The Center for Women’s Resources invites you to the 20th Ulat Lila, an annual report on the situation of Filipino women. This year, we will be presenting a summing-up of the plight of Filipino women under the Duterte administration.
Date: March 1, 2022
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM PST via Zoom and Facebook Live
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/UL2022
The Center for Women’s Resources joins the call for justice for Belle*, a 15-year old victim of kidnapping, torture, and rape by elements of the 59th IBPA between July to August 2020.
Last January 21, Belle, together with her mother, has come forward and sought help from women’s organizations and human rights institutions to speak against the abuses she and her family has experienced in the hands of military and paramilitary forces in the past years. They also filed cases against civilians, including a DSWD officer from Lopez, Quezon, for serious illegal detention.
Belle’s mother, Ofel, is a member of Coco Levy Fund Ibalik Sa Amin (CLAIM – QUEZON), an organization of coconut farmers who have long been subjected to red tagging and forced surrender under the e-CLIP Amnesty Program of the NFT-ELCAC. After her ordeal in the hands of her perpetrators, Belle and her family continued to receive threats from state forces.
Rape, and other forms of violence, are used as tools for repression by the state to instill fear against the people, especially women and children, to suppress clamor for their basic rights. It has been used as a form of intimidation against community leaders and their families. In the last six years, state-perpetrated abuse against women and children have become more prevalent, with no one less than President Duterte blatantly enabling such violence, through his repulsive and misogynist remarks on rape and violence.
CWR has monitored not less than 81 police and military officers who have been involved in at least 55 cases of abuse against women and children, including at least 33 cases of rape, perpetrated by police and the military since President Duterte was sworn into office in July 2016 to the present.
Just last January 15, another state perpetrator from the QCPD Crime Laboratory Office was arrested for rape and child abuse against a 17-year old girl form Quezon City. There were also at least seven other state-perpetrated VAWC cases reported since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Center for Women’s Resources continues to stand with Belle, her family, and all victims of state-perpetrated abuses. We remain steadfast is our commitment to forward the call to end violence against women and to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
*Name withheld for security purposes
The Center for Women’s Resources joins rural women, peasant leaders and advocates in the call to defend peasant women and resist rural development aggression on the commemoration of the International Day of Rural Women today.
Majority of people in the rural areas in the Philippines are peasants and indigenous peoples who have long been suffering from landlessness and land-grabbing, inequality, and displacement from their homes and livelihood. Aside from these, rural women and girls suffer multiple burdens of domestic work, violence and lack of social services such as health and education.
It is ironic that while the UN’s theme “Rural women cultivating good food for all” signifies the crucial, yet often undermined role of rural women in ensuring food security, the global food systems is persistently dominated by a corporate-driven agricultural agenda. This resulted in even more hunger, poverty, and health crises, amid the pandemic.
Since the Philippines’ accession to the GATT-WTO Agreement on Agriculture three decades, ago as well as the country’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) group, past and present government’s laws and policies forward liberalization in the agriculture sector in the name of “global competitiveness” and “free trade.”
The Philippine government’s subservience to the neoliberal agenda has done nothing but to secure superprofit for multinational agricultural corporations from the blood and sweat of farm laborers, small farmers and fisherfolk. Multinational agriculture giants such as SUMIFRU in Mindanao rake in profits as agricultural workers suffer poor working conditions and depressingly low wages.
A women farm worker from Nagkakaisang Manggagawang Kababaihan ng Sumifru shares, “Ang working conditions sa SUMIFRU… walang kasiguraduhan sa benepisyo. Kontraktwal ang trabaho, at mahaba ang oras ng paggawa. “Dahil sa mahaba ang oras ng trabaho, kulang na kulang ang oras sa mga anak at sa bahay…Hinggil naman sa safety sa lugar ng pinagtatrabahuhan, nakakalanghap po kami ng hazardous chemicals at walang sapat na proteksyon.”
In addition, foreign loan-driven large-scale infrastructure projects in the countryside plunder the country’s natural resources while destroying the ancestral lands and cultural heritage of indigenous people. It poses risks and irreversible damage to their communities and sources of livelihood.
The construction of Jalaur River Dam in Calinog, Iloilo, a Php 11.2-billion mega dam construction project under the Duterte administration’s flagship infrastructure program, Build, Build, Build, will result in massive dislocation and flooding in the surrounding communities. Around 17,000 Tumanduks will lose homes, lives, and livelihood, and at least nine communities will be submerged. Surrounding areas will also be more prone to landslides and flooding. Moreover, heightened military presence in the area has sowed fear and unrest among indigenous communities. In addition, on December 30, 2020, nine IP leaders who strongly campaigned against the dam in Calinog and Tapaz were killed and 16 others, including six women, were arrested by the PNP and military who reportedly served dubious search warrants and planted firearms and explosives as pieces of evidence.
As the economic and political crisis worsens, state forces point their guns towards rural people’s resistance. According to AMIHAN, of the 340 farmers killed during the Duterte administration, 44 were peasant women. Sixty-five (65) of the 81 peasant women political prisoners were imprisoned under Duterte.
Relentless state-sponsored attacks, red-tagging, arrests and killings did not stop rural women from leading their communities in activities and campaigns to respond to their needs. In General Nakar, Quezon, women farmers of Kiday Community Farmers Association are leading organic farming and training for food processing initiatives to ensure their food and incomes.
