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Making CEDAW real for Filipino women
Manila (WFS) - If you think Filipino women have attained equal status with their male counterpart, think again. There are still laws in place today that discriminate against women and extra efforts have to be made to correct this. This was the assessment made by the United Nations committee that monitors a country's implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), considered as the bill of rights for women worldwide. Advocates for women's rights from government, nongovernment organizations and the UN thus launched a joint program to facilitate the implementation of the CEDAW in the country. WFS Ref: NCR609 Philippines: VFA beyond Nicole and Smith
Manila (WFS) - The controversial case of 'Nicole' has been forgotten in the recent political climate surrounding elections. Addressing this lacuna, the Women's Legal Bureau hosted a symposium recently at the University of the Philippines, entitled "Ngayong Halalan: Patay Na Ba, 'Nicole' at 'Smith'?". (With elections, are the issues surrounding Nicole and Smith dead?) The multi-sectoral forum featured pertinent speakers to highlight the unaddressed ambiguity of the Visiting Forces Agreement, as was evident in the Subic rape case. The talk also presented the various crucial issues converging in the trial, including national sovereignty, women's human rights, and Muslim autonomy. WFS Ref: NCR610 Emerlinda Roman: A singular commitment to
UP Manila (WFS) - Dr. Emerlinda Roman, the University of the Philippines' first woman president, is at the helm of UP's centennial celebration come 2008. "Not all missionaries are in the church after all. I have seen a lot of them right here in UP, serving all these years despite their meager income and resources," Roman reflects. Despite the country's economic hurdles that continue to affect the premier state university's financial status and quality of education, Roman actively campaigns for the centennial and bravely takes on the challenges of leading the university towards its next hundred years. WFS Ref: NCR 611 Caregivers' quest for a better life
Toronto (WFS)- They migrate in droves. Every year, thousands of caregivers, nearly always from the Philippines, arrive in Canada -- often armed with nothing but some training in care-giving skills, a passport, a suitcase and a dream. Over 16,458 Filipinos - approximately 85 percent of whom are women - have come to Canada under the Live-in Caregiver Program since 1996-2005, making the Philippines the main supplier of nannies to Canada, according to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They come from halfway around the globe to attend to the children, the aging and the sick of foreign lands. For many, it is a godsend, leading to a permanent and satisfying life in Canada after 24 months completion of the LCP. But it can also be the first step of a painful journey that can lead to financial, emotional, exploitation and abuse. WFS Ref: NL608 Shattered Dreams : Cancer threatens caregiver's
life Canada (WFS) - More than 80 percent of Canada's domestic caregivers come from the Philippines. Due to extreme desperation to build a better future, these Filipinos, majority women, leave their country to work abroad, doing difficult, dirty and dangerous work, and being trapped in a cycle of debt and deskilling. Such is a story of Filipino caregiver Maria (not her real name) from Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon who was diagnosed with lung cancer. After working for four lonely years as a nanny in Ontario, Canada, her permanent residency was put on hold due to her illness. Under the Live-In Caregiver Program, which was started in 1992, a caregiver must work for two full years within a period of three years in order to become a landed immigrant and eventually sponsor her own family. Now, Maria is facing the biggest obstacle so far in her life-recovery from her illness and her dream of living permanently in Canada. WFS Ref: NL602 World Wide web in the Boondocks
BONTOC, MT. PROVINCE (WFS)- The Mt. Province General Comprehensive High School (MPGCHS) sits in a valley rimmed by a mountain range that sets it apart from the world. But its principal, Evelyn Taguiba, lay the rest of the world at the fingertips of her students. This feat won for her the award as Cordillera's Most Outstanding Principal of 2006. Taguiba has been the principal of MPGCHS for the last six years during which time she surmounted the set-back of being located in a remote province, far from the reach of the world's rapid information technology strides. She recognized that to be in step with the times meant to be computer-literate and know what's going on in the world. Delivery of books always took too long in transport before reaching the classrooms - that is if they even make it through the treacherous winding roads of formidable mountains. But now, Taguiba has made knowledge just a 'click' away, by getting her school connected to the World Wide Web. 'Our mission is to prepare the students to survive in the ever changing outside world so that when they graduate from high school and pursue their studies in the cities, they will find themselves comparable in training with the others. This is where the need to be connected is very important, where the information they need are just waiting at their fingertips, even while they live a great distance from the cities,' Taguiba explains. WFS Ref: NL599 More women in politics: A guide from party
