Field Office IV-B (MIMAROPA)

March is Women's Month. One can say that today is a good time for a woman to live. Women are more empowered now than before with more laws and advocacies that address the many challenges for women in the country. RA 9262 (The Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004) and RA 9710 (Magna Carta For Women) have been created to protect women and children from abuse and discrimination. The Pantawid Pamilyang Program, the fore-running poverty reduction program of the government and the agency, seeks to empower poor families—through the mother—by giving them responsibilities in order to be given cash grants through the program.

However, this does not mean we are sitting on our laurels and relaxing our vigilance against abuses on women and children. The worsening economic crisis is becoming the catalyst for situations where more women become more vulnerable to uninformed healthcare practices, abuses, prostitution and forced migration.

In MiMaRoPa alone in 2010, there are 40 reported cases of suffering from especially difficult circumstances such as incest, rape and physical violence. 40 cases in a population of  [number of women in Mimaropa] seems small, but these 40 cases are the only ones reported. Many still suffer in silence and shame. In 2008, 82 out of 100,000 mothers died during childbirth because of the lack in facilities and skilled professionals who attend to the mother’s birth giving. Only  49.3% of MiMaRoPa's women in the region have jobs, alarming considering that 86.3% of them are functionally literate.

It is time to put faces to these statistics. In MiMaRoPa, we are setting-up anti-trafficking referral networks at the regional, provincial and city levels to lessen the cases of women and children subjected to human trafficking. The agency also fully supports the Reproductive Health Bill in the belief that it will help get the country on track to achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) as set by the United Nations before the 2015 deadline set by the United Nations.

Today might be a good time for women to live, but we can - no, have to - do better. This year's Women theme “Magna Carta of Women, the Philippine CEDAW, in support of the Millennium Development Goals” highlights the necessity of gender equality in order to achieve economic and social development. Your urgent and continuing support for various governmental programs, volunteer groups, forums and other channels that promote gender equality and empowerment is essential for the achievement of the MDGs on poverty reduction, universal education and maternal health, among others.

March is Women’s Month. March is a month to celebrate the sacrifice our mothers, our sisters, all the women in our lives. This does not mean, however, that March is the only time we celebrate the women in our lives. It is high time all of us give back: advocate, rally, and support the gender empowerment programs of your local government, your school, your workplace.