From legal advice to linggam

This year’s Women’s Month is very significant because it includes the Centennial of International Women’s Day. With all the activities lined up I would like to highlight one difficult task heroically done by the Legal Alternatives for Women Center Inc. (LAW Center Inc) which is engaging the Local Government Units in women empowerment. Difficult because the need remains for LGUs to improve women’s lives despite the mandatory Gender and and Development (GAD) budget, ordinances to protect women and even the Magna Carta of Women to fully assert women’s rights. LGUs especially in the barangay level are supposed to be the baseline of the implementation of laws on women. NGOs no doubt have successfully carried out their missions but for an NGO to engage the LGUs in empowering women is very rare and it is the most ideal situation.

LAW Center Inc. has been there for a decade but works quietly without any fanfare. It was formed by a group of women NGO workers in the mid- 1990s who came from progressive labor unions during the anti-Marcos movement. Together with the people’s movement particularly urban poor women, its direction was set by women leaders who just attended the Beijing Conference in 1995. This direction was to provide pro-people legal services. Keen on the prevailing violence committed against women, it stressed the need to change views so they held gender sensitivity training. They moved further by working for legislation starting with sexual harassment. One advantage was that after the Beijing Conference funding agencies were accessible through the NGO. Through partnership with TUCP and USAID, LAW Center Inc. ventured into a program on legal services and education. It was the development NGO of women working for the legislation of laws on sexual harassment particularly in the workplace and violence against women.

Then governance became the call of the day and laws on anti-sexual harassment like RA 7877 posed a challenge with numerous complaints on sexual harassment. Because of these laws, the Cebu City government pushed for a Commission on Women in 1997. Meantime, LAW Center, Inc. was networking with the Cebu provincial government. In 1999, learning from the City, a Commission on Women was created in the province with Provincial Board (PB) Member Agnes Magpale as the moving force. An ordinance was passed setting up the Cebu Provincial Women’s Commission or CPWC with LAW Center, Inc serving as its secretariat. In 2000, PWC in partnership with TUCP and USAID through LAW Center Inc. pushed for the implementation of laws on anti-sexual harassment and laws creating the GAD budget. Through PB Member Magpale, PWC passed the Cebu Provincial Women’s Code in 2005 which was approved in 2006. LAW Center, Inc. maintained its connections with other women leaders like Judge Adoracion Cruz. As secretariat of the PWC, it works closely with the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Interior and Local Government since it is important for the Anti-sexual Harrassment laws that first there must be an NGO to serve as secretariat and network with other special bodies. As secretariat of PWC, LAW Center, Inc has assisted the annual Women’s Congress held every March, the search for the Most Gender Responsive Local Government Unit in the Province now on its third year, and in 2005 coming up with a compendium of Sugbuanang Tag-una or Cebuana Trailblazers (60 of them) through heritage cards (60 of them) and a magazine version for popular reference. A second edition of the search for 40 more trailblazers is ongoing.

LAW Center Inc. provides litigation and extra-legal remedies, internal organizational development and strengthening, livelihood orientation, research and information, women’s orientation and para-legal education, and psycho-social intervention. It also conducts a livelihood project called WISE or Women Integrated Socio-economic Project for urban poor women wherein they recycle wrappers of tetra packed drinks into bags, organizers and envelopes and sell them to companies or professional groups. Also they weave colored magazines into portfolios and bags. They get huge orders for seminars and conferences. At the height of the lingam massage controversy and to counter human trafficking, LAW Center Inc. together with PWC started a massage training for women last February conducted by the International NKYR with Teresita Tatara as executive director (she’s also the owner of Tonton Massage). A second batch will be trained on March 29 to April 5. After the training the participants are encouraged to do a practicum at Tonton Massage.

On March 18, LAW Center Inc. in partnership with the Visayan Forum Foundation with support from Microsoft through the Unlimited Potential program will launch its Step-UP Project at the Atty. Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco Training Hall at the LAW Center Inc. office in Sikatuna Street. This is the third phase of the Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of People Through Unlimited Potential (stepUP) Project, which focuses on improving lifelong learning for underserved young people and women by providing technology skills through community-based organizations around the world towards the prevention of human trafficking. The project will establish and operate a Community Technology Learning Center (CTLC) for trafficking victims and vulnerable groups. Target direct beneficiaries are women and children below 15 years old and above who are survivors of trafficking and those vulnerable to trafficking such as but not limited to out-of-school youth and kasambahays. This endeavor is based on the two Millenium Development Goals, “Eradicate Hunger and Poverty” and “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.” –Madrileña de la Cerna, Cebu Daily News