Laws

Questions:

Are you aware of the laws in the Philippines that address violence against women?

How effective are they?

How are they implemented?

Until 1997, the Philippine law considered rape as a crime against chastity. WAGI and Empower pointed out that the laws have come a long way since then, because now it is acknowledged as a crime against persons. The lawyer said that it is only the Philippines that recognizes the battered woman syndrome. Although the laws have improved, Saligan pointed out that some laws are still not gender-fair, such as the treatment of adultery and

concubinage, the absence of a divorce law, and the fact that the age for consent is 12. They said that although we are slowly progressing, the cultural barrier remains an obstacle.

Question: Is CEDAW being used or implemented? If so, how?

UN Women works to ensure that a country’s policy frameworks are aligned with the normative frameworks, such as CEDAW. They the substantive equality approach of CEDAW as a basis for all their programs, whose end goal is to transform the relations of men and women.

Saligan indirectly uses CEDAW as it is incorporated in the Magna Carta of Women, which is its domestic translation.

Spark indirectly uses CEDAW in their #RespetoNaman campaign and hopes to use it more for action-based movements.

WAGI incorporates CEDAW in their yearly International Human Rights and Governance course.

QCPD uses CEDAW as a reference for their programs.

4.2.1. Strong policies and government support

Policies are crucial in changing people’s norms and behaviors. UN Women believed that this can be achieved through working closely with public authorities. An example is their work with Quezon City for UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces program. The program enacted a local ordinance against catcalling, which catapulted into a national law now known as the Safe Spaces Act or RA 11313. In relation, the QCPD believed that strong support from the local government plays a huge role in implementing the laws. Women and children’s rights has been a main advocacy of the current mayor, who was also previously the vice mayor. It was during her term that projects surrounding women and children’s rights were established and strengthened. This shows how much can be achieved if the government prioritizes a certain issue.

However, UN Women warned that laws are like a double-edged sword because:

we use policy frameworks for rights claiming – not only for rights claiming but operationally as a basis for the programs and the projects, where funds and resources are allocated for. But if we have laws that may reinforce these stereotypes or these harmful beliefs, then it is also detrimental to women and girls.

WAGI stressed the importance of internalizing the law in order for it to be preventive instead of responsive. People must understand that the law exists because VAW is morally, ethically, culturally, and religiously wrong instead of simply acting against fear of

punishment.

4.2.2. Poor implementation of the law

Most of the respondents believed that the laws addressing GBV are great on paper, but lack implementation and public awareness. The Embassy of Sweden stated that the lack of implementation stems from the lack of trained service providers: “Our laws are quite good actually, but they’re not implemented. There’s a lack of implementation, lack of trained police officers, lack of trained social workers, lack of trained school faculty members, health workers in this area.”

While the DSWD believed there are good laws in place to protect and promote the rights of VAW victims, “what we are needing is more on advocacy so they can be aware of their rights. I know that the law is strong, but we lack advocacy and implementation.”

Empower reiterated the fact that lawyers and judges themselves must also be aware of the current laws: “we don’t have mandatory briefings for lawyers and judges. We’re still dealing with ignorance from the people who are supposed to be dealing with the law, and that’s a big problem.”

Saligan specified that “the problem with law-making is it’s done in the national level, and then the implementation is expected at the local level. And then they expect the local government to easily implement those laws.” However, there is often a gap in coordinating and cascading information to the local governments on their roles in implementing laws. This causes the local implementation to not be immediate and prone to misinterpretation.

4.2.3. Police officers’ fear of retaliation

The lawyer specified another issue in implementing the law is the police officers’ fear of retaliation from the victims. Oftentimes, the victims report an incident and ask for the

perpetrator – who is often their husband or partner – to be arrested. However, when the time comes to testify or go to a prosecutor, the complainant beg the police officer to release the perpetrator and accuse the police of illegal detention if they refuse to release him from prison.

This has caused a negative attitude among police officers in taking and pursuing VAW cases.