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World population forum centers on women issues

BAGUIO CITY (July 11) — World Population Day celebrations here highlighted discussions on women issues with an advocacy forum on gender equality on July 11 at the Supreme Hotel here.

Regional Director Aurora C. Quiray of the Regional Population Office said that women constitute the majority of the poor, and worse, they still have to carry the burden of childcare. She notes that the Cordillera woman is better off with the regional annual per capita poverty threshold at P13,181 as compared to the national figures which is only P11,605. Quiray, however said that the poverty incidence in the Cordillera is 31.2% or lower than the national poverty incidence of 27.5%.

Ifugao, Quiray said, is among the 10 poorest provinces in the Philippines, running 4th to Sulu, Masbate and Tawi-tawi as the poorest three, in that order.

Quiray correlates poverty to population density. Some of the discussants, however, could not ascertain that a family is poor because it is big or the country is densely populated because its people are poor. Nevertheless, they said population always had a role to play in poverty incidence, saying that there are more people sharing a limited resource.

The forum also notes that less than 20% of the total elected positions in government are women, despite 18.4 million women voters against only 18 million male voters. Out of the 12 senators, only three are women, while 32 out of 212 representatives sit in Congress. However, Quiray noted that 34% or 1,734 out of 4,981 government executives are women. Women, she said, also dominate the second level positions (71.9% of 709,429). There are more women (53%) than men in the government bureaucracy.

In the judiciary, there are only four out of 14 justices and about 20% of the total number of judges in the country.

Quiray also reported that the growing inability of the country’s economy to generate enough jobs resulted in migration flow to other countries. Filipino women, she said, have been crossing the Asian nations as overseas contract workers (OCW’s), mostly as domestic helpers and entertainers. These are among the lowest paying jobs, she said.

Earlier, the study conducted by Innabuyog-Gabriela revealed that almost every household in the Cordillera has an OCW, with Abra registering the most number. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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