in
Australia and in various parts of Europe have been on the rise.
Health services
71. Complementing the National AIDS Control Program of the
Department of Health are non-governmental organization efforts
such as those of the Remedios AIDS Information Center and
Kabalikat. The Remedios Center is a community-based
information outlet which runs a reading room and a telephone
hotline counselling service. Kabalikat has a drop-in centre
where clients can take seminars on AIDS, sexually transmitted
diseases and reproductive health, and avail themselves of
counselling services as well as medical referrals.
72. The Bethany Home of the Third World Movement Against the
Exploitation of Women, on the other hand, provides housing and
after-care for AIDS sufferers. Among its sources of income is
a candle-making industry.
73. Talikala (Davao City), initiated by the Maryknoll Sisters,
focuses on AIDS prevention through skits shown in bars and
clubs. Half of the establishments have been reached and in
each place a core group of five has been organized.
74. The Department of Social Welfare and Development also
initiated in 1991 a pilot child protection centre in Manila
called Child Health Intervention and Medical Evaluation
(CHIME), which serves sexually abused and exploited children
and offers therapeutic and support services. Of the 737
reported cases in 1992, 139 were victims of child prostitution.
Advocacy
75. In 1993-1994, great strides were taken in advocacy work,
particularly in clarifying perspectives and measures towards
the decriminalization of prostitutes and the strengthening of
legislation towards punishing those who benefit and profit from
their prostitution (employers, pimps, procurers, recruiters and
clients). NCRFW, with the various government agencies,
maintained close coordination with women non-governmental
organizations working directly with women survivors.
76. Feminist groups which have in the last few years been
involved in such work are Kalayaan, and the Women's Education,
Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO).
WEDPRO and Kalayaan have come out with a survey report on the
women entertainers of Angeles and Olongapo.
77. The Women's Resource and Research Center (WRRC), together
with GABRIELA and Buklod, also came up with a feminist
participatory research and WEDPRO with feasibility studies and
transition programmes to create employment options for
prostituted women in the base areas.
78. Networking and advocacy work against all forms of sexual
exploitation, such as prostitution, pornography and trafficking
are the main activities of the Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women (Asia). It produces documentation on trafficking cases
internationally.
79. Educational programmes have targeted not only prostituted
persons but also migrant workers, law enforcers and the larger
public. GABRIELA educates prostituted women on their human and
legal rights, health care, relevant political issues and
feminist values.
80. On the issue of comfort women, the Government formed an
Inter-agency Task Force on Comfort Women to coordinate the
efforts of government agencies. Health cards have been issued
by the Department of Health. The Department of Justice helps
document the cases of those who came forward as comfort women.
The Task Force Lila (an association of comfort women), the
Asian Women's Human Rights Council and GABRIELA have taken the
lead in the campaign for the indemnification of these women and
has documented over 200 cases.
81. Stop Trafficking of Pilipinas (STOP), an alliance formed
in 1983, meanwhile concentrates on a programme called "stopping
at the source" and engages in prevention activities. It has
campaigned against pornography and lobbied for legal reforms to
put an end to commercial sex slavery.
82. Among the accomplishments of the Center for the Prevention
and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse (CPTCSA), a
non-governmental organization, is prevention education on child
sexual abuse, which includes topics like personal safety and
decision-making, touching, assertiveness, support systems,
physical abuse and neglect, and gender stereotyping. It also
conducted an awareness campaign for the general public about
child sexual abuse.
83. The work of CPTCSA was facilitated by the following:
willingness of schools and other organizations to include in
their curriculum an education programme on the prevention of
child sexual abuse; active participation and cooperation of
parents in the programme; training of teachers and others about
child sexual abuse and the use of a prevention curriculum; and
legislative and corporate support for the awareness campaign.
Conversely, hindering factors have been the prevailing
attitudes, stereotypes and beliefs that place women and
children in a disadvantaged position; the apathy among people
who believe "It's not happening"; societal norms that tolerate
the abuse of children (some parents abuse their own children or
one parent tolerates the abuse); inadequate or ineffective
implementation of laws for cases of incest and rape (for
children); and inadequate facilities and trained staff to
handle child sexual abuse cases.
84. So far, CPTCSA accomplishments include the following: the
preparation and revision of a draft child sexual abuse
prevention curriculum for elementary and high school (Grades 3
and 5 materials are being finalized); the ongoing pilot of
these materials in a school and in urban poor communities;
written disclosures from children; and the recent formation of
a coalition to plan for a Sexual Assault Awareness Week
scheduled for February 1996.
Other efforts
85. Law enforcement officers, beginning with women in the
police force, are undergoing training to ensure better handling
of women clients, particularly victims of rape, wife-battering
and prostitution.
86. The Department of Public Welfare and Development has made
efforts to prevent sexual exploitation of migrant women through
networking activities with non-governmental organizations and
the deployment of social workers at the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport to monitor minors travelling abroad.
87. In 1992, the Mayor of Manila forcibly closed down 130
bars, cocktail lounges and entertainment centres known to be
fronts for prostitution in the tourist belt of Ermita, Manila.
88. Kalayaan, a feminist group in Angeles City, has organized,
trained and provided credit to a small pilot cooperative of bar
women around the former base areas who generated income from
operating food stalls.
89. The Kapatiran-Kaunlaran Foundation, Inc., a Methodist
project, gives skills training and capital for small
entrepreneurs, among whom are women who want to leave
prostitution. The Nazareth Growth Home of the Third World
Movement Against the Exploitation of Women also prepares those
who leave prostitution for an alternative livelihood.
90. The Daughters of Charity offers land and housing to women
who have left the trade. Through them, atrocities of child
prostitution have been exposed.
91. Migrant groups such as KANLUNGAN, KAIBIGAN and MIGRANTE
also provide legal services and counselling to trafficked women
or migrant women who are victims of abuse.
92. The paucity in the number of victims served by all these
services and efforts is more than made up for by the
"demonstration effect" of successful intervention schemes which
empower even just a few and give them a new lease on life.
93. However, while concerned groups are many and policy
issuances are in place, the problems remain major. The chapter
on prostitution in the Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive
Development identifies among others the following strategies
for a holistic response to the problem: creating wider
employment opportunities for women, particularly in rural and
urban poor areas; conducting a critical review of existing
tourism programmes; review of labour legislation for possible
loopholes that make young women workers insecure and vulnerable
to prostitution; initiation of bilateral relationships to
address the problems of migrants and the trafficking of third
world women and to gain criminal jurisdiction over foreign sex
offenders; and campaign against sexism in the media,
sensationalism in the treatment of sexuality and pornography in
any form.
IV. ARTICLE 7
Equal rights with men in political and public life
Situation
Women voters
94. Voting is the most common mechanism for participation in
the political process. Women continue to be a strong voting
population. In the 1992 elections, women voter turn-out was
79.97 per cent while that of men was 74.96 per cent. The
figures show women's determination to exercise their voting
rights. But this has not been translated into a women's vote
(defined as a united vote for electoral candidates, female or
male, whom women believe will take up the cause of women).
Women elective officials
95. There has been no significant increase in the number of
women running for elective office, much less those who actually
win. The 24-hour member Senate never had more than four women
members. In the House of Representatives, only 20 out of the
proclaimed 223 seats in the 1995 elections are occupied by
women.
96. This dismal performance may be attributed, among others,
to the persisting notion that electoral politics is dirty and
basically for men only. Philippine elections are characterized
by violence and terrorism where candidates use "gold, guns and
goons" to win. Politicians are also deemed to be prone to
graft and corruption.
97. The women who run for Congressional positions are second-
generation politicians. They are either wives, sisters,
daughters or immediate relatives of male politicians. Politics
is a family tradition, and they run on the strength of the
family name and influence. As with male politicians, female
politicians belong to the socio-economic elite. This makes it
very difficult for cause-oriented women to fight and run for
office.
Women as government executives
98. Among appointive officials, there is only one woman member
out of a total of 22. She heads the Department of Social
Welfare, which traditionally has always been headed by a woman.
The Department of Labour and Employment had its first woman
Secretary but she has already been replaced by a man. In the
four Constitutional Commissions, only one Civil Service
Commission is chaired by a woman.
99. Out of the total 969,046 career positions, 60.1 per cent
are women. They dominate the second level at 70.7 (436,948),
followed by the first level at 41.9 per cent (140,413) and the
third level at 31.9 per cent (5,086).
100. Considering that there are more women at the second
level, which supposedly should feed into the third or top
level, the data indicate some problems for women in advancing
to the higher level; thus, they continue to have limited
opportunity to participate actively in policy-making.
In the bureaucracy
101. Women outnumber men in the bureaucracy, as evidenced
in the following 1994 data:
Percentage
Major subdivision Total Female Male Female
Total 1 122 359 639 632 482 727 57
National government
agencies 699 849 453 735 246 114 65
Government-owned and
controlled corporations 112 858 41 064 71 794 36
Local government units 309 652 144 833 164 819 47
102. Women comprise 57 per cent of the total number of
government personnel and are mostly concentrated in the
national government agencies, at 65 per cent. This can be
attributed to the large number of women teachers (287,851),
26 per cent of the bureaucracy. The teaching profession is
still predominantly a women's milieu. In the non-teaching
professions, women are outnumbered by men at a ratio of 55:45.
In the judiciary
103. In the judiciary, 1995 figures reveal that there are
only 15 (21 per cent) women out of 73 justices and 229
(14 per cent) women out of 1,586 judges.
104. Male dominance in top-level positions continues to be
seen in all three branches of government. This is in addition
to the occupational discrimination and segregation which
assigns the less rewarding jobs to women. Deeply rooted
perceptions on the roles of women influence the type and nature
of education and training they receive as well as the type of
work they seek or are directed towards.
105. Another factor that systematically deprives women of
the opportunity to occupy high-level decision-making positions
is their multiple burden. Home and family responsibilities
take up women's time and drain their energy, preventing them
from being involved in political affairs. In the bureaucracy,
many women forego the opportunity to be trained for higher
positions, because it will take away more time from their
family responsibilities.
Policy developments
106. Sectoral representation for women was provided for by
the 1987 Constitution. In 1995, two sectoral representatives
for women were appointed in the Lower House.
107. Among the laws passed, for the period in review, that
give women equal rights with men in public and political life
are the following:
(a) Republic Act 6725 strengthens the prohibition on
discrimination against women with respect to terms and
conditions of employment, promotion and training opportunities;
(b) Republic Act 7162, or the Local Government Code of
1991, provides for a sectoral representative for women in the
different local government units. To date, however, no
elections for sectoral representatives have been held, owing to
the reluctance of local government officials to pay for the
salaries and other expenses to be incurred by the sectoral
representatives;
(c) Republic Act 7688 gives representation to women in the
Social Security Commission.
108. To strengthen further the legal basis for equality
between women and men in terms of participation in public and
political life, the following bills had been filed in Congress:
(a) Senate Bill 1228 (1993) or the Mandatory Employment
Act, directs that in all businesses and enterprises requiring
or actually employing at least 10 regular employees, at least
20 per cent of the total workforce should be women;
(b) Senate Bill 1114 (1993) enunciates a policy that in
the four years from its effective date, at least 25 per cent of
the employer's workforce shall consist of women. In the eighth
year, one half of the country's workforce should be composed of
women;
(c) House Bill 142 (1995), or the Women Empowerment Act,
mandates that appointive positions in the national and local
governments be reserved to qualified women by a fraction of at
least one third per classification. It requires that all duly
accredited political parties reserve at least one third of its
party slate of official candidates to women in elections for
the municipal/city councils and provincial boards. The bill is
encountering opposition from some groups who are questioning,
among others, the constitutionality of the bill.
Other policy developments
109. Government line agencies have made policy changes to
comply with the laws that give women equality with men,
particularly Republic Act 7192, or the Women in Nation-building
Act.
