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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, March 8, 2018
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MANILA – On International Women’s Day, the Liberal Party called for an end to gender-based violence, discrimination and bias.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, on the other hand, sought a “stronger” enforcement of the Magna Carta of Women amid reports on the abuse of Filipina domestic workers overseas.
Fighting violence and discrimination based on gender is everyone’s “obligation,” the Liberal Party said on Wednesday.
The party cited the case of detained senator Leila de Lima, who was detained on illegal drug charges. Her party claimed the charges were “trumped-up.”
“Her incarceration for over a year now, and every day that passes by that she remains behind bars on baseless charges are [a] testimony that the fight for women’s rights remains uphill,” the party said in a statement.
Worse, the Philippines has “leaders who order the military to shoot female rebels in the vagina, who mouth sexist remarks, and who insult women who challenge them,” it said in an apparent allusion to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The party urged Filipinos to “make this world a better place for women” and regard women as “catalysts of change, displaying extraordinary mettle, strength, care, and love for their families, in their profession, and in society [amid] the difficulties.”
For his part, Senator Angara said the abuses against Filipina overseas workers must be stopped and the workers’ right to decent employment must be protected.
Angara is one of the authors of the Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act 7610), a law that promotes women empowerment and rights protection.
He said the law mandates the state to promote the rights and welfare of migrant women regardless of work status, and protect them from wage-based discrimination and unfavorable work conditions.
Part of the law read: “In recognition of the temporary nature of overseas work, the state shall exert all efforts to address the causes of out-migration by developing local employment and other economic opportunities for women and by introducing measures to curb violence and forced and involuntary displacement of local women.”
Fifty-four percent of 2.2 million overseas Filipino workers are women, and 56 percent of them are in elementary occupations, like domestic helpers and cleaners, Angara said, citing Philippine Statistics Authority data.
“Our OFWs risk maltreatment, physical and sexual abuse, even death just so they can provide for their families back home,” he said. “This should not be the case.”/PN
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