These practices of organic farming, communal gardens, community-based healthcare, as well as bungkalan allowed them to provide sustenance for their communities. They have employed sustainable alternatives to collectively combat hunger and lack of support. They have also launched campaigns for the Php 15,000 agricultural subsidy and aid for those affected by the pandemic. Together with other sectors of society, they have marched hand-in-hand against state terror.
On the International Day of Rural Women, we reiterate our demand to the government to respond to the urgent demands of rural people. We enjoin all advocates, rights defenders, and supporters to stand in solidarity with rural women in the fight for land, food, and justice for all. #
The Center for Women’s Resources raises concern against another police-perpetrated rape of a female rider in a checkpoint in Mabalacat, Pampanga on October 8.
Police-perpetrated violence against women has been a systemic issue, despite promises of reforms in the PNP. CWR records at least seven reported cases of state-perpetrated violence against women since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 to the present, including the rape-slay of a minor by two policemen in Ilocos Sur last year, and at least two cases of police-perpetrated rape against women who have been apprehended for violating quarantine measures. There have also been reports of “sex-for-pass” especially during the enhanced community quarantine. Men in uniform have abused the strict implementation of lockdowns to further violate women’s rights.
CWR also notes that there have been 56 police officers who have been involved in 33 cases of abuse against women, including 16 cases of rape during the first two years of Pres. Duterte in office, from July 2016 to March 2018.
Pres. Duterte with his long list of disparaging remarks against women, blatantly enables perpetrators to commit violence against women. He himself has repeatedly and proudly violated women, and has never shown remorse in doing so.
CWR expresses utmost support in the passage of the amendments of the Anti-Rape Law. Higher penalties need to be imposed on perpetrators who gravely abuse their power and commit such heinous crimes.
Women and children who are victims of violence have suffered too much, with the delays in the pursuit of justice, much more when perpetrators are in uniform. We must remain vigilant in holding perpetrators accountable and ensuring that those who continue to support such acts be removed from power. #
The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) raises alarm on the rising prices of commodities, signifying additional burden for Filipinos who are struggling everyday to survive amid joblessness and rising COVID-19 cases in the country.
The country’s inflation rate has almost doubled since the onset of the pandemic, from 2.5% in March 2020 to 4.9% in August 2020, its highest since the 5.1% inflation rate in December 2018.
Prices of basic commodities have increased during the pandemic. Rice prices rose to at least Php 3.00 per kilo, belying the claims of the proponents of the Rice Liberalization Law that it will significantly lower the domestic price of rice. On the other hand, poultry products such as beef and pork rose to as high as 50% during the pandemic.
Vegetables, fruits, and other basic commodities are also increasing. In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry has approved a 3-5% price hike resulting in an increase of as high as Php 2.25 for basic commodities such as milk, noodles, sardines, and canned meat.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is at Php 607.00 for every 11-kilo container in April 2020 to Php 891.00 in August 2021. Oil prices have also increased at least Php 7.00-12.00 in the last year and a half.
Tess Arboleda, an urban poor community leader from Quezon City, laments the detrimental impacts of rising prices of basic needs.
“Sa patuloy na pagtaas ng presyo ng bilihin pinapatay kaming mga mahihirap. Sa pananatiling walang pakialam ang gobyerno sa pagtaas ng presyo ng bilihin ay patunay lang na walang halaga at kawalan ng malasakit sa aming mga mahihirap na lalo pang nilulugmok sa kahirapan,” she said.
Meanwhile, minimum daily wage in the National Capital Region, the highest in the country, has been nailed at Php 537 in the last three years. The last wage hike is a meager Php 25 in November 2018. The current minimum wage will barely allow a family to survive amid rising prices of commodities, additional expenses for transport, education, and health needs especially in the pandemic. IBON Foundation computed the family living wage at Php 1065 per day in July 2021. Mothers are also concerned about the opening of classes for the coming school year, saying that they would have to find means to support expenses for their children’s online classes.
“Sa haba ng pandemya at lockdown dito, lockdown doon, hindi na natapos, maraming di- tiyak ang trabaho ng mga asawa. Kulang pa ang kikitain sa pang-araw-araw na gastos. Tapos sa pagbubukas ng klase kung online na naman, saan uli kukunin yung mga dagdag na gastusin sa pag-aaral ng mga anak,” says Liza Maynigo from Marikina City.
Moreover, the unemployment rate hit an all-time high of 17.7% during the first month of lockdown in April 2021. In addition, CWR initially estimated that in 2020, at least 19.54 million women are economically insecure. In situations like these, women, especially mothers, are forced to seek alternative sources of income to augment family income.
“Despite the worsening economic crisis, the current administration would rather bury itself in ensuring profits for questionable foreign businesses, taunting critics, and implementing roulette-like lockdown classifications to supposedly respond to the COVID-19 while more and more Filipinos are neck-deep in hunger and poverty,” says Cham Perez, CWR Executive Director
We reiterate our demand to the government to immediately provide economic relief for those who have lost their jobs and livelihood during the pandemic, and ensure regulation of prices of basic commodities in addition to mass testing, proper contact tracing and increasing vaccination rates to effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. #