110. In 1990, a woman was promoted to the rank of a one-
star Brigadier-General, the first to attain a star rank. In
1995, the Department of Interior and Local Government recruited
an additional 50 women police officers assigned to women police
sections and other offices of the police force. Two women
police commissioned officers were designated as provincial
directors while four women police commissioned officers and
three women police non-commissioned officers were designated as
Chief of Police. This policy change is meant to ensure a more
gender-sensitive handling of violence against women-related
cases, as well as to enhance participation of women in
peacekeeping.
111. The Department of Justice improved its hiring
procedures to give women equal opportunity to be appointed as
prosecutors.
112. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, under the
Department of National Defense, revised its rules and
regulations to conform with the requirements of Republic Act
7192. It supported a bill on the integration of Women
Auxiliary Corps members into major services. The Philippine
Military Academy has opened up its gates to female cadets.
113. The Home Insurance and Guarantee Corporation revised
its by-laws to include provisions requiring women
representation in its Board of Directors to a ratio of 60
males: 40 females.
114. In the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration
(OWWA), more women officers have been assigned to frontline
units.
Institutional developments
115. The NCRFW Department of Labour and Employment and CSC
formed the Inter-Agency Committee on Sexual Harassment to
undertake training and information dissemination on sexual
harassment and its prevention. Similarly, the gender-equality
managers, composed of male managers and directors, were
organized to create a productive and fulfilling work
environment in government wherein all officials and employees,
both women and men, are treated with full respect and dignity
as human beings. These mechanisms were established in response
to the growing problem of sexual harassment.
116. The Committee on Women and Family Relations in the
Senate and its equivalent committee in the House of
Representatives serve as mechanisms to ensure that women's
concerns are given attention in Congress.
117. In the House of Representatives, women legislators
banded together into a caucus called the Philippine
Organization of Women Elected Representatives, Inc. (POWER).
It aims to serve as a venue for the discussion of issues
affecting women, to formulate laws as needed, and to support
bills that promote women's welfare.
118. At the local level, the Provincial Women's Commission
(PKKB), based in Bulacan, a province in Central Luzon, is
pioneering in integrating women and gender concerns at this
level. The following are the thrusts and objectives of PKKB:
(a) To conduct a regular review and evaluation of the
extent to which women are integrated into all aspects of life -
social, economic, political and cultural - at all levels on the
basis of equal opportunities with men;
(b) To formulate programmes, projects and activities to
develop and enhance the potential and capabilities of women and
formulate and adopt measures to institutionalize this
integration to attain sustainability;
(c) To recommend measures, strategies and plan of action
to the barangay, municipal and provincial units involving
women's issues and concerns.
119. The Sama-samang Inisyatiba sa Pagbabago ng Batas at
Lipunan (SIBOL), a coalition of 13 women's networks for
politics, has a transformative gender perspective. It has
committed itself to the advancement of a legislative agenda for
women and to raising the level of public debate on women's
issues from the women's point of view.
120. The Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics
(CAPWIP), a regional organization based in the Philippines, is
advancing women's political participation by creating a
critical mass of competent, effective and committed women
politicians holding elective and appointive posts.
Programme/project developments
121. NCRFW led in conducting gender sensitivity training
for women and men in the bureaucracy. It has held awareness-
raising activities for most of the line agencies at national
and subnational levels.
122. CSC, the Department of Labour and Employment and NCRFW
sponsor a yearly Women in Government Congress to tackle issues
that affect women personnel in the bureaucracy. In the 1995
Congress, about 500 women came together to discuss women's
participation in the Government's decision-making processes and
to come up with strategies to enhance women's positions in the
bureaucracy.
123. There are several non-governmental organizations which
aim specifically at advancing women's participation in politics
and in government. In its special programme for women, the
Center for Legislative Development provides critical
intervention to legislative staff, legislators and non-
government organizations through:
(a) Training, documentation and research services on
legislative processes;
(b) The conduct of gender sensitivity training for elected
women local officials and legislators;
(c) Regular dialogues with other non-governmental
organizations on legislative advocacy for women.
124. Another non-governmental organization, the Women's
Legal Bureau, conducts legal training for elected officials
(local and national levels) and advocacy campaigns for women in
politics. Other non-governmental organizations with legal
literacy programmes on women's human rights are the University
of the Philippines Law Center, Institute for Social Studies and
Action, Legislative Advocates for Women, Buhay Foundation,
Kalayaan, Participatory Research and Organization of
Communities through Education and Self-help, National
Federation of Workers Clubs, PILIPINA, Ang Kilusan ng
Kababaihang Pilipino, Stop Trafficking of Pilipinas, University
of the Philippines Women's Lawyers' Circle, KABAPA, Kalakasan,
Circulo de Abogadas, Sentro ng Batas Pangtao, Philippines
Muslim Association, and Free Legal Assistance Volunteers
Association.
125. Other non-governmental organizations act as
consultants and reactors during congressional committee
hearings, lobby for women-related, economic, peace and rights
issues inside and outside Congress and participate actively in
shortlisting of highly qualified candidates to fill vacancies
in appointive and elective positions.
V. ARTICLE 8
Equal opportunity to represent Governments at
the
international level and to participate in the
work
of international organizations
126. As a policy initiative to enhance the consideration of
women and women's issues in matters related to diplomacy and
other international relations, the Department of Foreign
Affairs, through its training arm, the Foreign Service
Institute (FSI), incorporated gender in its regular training
programmes.
127. As indicated in earlier reports, Philippine laws do
not bar women's participation in international activities and
organizations. At present, there are 128 women diplomats (out
of a total of 332) consisting of 27 ambassadors, 21 career
ministers and 80 consuls assigned all over the world. Among
the 22 labour attaches, 6 are women, who are posted in Hong
Kong, Tokyo, Rome, Spain, Milan and Bahrain.
128. Women were part of delegations to international
conferences attended by government. In 1994-1995, women
represented the country in at least 20 major international
undertakings. They were mostly acting as alternate
representatives. They headed the Philippine delegation in only
three meetings. These are the Fourth World Conference on
Women, held in Beijing in September 1995; the nineteenth
session of the Management Committee of the Asia-Pacific
Telecommunity, held at Bangkok in November 1995; and the 13th
and 14th meetings of the ASEAN Women's Programme.
129. The types of conferences women attended in the last
two years were mostly on topics that are traditionally thought
of as women-related: family and children, social development,
population, the environment and telecommunications. The
absence of data on the total number of conferences the country
was involved in could not establish women's participation in
international affairs vis-a`-vis men.
130. Filipinas are also active members of international
organizations, particularly those in the United Nations system.
A Commissioner of NCRFW sits as a member of the United Nations
Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women. Another Filipina has been appointed chairperson
of the Social and Human Sciences Committee of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). Other United Nations bodies in which women hold
significant positions are: Committee on the Rights of the
Child; Committee for the Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, and International Organization for Migration.
It is noticeable that their participation is mostly in
traditionally women's organizations and concerns.
131. While Filipino women do not lack "models" in
international fields of endeavours, the statistics show that
men still dominate in international representation. Socio-
cultural barriers still prevent women from venturing into this
field and in other non-traditional fields in particular. Many
women would still pass up opportunities to advance in the
international level because of home and family
responsibilities. This is aggravated by the lack of a support
system that should ease their multiple burden of work, family
and social activities.
VI. ARTICLE 9
Equal rights of women and men to acquire, change or
retain their nationality and that of their children
132. The Constitution of the Philippines ensures
fundamental equality between women and men to acquire, change
or retain their nationality and that of their children, as
amply discussed in the Philippines' second periodic report.
VII. ARTICLE 10
Equality in education; career and vocational
guidance at
all levels; access to the same curricula;
elimination of
stereotypes; scholarship opportunities; access to
continuing education; reduction of female drop-out
rates;
sports and physical education opportunities;
access to
health information, including family planning
Situation
133. Statistical figures show that Filipino women's
educational status is steadily improving.
134. Literacy rate. The female literacy rate has been
increasing, from 75.9 per cent in 1970 to 93.34 per cent in
1990.
135. Female enrolment. From 1982 to 1990, female enrolment
increased by 59 per cent. Female enrolment figures in 1994
were as follows: 49.5 per cent in the elementary level,
51.5 per cent in the high school level and 56.2 per cent in the
tertiary level.
136. Educational attainment. The proportion of women who
had some high school education increased from 42.3 per cent in
1970 to 46.4 per cent in 1990. Female college degree holders
also increased in proportion from 7.2 per cent in 1980 to
9.8 per cent in 1990. Among those who completed post-secondary
vocational courses, 53.4 per cent were female. On the other
hand, female household heads who had not completed any grade in
school decreased from 14 per cent in 1985 to 10.4 per cent in
1988.
Policy developments
137. Enumerated below are policy developments, some of
which were enacted even before the reporting period but were
not mentioned in the earlier reports.
138. Executive Order 117 provides, among others, for the
promotion and maintenance of equality of access to education
and enjoyment of the benefits to be derived from it by all
citizens. As a result of this and Republic Act 7192, women may
now enrol in the Philippine Military Academy. In 1992, the
Academy had 16 female cadets.
139. Republic Act 7323 (1992) encourages poor students to
pursue their education through job opportunities during
vacations. Employers who hire them pay only 60 per cent of
their salaries, while the remaining amount is paid by
government through education vouchers.
140. Republic Act 6728 (1989) grants government assistance
to students and teachers in private education. These grants
consist of tuition fee supplements, allowance for honour
students and financial assistance to those who are in their
first year in college. Private schoolteachers who have meagre
earnings and are mostly female, can avail themselves of
scholarships to enable them to continue higher education and
qualify them for more responsible positions.
141. Republic Act 6972 (1990) mandates the establishment of
a day-care centre in every barangay to enable women to use
other options, such as taking a job or going back to school,
and to respond to their multiple burden.
142. The following have been integrated into the policies
of the Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, 1993-1998,
which address, among others, the need to make education and
training, especially in non-traditional fields, accessible to
women:
(a) Making both formal and informal education accessible
to women;
(b) Providing education and training opportunities,
placement assistance, and incentives to women who desire to
enter non-traditional fields of training;
(c) Ensuring the responsiveness of information, education
and communication to the needs of women;
(d) Developing and upgrading (science and technology)
manpower capability by strengthening engineering and science
education and providing relevant technical training and
improving literacy in information technology of women and men.
143. Region-based education programmes for women provided
in the Philippine Plan of Action for Education for All, 1991-
2000 are designed to give access to basic education programmes,
develop desirable Filipino values, provide livelihood skills
training and mobilize women to seek societal responsibilities:
(a) Alternative approaches to literacy improvement for
women in the coastal areas and cultural communities or Region
I;
(b) Social communication skills for socially disadvantaged
women;
(c) Reaching out to the out-of-school youth, unemployed
adults, women and disabled persons through continuing
education;
(d) Development of a learning system for the improvement
of life for women in rural communities.
144. Existing and emerging women/gender concerns in the
sector are spelled out in the Philippine Plan for Gender-
responsive Development, 1995-2025, with the corresponding
recommendations. This will facilitate the focused response of
governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in the
sector.
145. Republic Act 7877, or the Sexual Harassment Act for
1995, has defined sexual harassment in the education, training
and work setting and punishes it. Though this is expected to
lessen sexual harassment perpetuated by professors who demand
"a date for a grade" from their students, mechanisms for its
effective implementation still have to be put well in place.
Programme/project developments
146. While the aforementioned policies may have curbed
gender-based inequalities in access to education, the issue
still exists, mainly because of cultural factors. For example,
parents tend to give priority to sending boys to school when
resources are limited. In other instances, parents are
unwilling to send their daughters to study in urban areas
(where most of the educational institutions are concentrated)
because of the risks to which they might be exposed.
147. The following programmes or projects have been adopted
by both governmental and non-governmental organizations to
respond to continuing gender-based inequalities, not only in
terms of access but more on the content and process of the
educational system.
148. School-based centres with childcare workers training
by the Department of Social Welfare and Development were
established in Ifugao to support older children, usually
school-age girls who had to take care of younger siblings while
attending school.
