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Oppose House Bill 5285: Magna Carta for Women
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Substitute Bill to HB 3766Get a copy of HB 5285
Get a copy of ALFI's Letter to Congress on HB 5285
An Executive Summary for Pro-Life, Pro-Family Congressmen
House Bill 5285 is up for approval at Congress. The Bill was approved at the Committee on Women but pro-family organizations were not invited to the public hearings. Read why this seemingly good bill is a subterfuge for a feminist-led, gender-obliteration and pro-population control movement that will destroy the strength of the traditional Filipino family.
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1. HB 5285 uses the same agenda, vocabulary, and principles espoused by pro-choice, feminist advocates for the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979 and the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) of 1994.
• CEDAW is considered the Magna Carta, or the broadest and most comprehensive accord, of women’s rights. Please investigate the history and rationale of HB 5285 in the context of CEDAW and other international documents that promote the pro-choice, feminist agenda.
• The United States has fought 20 years against ratification of CEDAW as a treaty due to its underlying philosophy that aims to reengineer society to become anti-family and genderless.
2. We oppose the passage of Chapter IV. Comprehensive Health Services, Sec. 20 c and Sec. 21 due to the emphasis on women’s reproductive rights and sexual health and “other emerging needs of women.” These sections are also in contention under House Bill 3773. Passage of HB 5285 would mean passage of the most substantial sections of HB 3773 without the deliberations required under a separate Bill.
• “Reproductive rights” is a political term referring mainly to the right not to reproduce, contrary to what the term suggests. In its universally accepted definitions, “reproductive rights” means that contraception and abortion are framed as rights of women, resulting from the woman’s exclusive decision to choose whether to have children or not. HB 5285 encompasses all civic and social rights, and thereby begins to include reproduction as a right, which is a previously undefined term in our statutes.
• While we are also committed to safeguard the dignity of women, we oppose any suggestion that child-bearing is a form of discrimination or oppression that is grouped together with such problems as violence against women, lack of representation in political decision-making, or unemployment.
3. We oppose the passage of Chapter VI. Media, Information and Education, Sec. 62 on gender sensitivity training programs in media and Section 64 on gender education in all schools.
• These terms often lead to anti-family cultural beliefs, because they lead to the elimination of roles that are considered “stereotyped” or “traditional.” The differences between men and women would be disregarded. Single-sex schools would be discouraged. Philippine society would be taught to believe that gender differences do not exist beyond the physiological differences, and perhaps not even then.
• Filipino women, especially the urban and rural poor, are fighting for their basic needs of everyday life – among them, nutrition, employment, education, and access to basic health care. They are not asking to understand such terms as “gender sensitivity” or “gender fairness.”
4. A permanent and substantial budget allocation for Gender and Development (GAD) under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) is proposed. Instead, the GAA review process should be continued.
• The Bill empowers the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), to develop a Comprehensive National Medium Term Plan that shall empower “women as well as men to achieve gender equality” with a budgetary appropriation of all government agencies and LGUs of at least 5 percent for their Gender and Development (GAD) plans.
• However, there are no concrete program targets to be achieved, nor accountability measures. We have reviewed the accomplishments of the NCRFW and they seem meager, despite their GAD budgetary allocation of the past ten years since the 1995 GAA.
March 20, 2006
Prepared by:
ALLiance for the FAMILY Foundation Philippines, Inc. (ALFI)
Unit 206, Southgate Building, Finance Drive, Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang,
Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Tel/Fax: (63-2) 807-6848
E-Mail: allianceforthefamily@gmail.com Website: www. alfi.org.ph
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