Center for Women's Resources (CWR)

Women’s Group Warns: Emergency Powers Won’t Solve Fuel Crisis — Scrap Fuel Taxes Now

Center for Women's Resources Statements and Media Releases March 10, 2026March 11, 2026 0 Comment

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) raises alarm over the looming surge in oil prices and the renewed talk of “emergency powers” for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.. CWR also calls for the immediate scrapping of the excise tax and value-added tax (VAT) on fuel, which add to the burden faced by the majority of Filipino women managing household budgets on already stretched incomes.

Reports indicate that fuel prices may increase by as much as ₱10 per liter amid the escalating US-Israel war on Iran. Yet beyond global conflict, the harsh truth remains: Filipino consumers are defenseless against oil price shocks because the 1998 Oil Deregulation Law surrendered government control to profit-driven oil corporations. For decades, this policy has left the public at the mercy of market speculation and foreign crises.

In response to the impending oil price hikes, President Marcos Jr. is considering seeking special powers to suspend the excise tax on fuel. Proposals for limited fuel subsidies for drivers and operators to help mitigate the impacts have also surfaced. These are presented as decisive action – but they are, at best, temporary band-aid solutions.

If President Marcos Jr. is sincere in easing the suffering of Filipinos, he must go beyond temporary suspensions and decisively scrap the excise tax, including the value-added tax on fuel and other essential commodities. Women’s and consumer’s groups strongly opposed the excise tax on fuel when it was imposed under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law in 2018, precisely because it would drive up fuel prices and trigger widespread increases in the cost of basic goods. Today’s crisis proves that those warnings were valid.

Meanwhile, Senator Gatchalian, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, warns that suspending the excise tax would result in an estimated ₱300 billion in lost government revenues. But to ordinary Filipino women struggling to stretch every peso, this argument rings hollow.

Women will only be concerned about revenue losses when they see their taxes translated into accessible health care, quality education, decent housing, and social protection. Instead, they are told to tighten their belts while corruption scandals persist and basic services remain inadequate. Why must the people absorb the shock of global conflict and corporate profiteering, while the government refuses to overhaul unjust tax and oil policies?

Filipino women refuse to carry the heaviest burden of the economic crisis once again. We reject policies that institutionalize exploitation under the guise of fiscal responsibility.

CWR calls on all Filipinos to intensify the fight for concrete measures and long-term solutions that address the root causes of fuel and basic commodity price hikes, ensure full transparency and accountability in public spending, and repeal tax policies that unfairly burden women and other vulnerable sectors. #

On International Working Women’s Day: Filipino women unite! Rise against imperialist plunder, corruption, and fascist attacks!

Center for Women's Resources In the News March 8, 2026March 11, 2026 0 Comment

On International Working Women’s Day (IWWD), March 8, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) stands in solidarity with working-class women across the world who continue to confront deepening economic and social crises while resisting imperialist plunder, fascism, and patriarchal oppression.

This day is not merely a commemoration but a day of struggle – honoring the militant legacy of women workers who fought for bread and peace. Their call continues to resonate today in the ongoing fight for rights, dignity, and genuine liberation.

In the Philippines, a society marked by stark class inequality and persistent patriarchal structures, women—particularly poor and working-class women—experience intensified forms of exploitation and discrimination. Under the Marcos Jr. administration, millions of women face worsening economic insecurity. Women remain disproportionately concentrated in precarious and low-paying jobs, while rural women continue to suffer from landlessness and declining government support for agriculture. At the same time, soaring prices of basic goods, stagnant wages, and shrinking social services deepen the burden women carry in sustaining their families and communities.

These conditions are rooted in the deeper structural crisis of Philippine society and the continuing plunder of the economy by foreign capital. Women are among the most affected by this imperialist exploitation; they are displaced from their lands by foreign-owned mining operations and large agro-plantations, pushed into low-wage jobs in special economic zones where a race to the bottom in wages and labor standards prevails, and forced out of their communities by large-scale infrastructure projects.