149. To reduce the wide gender disparity in literacy rates
in the six most depressed provinces in the country, the Female
Functional Literacy Programme was pilot-tested in Maguindanao,
Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-tawi and Ifugao. Programme
beneficiaries are equipped with knowledge, attitude, skills and
values that will help them perform their roles in child
survival protection and development. It benefited 15,000
illiterate women (12 per cent of the female target population).
150. Scholarships and other forms of financial support are
awarded to deserving and poor students, regardless of gender.
(a) The Department of Science and Technology offers 100
scholarships every year to students belonging to low-income
families;
(b) The Department of Education, Culture and Sports has a
Study-Now-Pay-Later Plan for financially disadvantaged
students;
(c) The University of the Philippines has democratized its
admission policy and offers subsidized tuition fees;
(d) Other scholarships, such as the State Scholarship
program, the National Integrated Scholarship program for
Cultural Minorities, the Selected Ethnic Groups Educational
Assistance Program, the National Reconciliation Development
Program for Rebel Returnees, and the Government Assistance for
Students and Teachers in private Education, are being offered.
151. A number of programmes or projects for the
disadvantaged sectors, such as the tribal population, have been
implemented. One such programme is the Accelerated Teacher
Training for Cultural Communities (ATTCC) under which teacher
trainees from remote villages took part in a 26-month teacher-
training diploma course in elementary education. The ATTCC
graduates have been teaching literacy skills to an estimated
23,600 children and about 8,000 illiterate adults, mostly women
of cultural communities, all over Mindanao every year.
152. Another programme is the Alternative Non-formal
Education delivery Schemes which was developed and implemented
for selected cultural communities. The programme, a joint
effort of governmental and non-governmental organizations,
including religious and academic institutions, benefited some
1,500 children and illiterate women and men in Manobo
communities in the mountains of Bukidnon and the southern
Philippines, and an estimated 3,000 Mangyan children and adults
in Occidental Mindoro.
153. The Multigrade Teaching Approach increased the access
to elementary education in areas such as the provinces of
Ifugao and Negros Occidental which would otherwise not have met
the required teacher-pupil ratio. This project benefited
32,858 schoolchildren.
154. Non-formal education programmes in aquaculture,
processing of fish products and seaweed farming have been
conducted for fisherfolk. A pilot programme which explores
community learning approaches to literacy for women in the
fishing villages north of Manila is being implemented.
155. A major issue that continues to limit women's fields
of participation as education and training beneficiaries is
sexism and stereotypes which perpetuate sex-role dichotomy and
sexist attitudes. Many women are limited by the cultural roles
assigned to them; hence they tend to venture into fields which
are specified by cultural standards. Technical and vocational
courses are still dominated by men, although there is an
increasing number of women taking up "male preserve" courses
such as engineering, law and fishery.
156. The problem of gender-tracking has been aggravated by
the lack of gender-sensitive counselling for students which, if
made available, may widen the range of career choices for
women. The need for counselling programmes that will encourage
women's entry into non-traditional courses must be addressed.
157. To address the aforementioned problems, textbooks and
instructional materials are continuously being reviewed for
gender biases and discriminatory stereotyping. Home economics,
previously an all-girl class, is now home technology, a common
subject for girls and boys.
158. Moreover, the Women in Non-Traditional Trades Project,
which is funded by the Netherlands Government with technical
assistance from ILO has been implemented to promote the entry
of women into non-traditional trade and industry areas. Its
components include development of a trainers' training
programme for all instructors of the National Manpower and
Youth Council (NMYC) to continually upgrade their pedagogical
skills; training of female instructors in non-traditional areas
along various training methodologies utilized in skills
training; and training of women in technology and industry
courses. Instructional materials were also developed to
improve quality of training. Various audiovisual equipment
with video instructional materials were provided to all
training centres to enhance the existing training delivery
system. The Project also provides entrepreneurial development
training for its graduates.
159. To accelerate the elimination of gender-stereotypes in
education, there is a need to incorporate and take into account
the gender perspective in teachers' training programmes. The
Women's Studies Association of the Philippines, which is
engaged in teacher training and curriculum development in
women's studies, is taking a lead role in this.
Remaining issues
160. Notwithstanding the aforementioned efforts on the part
of both the government and non-government sectors, issues and
problems concerning the educational system, as well as agents
and beneficiaries of education and training, continue to exist.
These have been identified by the Department of Education,
Culture and Sports itself and are reflected in the education
chapter of the Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive
Development. Some of these are enumerated below.
161. The highly stereotyped association of home management
and child care with women find working mothers in the various
sectors of society, such as in education and human resources
development, engaged in full-time productive work in addition
to full-time housework and other community concerns. This
multiple burden has been observed to seriously affect the
quality of job outputs, the time they have left for personal
improvement in terms of further studies and availing themselves
of training and scholarships abroad, and eventually, their
chances of having a promotion. The problem is aggravated by
the lack of support system and services such as day-care and
child-minding facilities which, if available and sensitive to
working women's needs, could greatly lessen their burden and
enable them to direct their energies towards productive work.
162. While encouraging developments have been noted on the
participation of women in decision-making, their
disproportionate representation in top-level positions in all
areas affecting people's lives continues to be evident. This
is particularly observed in the education sector where women
constitute the majority of the schoolteachers but are not
equitably represented as the positions go up. The continuing
gender inequalities in access to power and decision-making need
to be addressed to improve the status of women.
163. To ensure that gender becomes a critical variable in
education and human resources development, there is a need for
a continuing consciousness-raising and orientation programme
among education agents (e.g. policy makers, school
administrators, teaching and non-teaching personnel) for the
promotion of more gender-sensitive educational goals,
objectives, policies and programmes.
164. There is also need to look into why female teachers
have limited opportunities for professional growth, or why they
cannot avail themselves of such opportunities. Although it has
been repealed as a policy, women with children below two years
of age are not encouraged to go on scholarship or training
abroad. Likewise, female teachers find it difficult to
participate in local training programmes because they are
hardly able to balance their time between reproductive and
productive functions. The need to protect the husband's ego
and the perception that wives' educational attainment should
not exceed that of their husbands are also among the critical
factors restricting women's pursuit of professional growth
through further studies and training.
165. Another area of concern is the need to incorporate and
take into account the gender perspective in teachers' training
programmes. It has been noted that teachers are unable to
participate in these programmes because the training design
(e.g. time and location of training) does not take into account
women's multiple responsibilities. Moreover, there is a need
for a systematic, basic and in-depth training on women's
studies for teachers and career counsellors.
166. The need to strengthen the central gender and
development focal point and create similar mechanisms at the
subnational level for the education and human resources
development sector is a continuing concern that policy and
decision makers ought to address.
167. There is a need to determine the extent of implicit
and explicit discrimination that women continue to experience
while enroling in some schools. The education needs of young
women who are forced to drop out for such reasons as unplanned
pregnancy, needs to be brought into focus and made the object
of studies and appropriate responses.
168. Institutional mechanisms and structures such as gender
and development focal points and non-governmental
organizations/networks across the country need to be
established or strengthened to ensure that the education and
human resources development sector is gender-responsive. While
such mechanisms already exist, they are confronted with
problems of inadequate funding or weak structures as these are
simply added to existing functions. It has also been observed
that mechanisms to ensue women's participation in contemporary
movements for social change e.g., peace-building and
maintenance, environmental upkeep, and human rights movements,
are very limited.
169. The issue of gender-biased social construction of
knowledge-making and transmission needs special attention.
Learning concepts used in schools which are founded on human
experiences need proportionately and accurately to reflect
women's contributions in key disciplines such as science,
history, social studies, mathematics and language. As a
corollary, formal and organized efforts to purposively
introduce contemporary scholarships on women are very
inadequate.
170. There is a continuing need to critique, monitor,
review and evaluate the Philippine educational system in terms
of content, methods and learning processes and institutional
mechanisms and structures vis-a`-vis its relevance and
responsiveness to emerging gender roles. For example,
classroom-related studies and researches on teacher practices
ought to be conducted periodically to identify teacher
practices that negate gender-fair messages or those that
reinforce sexism and sex-role stereotyping. Socio-cultural
research on values that contribute to gender biases needs to be
implemented as a basis for policy formulation.
171. Key officials and personnel (e.g. decision makers,
policy makers, planners, programme managers/implementors) in
the sector need to acquire broader gender perspectives to
ensure that education and training plans, policies, programmes
and projects are gender-responsive. Likewise, there is a need
to address the lack of a gender-based data and information
system (at the national and subnational levels) in educational
planning, policy and programme formulation, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.
VIII. ARTICLE 11
Elimination of discrimination in all aspects of employment;
appreciation of marriage and maternity concerns; continuous
review of protective legislation
Situation
172. The National Statistics Office (NSO) gives the
following estimates for 1994:
Percentage female Percentage male
Household population 15
years and
above 50.3 49.7
Labor force participation rate 47.3 81.6
Unemployment rate 10.0 8.2
173. Data from CSC reveal the following trend in women's
occupation of career executive positions in government:
Percentage female in government career executive positions
1994 15.0
1980 26.0
1990 29.0
174. A survey of labour organizations covering 4,290
establishments conducted by the Bureau of Labor and Employment
Statistics in 1991 showed that men outnumbered women in labour
union membership. Women accounted for only 35 per cent of the
total membership of 233,338 and only 14 per cent of the 1,260
union presidents.
175. Republic Act 5490 authorized the building of more free
trade zones where women's labour power was available at the
cheapest possible rate. Out of 61,329 workers, 75 per cent are
females working on textiles, garments, rubber products and
electrical machinery.
176. The latest figures place the number of overseas
contract workers at 52 per cent women. This reflects
employment distress that affects the working women population.
Women domestic helpers comprise 57 per cent of such workers in
the service sectors, while entertainers comprise 34 per cent of
those in the professional sector.
177. The median age of women overseas contract workers was
estimated at 29.6 years, about six years less than the
estimated median age of 35.9 years for men. The majority of
the newly hired were in vulnerable occupations such as domestic
helpers and entertainers, 32.5 per cent and 18.9 per cent
respectively, of total deployment in 1993. Together, these
occupations comprised 51.4 per cent of all newly hired,
95 per cent of them women. These figures exhibit the
increasing feminization of overseas labour migration.
Policy developments
178. The following policies are those adopted during the
reporting period and those that were not included in the
previous reports.
Policies promoting equal employment
179. CSC passed resolution 84-463 which provides for the
adoption and implementation of a policy (equality advocates or
EQUADS) programme on equal opportunities and equal treatment
for women and men in government employment. EQUADS at the CSC
central office and in 14 regional offices attend to complaints
of discrimination such as gender, political and sexual
harassment.
180. Republic Act 7305 or the Magna Carta for Public Health
Workers, enacted in 1992, allows public health worker couples
to be employed or assigned in the same municipality. This
would ensure that married female public health workers, who are
expected in the Philippine culture to give up their work to
keep their family together, do not have to choose between their
work and their family.
181. Republic Act 6725, which was mentioned in the third
periodic report, gives definite form to a number of
discriminatory practices such as payment of lesser compensation
to a female employee against the male employee for work of
equal value, favouring men in promotion, training opportunities
etc. The elimination of discrimination requires dynamic and
continuing effort, including the development of measures to
implement the anti-discrimination law progressively if full
implementation is not immediately possible. Examples of these
measures could be the promotion of affirmative action in the
workplace, penalizing violators of Republic Act 6725 and
revision of the implementing rules and regulations of that Act
to operationalize the law.
182. In compliance with Republic Act 6972, or the Barangay
Day Care Law, which provides supportive social services to
enable parents to combine family obligations with work
responsibilities, a total of 27,540 day-care centres in 23,538
barangays out of 41,924 were established by the Department of
Social Welfare and Development in cooperation with local
government units and non-governmental organizations/concerned
citizens.
