For the past 15 years, the Philippine government has allowed a restrictive local
ordinance, Executive Order 003 (EO 003),1 to remain in place without any clear
revocation, effectively banning modern contraceptives in the City of Manila. As a
result, women and girls in Manila have experienced serious risks to their health
and lives due to unwanted and unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.2
EO 003 has trapped women in situations of poverty and denied them the ability
to pursue educational and employment opportunities.3 In April 2015, the United
Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (the CEDAW
Committee), which monitors compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), released a groundbreaking report
finding the Philippine government accountable for grave and systematic reproductive
rights violations as a result of EO 003 and other restrictive measures. The report was
the outcome of a special inquiry conducted in the country in November 2012—the
first such inquiry conducted by the CEDAW Committee in Asia and on contraceptive
access. For women in the Philippines, this report is a momentous step forward in
realizing their human rights to equality,4 dignity,5 and health6 as guaranteed under
the Philippine Constitution, other domestic laws and policies, and international
human rights instruments to which the Philippines is a party.
I. Request for a Special Inquiry
Why was the inquiry
requested?
The purpose of the inquiry request was to
seek recognition of denial of access to modern
contraception under EO 003, and the profound
harms to women’s sexual and reproductive
health resulting from their inability to control
their own fertility, as discrimination against
In June 2008, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Task Force CEDAW Inquiry,7
and International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific8 submitted a formal
request to the CEDAW Committee asking it to conduct an inquiry into violations
of women’s reproductive rights occurring in the City of Manila as a result of the
enactment and implementation of EO 003, introduced in 2000 by Mayor José “Lito”
Atienza, Jr. Imposing Misery,9 a report by the Center for Reproductive Rights and
local partners10 documenting the devastating physical and mental suffering and
abuse that women, particularly poor women, experienced due to EO 003, was the
basis for the inquiry request.11
women under CEDAW. The request sought to
rights of women in the City of Manila through an
official denunciation of the ban by the CEDAW
Reproductive health care in the Philippines is governed under a contradictory web of
national and local laws. Despite strong protections for women’s equality, health, and
lives in the Constitution and two national laws clearly establishing women’s rights
to contraceptives and post-abortion care, policies and programs established by
various government agencies and ordinances adopted by local municipalities have
consistently undermined women’s rights with impunity. [See box on Introduction of
similar restrictive local ordinances.] Attempts to pass progressive laws and policies
that uphold women’s rights to contraception and other reproductive health services
are strongly opposed in the name of religion, and restrictive measures are often
improperly justified through a reliance on religious ideology. The inquiry request and
subsequent submissions highlighted these additional barriers that have compromised
women’s reproductive rights in the Philippines, including a range of restrictive laws
and policies on reproductive health and delays in passing and implementing laws
guaranteeing women’s reproductive health care.
Executive Order 030: Further Strengthening Family Health Services. Executive Order
030 (EO 030), issued in 2011 by then Mayor Alfredo Lim, recognizes that “the
non-availability of [family planning] services in the health facilities of the City of
Manila, as well as the inadequacy of facilities, deprives its resident[s], especially
from economically deprived groups of these legally mandated services . . . and is
a violation of their constitutional rights.”19 Despite this language, however, EO 030
actually goes further than EO 003 in restricting access to modern contraceptives
by explicitly imposing a funding ban on modern contraceptives and declaring that
“[t]he City shall not disburse and appropriate funds or finance any program or
purchase materials, medicines for artificial birth control.”20
Introduction of similar restrictive local ordinances
create international legal accountability for the
Philippine government’s failure to protect the
II. The Philippines’ Reproductive Rights–Related
Laws and Policies
The enactment of EO 003 and EO 030 inspired a series of restrictive ordinances and orders from other local
Executive Order 003:
government units. For instance, in 2011, eight barangays21—seven in Balanga City and one in the City of
Declaring Total Commitment and Support to the Responsible Parenthood Movement
Muntinlupa—passed ordinances prohibiting modern contraceptives in private and public facilities alike. These
aimed at addressing the negative impact of
in the City of Manila and Enunciating Policy Declarations in Pursuit Thereof
ordinances promoted natural family planning exclusively and prohibited the use of barangay funds for the
the ban and preventing further violations.
EO 003 imposes a de facto ban on modern methods of contraception. Its preamble provides that “the
organizations, however, the city councils regulating these barangay councils suspended the ordinances.22
City promotes responsible parenthood and upholds natural family planning not just as a method but as a
However, the passage of these ordinances by the barangay councils shows that the failure of the judiciary
Committee and specific recommendations
provision of modern contraceptive methods. After significant protest by the public and nongovernmental
way of self-awareness in promoting the culture of life while discouraging the use of artificial methods of
to declare EO 003 unconstitutional has allowed opponents of reproductive health to continue to attempt to
contraception . . . .”12 Emphasizing the “sanctity of life” and the constitutional provision calling for the
introduce further restrictive measures.
equal protection of the life of the mother and unborn, EO 003 declares that Manila will take an “affirmative
stand on pro-life issues and responsible parenthood.”13 In practice, EO 003 has resulted in the
More recently, in February 2015, the mayor of Sorsogon City issued an EO declaring the city “pro-life.”23 With
withdrawal of all modern methods of contraception from local health centers, clinics, and hospitals and
the city government’s approval, “pro-life” trainings on how “contraception is the gateway to abortion” were
has driven the availability of condoms and pills underground. The EO has also led to the harassment
provided to health care providers, government officials, students, and the media.24
14
and persecution of health care providers offering contraceptives, as well as to the closure of private clinics
and clinics operated by nongovernmental organizations that previously supplied modern contraceptives.15
Despite criticisms of EO 003 and calls for its revocation by the Philippine Commission on Human
Rights,16 the United Nations Human Rights Committee,17 and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on
the Right to Health and on Violence against Women,18 the EO has remained in place to this day.
2
CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES
3