lists Manila (WFS) - Having more women in politics is a boon to the country, says three party list groups coming from different political spectrums but all pushing for women's agenda. This year, Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), Abanse Pinay, and the multisectoral Aksyon Sambayanan (Aksa) launched their respective voters' education campaigns to help women, and the general public, choose their candidates based on their track record, services for the sector and platform. Voters' education is imperative now because, as Abanse Pinay's three-month community campaigns indicate, many women still do not understand the party list system and its potentials in bringing the women's agenda to national attention. Statistics show that more than half of the 91 party list groups have women nominees, but only a fraction of these groups have women as their first nominees. As voting day nears, here is a guide for women in choosing their partylist. WFS Ref: NCR607 Staying the Course for Afghan Women's Rights
Manila (WFS) - She exuded grace and confidence, her patrician features framed by a headscarf of subdued colors. Her steady gaze gave her an air of quiet authority, a far cry from the image of the Afghan woman clad in head-to-toe *burqa* the world has come to expect. But then again, Hussn Bano Ghazanfar is a person of authority, the only female minister in President Hamid Kharzai's current Cabinet. She epitomizes countless Afghan women -intellectuals, professionals, leaders and activists - who became invisible during the five-year reign of the Taliban when women were banned from public life but who are now participating in rebuilding their country. She heads the Ministry of Women Affairs that is tasked to promote and defend women's rights in a conservative Islamic society. She led a study mission of Afghan government officials in Manila recently to learn from Filipino counterparts on how to implement their National Action Plan for Women. "Because tribal laws and sanctions have taken precedence over constitutional laws in deciding gender roles, a nationwide implementation … is very, very difficult," explained Ghazanfar. WFS Ref: NCR606
Philippines: UN CEDAW Committee Head
speaks in defense of women's human rights Manila (WFS) - Women's rights are guaranteed by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, or simply CEDAW, adopted by The United Nations in 1979. The Philippines, as a state party to the UN, ratified it in 1981. Yet 25 years after its ratification, the Philippines, according to Ambassador Rosario G Manalo, chair of the UN committee that monitors how state parties enforce this treaty, ranks "5 or 6," in terms of its effective implementation, especially when it comes to "women's reproductive rights and family life."
WFS Ref: NCR566 Philippines: Subic rape case tests the Philippines'
commitment to anti-rape law Manila -(WFS) The case of four young US marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman in Subic in November 2005 is also a direct test of the country's progressive law on rape, the Republic Act 8353. According to former senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, the law's principal author, the trial will show how the lawyers - both the prosecution and the defense panels - would give weight and follow by heart the anti-rape law, which amended the definition of rape from a crime against chastity to a crime against persons. The defense has used the strategy of painting the character of Nicole as a carefree woman who "had wanted sex" and "more sex." Nicole, on the other hand, faced her alleged rapists in court bravely. She also had to deal with public perceptions about her and cope with the way public prosecutors handled her defense. While hoping for justice, Nicole reportedly has become more religious while awaiting the verdict. So far this is the only rape case involving US servicemen as the accused that has reached trial throughout the century-old love-hate relationship of her country and America. WFS Ref: NCR555 Philippines: Investing on rural women is
key to poverty reduction Manila (WFS)-Investing on rural women - through increase in resources or access to education - is critical in fighting poverty and achieving food security in the countryside, a recent international study revealed. The study, conducted in 14 developing countries, also showed that increasing women's resources improves conditions in the household, most especially the education and nutrition of children. Such findings should be the focal points of policy makers and development movers in the concerned countries as they target to meet the poverty-busting Millennium Development Goals, of which half are related to gender. WFS Ref:NCR575 Breast feeding saves 1.3 million lives yearly
- WHO Manila (WFS) The World Health Organization claims that "Filipinos are being lured by milk giants" to make it appear that the milk in the market has the same nutritional value as breast milk. Milk giants spend 21.5 Billion Pesos every year on purchase of infant formula in the Philippines. This is beyond comparison with the budget for health. Because of the huge advertising campaign, many parents are lured to buy infant formula rather than tap the healthiest, safest, and most economical milk of all - breast milk. Because majority of the Filipino mothers do not breastfeed, the Philippines is one of 42 countries that contributes to over 90% of the less than 5-year old child deaths in the world. Almost 16,000 children die before their 5th birthday from inappropriate feeding practices. WFS Ref:NCR573 Philippines: The brutal business of trafficking