183. Two bills on paternity leave were filed in the Ninth
Congress. The passage of a law on this will somehow equalize
the costs of employing married women and men. Meanwhile,
paternity leave benefits are granted depending on the
benevolence of employers or the ability of workers to advocate
them in the collective bargaining agreement. There are already
a few private corporations that grant paternity leave.
Policies promoting women workers' protection
k‡)ƒ Republic Act 7688 (1994) gives representation to women
in the Social Security Commission.
185. Republic Act 7655 (1993), an Act Increasing the
Minimum Wage of Househelpers Amending for this Purpose Article
143 of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 442, as Amended, provides
that househelpers (most of whom are women) receiving at least P
1,000.00 per month be covered by the Social Security System and
are therefore entitled to all the benefits provided by the
System. This law also upgrades the minimum wage rates of
househelpers.
186. Legislation which has placed homeworkers under the
coverage of existing social security and medical care benefits
just like other wage earners still has to be operationalized.
Homeworkers are those who do paid jobs at home, mainly for
subcontractors. They are mostly women, since this type of
economic activity still allows them to attend to family
responsibilities. However, their terms of contract, which
include low piece-rate payments, are generally inferior to
those of regular wage earners and the extremely long work hours
spent to meet quotas compound these women's multiple burdens.
Further, the unclear employee-employer relationship in some
instances makes the homeworker vulnerable to exploitation.
187. Homeworkers are covered by some protective policies,
particularly articles 153 to 155 of the Labor Code. To effect
these provisions, Department Order No. 5, or Rule XIV of the
Rules Implementing Book III of the Labor Code on Employment of
Homeworkers, was issued covering the following:
(a) The registration and types of assistance to
homeworkers' organizations and employers and contractors;
(b) Payment and conditions for payment of homework,
standard rates and deductions;
(c) Duties of the employer, contractor and subcontractor;
(d) Prohibition of homework;
(e) Enforcement power of the Department of Labor and
Employment Regional Director over labour standards cases.
188. Considering the peculiarities of homework and the
prevailing policy of the Government towards the increasing
participation of the labour force in self-employment and
livelihood activities, measures towards more effective
enforcement of Department Order No. 5 need to be continuously
reviewed and other social protection schemes developed.
189. An additional budget for implementing Republic Act
6972 (Act Establishing Day-care Center in Every Barangay) has
to be allocated. As a support mechanism for working mothers,
it will provide the homeworkers more opportunities to attend to
their work and domestic responsibilities as well as other
activities in the community.
190. Republic Act 7322 (1992) amends the social security
law and increases the maternity benefit of women workers. But
Rule XVI, section 12 of the Civil Service Law and Rules, which
is applicable only to the government but not to the private
sector, still requires marriage as a precondition to maternity
leave and benefits.
191. Civil Service Rules have been amended by CSC
resolution 94-2854 to include all forms of sexual harassment
within the offence of "grave misconduct" for which
corresponding heavier sanctions shall be imposed.
192. Republic Act 7877, or the Anti-sexual Harassment Act,
was enacted in 1995. It provides that "work, education or
training-related sexual harassment is committed by an employer,
manager, supervisor, agent of the employer, teacher,
instructor, coach, professor, trainer, or any other person who,
having authority, influence or moral ascendancy over another in
a work or training or education environment demands, requests
or otherwise requires any sexual favour from the other,
regardless of whether the demand, request or requirement for
submission is accepted by the object of the said act". The law
also provides, among other things, that sexual harassment is
committed in a work-related environment when:
(a) The sexual favour is made as a condition in the hiring
or in the employment, re-employment or continued employment of
the said individual, or in granting the said individual
favourable compensation, terms, conditions, promotions, or
privileges; or the refusal to grant the sexual favour results
in limiting, segregating or classifying the employee which in
any way would discriminate, deprive or diminish employment
opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the said employee;
(b) The above acts would impair the employee's rights or
privileges under existing labour laws;
(c) The above acts would result in an intimidating,
hostile or offensive environment for the employee.
193. The Department of Labor and Employment adopted two
significant policy issuances to further protect women workers:
(a) Administrative Order No. 28, Series of 1994,
prescribes guidelines to improve the effectiveness of labour
standards enforcement and specified women's concerns as a
priority;
(b) Department Order No. 3, Series of 1994, sets
guidelines for the training, testing and deployment of
performing artists or entertainers.
194. Republic Act 8042 mandates the institution of a higher
standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant
workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress.
Section 2 (d) of the law specifically provides that "the State
shall apply gender-sensitive criteria in the formulation and
implementation of policies and programmes affecting migrant
workers and the composition of bodies tasked for the welfare of
migrant workers ...".
195. Department Order No. 13, Series of 1994, revised
measures to further protect overseas household workers. It
instructs, inter alia, the development and coordination of
welfare programmes for household workers, to be implemented at
the overseas centres mainly by the Philippine Overseas Labor
Officers Corps. Among the special responsibilities assigned to
the corps are the following:
(a) Monitoring the entry and departure of household
workers in their respective areas;
(b) Conducting skills enhancement programmes for overseas
contract workers;
(c) Implementing welfare programmes on site;
(d) Monitoring and assessing the welfare services of
private recruitment agencies and entities;
(e) Implementing a pre-qualification system for foreign
placement agencies as principals.
196. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
Memorandum Circular No. 41, Series of 1994, sets the guidelines
for operationalizing this Department Order. It provided,
inter alia, for:
(a) Establishment of the Household Workers' Center in the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration;
(b) Setting of the qualification, performance assessment
and disqualification standards for licensed agencies/entities
in the deployment of household workers;
(c) Registration, training and trade testing of household
workers;
(d) Accreditation of foreign placement agencies.
197. As a consequence of exhaustive assessment and review
by the Department of Labor and Employment of policies
pertaining to the employment of performing artists abroad, a
set of rules was issued giving the requirements, conditions and
procedures by which performing artists may be hired overseas.
The Department's Administrative Guidelines Implementing
Department Circular 01-91 raised the minimum requirement for
female performing artists to 23 years and instructed:
(a) The pre-qualification of employers by the Philippine
embassy/consulate in the worksite;
(b) The accreditation with the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration of employers, through their licensed
agents;
(c) The participation of promoters' associations in the
accreditation of employers with the Administration and the
processing of their recruited talents.
198. Department Order No. 35 of the Department of Labor and
Employment, Series of 1994, provided for a comprehensive
welfare programme for Filipino performing artists overseas.
199. Entertainers have been required to secure artist
record books and should complete academic and skills training
and testing before they could be employed abroad.
200. Responding to the case of Flor Contemplacion, a
domestic helper convicted of double murder in Singapore and
hanged after four years of imprisonment, the Government adopted
a set of policy measures to address the issues surrounding the
case and to respond to the issues and concerns confronting
overseas contract workers in general. Executive Order 231
created a presidential fact-finding and policy advisory body
whose first set of recommendations resulted to the President's
issuance of a temporary ban on the deployment of domestic
helpers to Singapore. He also ordered the allocation of funds
for the provision of legal assistance to such workers.
201. Administrative Order 182 created the Assistance-to-
National Task Force which is mandated:
(a) To develop and implement an integrated programme of
government that will address the various concerns and problems
resulting from migration;
(b) To develop a mechanism to ensure effective
coordination among various agencies of government against
illegal recruitment and the exploitation of highly vulnerable
groups of migrants;
(c) To develop and implement a continuing information and
community action programme to ensure the effective
dissemination of information on migration issues;
(d) To review and develop policies to promote the welfare
and interests of Filipino migrants.
202. Article 130 of the Labor Code prohibits night work for
women except in certain instances. Though well-intended, this
kind of protection tends to discriminate against women and
favours male workers.
Policies encouraging women's productive participation
203. Republic Act 7882 (1995) provides for assistance to
women engaging in micro and cottage business enterprises.
204. Republic Act 7884 (1995), an Act creating the National
Dairy Authority, states that the Authority "shall encourage the
participation of women's groups in dairy and dairy-related
projects including dairy animal health care, village nutrition
schemes, community-based processing, and marketing of milk and
dairy products".
205. Although laws are generally adequate to protect
workers and promote their welfare, there is a need for more
specific legislation targeting vulnerable sectors. Issues that
call for a response are the ineffective enforcement of laws and
the low level of awareness among workers and employers alike of
labour law provisions and labour standards.
206. For working conditions to improve in general, newly
adopted administrative measures are being implemented to
enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the labour
standards enforcement machinery. This is expected to also
benefit vulnerable groups such as working women and homeworkers
as one policy direction that gives special inspection
priorities to the conditions and concerns of such groups.
Among the features of the administrative measure is the
institution of criminal action for infraction of labour
standards laws, including the provision on the visitorial and
enforcement authority of the Department of Labor and Employment
as provided under article 128 (d) of the Labor Code, as
amended.
207. Among the policies for the labour and employment
sector in the Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, 1993-
1998 are the promotion of investments that generate greater
employment for both women and men; and the setting up of
equality advocates in all government offices to address gender-
related issues and concerns.
Institutional developments
208. More women officers in the OWWA front-line units, as
well as in its overseas operations, were deployed to attend to
the unique circumstances and needs of women overseas workers.
209. Filipino social centres overseas were restructured
into Filipino workers' development centres to focus more on
their welfare as workers, the major activities of which
include:
(a) Registration programmes for non-documented workers;
(b) Organizing Filipino socio-civic organizations to
represent workers' interests;
(c) Business and livelihood counselling;
(d) Preparing workers for reintegration into Philippine
society after the completion of their employment contracts.
210. Gender and development desk officers were designated
from each of the offices of the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration: Pre-employment Services; Welfare and
Employment; Adjudication, Licensing and Regulations; and
General Administration and Support.
211. To step up its gender and development programme, the
Department of Labor and Employment developed an Integrated Plan
for Gender and Development, 2000 from which would emanate the
formulation of a yearly plan. As a strategy, officials of the
Department would include as one of the key result areas in
their personal commitment forms, the integration of gender
concerns into the regular programmes of their agencies,
starting in 1995.
212. Furthermore, the Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive
Development, 1995-2025, has a chapter on labour and employment
which enumerates policy, institutional and programme project
developments brought about by the Philippine Development Plan
for Women, 1987-1992; remaining and emerging women's/gender
issues and concerns in the sector; policies and strategies
which government organizations and non-governmental
organizations could adopt; and programmes project areas to be
implemented in response to the identified issues.
Programme/project developments
213. Gender-sensitivity training, gender-responsive
planning sessions and other advocacy activities have been
conducted for a number of the sector's top officials and heads
of agencies, including programme and policy planners and
implementors. These efforts need to be sustained and improved
so that the mainstreaming of gender concerns in the policies,
plans and programmes of the Department of Labor and Employment
are fully operationalized and sustained.
214. The National Postharvest Institute for Research and
Extension (NAPHIRE) of the Department of Agriculture has
undertaken a training programme towards improving the role and
efficiency of farm household members with emphasis on women in
post-production activities, and a training programme of rural
women on postharvest loss prevention.
215. Related programmes and projects of the Center for
Overseas Workers include the following:
(a) Pre-employment orientation seminars in which recurring
questions for other government offices are clarified. These
seminars are for prospective overseas contract workers in the
vulnerable skills category (entertainers, domestic helpers), to
safeguard their welfare and prevent them from falling into the
hands of illegal recruiters (725 participants attended 15
seminars);
(b) 1,733 high-school students attended nine seminars on
preventive education on migration;
(c) 25,000 copies of comics on trafficking and migration
were printed and distributed;
(d) 1,000 copies of a newsletter were printed and
distributed three times a year;
(e) From 1990 to 1993, a radio programme on the realities
of overseas employment was aired regularly;
(f) Experts on migration issues made appearances on radio
and television.
216. Among the factors that facilitate these efforts of the
Center is partnership with and/or support from funding
agencies, schools, government organizations, other non-
governmental organizations and the clients. However, there
remain sectors of society that clamour for a more integrated
and synchronized government policy on the overseas employment
programme.
217. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
embarked on an extensive information campaign, through the mass
media and a series of regional seminars, on illegal recruitment
to safeguard outgoing workers.
