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FOR WOMEN ONLY
By MELISSA REYES
QUEEN Elizabeth I was a stuff made of legend. She almost single-handedly ruled England (she whittled down the Privy Council, her closest advisers) with such skill no man has equaled to this day. From a troubled country, England rose to become one of the strongest nations during her 45-year reign.
The first thing Laurie*’s male boss said to her at her job interview was: “A woman’s place is in the home.” But because she was so efficient and productive at work, she asked him a few months later: “Have you changed your mind about women?” He said, “No. You are not a woman.”
In her International Women’s Day privilege speech last year, March 8, Davao Oriental Representative Thelma Z. Almario had glowing remarks about women’s successes. “The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation,” she said. “With an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, we have indeed come a long way.”
She noted the significant rise of women legislators in the past up to the present Congress. “We now have a deputy woman speaker, Occidental Mindoro Representative Ma. Amelita C. Villarosa, representing 52 congresswomen. We have installed the first female Secretary General, lawyer Marilyn B. Yap, in the history of the Chamber.”
More women have been elected as barangay kagawad in the recent barangay elections. Literacy rate, enrollment ratio, elementary and secondary completion, voter turnout, and projected life expectancy are higher among females than males.
The government has adopted the Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development (1995-2025), a 30-year blueprint of policies, programs, projects and strategies for women development. The Philippines was first to implement a Gender and Development (GAD)-supportive budget, mandating all instrumentalities of government to set aside a minimum of 5 percent of their total annual budget for the implementation of GAD initiatives. The practice was institutionalized in 1996 with remarkable results, and has been incorporated in the National Budget.
Despite these successes, however, women still have a long way to go, Almario said. “Achieving gender equality, in truth, is a grindingly slow process since it challenges one of the most deeply-entrenched of all human attitudes. Despite the intense efforts of many agencies and organizations, and numerous inspiring successes, the picture is still disheartening.” (Queen Elizabeth I was one of few female successes; Laurie’s case is more common.)
“Women are still perceived to be the weaker sex, relegated to the background and often marginalized,” Almario said.
“Despite significant progress in improving gender relations and attempts to eliminate gender discrimination, we continue to observe persistent gender-biased social ills in our communities and throughout the world,” Villarosa said. “Thus, the struggle is still at the center of efforts in international organizations and the national government.”
Women comprise more than half of our population, said Cotabato Representative Emmylou J. Taliño-Mendoza. So the Philippine government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 1981, which means that it is duty-bound to protect women from inequalities and discrimination in the civil, economic, social, political, and cultural realms. Data from government bodies, however, reveal otherwise.
House Bill 4273, The Magna Carta for Women. Dating three Congresses now, this bill aims to flesh out the spirit of the CEDAW, which came into force on September 4, 1981. Also known as the International Bill of Rights for Women, Women’s Convention, and the UN Treaty for the Rights of Women, ratified by 185 states including the Philippines, it is the first and only international treaty that comprehensively addresses women’s rights, within civil and political spheres, and economic, social, cultural, and family life.
HB 4012, introduced by Representatives Guillermo P. Cua, Maria Evita R. Arago, and Adelina Rodriguez-Zaldarriaga, seeking to establish and maintain lactation stations in workplaces and other purposes.
HB 4375, introduced by, among others, Representatives Juan Edgardo Angara, Eufrocino Codilla Sr., Raul del Mar, Monica Louise Teodoro, Rufus Rodriguez, Reylina Nicolas, Mar-Len Abigail Binay, Edgardo Chatto, and Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, seeking to expand the prohibited acts of discrimination against women on account of sex, amending for the purpose articles in Presidential Degree 442, or the Labor Code.
HB 1821, introduced by Representatives Nanette Castelo-Daza, Liza L. Maza, Luzviminda C. Ilagan, Thelma Z. Almario, and Herminia B. Roman, declaring November 25 of every year as “National Consciousness Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.”
HB 2811 (now Committee Report 208), introduced by Representatives Glenda B. Ecleo and Bienvenido M. Abante, seeking to penalize any advertising agency, television, radio station, and publication which exploit women and glorify sexual violence in advertisements.
Other enacted laws favoring women:
• The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, which aims to protect Filipino women who work abroad against all forms of discrimination and abuse;
• The Anti-Rape Law, which expands the definition of ‘rape’ as an offense against person and not chastity, imposing harsher penalties if only to deter offenders from committing the crime, and provides support systems for victims;
• The Anti-Trafficking law and, apropos this, the Mail-Order Bride Law, which seeks to end the pernicious practice of trafficking women within and across national borders, usually against their consent, to go through a series of sexual abuses, slavery, and other abusive conditions;
• The Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, which ups the penalties on all forms of sexual abuse and harassment at the workplace and in the academe;
• The Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Law, which seeks to protect women against all forms of sexual, psychological, emotional, and economic abuse;
• The Family Court Law, which aims to designate special courts to handle sensitive cases involving women and their families.
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