CEDAW/C/PHI/4 English Page 77 326. The incidence of domestic violence remains underestimated because of the difficulty in gathering data. Battered women themselves refuse to admit that the problem exists. They are still bound by Filipino customs, traditions and attitudes dictating that a family remains intact at all cost (usually at the expense of women's emotional and physical well-being). Marital rape is still largely unacknowledged owing to the erroneous belief that marriage gives the husband full and unequivocal sexual access to his wife. Filipino women have yet to recognize that a woman has the right to refuse sexual relations, even with her husband, if it is against her will. 327. An indicator of the increasing recognition and attention being given to non-harmonious family relations, particularly domestic violence and violence against women, in general, is the number of bills which have been filed on the matter. Policy developments (1) Senate Bill No. 1413 and House Bill No. 4228 (Anti-Rape Act) provide for the inclusion of marital rape in the classification of rape where the wife could file charges against her husband. (2) Senate Bill No. 1726 (Anti-domestic Violence Bill) seeks to penalize repeated acts of wife-beating. (3) Senate Bill No. 408 provides a heavier penalty for habitual wife-beating and provides for the victim's protection as well as temporary support and other privileges. (4) House Bill No. 12399 (Wife-cruelty Bill) defines wife-cruelty as a combination of and repeated psychological and physical assault. Programme/project developments (1) "Wakasan: Karahasan Laban sa Kababaihan sa Loob ng Tahanan": (Stop Domestic Violence Against Women) is a project which, among other things, convened a national conference on the prevention of family violence in 1994-1995. This was a series of nationwide consultations on the prevention of family violence spearheaded by the Women's Crisis Center (WCC) and the Senate Committee on Women and Family Relations. (2) In 1993, a nationwide training for policewomen consisting of gendersensitivity and orientation on violence against women with cross-training on police investigation was undertaken by NCRFW in cooperation with WCC and Kalakasan, two non-governmental organizations providing services for victims of domestic violence. Trainees were the officers and staff of the Philippine national police women's desks, which were established in strategic police stations to handle cases of violence against women. (3) Community-based para-legal training on violence against women is being conducted by the Women's Legal Bureau and Harnessing Self-reliant Initiatives and Knowledge, Inc. (HASIK), non-governmental organizations providing legal services to women. /...