218. Non-governmental organizations conduct pre-departure
orientation seminars which aim to orient all departing workers
on job site conditions, workers' rights and responsibilities,
employment contract terms and conditions, problems inherent to
the job, and how to handle such problems vis-a`-vis government
services being offered.
219. Through the Department of Foreign Affairs, the
Philippines has signed social security systems agreements with
France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain. These agreements
provide protection and greater benefits for women workers who
are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
220. For returning workers, the Overseas Workers' Welfare
Administration launched its Returning Overseas Contract Workers
through Entrepreneurship Mediation to help the workers become
economically active as local entrepreneurs.
221. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, in
cooperation with ILO, launched the entrepreneurship on migrant
earnings project to start off initiatives for programmes that
will assist returning migrants in establishing viable and
sustainable livelihood projects. The project, which has been
made part of the integrated livelihood programmes of the
Department of Labour and Employment, involves skills upgrading,
entrepreneurship development training and business awareness.
Other developments
222. The Philippine representatives to the United Nations
took the lead in the adoption in April 1995 of a resolution
that tackled the plight of women migrant workers.
Other issues
223. Employment as a major development strategy requires
more policy reforms and long-term strategies, including solid
guarantees for women's equal access to employment, as spelled
out in the proposed National Employment Plan.
224. In addition, the Structural Adjustment Program and its
possible effects on women workers needs to be considered
carefully. With the Philippines' ratification of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), adjustment measures will
need to be implemented both to cushion the possible temporary
displacement of workers and to help the sectors favourably
affected to respond to increased demand for qualified workers.
225. Women trade unionists figure prominently as board
members, secretaries, treasurers and auditors - positions that
may be regarded as extensions of their mother/housewife roles.
Women's relegation to lower positions in the unions reflects to
some extent their socialization as men's subordinates. Other
barriers to their equal participation include lack of time
(because of their multiple roles as mother, wife and worker),
lack of support (the trade union culture being male-oriented)
and less access to training and education. These constraints
in effect deny women's fair representation in both policy-
making and decision-making in trade unions. Affirmative
measures therefore need to be applied in order to promote
women's empowerment and reduce the barriers to inequality in
trade union participation.
IX. ARTICLE 12
Equality in the field of health care; access
to health care services, including family
planning; appropriate and free services
pertaining to pregnancy, confinement and
the post-natal period; adequate nutrition
during
pregnancy and lactation
Background
226. Studies done by the Department of Health have revealed
that the health situation in the Philippines is improving.
Maternal mortality decreased from 10 per 10,000 live births in
1985 to 8 per 10,000 in 1990. Postpartum haemorrhage,
hypertension-complicating pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium
and pregnancies with abortive outcome have been the leading
causes of deaths among pregnant women. The infant mortality
rate likewise declined, from 59 to 57 per 10,000 live births
from 1985 to 1990. Female infants (27 per 10,000) tend to
survive better than male infants (30 per 10,000). Death among
women in the reproductive age has been principally attributed
to heart disease, tuberculosis, cancer and pregnancy-related
diseases.
227. With regard to immunization, the Department reports
that the percentage of immunized female children was almost
equal to that of male children in 1993. As regards mothers,
the majority received at least one tetanus toxoid injection
during pregnancy. It is interesting to note that most of the
beneficiaries who were injected had reached at least high
school, which clearly indicates that women who have a higher
level of education were more aware of the importance of the
preventive aspects of medicine.
228. As regards maternity services, nearly 60 per cent of
births in 1993 were medically attended. The rest were attended
by traditional midwives or "hilots".
229. While the overall health status is improving, a
continuing problem is rural women's poor access to health care
and services. Thus, their health, reproductive and nutritional
needs are still not adequately responded to. This problem was
further aggravated by the implementation of the Local
Government Code of 1992 by which health services were devolved
to the local government units which were apparently not ready
to assume the function. According to the Department of Health,
the delivery of basic health services to the people, especially
those in the rural areas, suffered owing to the following:
(a) inadequate funds of the local government units for basic
health services; and (b) incapability of the local health
personnel to take full responsibility for the health needs of
their constituents.
230. As of 1993, the number of females infected with HIV
was fast increasing. Of the 206 reported cases, 146 were in
the productive age (15-29). As regards the mode of
transmission, sexual and heterosexual/homosexual are the most
common. Department data further revealed that for the past
nine years five offspring caught the virus from their mothers.
Policy/institutional developments
231. Anchored on the current Medium-term Philippine
Development Plan, 1993-1998, the Department of Health
articulates its new vision for the Philippines as follows:
(1) Health as a national movement
(2) Health as an investment
(3) Health as a development and rallying point of all
participating agencies
232. The Plan recognizes the role of women in development
such that major programmes will be reviewed and redesigned to
respond better to women's total health needs and not only to
their maternal and reproductive health.
233. A 10-year investment plan (1995-2005) was likewise
orchestrated, which aims to assure sustainability of national
health programmes, support the process of devolution,
rationalize sector spending and enhance institutional
capabilities in management and planning.
234. The Department recognizes the role of non-governmental
organizations as partners in development and thus networking
with them is being enhanced. The following is a list of the
organizations actively involved in health programmes:
(a) Womanhealth, a network of individuals, institutions
and organizations that supports women's health and reproductive
freedom;
(b) Pro-Life Philippines, which proposes natural family
planning methods;
(c) Women's Health Care Foundation (WHCF), which helps
upgrade and improve the quality of health care given to women;
(d) Institute for Social Studies and Action (ISSA), which
carries out research, education and advocacy to promote health
for all, especially women, youth and children;
(e) Health Action Information Network (HAIN), which works
with communities and advocacy groups on diverse health-related
issues, blending formal academic research methods with
community-based perspectives.
235. The chapter on health in the Philippine Plan for
Gender-responsive Development, 1995-2025, translates the
Medium-term Plan vision into more operational policies and
strategies. It seeks to empower women to control their
fertility and sexuality with informed choice and minimum health
problems and specifies that fertility limitation should not
merely be seen as a means to achieve societal objectives.
Moreover, it affirms that reproductive rights constitute part
of human rights, as do safe motherhood and access to health
services.
236. As an action response to the Beijing Platform for
Action, the following are policy imperatives for health which
will be the focus of implementation by the Department of Health
of the Platform and which the Department has translated into
concrete programmes and projects for implementation beginning
in 1996:
(a) Achieve the highest level of health throughout the
life cycle;
(b) Create an environment that will promote the attainment
of the highest level of health throughout the life cycle;
(c) Empower women to exercise their reproductive rights.
237. The gender and development focal point in the
Department has been strengthened through the issuance of
Department Order No. 200-A. The Order, which was directed to
the heads of different services, mandates the coordination of
gender-sensitivity orientation and trainings, integration of
gender-related concerns into the planning and implementation of
programmes/projects, into health education and into
information, education and communication messages of the
different programmes, and initiatives towards sex-
disaggregation of health data.
238. The Office for Public Health Services was created to
administer all the related programmes and services addressing
the needs of women. These services include the Family Planning
Service, Nutrition Service, National AIDS Prevention and
Control Program, Dental Health Service and the Women's Health
and Safe Motherhood Program.
239. While in 1989 the Commission on Population passed a
Board resolution designating the Department of Health as the
lead agency for the implementation of the family programme,
this was superseded by the Local Government Code of 1992 which
devolved most of the health care services to the local
government units.
240. To make the programme more acceptable and to mobilize
assistance from all possible sectors, the Department has
revised the policy statements of the Philippine Family Planning
Program as follows:
(a) Rejection of abortion;
(b) Improvement of family welfare, with the main focus on
women's health, safe motherhood and child survival;
(c) Freedom of choice; and promotion of family solidarity
and responsible parenthood.
241. Other government initiatives enacted for the
upliftment of women's health concerns are as follows:
(a) Republic Act 7305 (1992), also known as the Magna
Carta for Health Workers, allows public health couples to be
employed or assigned in the same municipality;
(b) Republic Act 7600, or the Rooming-in and Breastfeeding
Act of 1992, provides an environment where the basic physical,
emotional and psychological needs of mothers and infants
immediately after birth are fulfilled through the practice of
rooming-in and breastfeeding.
242. Pending bills include the following:
(a) Increasing maternity benefits for women employees in
the public and private sectors to 120 days with full payment;
(b) Appointment of a Barangay Nutrition Scholar assigned
to nutritionally depressed areas, with an annual travel
allowance of P1,200;
(c) Appropriating P40 million for the Nutrition
Improvement Fund;
(d) Allocating 20 per cent of the Local Government
Development Fund for the Food and Nutrition Program;
(e) Creating a special fund for people with AIDS;
(f) Establishing family planning centres in all
municipalities, including urban areas, and appropriating funds
therefor;
(g) Establishing a national nutrition programme.
Programme/projects developments
243. With the assistance of the Australian Government, a
number of middle managers from the Department of Health were
given a scholarship grant on women's health, which covered
multidisciplinary research on women and awareness-raising on
women's health issues. Also designed for programme
implementors, the Health and Humanpower Development and
Training Services integrated women's health care into its
training curriculum.
244. At the beneficiary level, a comprehensive package of
preventive, promotive and curative care to ensure safe
pregnancy and delivery is available through the Maternal Health
Care Program. The programme package includes prenatal care,
provision of routine services to normal pregnancies,
immunization and care during and after childbirth. As of 1993,
the programme was able to extend prenatal services to 80 per
cent of pregnant women and 68 per cent for tetanus
immunization. The adoption of the breastfeeding programme,
which promotes exclusive breastfeeding from 0-6 months up to
two years, is also being enhanced. To strengthen this
programme, mother-friendly hospitals were established.
According to health experts, early breastfeeding can prevent
postpartum haemorrhage, help space pregnancies and prevent
breast cancer.
245. "Sangkap Pinoy" was one of the most publicized
programmes of the Department. Under this initiative, women and
children are given food and micronutrient supplementation such
as iron, vitamin A and iodine. As of 1994, 85.72 per cent of
the target clientele have been served.
246. Through the Family Planning Program, new clinics were
established which provide family planning information and
services.
247. To amplify the initiatives related to AIDS and other
auxiliary diseases, the National Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome/Sexually-transmitted Disease Prevention and Control
Program was launched. Among other things, the programme aims
to prevent the spread of the above and complications related to
sexually transmitted diseases and cushion the psychological and
personal impact of the disease among individuals, families,
communities and the society at large. The Non-communicable
Disease Control Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program was
undertaken to reduce mortality and morbidity through early
detection using breast self-examination for breast cancer and
pap smear for cervical cancer.
248. Several projects have been implemented by the
Department to strengthen the programmes on women's health:
(a) The Philippine health development project, which aims
to strengthen priority impact programmes of the Department,
including those on maternal and child health and nutrition;
(b) The urban health and nutrition project aims to
strengthen the delivery of health services, specifically those
for women, youth and children in the urban poor communities of
Metro Manila, Cebu City and Cagayan de Oro City;
(c) The women's health and safe motherhood project, which
highlights the gaps in existing programmes for women and seeks
solutions to the identified problems.
249. The National Nutrition Council (NCC), the highest
policy and coordinating body on nutrition, has drafted the
Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition, 1993-1998. For the
period 1993-1995, the Council reports implementation of the
following:
(a) The Home and Community Food Production Program,
designed to improve family food security. It provides seeds,
seedlings and cuttings to the target beneficiaries;
(b) Micronutrient Supplementation and Food Fortification
provides micronutrient supplements such as vitamin A, iodine
and iron;
(c) Nutrition Education promotes the adoption of desirable
food and eating practices through the conduct of mother's
classes. As of this date, the programme has conducted classes
for 710,000 pregnant and lactating mothers;
(d) Food Assistance provides supplemental feeding mostly
for lactating and pregnant mothers. About 0.4 million mothers
have been benefited by this service;
(e) Barangay Nutrition Scholars involves the recruitment,
selection, training and deployment of volunteers. A total of
16,000 volunteers have been trained and deployed;
(f) The Fourth Country Programme for Children provides,
among other things, nutrition education, micronutrient and
supplementation projects, family food production and food
security and nutrition advocacy among decision makers.
