PHILIPPINES SITUATION OF

WOMEN AND CHILDREN:

Law, Policy and Human Rights

Rowena Legaspi
Executive Director
Children’s Legal Rights and Development
Center, Inc.
URL: http://clrd-org.ph.tc
 Human Rights are
entitlements afforded to
people by virtue of their
being human!
Principles of Human
Rights
Translating Concepts to Praxis
 EQUALITY

UNIVERSALITY INALIENABILITY

INTERDEPENDENCY HR RESPONSIBILITY

INDIVISIBILITY HUMAN DIGNITY

NON DISCRIMINATION
 HUMAN DIGNITY
 Founded on the notion that each
individual, regardless of age, culture,
faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual
orientation, language, disability, or
social class deserves to be honored
and esteemed
How are Rights Protected,
Promoted, Defended and
Fulfilled?

Principle of State Complicity

 SOURCES OF RIGHTS
 International Documents
 Constitution
 Jurisprudence
 Statutes and Laws
 Ordinances
 Codes
 PD’s, EO’s, RA’s,
 THE PHILIPPINE LEGAL
SYSTEM
 Not indigenous: borrowed from US, Spain
 Founded on laws which are rules of human
conduct, just and obligatory, to which the
greater body of inhabitants render habitual
obedience
 Criminal and Civil
 Punitive, Regulatory, Preventive and
Rehabilitative Nature
 STATE OBLIGATIONS

 Obligation to RESPECT
 Obligation to PROTECT

 Obligation to ENSURE AND

ENFORCE
 Obligation to PROMOTE
All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity
and rights

ARTICLE 1 – UDHR, 1948

Everyone is entitled to all rights
and freedoms…without
distinction of any kind such as
race, color, SEX, language,
religion, political or other
opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other
status.

ARTICLE 2 – UDHR, 1948

Half the sky is held by
women – Mao Tse Tung

The truth being…

 Women and Children:
Ethnic Divide
 Being minorities, the Lumad, Moro
women and children become doubly
disadvantaged.

 Discrimination limits their chances in

the various spheres of life - be it in
employment, public life, government
bureaucracy or social movements.
 Women and Children:
Health
 ARMM posted the lowest life expectancy
and high levels of infant and maternal
mortality, principally outcomes of poverty
and official neglect.
 As of 2001, Region XII (59 percent) and
ARMM (54 percent) have the lowest
proportion of households with access to
potable water. This further burdens women
on whose shoulders rest family care
responsibilities and negatively affects their
health and income-earning capacities.
 Women and Children:
Family Planning
 Women who would like to limit or
space their children do not have the
means to do so since many health
centers are found dismally lacking in
family planning information and
services.
 Women and children in
Education
 Extreme poverty, aggravated by the
lack of peace and security, has
deprived many women especially in
Mindanao where Lumad and Moro
women lack basic education. Overall,
Mindanao performed poorest in
simple and functional literacy and
participation rates, and had the
highest dropout rates.
 Women and Children:
Stereotypes
 Although women outnumber men in tertiary enrolment and
graduation, courses taken up by women and men are evidence
of gender segregation or stereotyping. Women are in “soft”
courses (accountancy, nursing, midwifery, teaching education,
computer secretarial, hotel & restaurant management, etc.)
while the men are in “hard courses” (engineering, electronics
& communications, criminology, law, architecture & town
planning, etc.). In the case of children, girl children are
discriminated in education in terms of priorities.
 Women in Labor
 Women are at a disadvantaged position compared
with men as evidenced by a greater number of males
than females in the labor force and more males
(64.27 percent) than females (35.73 percent)
employed. Conversely, there are more females (50.5
percent) than males (14.8 percent) not in the labor
force; and more females (48.1 percent) than males
(41 percent) underemployed. More females (43.38
percent) than males (32.17 percent) work as laborers
and unskilled workers; and more females (56.43
percent) than males (43.57 percent) work as unpaid
family labor. (LFS 2003)
 Women and children
Migration
 In 2002, there were 135,000 Mindanaoans
who joined the international labor market.
The majority were women (88,000) and girl
children, while 47,000 were males.
 Due to lack of choices and opportunities
within the country, many girl
children/minors choose to engage in high-
risk occupations abroad, including being
trafficked in prostitution. Mindanao is the
main source of so-called Japayukis working
as Overseas Performing Artists or OPAs in
Japanese clubs and entertainment houses.
 Children in Hazardous
Labor
 5 Million or 17.2 % of 25.8
million children aged 5- 7 years
old are actively involved in child
labor.
 Women in Armed Conflict
 In the ARMM and in bailiwicks of local Moro
landlords and politicians, intermittent conflicts
arising from family or clan feuds or rido, a source
of tension and general lack of peace in the area.
These sporadic clashes often lead to killings and
the evacuation of civilians who fear being caught
in the crossfire. At high risk in this ritual of
revenge are the female members or children of
the family involved who may be kidnapped or
taken hostage as a way to dishonor or get back at
the opponent’s family.
 Children in Armed Conflict
 More than 175,000 civilians have been displaced in Basilan,
Sulu and Midsayap, North Cotabato from January 2007 to
August 2008. Women and children were the most affected.

