CEDAW/C/PHI/4
English
Page 67
Policy/institutional developments
Legislative actions/administrative orders/issuances
280. The Department of Agriculture, one of the Government's lead agencies in
charge of the development of the rural areas, has drawn up the Medium-term
Agricultural Development Plan. This Plan seeks to enable those in the sector,
both women and men farmers and fisherfolk, to raise their incomes and improve
their standards of living. It also aims to provide the necessary infrastructure
and other support services to facilitate agricultural productivity.
281. Also within the framework of Republic Act 7192, the Department of Agrarian
Reform, the agency involved in promoting equitable access to and control over
land, adopted policies and guidelines for the effective implementation of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Through Administrative Order No. 2,
Series of 1993, rules and regulations for the identification, delineation and
recognition of ancestral domains were designed. This Order provides that all
farmworkers who are married to each other may be entitled to three hectares
each, provided that their vested rights to the land have been duly established.
A separate certificate of land ownership agreement must be issued to each of the
spouses. This has been a landmark development from the traditional manner of
issuing certificates to the male household heads.
282. Under the Department's programme beneficiaries development units, the
Agrarian Reform Communities Strategic Development Intervention Framework was
developed which details the gender-based organizing and development process. It
also initiated the generation of gender-specific data through in-house research
to find out how women are benefiting from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program.
283. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, through Administrative
Order No. 4, Series of 1991, grants the Integrated Social Forestry Program's
certificates of stewardship contracts to both spouses, making the husband and
wife co-stewards of the land. This initiative, however, is being criticized by
some non-governmental organizations, according to whom there is conflict between
customary land use and ownership of indigenous peoples in the present legal
system. The right to ancestral domain has not been enacted into law. They
likewise revealed that the Department initiated the programme (identified and
delineated ancestral land) without consulting the affected indigenous peoples.
284. In compliance with Republic Act 7192, the Philippine Plan for Genderresponsive Development was formulated. The Plan, which is envisioned to address
gender and development concerns from 1995 to 2025, is the Philippine
Government's 30-year perspective framework for pursuing full equality and
development for women and men. The chapters on agrarian reform, agriculture,
indigenous people and environment and natural resources in the Plan explicitly
recognize the role of rural women in the development process.
Creation of gender and development focal points
285. Aside from the Medium-term Agricultural Development Plan, the Department of
Agriculture likewise issued Special Order No. 21, series of 1994, directing all
/...
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents