Human rights advocacy in the 18th Congress

"Protection of human and women’s rights is of paramount importance."

(Part 2)

Two weeks ago I started writing about the bills that human and women’s rights advocates will push for passage by the 18th Congress and I started with the Magna Carta of Workers in the Informal Economy (MACWIE) and divorce.

Both bills have since been filed in the Senate and House of Representatives (HOR). MACWIE was filed by Sen. Grace Poe. Sen. Sonny Angara said that he will also file it. Hopefully, the bill will also be filed by Sen. Joel Villanueva who was Chair of the Committee on Labor in the 17th Congress that processed and approved the bill at the Committee level.

At the HOR, MACWIE was filed by returning Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez. Other representatives have indicated their intent to file. Advocates are looking forward to the long-delayed passage of this bill into law.

The Divorce bill, on the other hand, has been filed as H.B. 100 by its past principal author, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. I personally know of other representatives who are inclined to file the divorce law. The HOR has actually passed the bill on Third and Final Reading in the 17th Congress but did not move in the Senate. This time, Risa Hontiveros has filed the bill early. Now that Sen. Pia Cayetano is back in the Senate, advocates hope that she will also file the divorce bill version approved by the HOR in the senate. After all, Cayetano was a bill’s co-author in the House.

Among the other bills that advocates will work for passage are on teen-pregnancy prevention, and SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression) equality.

Teen or adolescent pregnancy is a major problem in the country. We have one of the highest numbers of teenagers getting pregnant in the world and this should worry everyone, whether in, or outside government. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicate that around 24 babies are born to teenage girls every HOUR. This is equivalent to 576 babies born to adolescent mothers EVERY DAY.

And these are just the girls who give birth. Excluded here are those who got pregnant but had a miscarriage or abortion. According to the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 9 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 have begun childbearing. While this is already quite high, it does not capture the whole extent of teenage pregnancy. NDHS only covers women of reproductive age (WRA) perceived to be between 15 and 49. However, in our work in poor communities, we encounter younger girls who have gotten pregnant the youngest of whom was ten years old.

Further, more girls in rural areas get pregnant (10.1 percent) than those in urban areas (6.8 percent). In terms of economic classes, more girls in poorest households begin childbearing (15 percent) compared with girls in the richest households (3 percent). Moreover, 32 percent of girls who only had elementary education get pregnant compared with only 4 percent of those who have had college education. Lastly, across age groups, the highest unmet need for family planning (or fertility management) is among the 15-to-19-year-olds pegged at 37.5 percent.

It does not help that the Supreme Court decision on the Reproductive Health Law prohibits access of minors to contraceptives without written parental or guardian consent. Clearly therefore, there is an urgent need for a law that will put in place a comprehensive program that will help prevent teenage pregnancy. Last Congress, bills on this issue have been filed in both Houses of Congress but did not make it. The bills may have a better chance in the 18th Congress since even President Duterte has issued a statement on this and called for a summit on teen pregnancy. Hopefully, the bills will be certified as urgent by the President to ensure passage.

SOGIE equality is another bill that advocates will work on. Again, although some consider LGBTQI+ issues as contentious, the bills are no longer new. This bill has been languishing in Congress for many years and in fact, the HOR passed the bill on Third and Final Reading last congressional term. The problem was the senate where the bill was opposed by conservative senators led by Tito Sotto and Manny Pacquiao. The SOGIE equality bill has been refiled in the senate and will surely also make it to the HOR.

Members of the LGBTQI+ community have been waiting for this bill to become a law because of the many and different kinds of discrimination, sometimes even abuse and violence they are subjected to. This has nothing to do with special treatment or additional rights. The bill is only about making real the LGBTQI+’s human rights already enjoyed by everyone else. The bill is about addressing their needs, making illegal discriminatory, abusive, or violent practices on the basis of SOGIE so their human rights are protected and actualized. There is no reason why persons’ rights are differentiated based on any distinction be it sex, gender, religion, ethnicity, political belief, and SOGIE. This is about equality, nothing more.

Beyond these four bills (MACWIE, divorce, teen pregnancy prevention, and SOGIE equality), there are others that will also be pushed. Moreover, human and women’s rights advocates will also work to oppose bills that will violate people’s rights including death penalty and lowering the age of criminal liability.

Advocacy work in 18th Congress will be intense and hard. Advocates are up to it because the protection of human and women’s rights is of paramount importance.

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