250. All the programmes indicated above are being carried
out through the assistance of the local government units, the
Department of Education, Culture an Sports, the Department of
Health, the Department of Agriculture, Rural Improvement Clubs,
the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP), the Food and
Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and various private and
non-government sectors.
251. Despite support from the above-mentioned agencies, the
implementation of the programmes has been hampered by the
following:
(a) Inadequate supply of resources;
(b) Lack of technical knowledge on the bio-intensive
gardening approach;
(c) Lack of a monitoring scheme;
(d) Beneficiaries still believe that miscarriage is due to
the iodized oil capsule;
(e) Difficulty in taking in supplements owing to
forgetfulness of women resulting from domestic worries and the
discomfort of constipation;
(f) Lack of awareness and demand for fortified food
products;
(g) Difficulty in attending classes owing to household
pressures and chores;
(h) Absence of an alternative scheme for those who are not
reached by supplemental feeding;
(i) Lack of funds to implement the projects fully.
252. In consideration of the health needs of victims and
survivors of violence against women, Project HAVEN (Hospital
Assistance to Women Victims/Survivors of Violent Environment)
was conceptualized and a tie-up between and among the Women's
Crisis Center (WCC), a non-governmental organization, the
Department of Health and NCRFW was finalized. The project
seeks to provide assistance to women victims of violence and to
train caregivers of the beneficiaries. Located at the East
Avenue Medical Center (EAMC), Project HAVEN is a pilot
undertaking which is also designed to document and come up with
guidelines on how to replicate it in other government
hospitals, particularly in the regions.
253. Likewise, in coordination with the Department of
Social Welfare and Development, the Congressional Spouses
Foundation was recently inaugurated. This halfway house and
sanctuary also caters for women victims of violent
circumstances.
254. Notwithstanding these developments, there are issues
and concerns which are still to be addressed. Among others,
these are as follows:
(a) The low level of gender consciousness of policy
makers, legislators, local government executives and programme
managers on women's health needs and concerns;
(b) Non-implementation of the "Magna Carta for Health
Workers" in some devolved localities;
(c) Inadequate benefits for community health outreach
volunteers, who are mostly women;
(d) Need to strengthen the gender and development focal
point at the national level and to set up focal points at the
subnational level for top-level
management/programme/implementors and project managers;
(e) Need to continuously address the leading causes of
women's mortality and morbidity;
(f) Poor nutritional levels among women, pregnant and
lactating;
(g) Inadequate access to medical attendance during
childbirth;
(h) Reproductive health-related infections among women;
(i) Multiple burden of women that makes them vulnerable to
disease and disabilities;
(j) Family planning practice is low;
(k) Low level of nutritional literacy and functional
health among women and men;
(i) Lack of information on environmental/occupational
health hazards;
(j) Inadequate health-care delivery system for some
programmes in other areas, at the beneficiary level.
X. ARTICLE 13
Equal access in other aspects of economic and social
life, particularly family benefits, financial credit
and recreation, sports and cultural opportunities
255. The figures are staggering. In 1991, about
39.2 per cent of Filipino households were living below the
poverty line. Considering that the primary responsibility of
stretching the family budget to feed and clothe the children
rests on the shoulders of Filipino women, saying that they have
been suffering so much is an understatement. Their situation
is exacerbated by the poor and inadequate basic services and
facilities. In these circumstances, recreation, sports and
other cultural opportunities for the very poor, women in
particular, seem far-fetched.
Policy/institutional developments
256. Since 1992, a number of institutions have been
established to study the multifaceted poverty situation in the
country and to design a holistic and integrated strategy to
address the problem.
257. The Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty was
established in 1992 to implement broad-based efforts on
poverty. The Commission followed a highly consultative process
of consultations at the provincial, regional and national
levels with sectoral government agencies and non-governmental
agencies and, in the process, directed inter-agency efforts
towards common objectives and undertakings.
258. The Presidential Council for Countryside Development
was also created in 1992 with the task of identifying and
addressing the problems of regions, provinces and areas that
lag behind in terms of economic growth. It was mandated to
encourage local administrators to focus their development
efforts on potential growth areas for economic development.
259. The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor is
responsible for linking the urban poor to government services
and programmes.
260. While there are a few women non-governmental
organizations coordinating and working with these commissions,
their policies and programmes have yet to make serious and
committed efforts at targeting and benefiting women and men
equally.
261. In line with the Medium-term Philippine Development
Plan, 1995-1998, the President launched the Social Reform
Agenda as a centrepiece programme of the Government. Among
other things, the programme provides avenues for intervention
for women's needs in terms of capability-building for
productivity skills and livelihood, services for women in
especially difficult circumstances, and information and
services for family planning, responsible parenthood and
reproductive health.
The Minimum Basic Needs Approach
262. The adoption of the Minimum Basic Needs Approach has
been started recently, focusing on those needs related to
survival (health, nutrition, sanitation and water), security
(shelter, income, peace and order) and empowerment (basic
education and literacy and participation). The approach
defines well-being as the household's ability to meet basic
needs, while poverty is defined as the sustained inability of a
household to do so. It allows the development managers to use
other multisectoral and multidisciplinary approaches towards
economic empowerment. Since it has been established that women
bear the brunt of poverty and have less access to basic
services, productive resources and employment, the Approach
enlightens development managers, enabling them to draw up
realistic plans for women's empowerment.
Day-care centres
263. To ease the multiple burden of mothers, Republic
Act 6792 mandates the establishment of day-care centres in
every barangay. As of 1993, the Department of Social Welfare
and Development, in coordination with local government units,
parents' groups and non-governmental organizations were able to
construct 20,211 day-care centres nationwide.
264. In addition to the custodial services and comfort
being provided by the centre, it also offers additional
services and programmes designed to develop positive values,
attitudes and behaviour in the children through play and
socialization activities.
265. With the growing number of working mothers, the demand
for day-care centres is on the rise. Moreover, there is a need
to extend the same facility to mothers working on night shift.
Assistance to senior citizens
266. The Senior Citizens Welfare Law, Republic Act 7432,
was issued to provide benefits to citizens 60 years old and
above, whose annual income does not exceed P 60,000.00. The
benefits being given are in the form of privileges which
include: a discount of 20 per cent on transport services,
purchase of medicine, movie houses, restaurants and other
recreational facilities. Since the greater number of senior
citizens are women, the potential of the law for them is high.
267. Though the benefits provided by the Law can help
alleviate the economic burden of senior citizens, a great
number of them are not yet aware of this benefit. Information
dissemination regarding the Law is not as intensive as it ought
to be.
268. Moreover, a provision of the Law which upgrades the
pension benefits of retirees from government and private
service to be at par with the salaries and benefits of those in
actual service is not being implemented. Hence, elderly
retirees can hardly cope on their meagre pension, which is
based on salaries under the old scales and include only token
increases. Many can not buy medicine and other basic needs.
Assistance to disabled persons
269. Republic Act 7377, otherwise known as the "Magna Carta
for Disabled Persons", provides for rehabilitation and
development assistance to disabled persons to enable them to be
integrated into the mainstream of society. It enunciates
policies aimed at protecting the human rights of the disabled
and ensuring that facilities are provided to enable them to
become productive and contributing members of society.
Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action
270. Among the policy imperatives adopted by the Government
to implement the areas of concern of the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action are the following:
(a) To adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies,
including those aspects of structural adjustment programmes and
development strategies that address the needs and efforts of
women to overcome poverty within the framework of sustainable
development;
(b) To strengthen access of women to training, economic
resources (including land, credit, science and technology,
vocational training, information, communication and markets),
employment and promotion opportunities.
271. Concerned agencies of government, such as trade and
industry, education, science and technology, are expected to
translate these policy imperatives into concrete programmes and
projects.
Other relevant laws
272. Other laws passed to uplift the economic and social
life of women are the following:
(a) Republic Act 7882 provides assistance to women engaged
in micro and cottage business enterprises. The passage of this
law allows women to expand their businesses and become more
competitive;
(b) Republic Act 7655 increases the minimum wage for
domestic helpers;
(c) Republic Act 7322 increases maternity benefits of
women workers.
273. Other pending bills related to the concerns of this
article are:
(a) Senate Bill No. 429, the Solo Parent Act, recognizes
the growing number of solo parents, the majority of whom are
women, who are left behind by their partners for overseas
contract work;
(b) House Bill No. 876, Act Establishing a Community
Women's Support Center in Every Depressed Barangay in the
Country and Appropriate Funds for the Purpose;
(c) Senate Bill No. 1114, Act Affording Protection to
Working Women, Strengthening their Rights to Employment
Opportunities in both Private and Public Sectors and
Strengthening the Prohibition of Discrimination Against Women
with respect to their Employment;
(d) House Bill No. 12430, Act Increasing Maternity Leave
Benefits of Women Employees in the Public and Private Sector.
Programme/project developments
274. With the assistance of the Government of Japan, the
Department of Social Welfare and Development has undertaken
productivity skills capability-building for disadvantaged women
in the areas of food preservation and processing, sewing craft,
toy craft, ceramics and pottery and rattan craft. As of 1993,
the programme was able to train 53,570 women beneficiaries. Of
the total number, 39,113 were absorbed in the labour market
while the rest became self-employed, working in sheltered
workshops and under subcontract arrangements. Close to 400
worked as community-based trainers. This project, however, has
been criticized for focusing only on traditional skills of
women and could be enhanced if it ventured out into
non-traditional areas and opportunities.
275. Another programme for poor women relates to community
production centres. The women obtain part-time or full-time
work without leaving their community. They are spared
transport expenses and the stress of commuting through heavy
traffic and the worry of leaving their children by themselves
or in other people's care.
276. The Department has likewise initiated programmes for
women in especially difficult circumstances, victims of illegal
recruitment, involuntary prostitution, battering and physical
abuse, rape etc. In 1991, the "Bahay Tuluyan ng Kababaihan"
was launched to provide temporary shelter to women in crisis
situations. The "Hapag Dulugan Para sa Kababaihan" offers a
24-hour Hotline Service and also caters for women in difficult
situations. Up to 1993, the "Hapag" was able to serve 10,023
clients.
277. A women's issue with regard to housing is the
complicated procedure in applying for a housing loan. It
requires a total of 11 documents/forms to be filled up by
applicants/beneficiaries, from four to seven copies. The
primary beneficiary has to sign her or his name 118 times, and
the spouse 82 times. On top of the seemingly unending
requirements and signatures is the processing of the
application, which usually takes a considerable length of time,
thus discouraging the poor and the not-so-educated from
availing themselves of the opportunity being given them.
278. Notwithstanding the observable increase in the
participation of women in sports, no documents or data are
available to show any major effort to strengthen the role of
women in this field.
XI. ARTICLE 14
Problems faced by rural women and their roles in their
families'
economic survival, including their work in the non-
monetized
sectors of the economy; eliminating discrimination
against rural
women and equality to participate in development
planning; access
to health care and family planning, social security,
education
and extension services; participation in self-help
groups and
community activities; access to agricultural credit
and other
facilities and adequate living conditions
279. In line with the passage of Republic Act 7192, the
Women in Development and Nation-Building Act, which strengthens
the Government's commitment to ensure women's involvement in
the development process, supportive policies, measures,
mechanisms, programmes and plans were issued, passed and
adopted.
Policy/institutional developments
Legislative actions/administrative orders/issuances
280. The Department of Agriculture, one of the Government's
lead agencies in charge of the development of the rural areas,
has drawn up the Medium-term Agricultural Development Plan.
This Plan seeks to enable those in the sector, both women and
men farmers and fisherfolk, to raise their incomes and improve
their standards of living. It also aims to provide the
necessary infrastructure and other support services to
facilitate agricultural productivity.
