CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 a. The Fisheries Law of 1998 provides women the right to representation in local councils formed to implement the government’s coastal resource management program. However, the law has been criticized as favoring commercial fishing operators over municipal fishers and market-oriented over subsistence production, which do not serve the interests of women in fishing communities. b. The Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act or 1997 serves as the basis for the antipoverty programs of three presidents. In 2001, the Arroyo administration launched the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan program (see also paragraphs 479c. and 479.d), providing shelter assistance, infrastructure, electrification, livelihood and other basic services badly needed in rural areas. c. As noted in paragraph 146.b, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act provides equality between indigenous women and men women in connection with rights and opportunities in various spheres of life, and participation of indigenous women in decision-making process in all levels. The implementation of this law has met serious obstacles due to dispute over ancestral lands. d. A bill pending in the House of Representatives (HB 2970, or the Magna Carta of Women in Rural Development) seeks to protect and promote the rights of rural women. It recognizes the roles and contributions of rural women to the country’s economic development and food security, and offers measures to enhance and develop their skills, provide employment, and enable them to contribute to their communities to the fullest of their capabilities. e. Proclamation No. 1105 declares 15 October as National Rural Women’s Day. It calls attention to the plight of the rural sector and promotes concerted action from all segments of society. During the celebration of the National Rural Women’s Congress in 2003, the participants forged “The Rural Women Agenda: A Ten Year Vision” which contains an eight point agenda and corresponding proposed resolutions, which includes ensuring rural women’s property rights under agrarian reform, in ancestral domains and coastal resources, and increasing rural women’s access to adequate food, safe and potable water and basic services. 512. The environment and natural resources department has instituted major policies to grant women equal access to natural resources. Its Community-Based Forest Management Program has adopted a gender-mainstreaming handbook to ensure gender parity in its implementation. The department has also been issuing certificates of stewardship contracts and opening access to training programs for both spouses. However, success in these areas has been limited by local politics, lack of infrastructure and support services, and persistent sexist biases and stereotypes in rural and upland areas. 513. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law provides: “All qualified women members of the agricultural labor force must be guaranteed and assured equal rights to ownership of land, equal share of farm’s produce and representation in advisory or appropriate decision making bodies.” To implement this, the agrarian reform department adopted GAD as a key principle of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) implementation and a key element of the 138