Gender-sensitive Quezon City

When he entered his second term in office, Mayor Sonny Belmonte told the City Development Council that his priority programs would be "social equity and poverty reduction, gender and development advocacy and mainstreaming in Quezon City, and sound and safe environment including sustainable waste disposal." He also said he envisioned a "cultural transformation" in the city, which would transform the poor and residents as pro-active multi-stake holders rather than beneficiaries, and as partners like the business sector and critics."

Those were not empty words, as an executive summary on the status of women and men in Quezon City and other critical areas of concern defined by the United Nations Platform of Action shows.

The summary gives indicators of the equal, and in some cases more than equal, status of women with the men when it comes to women occupying supervisory and managerial positions, the increased number of women reporting violations against their person to barangay authorities, the activation by the mayor of the city development council with more than 50 accredited NGOs and POs concerned with women and gender sitting in the councils’ sectoral groupings, and the city’s strict implementation of the Government and Development (GAD) allocation.

The summary was based on the gender-responsive local governance questionnaires ("Gerl Ka Ba?") of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women which was analyzed by the Gender and Development Resource and Coordinating Office of Quezon City (QC-GADRCO).

The city’s social profile shows that there are more women than men in the productive ages 15-49 years old (1,109,051 females and 1,064,780 males); one-fifth of total households are headed by females; the fertility rate is 2.81 percent (as compared to the national fertility rate which as of 2003 was 3.5 percent); the most common diseases to both sexes are myocardial infarction, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases; the mortality rates for men are higher than those of women (males have a shorter life expectancy of 67.5 years, as opposed to women’s 72.8 years; in maternal rates, 10 women die every 24 hours from pregnancy-related diseases).

The literacy rate in Quezon City is equal for women and men, but there are more male students who drop out from primary and secondary public schools, due to poverty and drug-related and stereotype/traditional expectations from men/boys to carry the burden of work for the family.

According to the report, it is in the self-employed, mostly in the informal sector, that women’s economic empowerment in the city is evident. More women are engaged in the rice, retail, store and apartment-leasing businesses.

Quezon City has the most number of registered overseas Filipino workers among the cities in the National Capital Region. Sex-disaggregated data have yet to be made here. Only six out of 24 city counselors are women, but 53.67 percent of the Sangguniang Kabataan are young girls. The city has two congresswomen out of four seats. Female voters consistently outnumber males – registered and actual voters.

As of March 2005, the city administration had a total of 5,012 males (5030 percent) and 2,497 females (49.0) per- cent). There are 3,225 job orders under the mayor’s office, including 50 consultants.

According to the city planning and development office, of the total 5,102 personnel, women in supervisory and managerial positions total 843, which figure is higher than the national level. Nationwide, only 35 percent of administrative executive and managerial positions in government are occupied by women.

The reported cases of violence against women and children in the city went down from 2000-2002 and 2001-2002, but went up drastically in 2003 and 2004. The increase, explains Ruby Palma, executive director of GADRCO is that women and girls have become emboldened to report violations on their person than before, particularly with the protection afforded them by the barangays' Protection Units.

The city has begun to orient law enforcers, including court personnel, on the Anti-trafficking in Persons Act (RA 9208) which views prostituted women/vagrants as victims rather than criminals, and sets penalties also for pimps, club owners, users and traffickers. Last March, an Anti-Prostitution ordinance was passed by the city council under Councilor Ariel Inton, patterned after the pending bill in Congress.

A landmark is the QC Gad code containing provisions for gender-sensitive media and campaign for non-sexist advertising. In this connection, Mayor Belmonte initiated, two years ago, the giving of awards to most gender-sensitive films entered in the annual Metro Manila Film Festival.

Ruby Palma hails the inclusion of the GAD code pertaining to gender-sensitivity in schools of communication. She says the city council also plans to undertake a community-based media watch and a workshop with media owners in the city re basic media-related values/indicators.

Mayor Belmonte, says Ruby Palma, is setting an example for government executives to make gender-sensitivity a priority program not only to empower women, but to place them on an equal footing with the men.

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Dr. Adoracion Arce Evaristo of San Marcelino, Zambales, passed away June 18. She was one of the pioneer doctors in Iligan City and worked with the government service for several years. Her last position was assistant city health officer. She went to Iligan with her late husband, Delfin V. Evaristo who was the city engineer.

Dr. Evaristo was a past president of the Philippine Association of University Women, Iligan chapter, and the Iligan City Medical Society. She was a member of Class ’40 of the college of Medicine, UST. In her later years, she was a member and officer of Sparklers, Smiles and New Supremes.

She is survived by her sons Frank and Percy, daughter-in-law Leni, and her grandchildren Jun Jun and his wife Armelle, Caroline, Amy, Carlo, Lorraine, Joel and his wife Ashi and Michelle and great grandchildren, brothers, and sisters.

Her body lies at the Capilla del Senor, Sanctuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park. Interment will be tomorrow, Wednesday, at the Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina City, after the 8 a.m. mass.

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Back home, in Anakan, Gingoog City, Lourdes Alamban Maristela passed away after a series of illnesses. She would have been 80 in October. Auntie Lily, as we called her, was married to my late mother’s late brother, Protesto Maristela Sr. She was one of the first women activists I knew, speaking her mind on issues boldly and clearly.

She is survived by her seven children – Claudy, Orlando, Marilou, Marlyn, Mario, Maria Teresa, and Protesto Jr.

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