281. Also within the framework of Republic Act 7192, the
Department of Agrarian Reform, the agency involved in promoting
equitable access to and control over land, adopted policies and
guidelines for the effective implementation of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Through Administrative
Order No. 2, Series of 1993, rules and regulations for the
identification, delineation and recognition of ancestral
domains were designed. This Order provides that all
farmworkers who are married to each other may be entitled to
three hectares each, provided that their vested rights to the
land have been duly established. A separate certificate of
land ownership agreement must be issued to each of the spouses.
This has been a landmark development from the traditional
manner of issuing certificates to the male household heads.
282. Under the Department's programme beneficiaries
development units, the Agrarian Reform Communities Strategic
Development Intervention Framework was developed which details
the gender-based organizing and development process. It also
initiated the generation of gender-specific data through in-
house research to find out how women are benefiting from the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
283. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
through Administrative Order No. 4, Series of 1991, grants the
Integrated Social Forestry Program's certificates of
stewardship contracts to both spouses, making the husband and
wife co-stewards of the land. This initiative, however, is
being criticized by some non-governmental organizations,
according to whom there is conflict between customary land use
and ownership of indigenous peoples in the present legal
system. The right to ancestral domain has not been enacted
into law. They likewise revealed that the Department initiated
the programme (identified and delineated ancestral land)
without consulting the affected indigenous peoples.
284. In compliance with Republic Act 7192, the Philippine
Plan for Gender-responsive Development was formulated. The
Plan, which is envisioned to address gender and development
concerns from 1995 to 2025, is the Philippine Government's 30-
year perspective framework for pursuing full equality and
development for women and men. The chapters on agrarian
reform, agriculture, indigenous people and environment and
natural resources in the Plan explicitly recognize the role of
rural women in the development process.
Creation of gender and development focal points
285. Aside from the Medium-term Agricultural Development
Plan, the Department of Agriculture likewise issued Special
Order No. 21, series of 1994, directing all agency units to
reorganize their respective focal points - to facilitate the
mainstreaming of gender concerns and make them more responsive
to recent developments in government policies. A Technical
Working Group was created within the Department to formulate a
strategic plan for mainstreaming gender concerns through data
generation of selected agricultural information and data.
Agricultural mainstreaming is further implemented through
gender-sensitivity training and other related courses among the
agency's top officials, middle management and rank and file
employees.
286. The Department of Agrarian Reform has also established
women in development focal points at the national down to the
municipal levels to ensure the implementation of its plan in
that regard. Agencies which reach out to women in rural areas,
such as the Office for Muslim Affairs and the Office of the
Southern Cultural Communities have likewise created focal
points and have trained their staff on gender sensitivity.
Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action
287. Part of the policy imperatives that will have an
impact on rural women and which was recently approved by the
President for implementation by the respective agencies with
regard to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action are
the following:
(a) To adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies,
including structural adjustment programmes and development
strategies that address the needs and efforts of women to
overcome poverty within the framework of sustainable
development;
(b) To strengthen the access of women to training,
economic resources (including land, credit, science and
technology, vocational training, information, communication and
markets), employment and promotion opportunities.
288. Other measures, supportive policies and mechanisms
that have been enacted or established in pursuit of the
mainstreaming of rural women's concerns are the following:
(a) Republic Act 7884, or the National Dairy Authority,
which encourages the participation of women in dairy and dairy-
related projects, including diary animal health care, village
nutrition schemes, community-based processing and marketing of
milk;
(b) The Social Reform Agenda, which provides capability-
building for productivity skills and livelihood services for
women in especially difficult circumstances and information
services for family planning, responsible parenthood and
reproductive health;
(c) The Presidential Council for Countryside Development,
which identifies and addresses the problems of economically
depressed regions, provinces and areas; and motivates the
administrators to focus development efforts on identified
potential growth areas to accelerate socio-economic growth.
Programme/project developments
289. Under the Medium-term Agricultural Development Plan,
the Department of Agriculture adapted the Grameen Bank scheme
by providing credit access to rural women as well as promoting
savings mobilization and capital build-up formation. As of
1995, the membership of the scheme totalled 13,528, with 12,357
members having availed themselves of loans amounting to P31.4
million. Total savings generated by members amounted to P4.2
million. Beneficiaries of this programme are the bottom poor
women in the rural areas.
290. Through the Grains Production Enhancement Program, the
Rapid Rural Appraisal Survey was conducted, covering 38 Program
priority provinces with an estimated 13,000 farmer-respondents,
for the months of September to March 1993, cropping season.
The Survey aims to generate sex-disaggregated data. The First
Program Performance Review was also initiated to assess the
efficiency of the Program in delivering services to the
intended women and men beneficiaries.
291. In addition, a national integrated pest management
programme, "Kasaganaan sa Sakahan at Kalikasan" (KASAKALIKASAN)
was implemented which aims to educate farmers on proper crop
husbandry and pest management through training. The project
guaranteed the participation of at least 30 per cent of women
farmers and technicians nationwide.
292. Other programmes which adopted a special focus on
women are the following:
(a) A post-harvest project, which aims to improve the role
and efficiency of farm household members in post-harvest
activities and train rural women in harvest loss prevention;
(b) Development of small engineering technologies for
women;
(c) A pilot community for fisherfolk.
293. The Department of Agriculture has also fielded
technicians to provide extension services to village people.
As of 1991, it was able to mobilize 21,000 agricultural
technicians who provided technical support in farming,
livestock and poultry-raising and home management to rural
folk. The implementation of this programme, however, is now
under the supervision of local officials in compliance with the
Local Government Code; hence, the activities of the technicians
are no longer monitored. No data are available on whether or
not local government units are pursuing this project.
294. Aside from providing extension services, Department of
Agriculture technicians organize rural women into groups known
as Rural Improvement Clubs. Efforts have been exerted to
reorient these clubs to take on less traditional activities.
295. To cushion the adverse effect of the adoption of GATT,
an action plan of adjustment measures was drafted for the
agriculture sector, as follows:
(a) Those that would require legislative and executive
actions to minimize and neutralize temporary dislocation in the
sector before and after ratification;
(b) Those that are designed to enhance the competitiveness
of farmers and fisherfolk to enable them to seize the
opportunities provided by the opening up of new and more stable
markets for Philippine agricultural products.
These initiatives could be of great help to rural women
considering that the majority of them are in these sectors.
296. To encourage and enhance women's participation in
agricultural planning, the Philippine-Australian Pilot
Provincial Agricultural Extension Project was initiated in 1992
in two regions of the country. An integral part of the project
was the organization and mobilization of rural-based
organizations in drafting a community plan and, in particular,
an agricultural sector plan through research and planning.
Though the participants found the process too time-intensive,
they acknowledged two benefits: learning from their
involvement in the project, and confidence in the resulting
plans.
297. KaBaPa, a coalition of peasant women's organizations,
has been active in electoral literacy through the production of
voter's manuals and translation into various Philippine
languages and dialects. They also conduct study sessions for
its members to discuss pressing political matters, such as
foreign debt.
298. The Technology Outreach and Community Help Foundation
(TOUCH), a non-governmental organization working with people's
organizations in Mindanao, conducts sessions in which couples
are brought together to discuss gender issues. The topics are
mainly personal and cover such questions as how the man treats
his spouse, work-sharing at home, leisure and vices. The
sessions give emphasis to the couple's experience via-a`-vis
gender roles and sexual relations; women's expanding roles;
men's sharing in home and family responsibilities; and
recognition of women's right to self-determination. Women
beneficiaries have revealed much improvement in their spouses,
such as in helping with housework and cutting down on their
drinking.
299. The Department of Agrarian Reform, on the other hand,
has continuously committed itself to make the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program equally beneficial and accessible to
women and men. As of 1992, the programme was able to
distribute a total of 363,276.65 hectares of agricultural land
to farmer beneficiaries. Of this number, 270,096 were under
the emancipation patents and 28,455 were for certificates of
land ownership agreements. It could be noted, however, that of
the emancipation patent holders, only 11.5 per cent were women.
In terms of hectarage, approximately 326,496 or 90 per cent
were owned and controlled by men and only 35,815 or 10 per cent
were owned by women.
300. The certificate, on the other hand, was also
predominantly awarded to men, who comprised 82 per cent of the
total holders as compared with only 18 per cent for women.
301. It is to be noted that the awarding of patents and
certificates of land ownership is highly unequal between women
and men. According to sector studies, this is attributed to
the following:
(a) The low number of female-headed households in the
country;
(b) The prevailing cultural norms which consider farming
as masculine work and gives men the prerogative of owning and
inheriting agricultural lands at the beneficiary level;
(c) The low participation of women in advisory or
decision-making bodies such as the Presidential Agrarian Reform
Councils, and the Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating
Committees on the part of the programme implementors.
302. Moreover, little recognition is given to women as
farmers and worse, as fisherfolks. They lack equal access to
information and resources such as training, new technology,
credit and marketing facilities.
303. One of the highly criticized programmes of the
Government is the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. One
criticism is that the implementation has been so sluggish; only
minimal land distribution has occurred and minimal support
services have been made available in the rural areas. In
addition, the indiscriminate conversion of urban and industrial
zones displaces peasant families and threatens food security.
304. A few government lending institutions (Land Bank and
the Development Bank of the Philippines) are now providing
loans for rural women payable in five years with minimal
interest and no collateral. The Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration also gives capital assistance with low interest
rates and debt-to-equity minimum collateral requirements.
Despite such developments, it is widely observed that credit
resources earmarked for farmers are eventually given out to
male farmers. This is especially true for bank-managed credit
programmes for mainstream farming and fishing.
305. In contrast, small loans disbursed under the social or
microenterprise credit scheme, which tend to characterize many
credit projects of non-governmental organizations, find their
way to women.
306. The "Tulong sa Tao"-NGO Micro-Credit Program of the
Department of Trade and Industry is designed to address the
credit needs of existing and potential microentrepreneurs
through the extensive use of non-governmental organizations as
conduits for lending and technical assistance. As of December
1994, a total of 14 women had availed themselves of the
programme. However, amid the increasing opportunities being
given to women as far as credit facilities are concerned,
studies show that loans extended to women remain small and are
often insufficient to increase the scale of their project
operations.
307. This issue was particularly responded to by the
Department of Trade and Industry when it recently worked for
the amendment of the Implementing Rules and Regulations for
Republic Act 7882 upgrading the maximum loanable amount for
women in microenterprises from P1.5 million to P5.0 million.
308. Through the Self-Employment Assistance Program for
Women, the Department of Social Services and Development
appropriated funds for interest-free credit without collateral
for livelihood projects among the very poor.
309. The Canadian International Development Agency -
Entrepreneur Support Project is currently being implemented in
Regions VI, VII and XI through the Bureau of Small and Medium
Business Development of the Department of Trade and Industry.
This project aims to strengthen the delivery capability of
public and private institutions supporting micro, cottage and
small enterprise development. It also provides continuing
awareness through seminars on gender and environment
consciousness.
310. The developments reflected in this report are
indicative of the increasing attention being given to rural
women as potent in attaining rural development.
XII. ARTICLE 15
Women's equality before the law; equal
opportunities to
exercise legal capacity such as in concluding
contracts
and property administration; equal treatment in
court
procedures, among others
311. Women's awareness of their rights is a crucial
prerequisite to their fulfilment and enjoyment of equal status
with men. Thus, while the Philippines is said to have basic
rights of women entrenched in its laws, women are not able to
exercise these rights fully as indicated by their relatively
lower status in the different spheres of life and development
sectors such as education, business and employment. For
example, there is a larger number of unemployed women,
relatively low salaries of female employees, and low ratio of
women in supervisory and management positions, including in the
foreign service and in the judiciary.
