Twenty-seven years after the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the condition of the Filipina seems to have worsened. The proof of the pudding are the statistics from the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW).

BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA
SPECIAL REPORT
Contributed to Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 6, March 9-15, 2008

Twenty-seven years after the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the condition of the Filipina seems to have worsened. The proof of the pudding are the statistics from the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW).

According to the factsheet released by the NCRFW this month, women comprise 49.72 percent of the almost 90-million Filipino population. It means there are around 45 million females living in the Philippines today.

Relatively, 15.4 percent of the households in the Philippines are being run by women and the remaining percentage are run by males.

Violence against women and their children (VAWC)

On the issue of violence against women (VAW), record shows the sudden decline of reported cases of VAW by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

From 1999 to 2006, the number of VAW cases being reported to the PNP Women’s Desk seems to have declined by 2.5 percent annually. The peak of VAW cases reported to the PNP was in 2001, when the number of VAW cases reached up to 9,132.

Among the VAW cases reported to the authorities, the most prevalent is physical injuries or wife-battering. Based on PNP records, 58.5 percent of the reported cases, nationwide, involve physical abuse.

It is said that from 5,668 cases of wife-battering in 2001, the number drastically decreased to 1,498 cases in 2006, while in the first three months of 2007, there are 1,498 cases of wife battering reported to the police.

Second on the rank of VAW reported cases is rape, which makes up 14.7 percent of the total number of VAW cases reported from 1999 to 2006.

Based on PNP records, there seems to be a downward trend on reported rape cases – from 946 in 1999 to 659 in 2006 at a rate of 5 percent per year. From January to October 2007, 639 cases of rape were reported to the police.

Acts of lasciviousness ranked third at an average of 615 reported cases per year, accounting for 9.4 percent of all reported VAW cases from 1999 to 2006. The comparative figures also indicate a downward trend of the reported cases at 5.9 percent decrease rate per annum.

From January to October 2007, there were 1,443 reported cases of Violation of R.A. 9262, otherwise known as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004, based on data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as cited by the NCRFW.

There is also a downward trend in the number of women in especially difficult circumstances (WEDC) served; from 7,763 cases in 1999 to 5,378 cases in 2006. The rate of decrease is estimated at 5.1 percent per annum, according to the DSWD.

In 2006, women who were physically abused and maltreated topped the list (26.7 percent) of WEDC cases who received assistance from DSWD such as legal services, counseling, security and protection, medical, etc. But in that same data that the DSWD provided the NCRFW, there was no indication of what happened after the Anti-VAWC cases were filed.

Despite the decline in the number of cases, the NCRFW admitted that there are probably more cases of violations against the dignity and rights of women, which remain unreported.

On labor participation and feminization of migration

Though there was a slight increase in women’s participation in the labor sector, their participation remains minimal.

According to the NCRFW, Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of women in the country is only 48.9 percent, against 79.1 percent among men, as of 2006.

Sadly, not all women who are working are being paid, according to the NCRFW. Worse, there is an increasing trend of unpaid workers over the past years, added the NCRFW.

In October 2006, unpaid family workers in own family business or enterprise increased to 4.3 million in the agriculture, industry and services sectors from 3.7 million in 2003. On the total figures (of unpaid workers), 55.8 percent of these, or equivalent of 2.4 million, are women.

Because of the lack of opportunities in the country, women, mostly those who are at fertility age, are forced to migrate and become overseas contract workers.

Of the 1.52 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that left the country in 2006, 50.4 percent of those were women. This translates to 764,000 women “shipped” overseas on that year. This is much higher than the 2005 figure of 660,000 females who went abroad.

On that same data, female workers who go abroad are much younger than males. Around 43.5 percent of female OFWs were aged 15-29 years old.

However, notwithstanding their number and their skills, female OFWs’ total remittance remains lower than that of their male counterparts. In 2005, of the total P85.4 billion estimated OFW remittances, around 35.9 percent (equivalent of P30.7 billion) came from female OFWs. In 2004, 32.9 percent (P26.1 billion) of the P79.3-billion OFW remittances were from female OFWs.

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