For decades, neoliberal policies of liberalization, privatization, and deregulation have put the needs of big businesses and foreign investors ahead of building up national industries and strengthening domestic agriculture. As a result, the Philippine economy remains dependent on exporting cheap labor and importing basic goods. Workers, peasants, and marginalized sectors bear the heaviest burdens of economic maldevelopment.

The country’s policy of exporting workers continues to be a lifeline for a struggling economy, which forces many women to move or work in unsafe conditions abroad. Filipino women migrants face various forms of exploitation and vulnerability while providing crucial remittances that sustain millions of households.

Persistent corruption and entrenched bureaucrat capitalism, which uses political power to advance private interests, further aggravate these conditions. Instead of funding essential services such as healthcare, education, and programs addressing violence against women and children, public funds are systematically siphoned off by a few.

Militarization and fascist attacks against the people, including women, also continue amid growing public discontent. According to Karapatan, more than 11 million people have been victims of various forms of human rights violations from July 2022 to November 2025. There are nearly 700 political prisoners in the country, including 136 women, with 163 arrested under the Marcos Jr. administration. The government further endangers the Filipino people by deepening military ties and allowing expanding the presence of US forces in the country, dragging the Philippines into escalating geopolitical tensions and militarization in the region.

Yet amid worsening conditions, Filipino women continue to organize, resist, and fight back. Women workers lead strikes for higher wages and better working conditions. Peasant women advance struggles for land and rural justice. Women in communities, schools, and grassroots organizations stand at the forefront of campaigns demanding accountability, social services, and democratic rights.

These struggles reaffirm a fundamental truth: we cannot separate women’s liberation from the broader struggle of oppressed nations and exploited classes. Genuine emancipation for women will not come from token reforms or empty promises from those in power, but from the organized strength of women and the people.

On this International Working Women’s Day, CWR calls on all working-class women to strengthen our resolve to build stronger unions, workers’ organizations, grassroots movements, and alliances with other sectors. As we organize in our communities, we confront not only immediate injustices but also the broader systems that perpetuate exploitation and oppression across borders.

By linking our struggles with those of women and peoples around the world resisting imperialism, exploitation, and patriarchal oppression, we strengthen the collective power needed to achieve genuine social transformation. #

Ulat Lila 2026: How Filipino Women Are Resisting Crisis and Corruption -Quezon City, March 3, 2026

Center for Women's Resources In the News March 4, 2026March 5, 2026 0 Comment

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), in partnership with the UP Diliman Gender Office, convened its annual Ulat Lila forum on March 3, 2026, at the Conference Hall of Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City. Serving as the culmination of the Center’s research and grassroots engagement, Ulat Lila 2026 presented a comprehensive assessment of the current socioeconomic and political conditions confronting Filipino women.

This year’s forum situated the worsening state of Filipino women within the context of prevailing neoliberal policies, which CWR said have deepened structural inequalities and restricted access to economic opportunities. The report highlighted how rising prices, low wages, precarious work, and shrinking social protection continue to disproportionately burden women, particularly those from marginalized sectors.

CWR also underscored what it described as intensifying public concern and the growing resistance against government corruption and the mismanagement of public funds. At the forefront of these calls for accountability are President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte. According to the group, recent controversies—including issues surrounding large-scale flood control projects—reflect deeper systemic problems rooted in bureaucrat capitalism, where state mechanisms are allegedly used to benefit political and economic elites at the expense of ordinary Filipinos.

CWR noted, “even the poorest among us pay taxes through VAT on every purchase made, yet they struggle to access the most basic social services. Worse, the very funds they contribute are pocketed by those in power.”

It also cited worsening debt among women farmers amid declining grain prices, as well as intensified development aggression affecting women in fisherfolk and indigenous communities – often resulting in displacement, harassment, and heightened risks for women and children. The report documented increasing cases of human trafficking, illegal recruitment, and online recruitment scams targeting women seeking employment abroad.“

As crises worsen, women bear the heaviest burden,” CWR emphasized during the forum presentation.