Manila (WFS)- Trafficking is said to be the third most lucrative illicit business in the world. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.45 million victims of trafficking currently working in exploitative conditions, while another 1.2 million are being trafficked annually. 80 percent of the victims are women and girls. In the Philippines, over 65% of the 3,000 Filipinos that leave the country everyday are women. Women are more likely to occupy traditionally 'female' occupations such as domestic work, service sector work, and sex work. Professional women's club Soroptomist International of the Philippines Region (SIPR) aims to make a difference in these women's lives through their anti-poverty campaigns, partnerships with women's police desks and livelihood programs. "Trafficking has become a mega-business that is low-risk and high profit. They already have organized crime groups and syndicates with sophisticated modes of recruitment. Use of information technology like online recruitment and websites has become normal." WFS Ref:NCR582 Philippines: Women, children bear brunt
of growing RP population Manila (WFS) - The Philippines has the fastest population growth rate in Asia, pegged at 2.36 percent or two million Filipinos born yearly. (2005 United Nations Population Fund statement and 2000 National Statistics Office Census of Population and Housing) Despite being a state party to CEDAW that ensures family planning services to women, the Philippine government has gone slow on modern family planning seemingly to get a nod from the Catholic hierarchy, which espouses only natural family planning methods and has been unable to curb the rising population. In its concluding statement on the Philippine report at the 36th session in August 2006, the CEDAW Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women raised concern on the lack of recognition and protection of reproductive health rights of women in the Philippines. In the end, it is the women and children, especially in depressed communities who will bear the brunt of the country's weak population program such as extreme poverty, hunger and lack of education. WFS Ref:NCR578 Philippines: WOMEN'S BODY POLITICS - CURSE
AND VALOR Tiempo, Tubo, Abra (WFS ) -The town of Tubo lies deep in the lush forests of Abra. Tribal wars and constant encounters between the military and the NPA have also made this town a stage for poignant stories of a tribe's struggle for survival, constantly besieged by war. The Maeng tribe lives here, witnesses to atrocities little known to the world whose stories are told only by the brave. Incidents of torture and sufferings are part of the town's chronicles but in between these are unexpected stories of their women. Historically, women of the Maeng tribe bared themselves to save their men folk and children during a tribal war. In the old days the warriors believed that the sight of "where you came from" cast a very strong curse. During a military operation, soldiers indiscriminately mauled and beat countless civilians including women and children, beat a pregnant woman to death and shot her four year old daughter. Today the mothers of Tubo are working for their town to be declared a "peace zone" where neither military nor NPA may stage an encounter. WFS Ref: NL557 The new face of AIDS-young Asian woman
Toronto Canada (WFS) - As the world enters the third decade of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, women especially the young and poor, are increasingly affected. In Asia, 8.3 million adults and children are infected with HIV/AIDS, of whom 2.3 million are women. Combating the rights abuses that put women at risk of HIV is essential to turning around the AIDS crisis. Frika Chia Iskandar, 24, a young vibrant looking woman from Jakarta, Indonesia believes that setting priorities for action and leading the global response to the crisis is the key. She herself is infected with the disease. Frika declared herself as the "new face of AIDS-a young Asian woman." WFS Ref: NL569 Philippines: Nana Maria: Well-loved Kapitana,
Well-loved Mother Baguio City (WFS) - Maria De Vera Cordoviz, Nana Maria or Kapitana to many, was the first and only chieftain of Barangay Kagitingan in Baguio City, until her death on January 26. She was 92, making her undisputedly the longest serving barangay captain in the country. Nana Maria lived 41 years of her life as 'Kapitana'. Ask any citizen in the once considered most troublesome barangay of Baguio City - from vendors, jeepney drivers and business people - and they would refer to Nana Maria as one with a generous heart, making them believe that she must have picked up all the generosity when God was sprinkling it on earth. Whoever you are, whatever tribe you belong to, or whatever your status in life, Nana Maria would definitely offer her help in every possible way she can, without a question asked, and even at her own expense, is how her third son, July Cordovis, a retired soldier, describes her mother. People came to her when they had nothing to eat, when they were sick and had no money to buy medicine. At times, she even brought them to the hospital. Because of this, she was loved by her constituents, and never really wanted anyone to replace her as Kagitingan barangay captain. When Nana Maria attempted to retire from service, the people themselves filed her candidacy at the Commission of Election office. WFS Ref: NL567 Philippines: This Woman Drives for a Living…And
