As of 2016, there are 3,849 elected women officials in the country compared to 14,092 men, or  around 21 percent of the total elective positions are held by women.     There is no available data on the number of gender-specific bills filed in the 17​th​ Congress, whether  in the House of Representatives or the Senate.    Formal politics is one arena that remains strongly male, both in numbers and orientation. Sexist  attitudes of the legislators, incuding the House Speaker, against their own was clear in the case of  Senator Leila De Lima where the showing of her purported sex video in Congress was considered as  evidence to the accusation of her drug trade links. The President himself has been descrbed as  “misogynist” by feminist and women’s groups for his unapologetic sexist “jokes” and attitude during  37 public speeches.       Violence against Women    The Philippine National Police recorded 40,684 cases of violence against women in 2016, which is  only slightly less than the number of cases in the previous year (i.e. 41,049). This covers reports of  physical injuries (23,775), rape (1,897), acts of lasciviousness (2,030), attempted rape (551), incest  (127) and other uncategorized cases (12,304).     Women and girl children still comprise the largest target group of DSWD clientele in 2016 (523,896  or 82%). Moreover, except in CICL cases (children in conflict with the law) where females are often  the targets of crimes rather than its perpetrators, females also comprise the majority of DSWD  clients with regard to children, youth, persons with disabilities and senior citizens.      As reported by the Department of Interior and Local Government - National Barangay Operations  Office (DILG-NBOO) in March 2017, of the 42,036 barangays in the country, 37,180 (88.45%)  38 have established a violence against women (VAW) desk but most seems to be non-functional.       Reproductive Health and Rights   The above statistics reflect both the status of Filipino women in the country, as well as the  environment wherein the exercise of their rights takes place. This is important to note in the  discourse on reproductive health because the state of people’s reproductive health is founded on  their quality of life. Optimum maternal and infant health through access to adequate, appropriate  and culturally acceptable reproductive health services is strongly influenced by one’s socio-economic  status. Not only do poorer households under-invest on their health needs in favor of other basic  goods and services, but accessing needed health services come at a higher cost for them relative to  their financial status, when they live at a distance from central areas of the city or the municipality  (e.g. in terms of transportation, income loss), not including the actual fees for the health service and  37 See CHR resolutions on the cases of the House of Representatives sexism in the case against Senator Leila De Lima  and on the rape joke of then presidential candidate, Rodrigo Duterte.  38 Suerte-Felipe, C (2017, 06 March) “Pinays urged: Report violence against women.” ​The Philippine Star​. Retrieved from  http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/06/1678357/pinays-urged-report-violence-against-women  12 RH Situationer: Phlippines (November 2017)