Health (28 May 2020),31 and POPCOM’s 24/7 hotline for FP services, 32 enforcement of policy issuances, and enjoyment, especially for women in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, and those with multiple vulnerabilities have been uneven. There remains a huge gap in access for indigenous women, women living in rural areas, and even in urban areas where mobility has been constrained by containment measures. Another gap in the responses pertained to gender based-violence. Ensuring prompt and effective response to GBV has not been mainstreamed in government response. While an advisory has been issued by DILG late March of 2020 reminding barangay offices to ensure the functionality of barangay VAW desks, barriers to reporting and accessing remedies amidst containment measures persisted. Reports made to the Commission’s GBV portal include accounts of barangay VAW desks refusing to issue BPO and of women’s desks advising women and girl survivors to file their complaints after the ECQ.33 The experience of the Commission in referring women survivors to shelters and of providing transportation support for women seeking to escape unsafe environments revealed gaps in the current responses. On shelter, local government run shelters were on lockdown during the ECQ and Haven, a national shelter in Alabang required PCR tests before admission aside from referral letters and police reports. This placed the burden on women in complying with the requirements which proved difficult during the crisis. There was also marked absence of designated temporary shelters, which prompted the Commission to take in for two months five survivors of GBV in a temporary shelter within the Commission. On transport, the constraints on mobility brought about by the issuance of limited number of quarantine passes, the requirement of travel passes to travel outside cities and regions, and the absence of explicit exceptions of GBV survivors from these restrictions made escape difficult for women. In two instances at least, the Commission provided transportation support from NCR to Region IV, and from Region IV to Region V for women survivor of violence and her child.34 In these instances, CHR Regional offices had to secure travel passes and ensured coordination with local governments concerned. Had GBV been part of the government’s response to COVID-19, measures would have been adopted ensuring access to reporting of GBV, access to shelter and psychosocial services and transportation, and exemptions on containment measures would have been provided for women survivors fleeing unsafe spaces. It would have also meant ensuring continuous and uninterrupted access to sexual and reproductive health services, and provision of women’s gendered needs in government provided relief packs. Acute economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal on women and LGBQI+ who are overly represented in the informal economy; Persistently cited in many of the Commission’s interviews, sectoral monitoring reports and situationers is the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the women and LGBQI+, and those who are overly represented in the informal sector. This has also surfaced in the GIA report led by UNFPA and mentioned in several webinars conducted by women’s organizations. 31 DOH. Interim Guidelines on the Continuous Provision of Maternal Health Services during COVID-19 Pandemic. 28 May 2020. 32 Manila Standard. Pop-Com Steps up ‘family planning’ amid virus crisis. 8 June 2020. Manila Standard. https://manilastandard.net/news/national/325461/popcom-steps-up-family-planning-amid-virus-crisis.html 33 See anonymized narratives in the Commission’s GBV observatory: 34 Rescue/Transport missions coordinated by CHR-GEWHRC and Region IV, and Region IV and Region V; Due coordination were made with the office of the Mayor, the local CSWDO, and local PNP> 7