Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago reiterated Friday her appeal to her colleagues and the public to support her bills to instutionalize gender equality.
Santiago, author of the Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act No. 9710) and co-author of the Reproductive Health Law (RA No. 10354), said some of her proposed legislation on women and gender equality remain at the committee level.
“I have written the committee on women, family relations, and gender equality earlier this year to ask that it prioritize public hearings for my bills,” the senator said in a press statement
One of the measures pending in the committee is the proposed Child Support Act (Senate Bill No. 403), which seeks to penalize any parent who refuses to support a child.
“This will protect single parents, especially women, from being financially abandoned by the child’s other parent,” the senator said.
She also filed the Safe Haven Bill (S.B. No. 2457), which caters to women unprepared or unfit for motherhood, while ensuring the safety of their babies.
The bill seeks to allow women to turn over their newborns with government-assigned safe haven providers rather than haphazardly abandoning them.
Another pending measure is the Battered Women’s Testimony Bill (S.B. No. 1558), which seeks to facilitate the use of expert testimonies in cases of women subjected to domestic violence.
Santiago is also pushing for the creation of a task force that will recommend a national strategy to protect women against violent crime.
The senator also filed Senate Bill No. 1751, which seeks to allow women to use their maiden first name and surname; S.B. No. 1771, which seeks to eliminate gender bias in adultery and concubinage in the Penal Code; and S.B. No. 1722, which seeks to establish a Commission on the Advancement of Women in Engineering, Science and Technology Development.
