Views expressed by the State under review on the recommendations and/or conclusions as well as on its voluntary commitments

1. Views expressed by the State under review on the recommendations
and/or conclusions as well as on its voluntary commitments

460. The Philippines had further sought to progressively refine its relevant laws, policies and practices on human rights. That continuous effort encompassed the whole range of governance, from the making of national laws to law enforcement and the administration of justice at the local level. Further, the Filipino civil society was a dynamic and active partner and a watchdog of the Government, and the media was one of the freest and most outspoken in the world.

461. The Philippines had made key voluntary commitments at the conclusion of its review, including to develop a gender-responsive approach, especially to protect the rights of children and women; to further develop domestic legislation to better protect the rights of the child; to continue to address the issue of extrajudicial killings; and to meet the basic needs of the poor.

462. In addition to those unilateral commitments, the Philippines had closely and carefully studied the recommendations made by various States during its review, which are contained in paragraph 58 of the report of the Working Group. In a spirit of openness and cooperation that marked its full engagement with the universal periodic review, the Government has expressed support for recommendations Nos. 1 and 2; the first part of recommendation No. 4; recommendations made by the Holy See and Switzerland under No. 6; and recommendations Nos. 5, 9, 10, 12 and 13.

463. With respect to women and children, the Philippines will continue to develop a gender responsive approach to issues relating to violence against women and to build a supportive environment for women and children within the judicial system, taking into account the special needs for rehabilitation and post-conflict care of women and children in vulnerable situations and conflicts areas. The Philippines already benefited from long experience and has established a policy of women’s participatory inclusion and empowerment in all spheres of life, including government affairs and public service. The Philippines ranked high on gender issues, as has been recognized in the UNDP in its Human Development Report, as well as by the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index. The Supreme Court has created the Committee on Gender Responsiveness in the Judiciary, and in support of the Violence against Women and Their Children Act, it issued the Rule on Violence against Women and Their Children, which enables courts to better manage and monitor such cases. For non-judicial interventions, the Philippine Inter-agency Council on Anti-Violence to Women and their Children has prepared a five-year strategic plan, which includes public information and advocacy, capacity-building and service delivery, research on policy development, and sustained linkages and partnerships in resource generation and mobilization. The Philippines has also been chosen as one of the pilot countries to be involved in the United Nations Joint Programme on Violence against Women. Interventions to address rape, sexual harassment, trafficking in women and children and domestic violence were being prioritized. Regarding the rehabilitation and post-quality care for women and children, the Department of Social Welfare and Development provides community based psychological interventions, including “Return-to-School” programmes for children whose schooling has been disrupted and livelihood and core shelter assistance. The Department of Health, through its Women and Children Protection Units in government

hospitals, also provided holistic, gender-responsive health care to women survivors. Legislative measures have been proposed to the Philippine legislature to further strengthen laws on the promotion and protection of the human rights of women and children.

464. With respect to trafficking, it was noted that the Philippines would continue combating trafficking in human beings at the national level and would sustain its leading role at the international level in that matter. The Philippines welcomed the cooperation of all nations in that major endeavour and trafficking would be among the issues taken up at the Second Global Forum on Migration and Development, which the country would be hosting in Manila in September. It had also called for the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons and proposed that gender and age-sensitive approaches be included in the conduct of the mandate. It fully supported the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and called on more countries to join the International Convention on the Promotion of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

465. With respect to extrajudicial killings, the Philippines was ensuring that members of security forces were trained on human rights and on their responsibility to protect human rights defenders. Human rights offices have already been institutionalized in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. Among other functions, those offices were to receive and act on reports or complaints against military or police personnel. They also handled human rights education, training, capacity-building and advocacy. The Philippines did not engage in or encourage torture or extrajudicial killings of any kind, and would continue to take resolute and concrete steps to address allegations of extrajudicial killings and measures would follow the rule of law and due process. Torture was prohibited by the Constitution and was a criminal act punishable under the revised Penal Code.

466. The Philippines submitted its latest report to the Committee against Torture in January 2008 and would endeavour to submit its reports regularly to the various treaty bodies. The Philippines also signed and was in the process of ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

467. With respect to economic and social rights, the Philippines would be pleased to share with other countries its experience in the area of justiciability of economic and social rights, particularly in the field of labour rights. In keeping with the Constitution and international standards, the Philippine Labour Code provides a legal mechanism to address concerns on labour standards and labour relations, including the right of workers to join associations or unions, the right to strike and to collectively negotiate agreements, and inter-union and intra-union conflict disputes. Appeals against decisions on labour cases may be elevated to the Secretary of Labour. A petition for review may be filed with the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Secretary of Labour on the ground of serious abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction. Conciliation and mediation mechanisms were also provided for in the Labour Code. The Philippines was actively meeting the basic needs of the poor and other vulnerable groups and was committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Medium Term Philippines Development Plan, reiterating the overreaching goal of fighting poverty and hunger and improving basic social services, including health and education, has just been updated. Besides investing in infrastructure and agriculture productivity, the Philippines is instituting the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Plan. The implementation of following initiatives has also started: microfinance and livelihood services, Poverty Free Zone Programme, “Progressive Livelihood” programme, and the Ahon-Pamilyang Pinoy (Lifting the Filipino Family from Poverty) project. The Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2005-2010 also provided for intervention to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. The community-based monitoring system has been set up to better identify and serve the poor. It is a poverty monitoring system that makes use of computer based processing generating core local poverty indicators at the household level. As it was the case in many countries, the Philippines is facing difficulties caused by rising food and energy prices and by the devastating threat of climate change.