‘Filipino women still at a disadvantage’

Despite two people power revolutions that ushered in a woman president, empowerment for the Filipina remains an elusive dream as men continue to dominate the political landscape of the country.

According to the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), the Filipina continues to face political marginalization despite improved standing compared to other Southeast Asian women.

This was the gist of an NCRFW report on women in power and decision-making which urged the deve-lopment of a voting bloc for the empowerment of wo-men.

NCRFW chairperson Amelou Benitez Reyes lamented that women are not fully harnessed as partners for peace-keeping and development.

"When the government and society miss women’s contributions to nation-building and peace-keeping, women’s potentials are not being fully harnessed," Reyes said.

She said that while more women turn out for elections, women voters remain fragmented and are not inclined to support female candidates and form a women’s voting bloc.

According to the NCRFW report, the voter turnout rate was 71 percent among women and 70.3 percent among men in the 1995 congressional and local elections.

Despite the higher voter turnout, however, women are still poorly represented in the top ranks of government in the country, both for elective and appointive posts.

In the executive department, women account for only 11 of 51 undersecretaries, 23 out of 64 assistant secretaries and 139 out of 411 bureau directors.

In the Senate, there were only four women among the 24 senators in the 11th Congress.

In the House of Representatives, women make up a meager 12 percent, occupying only 25 out of 206 congressional seats although a woman serves as one of the deputy speakers.

In the judiciary, there are only two women in the 15-member Supreme Court – Associate Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes.

In the Court of Appeals, only nine justices are women while 34 are men. At the anti-graft Sandiganbayan, only three of the 15 justices are women.

In the lower courts, only 255 benches are occupied by women out of the 1,417 posts in regional, metropolitan and municipal trial courts.

There are no women-judges among the 21 Shari’ah courts nor in the three-member Court of Tax Appeals.

In the bureaucracy, women account for half of the positions. Of the total 1.4 million government workers in 1997, 54 percent were women.

According to the Career Executive Service Board (CESB), the positions among low-level positions are equally divided between men and women but more men occupy executive and managerial positions.

There are 515 female and 636 male career executive service eligibles, but only 242 women (47 percent) have been given ranks compared to 368 among men (58 percent).

Reyes lamented that while women are found in the bureaucracy as administrators and service providers, their number is disproportionately low compared to the entire bureaucracy.

In general, women outnumber the men in the bureaucracy but only at the second level which is the professional and technical level.

Reyes said the NCRFW will spearhead efforts to develop a voting bloc for women this March when the nation celebrates Women’s Day on March 8.