vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 5 months ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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House bill seeks gender quota
for government posts

Posted by: Vinia Datinguinoo | June 22, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Filed under: Congress Watch

AN ambitious measure has been filed today at the House of Representatives seeking to establish a quota for the proportion of women occupying elective and appointive positions in government beginning in 2007.

House Bill 5496, or the Gender Balance Act of 2006, wants 30 percent of all positions in the bureaucracy, military, police, government-owned and controlled corporations and other agencies, alloted to women starting next year. Political parties shall also reserve for women 30 percent of their official candidates for national and local posts.

The proportion will increase to 40 percent by 2010, and further to one-half in 2013.

The proposal was filed by Akbayan representatives, Ana Theresa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Loretta Ann Rosales, and Mario Aguja. The lawmakers hope to steer the country the way of an increasing number of nations that have, in the past many years, established gender quotas in their bureaucracies.

“The goal,” the three lawmakers said in their explanatory note to the measure, “is not simply to give flesh to the country’s commitments to various women and human-rights-related international agreements, but to have a critical mass of women in political decision-making institutions that will significantly strengthen the push for women’s agenda.” (Read those agreements here and here.)

“If enacted, this measure will be a significant step toward strengthening the empowerment of women,” Grace Bernabe, of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) told PCIJ.

Bernabe said she hopes HB 5496 will be able to hurdle this 13th Congress, and not suffer the fate of similar measures that have been repeatedly filed, in the preceding three other congressional terms.

At the same time, Bernabe said, it is important to develop the “quality” of women who sit in government. “We should not stop with the numbers. Will they in fact strengthen the women’s agenda?”

Rep. Baraquel and her co-authors regard having a gender quota in government as a significant step “to fast track meaningful and relevant political participation for women.”

At present, according to an analysis done by the NCRFW, Filipino women have what the Commission calls “dismal” participation as decision-makers in the public sector. In 2004, the NCRFW says, the average proportion of women in key elected posts was no more than 17 percent.

Overall, according to the NCRFW, while women make up the bulk of the bureaucracy, “they seem unable to break the glass ceiling,” and continue to occupy the lower technical or secondary-level positions; they remain excluded from the top managerial and decision-making seats.

HB 5496 draws inspiration from countries that have taken steps to widen the representation of women in power structures in the public sphere.

For example, the bill’s authors note, Finland has a law requiring that at least 40 percent of each sex can be appointed in public decision-making bodies. This led to an increase in women’s membership in those bodies, from a quarter in 1980 to almost half by 1996. South Africa’s African National Congress, meanwhile, reserves a third of parliamentary and half of local government candidacies to women. And in India, 33 percent of the three-tiered panchayats (villages) are for women.

Advocates of women’s political representation note that while the Nordic states, for a long time, dominated the field of nations with gender quotas, an increasing number of countries are now legislating their own. Today, countries as diverse as those in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Latin America are instituting quota systems for their bureaucracies.

In the Philippines, women comprise only 13 percent of the current Senate, and 16 percent of the House of Representatives. At the local level, the proportions of seats occupied by women are similarly low: for example, only 19 percent of provincial governors, and 15 percent of mayors, are women. In the judiciary, three-fourths of all judges are men.

“This lack of gender balance means that major policies that affect the nation in general, and even those that affect women in particular, are mostly decided by men,” Baraquel, et al., note.

They say policy reforms must be introduced “to correct the uneven representation of men and women in politics and governance.”

In 1998, recognizing the difficulty in passing legislation for a quota, the Civil Service Commission issued a memorandum “encouraging” the appointment of women to government posts.

Read HB 5496.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 22nd, 2006 and is filed under Congress Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 people have left comments

[...] Akbayan representatives filed House Bill 5496 aka “Gender Balance Act of 2006″. Full story here [...]

Uniffors - Just another harmless weblog » Gender Quota for Government Posts wrote on June 22, 2006 - 4:57 pm | Visit Link

A quota system will never work. you can not have a built in quota of political officials in the government. That will undermine the democratic right of the voters to choose the candidate of his or her choice, man or woman. We have now a great portion of our female gender both in our business, workforce, government elective position and appointed. our Supreme Court chief justice is a Woman, not because of the quota system but by a very simple 2 paragraphs provision in our constitution which I quote here:
_____________________________________
Equality Rights

Equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law 15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
Affirmative action programs (2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. (83)

naykika wrote on June 23, 2006 - 12:24 am | Visit Link

I wonder if Cong Riza had asked Filipino women if they would prefer to work in “positions in the bureaucracy, military, police, government-owned and controlled corporations and other agencies”,…and as officials occupying “national and local posts” or would they rather be plain good old-fashioned housewives taking care of family and raising up kids to become good citizens. Would they prefer to have husbands who has a job that can provide for their needs even if she doesn’t have to work; or would they rather compete for other women’s husband’s job?

Juan Makabayan wrote on June 23, 2006 - 11:56 am | Visit Link

Friends (HB 5496 authors), an unsolicited piece of advice:

a) train your sights elsewhere. every idea has its proper time. simply, existing conditions does not call for it yet, no matter how laudable.

b.) a prelude to criticisms; paano na lang kung mga katulad ni GMA ang pag-iisip ang mga ilalagay sa mga sensitibong posisyon o dili kaya’y katulad ng walang silbing Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez? Solution: crisp education and instilling values in harmony with a strong and vibrant society versus political survival and expediencies.

see, being a woman actually has no bearing in the preceding example.

c.) not to negate your passion for womens rights, draw instead rights expanding renumerative benefits for single moms and dads, pregnant women; i.e. shorter working period (to be able to spend more time with the kid(s), in the case of the former, and to avoid frenetic traffic jams during rush hours, for the latter), and other similar acts.

d.) if you read pcij regularly, it should serve as helpful source of materials: the post on Aklatang Pambata could be an inspiration; every barangay ought to have one. Funding? Pagcor and/or PCSO, para mabawasan ang private cookie jar ng salbahe sa Malacanan.

the possibilities are limitless… good luck!

freewheel wrote on June 24, 2006 - 10:03 am | Visit Link