These issues are not merely priority concerns in the Millennium Development Goals. Our Medium-Term Development Plan and recent laws recognize that we cannot have sustainable development unless women have equal access to opportunities and benefits.

Thus far, several indicators have shown that while we have successfully met MDG targets in this regard – ratio of literate females to males and share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector, we have a far way to go in achieving the desirable target in terms of proportion of seats held by women in parliament (Senate and Lower House). Carolyn Sobritchea cites statistics on the status of gender equality in an article for a forthcoming book,”The Future of Filipino Children” published by the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and Unicef. Data for 2007, she notes, show that females occupy only 21 percent of the 240 seats in the House of Representatives, 29 percent of all positions in the first and second level courts, and 5 out of 15 seats in the Supreme Court. (This hasn’t changed much in 2010 as there are only three women in the Senate and 3 lady associate justices in the Supreme Court).

Among positive developments noted by Sobritchea are the adoption in 1994 of a 30-year development plan to eliminate discrimination against women.

This would integrate the Gender and Development approach (GAD), as well as our being one of the few countries in the world which requires the allocation of at least five percent of government funds for gender issues. The Women and Nation Building Act guarantees women’s equal participation and protects women from rape, domestic abuse, sex slavery and labor trafficking. It provides credit to women engaged in micro and cottage industries, and guard women in the hiring and termination of employees. Note also how we have progressed – from a rank of 28th out of 116 countries (1995), 46th out of 64 countries in 2001, and 35th out of 70 countries in 2004, we were able to outpace the others by ranking 6th out of 129 countries nationwide in 2007.

Recent data (2007) from the National Commission on the Role of Women on female education augments that of the MDGs as it shows that more girls (67%) than boys (59%) completed primary education. More females at the secondary level had higher rate of completion (62%) than males (48%) The introduction of sex education that would focus on Adolescent Reproductive Health is a response to findings on sexuality of young Filipinos. A recent study has shown that about one-fifth of the national population is sexually phactive, meaning, they had their sexual debut at the average of 18.2 for males and 18.9 years for females. Early sexual activity is associated with poor access to reproductive health information and services. But the Catholic Church has expressed strong opposition to sex education saying that parents fear that this would promote promiscuity among the youth. This is so even if the program which will be piloted in 80 public elementary and 79 high schools starting with grade 5 pupils aged 11-12, will focus merely on explaining bodily changes and relationship with the other gender. At a later stage in adolescence and early adulthood, lack of access to information and services on sexuality and reproductive health was shown to be a responsible factor for the slow decline in maternal mortality rates and the slow but steady increase in the incidence of HIV infection.

These and the growing domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual abuse of young females and males, present challenges requiring more concerted effort and political will. This is why the UN advocates the inclusion of gender equality targets in all the eight Millennium Development Goals. Furthermore, this would require the passing of two landmark legislation – the Reproductive Health Act and the Freedom of Information Act. The success of the former will depend on free and open access to information. My e-mail is florangel.braid@gmail.com