 Sulu was the hardest hit by a combination of ground troops

commandos and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, with a
total of 58,500 persons displaced due to three military
operations conducted by Task Force Comet (combined units
from the Philippine Marines, Army, Air force and CAFGUs).
 WHY DO WE HAVE TO
PROTECT WOMEN AND
CHILDREN?
 Largest group of VAW victims is composed of
women between 18-25 years
 Almost 2/3 occurred inside the house
 More than 1/3 of VAW cases were inflicted by
their husbands
 7 out of 10 victims/survivors of rape were raped
by men known to them
 6 out of 10 were victims of pre-marital rape by
their present husbands/live-in partners and this
forced them into early marriages with abusers
 3 out of 10 were later forced into
prostitution/sexual slavery
 8 out of 10 rape survivors reported
reproductive tract infections
 8 out of 10 have sleeping disorders
(insomnia, nightmares and
oversleeping)
 5 out of 10 (50%) were abused when
they were 10 years old and below
 3 out of 10 are victims/survivors of
multiple incest
 2 out of 10 reported temporary loss of
sanity (nasiraan ng bait)
 Almost all (97%) of the incest survivors reported
shame, guilt and loss of self-esteem
 7 out of 10 survivors blamed themselves for the
abuse
 6 out of 10 incest survivors reported that their
mothers are also physically and psychologically
abused
 1 out of 3 were abused by their own biological
fathers
 5 out of 10 (50%) of the assailants were between
the ages of 30-49 when the abuse occurred
 1 out of 10 was abused by her stepfather
 2 out of 10 incest and rape survivors had
unwanted pregnancies
 Women and the Law
 The “othering process” – women’s issues are
considered other issues, the miscellaneous
 Construction and/or definition of legal rules
according to the generic male standard
 Women being considered as a deviation from
the norm
 Construction of women and their sexuality from
the male point of view
 Trivialization in law of women’s concerns, issues
and activities
 Example Jurisprudence
 “A rape victim’s failure to escape from or plead with her
rapists could only mean that she gave her full consent, and
that she prostituted herself.” People vs, Navales, 102
SCRA 86 (1981)
 “The crime of rape is not presumed. Consent and not
physical force is the common origin of the acts between
man and woman.” People vs. Agripa, 130 SCRA 185
(1984)
 “Experience has shown that unfounded charges of rape
have frequently been proffered by women actuated by
some sinister, or ulterior or undisclosed motive.” People
vs. Salarza, 277 SCRA 578 (1997)
International Women’s
Rights Instruments
Treaties, Conventions,
Declarations
 Bringing the
Instruments Back Home
Philippine Responses to
International Policy Mandates
 PHILIPPINE
COMMITMENT
 RA 7877, Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995
 RA 8353, Anti-Rape Law of 1998
 RA 7192, Women in Nation-Building Act
 Executive Order No. 273 (Philippine Plan for
Gender Responsive Development, 1995-2025)
 RA 8369, Family Courts Act
 RA 9208, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act
 RA 9262, Anti-Violence Against Women and Their
Children Act of 2004
Fill in the Gaps

Towards Achieving the

Dreams of CEDAW
 Still a way ahead…
 There is still NO definition of
discrimination, encompassing both direct
and indirect, in national legislation
 No revisions have been made to the
discriminatory provisions in national laws
and NO legal framework pertaining to
gender equality
 No institutional authority to effectively
support gender mainstreaming in all
sectors (i.e. government and education)
 Walking the Talk…
 Intensify awareness raising and public
educational campaigns in view of eliminating
stereotypes
 Review marcoeconomic policies and their
impact on women and the overrepresentation
of women in the informal economy
 There has to be sexuality education for boys
and girls with special attention to prevention of
early pregnancies and STI’s
 Absence of a comprehensive framework to
promote and protect reproductive rights