Why Not? Buguias, Benguet (WFS ) - Every time she gets on the driver's seat, first time passengers of 29-year old Gladys Edoc get the chill having a lady for a driver. But this lass from Buguias, Benguet proves that whatever men can do, women can do too, perhaps even better. Curious and doubting glances, especially those from men, have not really bothered her. After all, she is the one behind the steering wheel -usually a man's place in the public transport system - and therefore, 'leader of the van'. Edoc works as a lady driver to get her through nursing school WFS Ref:NL550 Orphaned by AIDS Toronto Canada (WFS) - Poverty and AIDS have upset family life in Asia. AIDS-related illness in either parents often turns children into caregivers and breadwinners. Their survival and well-being are compromised, and vulnerability increases when either parent dies. According to a report released in August 2006 by UNICEF, there are about 15 million children orphaned by AIDS, 2 million of them live in Asia and 12 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2010, it's estimated that number - which includes children who have lost one or both parents - will grow to at least 18 million. WFS Ref: 565 A WOMAN'S TOUCH SOFTENS HARDENED CRIMINALS
Benguet Province (WFS)- A woman's soft touch among toughened criminals can be a strength in the penal system, as the story of Captain Mary Ann Tresmanio shows. Thirty-four year old Tresmanio is the first woman jail warden in the province of Benguet in the Cordillera region. Although a diminutive 5'2 in height and weighing only 55 kilograms, her inner strength inspires the likes of murderers, thieves, and rapists to find their higher selves. *She infuses hope in them, where most would see only criminals who more than deserve to suffer for the crimes they have committed. Because of her, inmates at the Benguet Provincial Jail have learned the craft of hand-made paper which are bought by foreigners. They have a recreation and activity space and live in cleaner quarters. She continues to lead a community to look into prison conditions, and to look at prisoners as human-beings where hope for change is always a possibility. WFS Ref:NL570 Purpose-Driven, Living with HIV
Toronto Canada (WFS) - Susan is a person living with the HIV virus for four years now. Her story begins with the ordinary tale of many a provincial lass leaving for a domestic job overseas. Susan hails from Cavite and left for Singapore to work as a domestic helper at the age of 31. She worked for an Indian-Singaporean national whom she married at the age of 39. Her husband died without ever telling her that he had AIDS. When she returned home, she was rejected by her family and community. "People living with HIV are not dying of the disease. The discrimination and stigma from society is what kills us," Susan said. She found a new purpose in life when she joined Pinoy Plus, an association of HIV-positives advocating for the welfare and rights of HIV-positives. Her story transforms from one of woe to an inspirational one. WFS Ref: NL580 Indigenous Youth - A Pride to Be
Baguio City (WFS) - The world used to know people from the Cordillera highland as 'Igorots', a term given a connotation of primitiveness largely because Americans and other colonizers projected this image to sell them as oddities in expositions and fairs. There came a big debate even among the so-called Igorots on whether they should adopt the term or discard it, to once and for all free them of the connotation attached to it. But over the years, indigenous people are learning to take pride in their heritage, for indigenous knowledge is rich and their cultures the last repositories of what can be called the Philippine's native cultures. The University of the Philippines Program for Indigenous Cultures in Baguio reinforces this pride among its ethnic students, who otherwise may prove fragile against the discriminating attitude of colonized city dwellers. WFS Ref: NL587 Purpose-Driven, Living with HIV
Toronto Canada (WFS) - Susan is a person living with the HIV virus for four years now. Her story begins with the ordinary tale of many a provincial lass leaving for a domestic job overseas. Susan hails from Cavite and left for Singapore to work as a domestic helper at the age of 31. She worked for an Indian-Singaporean national whom she married at the age of 39. Her husband died without ever telling her that he had AIDS. When she returned home, she was rejected by her family and community. "People living with HIV are not dying of the disease. The discrimination and stigma from society is what kills us," Susan said. She found a new purpose in life when she joined Pinoy Plus, an association of HIV-positives advocating for the welfare and rights of HIV-positives. Her story transforms from one of woe to an inspirational one. WFS Ref: NL580 Kabit Legazpi (WFS) - She had been lonely, until Ricardo (not his real name), her dance partner resumed the dance floor a year after her husband died. "Wara man talaga kaming relasyon kaya lang namuna na su tsismis!" (We weren't really having an affair; but the gossips spread first!). To self-proclaimed moralists, this is just another low profile "barrio case" of infidelity. But how many Tiya Bernies are there? How many women are bereft of even basic education, health care, employment and who in their senior years are left alone? How many old women cling to love but are discriminated? How many of them can be as brave and determined as Tiya Bernie? WFS Ref:Bi579 Philippines: A widow's story Legazpi (WFS) - At 26 and just two years into her marriage, Felicitacion C. Hubilla became a widow when her husband was gunned down in Sorsogon in 1980. She single-handedly raised her children, rose from the ranks to head Bicol University's Human Resource Management Office and then turned to teaching. Today, she remains a widow but not alone nor lonely. WFS Ref:Bi581 |
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