312. The passage in 1992 of the Women in Development and
Nation-building Act, Republic Act 7192, ushered in a number of
significant initiatives pertaining to women's rights. These
are as follows:
(a) Republic Act 7305 (1992), or the Magna Carta for
Public Health Workers, further allows public worker couples to
be employed or assigned in the same municipality;
(b) Republic Act 7322 (1992) amends the Social Security
Law and increases the maternity benefit of women workers;
(c) Republic Act 7655 (1993) increases the minimum wage of
domestic househelpers and makes social security available to
them;
(d) Republic Act 7688 (1994) gives representation to women
in the Social Security Commission;
(e) Republic Act 7877 (1995) makes sexual harassment
unlawful in the employment, education or training environment;
(f) Republic Act 7882 (1995) provides for assistance to
women engaging in micro and cottage business enterprise.
313. The Department of Justice has started to implement a
strengthened Witness Protection, Security and Benefits Program,
under which vital witnesses are given security and protection
from harassment and threat. victims of injustice, especially
women, have been given a stronger assurance of impartial and
speedy disposition of their cases. Moreover, continuous review
and revision of regulations, memoranda, circulars, issuances
and procedures to eliminate gender bias in the prosecution of
cases are being undertaken by the National Prosecution Service
of the Department.
314. To reinforce these initiatives, the following orders
were issued by the Department:
(a) Department Circular No. 49 provides that the total
period for preliminary investigation should not exceed 60
calendar days from the date of assignment to the investigating
prosecutor. Thus cases of women who are victims of violence
will be promptly filed in court;
(b) Department Circular No. 61 provides for the adoption
of new rules on inquest and investigation procedures. Among
others, it aims to encourage women to seek immediate action on
their complaints;
(c) Department Circular No. 65 provides for the adoption
of a policy on the speedy hearing or trial of cases and the
coverage of witnesses by the Witness Protection, Security and
Benefits Program.
315. Much of the inequality in the legal capacity is found
within marriage and family relations (see the report under
article 16).
XIII. ARTICLE 16
Equality rights with respect to marriage and family relations
316. The previous reports have cited Philippine laws that
comply with the Convention's provisions on equality between
women and men with respect to marriage and family relations.
The present report will cover the remaining discriminatory laws
that prevent women from achieving equal status with men in
marriage and family. It will also discuss socio-cultural
hindrances that prevent actual compliance with specific
provisions of this particular article of the Convention. The
issue of violence against women in the family will also be
covered.
Discriminatory laws
317. The 1987 Constitution and the Family Code (also passed
in 1987) removed many of the gross inequalities in law
pertaining to marriage, family and property relations.
However, there remain provisions that indicate inequality
between women and men in the family, among which are the
following:
1. Family Code
(a) Article 46 provides fraud, such as the concealment of
pregnancy with another man, as one of the reasons for annulment
of marriage. However, it is silent on the case of a man who
has caused the pregnancy of another women who is not his wife.
(b) Articles 96, 211 and 225 state that the husband or
father's decision should prevail in case of disagreement in the
administration and employment of community property, parental
authority or in the exercise of legal guardianship over the
property of an unemancipated common child.
2. Civil Code
(a) Article 39 denies an adult married women some legal
rights when it states that "A married woman, 21 years of age or
over, is qualified for all acts of civil life except in cases
specified by law".
(b) Article 765 allows the revocation of a donation in
case of an act of ingratitude against the wife of the donor.
Why an act of ingratitude against the husband of the donor is
not being made a ground for revocation perpetuates the double
standard.
(c) Article 2238 states that if the husband is insolvent,
the administration of the conjugal partnership or absolute
community may be transferred to the wife or third person. This
presumes that the husband administers the conjugal property.
(d) Article 919 (3) identifies sexual infidelity as one of
the causes of disinheritance between spouses. It defines
sexual infidelity as adultery for women and concubinage for
men, again a double standard.
3. Code of Muslim Personal Laws
(a) Article 27 allows a man to have more than one wife "if
he can deal with them with equal companionship and just
treatment as enjoined by Islamic law and only in exceptional
cases", but a woman may not have more than one husband.
(b) Articles 28 and 29 restrict the subsequent marriage of
a widow or divorcee unless she has observed an idda (four
months and 10 days from death of husband or three monthly
courses from the date of divorce).
(c) Article 29 allows the husband to take back his wife
without the need of a new marriage, if they are reconciled
during her idda; restricts the right of the wife to acquire any
property by gratuitous title, except from her relatives; and
restricts the right of the wife to exercise any profession,
occupation or business.
4. Civil Service Rule XVI, section 12 requires
marriage as
a precondition to maternity leave
5. Revised Penal Code
Article 333 on adultery, and article 334 on concubinage,
define the different grounds for infidelity within marriage.
To be guilty of adultery, a wife needs only to engage in sexual
intercourse with another man while the man can be charged with
concubinage only if he keeps a mistress, has sexual intercourse
under scandalous circumstances or cohabits with another woman.
6. Customary Law
One of the biggest obstacles to the equalization of
women's rights is the difficulty of breaking down the
patriarchal traditional power structures in the family. These
gender biases cut across economic and cultural systems, which
are deeply rooted in society's psyche. Sometimes, even when
statutory laws have been relaxed to a woman's favour, customary
laws continue to render them academic. Thus, there is a need
for continuing information and legal literacy campaigns.
Article 16 (e)
Family planning rights
318. While the Constitution affords spouses the same right
to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of
their children, the general perception is that in the majority
of households, the husband's decision still prevails. The
still dominant macho culture that defines maleness based on the
number of children prevents women from fully exercising their
right to decide if, when, and how many children to have.
319. In preparation for the 1994 International Conference
on Population and Development, women's non-governmental
organizations were very active and created a good deal of
interest in the media on women's rights with respect to their
reproductive role. Partly due to that Conference, as well as
the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, the Department of
Health has adopted the following policy imperatives:
(1) Achieve the highest level of health throughout women's
life cycle;
(2) Create an environment that will promote the attainment
of the highest level of health throughout women's life
cycle;
(3) Empower women to exercise their reproductive rights.
320. For the last three years, the Government has embarked
on a vigorous family planning campaign. While there is a
steady decline in the population growth rate, problems such as
lack of information on the various family planning methods and
actual or perceived difficulty in obtaining these methods or
devices continue to plague programme implementors. The idea
that family planning programmes cater only or mainly for women,
and the lack of motivational strategies to involve the men, has
led to non-cooperation, which accounts for much of the failure
of couples to practise contraception.
321. Other socio-cultural factors affect the decisions of
women regarding their reproductive health. The association of
contraceptive use with prostitution and infidelity continues to
deter many women from using contraceptives without their
husband's permission. On the other hand, the men fear that
contraceptives would lead to their wife's promiscuity. Being a
predominantly Catholic country, it is believed that the
church's opposition to artificial contraception has induced
guilt feelings among many women who feel they are sinning when
they use methods other than those endorsed by the church.
However, recent studies have shown that most women do not take
into consideration their religious beliefs when it comes to
family planning and that the unmet needs for services and
supplies are the bigger problem.
Article 16 (g)
Right to choose a family name
322. Neither the Family Code nor the Civil Code explicitly
states that a women can choose to retain her maiden first name
and surname after she marries, thus not fully recognizing her
right to choose a family name. An effort to amend the two laws
is in progress with the filing of Senate Bill No. 430, an act
allowing married or legally separated women to use their maiden
first name and surname.
323. However, since there is also no explicit prohibition
against married women continuing to use their maiden name,
there are women in the country who opt to do this even after
marriage.
Domestic violence
324. Filipino families are undergoing changes in the
composition, size, structure, support system and organization.
In addition, there are indicators of ongoing family instability
and disorganization (Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive
Development, 1995). One important indicator of family
dysfunction is the pervasiveness of domestic abuse and
violence, which are directed mostly at women. Domestic
violence, manifested mostly through wife-beating and marital
rape, is treated as private matter and is not viewed as an
offence requiring community or state prevention. It was only
recently that a bill was filed in Congress criminalizing
physical and psychological acts of wife-cruelty, thereby
acknowledging the reality of the offence and the need for
legislation. Without any law specific to domestic violence,
police officers have not been convinced that they should arrest
abusers, even when the abused woman files a complaint.
325. One positive development with regard to these issues
is the increasing attention being given to it in policy debates
and decision-making. The current plan for women has a whole
chapter on violence against women and another on the family.
326. The incidence of domestic violence remains
underestimated because of the difficulty in gathering data.
Battered women themselves refuse to admit that the problem
exists. They are still bound by Filipino customs, traditions
and attitudes dictating that a family remains intact at all
cost (usually at the expense of women's emotional and physical
well-being). Marital rape is still largely unacknowledged
owing to the erroneous belief that marriage gives the husband
full and unequivocal sexual access to his wife. Filipino women
have yet to recognize that a woman has the right to refuse
sexual relations, even with her husband, if it is against her
will.
327. An indicator of the increasing recognition and
attention being given to non-harmonious family relations,
particularly domestic violence and violence against women, in
general, is the number of bills which have been filed on the
matter.
Policy developments
(1) Senate Bill No. 1413 and House Bill No. 4228 (Anti-Rape
Act) provide for the inclusion of marital rape in the
classification of rape where the wife could file charges
against her husband.
(2) Senate Bill No. 1726 (Anti-domestic Violence Bill) seeks
to penalize repeated acts of wife-beating.
(3) Senate Bill No. 408 provides a heavier penalty for
habitual wife-beating and provides for the victim's
protection as well as temporary support and other
privileges.
(4) House Bill No. 12399 (Wife-cruelty Bill) defines wife-
cruelty as a combination of and repeated psychological and
physical assault.
Programme/project developments
(1) "Wakasan: Karahasan Laban sa Kababaihan sa Loob ng
Tahanan": (Stop Domestic Violence Against Women) is a
project which, among other things, convened a national
conference on the prevention of family violence in 1994-
1995. This was a series of nationwide consultations on
the prevention of family violence spearheaded by the
Women's Crisis Center (WCC) and the Senate Committee on
Women and Family Relations.
(2) In 1993, a nationwide training for policewomen consisting
of gender-sensitivity and orientation on violence against
women with cross-training on police investigation was
undertaken by NCRFW in cooperation with WCC and Kalakasan,
two non-governmental organizations providing services for
victims of domestic violence. Trainees were the officers
and staff of the Philippine national police women's desks,
which were established in strategic police stations to
handle cases of violence against women.
(3) Community-based para-legal training on violence against
women is being conducted by the Women's Legal Bureau and
Harnessing Self-reliant Initiatives and Knowledge, Inc.
(HASIK), non-governmental organizations providing legal
services to women.
(4) The Women's Crisis Center has continuing special training
on feminist counselling and crisis intervention for
victims and survivors of violence against women given to
different women's groups, community organizations, service
providers and advocates.
(5) In 1994, NCRFW published a Primer on Domestic Violence
which is intended for the women victims themselves;
friends, relatives, and neighbours of the victims; policy
makers; and implementors in government agencies and
non-governmental organizations. The Primer contains:
situation regarding domestic violence (reasons for its
prevalence, who are the perpetuators and victims, types of
domestic violence etc.); and status of response to the
problem (Philippine laws, and direct services for victims
etc.).
(6) The setting up of a pilot hospital-based women's crisis
centre under the project Hospital Assistance for Women
Victims/Survivors of Violent Environment (HAVEN), a joint
project of NCRFW, WCC and the Department of Health. While
the project is still in the difficult take-off stage, the
proponents are hopeful that it will lead to replication in
other government hospitals in the regions.
(7) The NORFIL Foundation, Inc., licensed to operate as a
family/child welfare and community development
organization, supports the role of women in transforming
communities through the following:
(a) The Integrated Family and Community Development
Program integrates community development with social
services for marginalized individuals and families. Among
its components are: day-care services which provide a
safe environment where working mothers can leave their
children under the supervision of other mothers trained by
NORFIL; and the Training and Rehabilitation Center for
Women, which is a centre for unwed mothers;
(b) The Integrated Family and Child Welfare Program
provides social services for unmarried expectant mothers.
NORFIL maintains three residential facilities for unwed
mothers and their babies in Metro Manila, Cebu City and
Baguio City.
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