In addition, the forum raised alarm over persistent human rights violations in the Philippines, noting documented cases of threat, harassment, and intimidation between July 2022 and November 2025.

Despite these challenges, CWR highlighted the growing strength of women’s collective action across sectors. The forum emphasized movement-building, community organizing, and rights advocacy as critical responses to deepening social and economic crises.

For more information, inquiries, or access to the executive summary of the Ulat Lila 2026 report, please contact the Center for Women’s Resources at (63-2) 7758-5784 / 09534780468 ##ulatlila2026 #IWWD #defendfilipino

CWR Statement on the military attacks of United States and Israel against Iran

Center for Women's Resources Solidarity, Statement March 2, 2026March 5, 2026 0 Comment

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) condemns the recent military attacks carried out by the governments of the United States (US) and Israel against Iran. These strikes are not a defensive act rooted in immediate security concerns, but rather an expression of imperialist aggression designed to preserve geopolitical dominance. The accusations regarding nuclear militarization have repeatedly been used to rationalize sanctions, threats, and military actions against Iran despite the country’s denials and its stated commitment to civilian nuclear development.

The attacks will not only threaten the lives of Iranian people but will heighten the danger of a wider regional war. In such cases, women and children are always among the first and most severely affected. Yesterday, an Israeli strike hit an elementary girls’ school in the south of Iran which reportedly killed 108 people, many of whom are young girls.

We also raise grave concern for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) across West Asia. There are an estimated 2.2 million Filipinos, many of them are women, living and working in the region. Expansion of hostilities threatens their safety and job security, which would also impact their families in the Philippines.

We call on the Philippine government to condemn these attacks, and pursue an independent foreign policy that aligns with the interest of the Filipino people. CWR calls on all Filipinos and all women and peoples all over the world to assert genuine peace, sovereignty and justice.#

EDSA at 40: Women Continue the Fight for Democracy and Accountability

Center for Women's Resources Statements and Media Releases February 25, 2026March 5, 2026 0 Comment

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) joins the Filipino people in commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power, a historic moment that ended one of the darkest chapters in Philippine history – the violent, plunderous, and tyrannical regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. We honor the courage of millions who resisted a fascist state, defended democratic rights, and reclaimed the nation through collective resistance.

Four decades later, the promise of genuine democracy remains unfulfilled. The structures that enabled dictatorship, the monopoly of political power, cronyism, and plunder, were never fully dismantled. Instead, they evolved into a system where public office is used to accumulate wealth and resources.

Today, history confronts us with an irony – the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., now occupies the presidency. Under his administration, we once again witnessed large-scale corruption. Billions of pesos in unprogrammed allocations and infrastructure projects, including flood control programs long criticized as avenues for misuse of public funds have actually received the president’s approval.

At the same time, serious questions about millions in confidential and intelligence funds controversially spent during Sara Duterte’s tenure at the Department of Education have been met not with full transparency but with evasion.

All these show that corruption in the Philippines is not merely the wrongdoing of a few individuals but is embedded in a political and economic order designed to protect and enrich the powerful. Meanwhile, anti-poor neoliberal policies enacted by the same corrupt politicians continue to drive up prices, erode job security, and cut social spending. Women, children, workers, farmers, and urban poor communities bear the heaviest burden when public funds are siphoned away from health care, education, disaster response, among others.

We call on the Filipino people, especially women and the youth, to demand accountability, and organize towards systemic change. Our anger and frustration must be channeled into sustained struggle against all perpetrators and enablers of corruption, past and present, who have contributed to the suffering of the Filipino people.

History has proven that only through united struggle and the power of the people can corrupt and authoritarian systems be challenged. Four decades after EDSA, the fight for genuine democracy and accountability lives on. #