UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 96) GPH has anti-discrimination laws and policies protecting all sectors, including the LGBT. The MCW provides for equal treatment of every individual regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, language, sexual orientation or other status as established by human rights standards. In 2016, Representative Geraldine Roman of Bataan became the country’s first transgender elected to Congress.

Para 97) Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 29-2010 prohibits discrimination against LGBTs applying for civil service examinations. In addition, the CSC’s Revised Policies on Merit and Promotion plan include a provision that inhibits discrimination in the selection of employees based on various criteria including gender.

Para 98) The bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE), aimed to ensure equal treatment in the workplace, schools, commercial establishments, and government offices is currently pending in Congress. In the meantime, 19 LGU have enacted their own Anti-Discrimination ordinances. DSWD also issued a memorandum respecting the right of LGBT personnel to wear uniforms based on their preferred SOGIE.

UN Compilation:
Para 13) The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern at the delay in adopting a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, as proposed in Senate bill No. 2475. It was also concerned at the discriminatory provisions in the existing laws, including section 29 (a) of the Immigration Act and sections 269 and 272 (b) of the Labour Code, as well as at the discriminatory application of laws, such as article 200 of the Revised Penal Code, against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.

National Report:
Para 11) As of December 2016, CCT provided 4.39-million eligible poor household beneficiaries with health and education cash grants, conditional to the children’s attendance in school and receipt of regular immunization, the mothers’ availment of health care services, and the beneficiary’s attendance to family development sessions. Under the 2017 budget, CCT beneficiary-families are provided a rice allowance

Para 28) Our government budget supports the Department of Health (DOH) in deploying health professionals to the barrios, expanding the immunization program for children, and strengthening the efforts to lower maternal and infant mortality rates, among others. As of June 2016, the National Health Insurance Program covers 92.62 million principal members and dependents.

Para 65) The DOH executed the first “full” implementation of the RPRH Law in 2015 and appropriated PhP 21.74 billion, almost double the budget in the previous year, to support the implementation of various RPRH programs, like the Family Planning Program and the National Safe Motherhood Program.

Para 66) Through RPRH Law, 80% of total live births were covered by DOH facilities. Maternal mortality ratio went down from 221 deaths per 100,000 deliveries in 2011 to 114 per 100,000 deliveries in 2015.

Para 67) In 2016, GPH hit its target of ensuring that 90% of pregnant women were attended to by a skilled health professional. Contraceptive use in the country increased since 2012, with the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate at 33.26% increasing to 46.87% in 2015. Moreover, women’s life expectancy also increased from 72.9 years in 2016 to 74.3 years in 2017.

Para 155) The Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) continues its conduct of seminars, workshops and other judicial and legal education programs for justices, judges, court personnel and lawyers, and officials and lawyers of quasi-judicial bodies, whether pertaining to their adjudicative or administrative functions. Part of PHILJA’s special focused programs is conducting seminars and lectures in the current developments, as well as emerging issues in particular areas of law, including Gender Sensitivity and Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Para 156) The SC’s Committee on Decorum and Investigation ensures that the Rule on Administrative Procedure on Sexual Harassment Cases, and the Guidelines on Proper Work Decorum in the Judiciary are better observed. Meanwhile, the Committee on Gender Responsiveness in the Judiciary led women protection activities, including orientations on the MCW, observance of Women’s Month, and parenting skills.

Para 157) The Committee on Family Courts and Juvenile Concerns continues to monitor gender statistics involving cases against women and children, and to create additional Family Courts as contemplated in the Family Courts Act of 1997 and evidenced by SC Resolution of 14 June 2016.

UN Compilation:
Para 65) There had been hardly any change in the maternal mortality rate over the previous three decades.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 107) JS20 stated that women had always been at the bottom of development priorities. From 2006 to 2012, poverty incidence among women had been pegged at 26 percent, clearly indicating absence of economic progress among most women.

Para 130) JS20 stated that indigenous women had been adversely affected by the “No Home Birthing Policy” as they had no access to birthing facilities.